EUROVISION 2018 DAY 4: FIRST REHEARSAL FOR MONTENEGRO, SLOVENIA, UKRAINE
Montenegro - Vanja Radovanović - Inje
Questionable fashion sense for Vanja in his strangely cut blue jacket, while his four backings and one in piano are in white performing a Balcan ballad by the book. Add some choreography that seems out of place. =r very 2004. Maybe a hit at home but has European viewers already moved on if even this blogger, lover of big Balcan ballads, can't connect to this one? It seems this passed rather unnoticed in the press center, except for his trousers? Actually all attention turned into his unfortunate ill fitting outfit rather than the song or staging....
"Dated", "Emotional", "Styling and song don't meet", "Sounds perfct", "Time stood still", "Lacks charisma", "Simplicity and charm"
Slovenia - Lea Sirk - Hvala, ne!
Slovenia seems to be trying the already old trick by faking a backing track break down and asks where's the music and asking people to sing along (Barei, hello? Douwe Bob, slow down). Lea has four dancers in sparkling silveer outfits and belts out the last hvala ne in Portuguese, Obrigada, Não! The camera angles work and again this is an adaption from the national final performance, just bigger and better. Very divided opinions on that stop, is it great or doesn it ruin the flow? It even lasts about 20 seconds. Hmm... Either a disaster in sight or a real triumph.
Konstantin Tomilchenko, Eurovision winning stager (Jamala) has created this affair with flaming piano and all with Mélovin. He seems to awake inside his piano like a vampire and in the end returns there while the whole thing is in flames. It is noted the staging is a potential danger for him should something go wrong. #Draamaa. This doesn't hurt his vocals though. He's got four backing singers.
"Dracula-esque", "Endless source for memes", "Confident"
Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!
Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?
While the national selections for Junior Eurovision are going on around Europe and Ani Lorak's been confirmed as host all sort of rumors about the real thing are beginning to be the order of the day. Austria returns - or then not. Andorra stays home - or then not. San Marino returns - well, most likely but not surely. Luxembourg should make a come back - or then maybe not. Liechtenstein is still in the running - or has it ever been for real? Has the local TV ever confirmed anything? Is it just wishful thinking by the fans? Poland on the other hand has confirmed they will be in Oslo. And Italy will be still out. And apparently there will be no ban or such for Azerbaijan nor Spain for the irregularities in and after the 2009 edition. EBU had to change the text in the rules to make it sure nothing like that what happened in Azerbaijan could happen again. Or if it will they have means and rules to back up a ban or sanction.... Katerina Avgoustakis has been rumored to be in Oslo...
Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further? No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )
Well, almost. The boys celebrated their 650.000th follower on Twitter by being photographed fresh from shower as promised. It's not the first time they drop their clothes as you see here . Meanwhile their second album is nearly here and the title track Young love is hitting the charts....
San Marino. The tiny little thing that makes things big and never ever stops surprising us. This year after the usual very long selecting process that included several previous Eurovision entrants and wannabes from various countries, even with songs they competed in another country's selection, as the last twist of turns announced the qualified semi-finalists before they aired the shows..... Ok. Because why Not? Read more about all the zillion entrants here After all the submissions, castings through Dreaming San Marino song contest 20 semi-finalists were selected, among them previous Eurovision entrants Magdalena from Poland, Marayya from Slovenia and Star Guy (Norway), and from this years national final selections Elysa (Estonia), Sheila (Albania) and Xannova Xan (Greece) and even Edward Maya also running in Romania at the same time, with other singers from Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Czechia, Netherlands and United States. Ten out of those 20 semi-finalist qualified ...
Regina Lund's new video Jag är osynlig was censored by Youtube only minutes after it had been uploaded. In the video she was playing a female Jesus who gets crusified in the end. "I was shocked!" she says. "There's nothing more naked in it as in every church! It's ok to have naked man hanging on the wall but my nakedness is too much on internet? ". Oh well, no comment. She's prepairing a new album Dare Regina Lund and we of course remember her from her Melodifestivalen 2007 adventure with Rainbow star .
The boys of Blue have posed nude again. This time for the Attitude magazine's annual Naked issue and they are also in the cover. Watch the video of the shooting here . Band member Duncan, who is bi-sexual, recently told The Daily Star : “We are getting our kit off for Attitude magazine like the McFly boys did. I’m up for showing everything off. I’m happy enough about the size of my manhood. ” Extra media attention won't hurt their changes in Germany to win it for the UK for the first time since 1997... They will and they can!
As I'm off to France for some well deserved holidays and will get back to this blog afterwards I will feature a song a day. From France as my travelling tradition goes. By my favorite French singers bien sur. Enjoy!
Portugal's 60th Festival da Canção came to an end tonight and the winner is Bandidos do Cante. Portugal's national selection for Eurovision song contest 2026 has been quite critical to the participation with most artists and/or songwriters declaring they won't go to Vienna should they win. In the end there are apparently only two artists who have declared they will go to Vienna, and one uncertain if they win. Let's see who eventually will go to Eurovision in the end.... Apparently Bandidos do Cante is one of those who have said yes. Read more here . Bandidos de Cante was formed almost by accident by childhood friends singing Alentejo folk songs at dinner parties and such. The quintet is composed of Miguel Costa, Duarte Farias, Francisco Raposo, Luís Aleixo and Francisco Pestana, all natives of the municipality of Beja, except for Francisco Pestana, who is from Monte Trigo. After tone of those dinner gatherings they were invited to record vocals to D.A.M.A.'s Casa ...
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