sábado, 29 de marzo de 2014

Australia to take part in Eurovision!

Australia to take part in Eurovision!

Australia to take part in Eurovision!
Sydney Opera House.
Sydney, Australia - They love the Eurovision Song Contest in Australia, so much so that DR is giving the country a central role in the second Semi-Final on Thursday the 8th of May.
Every year, when the Eurovision Song Contest is broadcast on screens all over Europe, it is also watched enthusiastically in Australia. They have been doing this since ABBA won in 1974.
Now the Land Down Under is being rewarded by DR:
”Australia is going to take part in the second Semi-Final. They have asked several times if they can take part, because they love the Eurovision Song Contest so much. So this year we have given them permission to take to the stage and show us what they can do”, explains Mikke Bech, editorial boss for this year’s edition in Copenhagen.

Australian interval act

In essence, this means that Australia – who has produced acts including Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave and Olivia Newton-John – has said yes to producing the entertainment just before we find out the results of the second Semi-Final at the Eurovision Song Contest on the 8th of May.
And there will certainly be something to look forward to, when the Australians take to the stage as the so-called Interval Act, promises Mikkel Bech:
”They will come up here with a huge display of all possible senses that represent what Australia is. They are going to work visually with what Europe means to them and what Australia means to us in Europe, so it is going to be big and spectacular – and it is going to involve a lot of humour”.

Australia loves the grandeur of Eurovision

Mikkel Bech travelled to Australia to meet with the people at TV station SBS, who are responsible for Australia’s act during the second Semi-Final, and here he had the opportunity to ask why they love Europe’s favourite TV show so much.
”The Australians love the grandeur of the Eurovision Song Contest and what they themselves describe as the somewhat kitschy element to it, but people down there take it very seriously, and there are many people who watch it. It is a big deal for them”
”Also, many of them have European blood flowing through their veins, so for them it is also a connection to their roots in Europe. I believe that many Australians in one way or another have Europe in them, and many people can related to the show”, says Mikkel Bech.
In addition, SBS is the Australian broadcaster that broadcasts the Eurovision Song Contest shows every year to Australian viewers, a little after Europe because of the time difference.

Running order for Eurovision Semi-Finals decided


Running order for Eurovision Semi-Finals decided

Running order for Eurovision Semi-Finals decided
Copenhagen, Denmark - Today, we can reveal the running order for the Semi-Finals of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
To let all entries shine, the running order for the Semi-Finals was decided this year - as it was in 2013 - by the producers of the shows and approved by the EBU Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand and the Chairman of the Reference Group, Dr. Frank Dieter Freiling.
After the producers reviewed all entries, the following running order was decided on for the Semi-Finals:

Semi-Final 1

  1. Armenia
  2. Latvia
  3. Estonia
  4. Sweden
  5. Iceland
  6. Albania
  7. Russia
  8. Azerbaijan
  9. Ukraine
  10. Belgium
  11. Moldova
  12. San Marino
  13. Portugal
  14. The Netherlands
  15. Montenegro
  16. Hungary
WATCH ALL THE SONGS
At this stage, the advertising breaks are set to be after the 5th and 12th song. Their positions may still change.

Semi-Final 2

  1. Malta
  2. Israel
  3. Norway
  4. Georgia
  5. Poland
  6. Austria
  7. Lithuania
  8. Finland
  9. Ireland
  10. Belarus
  11. F.Y.R. Macedonia
  12. Switzerland
  13. Greece
  14. Slovenia
  15. Romania
WATCH ALL THE SONGS
For this show, the advertising breaks are set to be after the 5th and 12th song. Their positions may still change.
As the last qualifiers for the Grand Final will be decided after the second Semi-Final takes place on the 8th of May in Copenhagen, Denmark.

How did we get to the running order?

The producers did not decide the full running order but the participating countries were first drawn to the two Semi-Finals and to the first or second half of the shows. That was done on the 20th of January at the Semi-Final Allocation Draw.
To assure a fair distribution and sufficient availability of tickets over neighbouring countries, the Reference Group also decided that Sweden and Norway would perform in different Semi-Finals at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. A draw held at the EBU headquarters determined that Sweden would participate in the first Semi-Final, and Norway would be represented in the second Semi-Final.
Israel will take part in the second Semi-Final due to the first Semi-Final falling on their Independence day.
In addition to that, the host country, Denmark was drawn their exact performing position at the Grand Final - 23rd - at the Head of Delegation meeting a week ago to ensure fairness.
It was also drawn which Semi-Final the already qualified countries, the so-called Big 5 - Germany, Spain, France, the UK, Italy - and the Host Country of Denmark will broadcast and vote in.

First Semi-Final

  • Denmark
  • France
  • Spain

Second Semi-Final

  • Germany
  • Italy
  • United Kingdom
WATCH ALL THE SONGS
The German broadcaster ARD requested to air and vote in the second Semi-Final which was approved by the Reference Group.
For the Final, the first and second half of the Grand Final will be drawn at the winner's press conferences of the Semi-Finals. The final running order will the be decided the latest by 3:00 am on the 9th of May.
This year's Eurovision Song Contest will take place on the 6th, 8th and 10th of May in Copenhagen, Denmark. 37 countries are set to take part in this year's edition of Europe's favourite TV show.

Recalling the Copenhagen contest of 50 years ago

Recalling the Copenhagen contest of 50 years ago

Recalling the Copenhagen contest of 50 years ago
Gigliola Cinquetti: Winner of the 1964 contest
Copenhagen, Denmark - Many visitors to this site will recall the last time Copenhagen staged the Eurovision Song Contest in 2001 in the huge Parken Stadium. However fewer will recall the first time that Denmark hosted the contest, way back on the 21st of March, 1964. Today we call the 50th anniversary of that contest.

Background

As winners of the 1963 event, with the song Dansevise sung by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann, Danish broadcaster DR had the task of organising the 1964 contest.
They chose the Concert Hall in the Tivoli Gardens in the centre of Copenhagen as the venue, which could seat an audience of around 1600.
There were some changes to the line-up. from the previous year, Portugal made their debut, though Sweden were obliged to withdraw, due to a strike by their Musicians Union. This left the the total number of entrants at 16. The total audience was expected to be around 100 million viewers.
Rehearsals commenced on Wednesday the 18th of March, with the artists being accompanied by the 42 piece Grand Prix Orchestra, with Kai Mortensen as the Musical Director.
The programme was presented by Lotte Wæver, and was around 96 minutes in duration.

The Participants

  1. Luxembourg: Dès Que Le Printemps Revient sung by Hugues Aufray
  2. Netherlands:Jij Bent Mijn Leven sung by Anneke Grönloh
  3. Norway: Spiral sung by Arne Bendiksen
  4. Denmark: Sangen Om Dig sung by Bjørn Tidmand
  5. Finland: Laiskotellen sung by Lasse Mårtenson
  6. Austria: Warum, Nur, Warum sung by Udo Jürgens
  7. France: Le Chant De Mallory sung by Rachel
  8. United Kingdom: I Love The Little Things sung by Matt Monro
  9. Germany: Man Gewöhnt Sich So Schnell An Das Schöne sung by Nora Nova
  10. Monaco: Où Sont-elles Passées? sung by Romuald
  11. Portugal: Oração sung by António Calvário
  12. Italy: Non Ho L'étà sung by Gigliola Cinquetti
  13. Yugoslavia: Zivot, Je Sklopio Krug sung by Sabahudin Kurt
  14. Switzerland: I Miei Pensieri sung by Anita Traversi
  15. Belgium: Près De Ma Rivière sung by Robert Cogoi
  16. Spain: Caracola sung by Nelly, Tim and Tony
For two of the artists, this was the first of their three appearances in the contest. Udo Jürgens for Austria would represent his country again in 1965, and most notably in 1966 when he won the contest with the song Merci Chérie. Romuald would return to represent Luxembourg in 1969, and in 1974 he once again represented Monaco, where he gained a respectable fourth place with Celui Qui Reste Et Celui Qui S'en Va.

Stage Protest

Following the performance by the Swiss entrant, a protestor rushed on stage holding a banner that said 'Boycott Franco and Salazar' (the dictators who were in power in Spain and Portugal). He was quickly removed, as cameras cut to a shot of the scoreboard.

The Voting

For the third year in a row a new voting system was introduced, this one would last slightly longer than the previous systems and remained in force until 1966.
Each country had 10 jury members who distributed three points among their one, two, or three favourite songs. The points were added and the first, second, and third placed songs were awarded 5, 3, and 1 votes in order. [If only one song got every point within the jury it would get all 9 points. If only two songs were chosen, the songs would get 6 and 3 points in order].
You can see the breakdown of the voting in the History page for 1964 on our site. The countries voted in that of performance order.
It was somewhat of a runaway victory for Italy, taking the lead in the very first round and never looked in doubt, gaining almost three times the number of votes as the runner up from the United Kingdom.

Watch the 1964 winner


About the winner

Gigliola Cinquetti was born on the 20th December, 1947 in Verona. Aged just sixteen, she won the San Remo Festival in 1964 with Non Ho L'età which provided her the opportunity to present the song to a wider audience in Europe's Favourite TV show. The song went onto become a big international hit.
She went onto win the San Remo Festival again in 1966 with Dio Come Ti Amo, although this time it was the composer Domenico Modugno who took the song onto the Eurovision Song Contest, with a less successful outcome, when he finished in joint last place.
Gigliola Cinquetti returned to the contest in 1974, when she finished second with the song Si, which also went onto become a big international hit. Her last association to date with the contest was in 1991 when she co-presented the contest, along with Toto Cutugno, when it was staged in Rome.
She became a professional journalist, and works in presenting current affair programmes.

Did you know?

  • The winning song reached the top 20 in the charts of Italy, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Norway.
  • Cinquetti also recorded the song in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese.
  • The 1964 contest is one of two contests that is no longer known to exist in any television archive (the other being the inaugural event in 1956).
  • Some newsreel footage exists of the winning performance by Gigliola Cinquetti, along with a few brief broadcast clips, including some from the opening minutes.

Eurovision 2014 stage to be 'big'

Eurovision 2014 stage to be 'big'

Eurovision 2014 stage to be 'big'
All heads of delegations yesterday at the B&W Arena.
Copenhagen, Denmark - The rumour mill is at full speed about the stage of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest after it was introduced yesterday to the delegations.
"Stage drawings look very promising," says the Swedish Head of Delegation, Christer Björkman told to SVT.
"It's back to being large. Both the stage and the lights are gigantic, Moscow-large," he refers to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest stage.

A little more time to wait

Jan Lagermand Lundme, the Show Producer of this year’s contest tells that the comparison to the Moscow stage is fair.
"It will not be as in Moscow, but it is big at the B&W Arena. And you get excited when you walk into a room, where there are 68 metre ceilings," he said.
However, it will be still some time before the whole world will actually see it. "We would like to see it completely finished before showing it which it will be at the first Semi-Final on the 6th of May and probably before that,"Lagermand Lundme laughs.


Yesterday, the stage was shown to all the Heads of Delegations that gathered to Copenhagen to submit their entries as well as hear updates from the host broadcasters.

Freaky Fortune feat. Risky Kidd for Greece

Freaky Fortune feat. Risky Kidd for Greece

Freaky Fortune feat. Risky Kidd for Greece
Freaky Fortune ft Risky Kidd .Winner: EuroSong 2014
Athens, Greece - Tonight it was the turn of Greece to make their decision as to who will represent them in Europe's Favourite TV Show, and they have chosen Freaky Fortune featuring Risky Kidd with Rise Up to have the honour of representing the country in its 40th anniversary year.
Four acts performed tonight in the Acro Music Hall in Athens in EuroSong 2014, and the winner was determined by a 50/50 mix of Jury and Televoting. The jury members were; Dimitris Kontopoulos, Elpida, Themis Georgantas, Areti Kalesaki and Reggina Kouri.

The songs and artists

(Winner in bold)
  • Petalouda Stin Athina sung by Crystallia (Music by Nikos Antypas. Lyrics by Aris Davarakis)
  • Rise Up sung by Freaky Fortune featuring Risky Kidd (Music by Freaky Fortune. Lyrics: Freaky Fortune and Risky Kidd)
  • Kanenas De Me Stamata sung by Kostas Martakis (Music and lyrics: Ilias Kozas)
  • Dancing Night sung by Mark Angelo featuring Josephine (Music and lyrics by Mark Angelo, Josephine Wendel, Fast Lane, Melina Makris and Thomas Karlsson)
Watch Freaky Fortune featuring Risky Kidd

40th Anniversary Special

EuroSong 2014 marked the ruby anniversary in style, with performances from artists old and new. Including a number of duets; with Elpida (1979) and Tamta, Sofia Vossou (1991) and Demy, Kaiti Garbi (1993) and Vegas, Kalomira (2008) and Claydee, and also Pascalis, Marianna, Robert and Bessy (1977) and Melisses.
The night of course could not miss last year's Greek entrants, Koza Mostra featuring Agathon lakovidis.
The programme was presented for the second consecutive year by Despina Vandi and Giorgos Kapoutzidis. They also performed to numerous Greek entries during the opening sequence, and there were clips galore of all the songs that have represented Greece over the past 40 years.
The winning song will represent Greece in the Second Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest to be held on Thursday the 8th of May.

Conchita to "Rise Like A Phoenix" for Austria

Conchita to "Rise Like A Phoenix" for Austria

Conchita to "Rise Like A Phoenix" for Austria
Conchita Wurst.
Vienna, Austria - Today, the Austrian entry for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest has been premiered on a press conference in Vienna - it's a ballad called Rise Like A Phoenix, to be sung by Conchita Wurst, who had been internally selected to represent Austria.
Austrian public broadcaster ORF today held a press conference to present the Austrian entry for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. You can watch the official video clip of Rise Like A Phoenix, which was written by Charly Mason, Joey Patulka, Ali Zuckowski and Julian Maas, here:

Conchita Wurst was internally chosen to represent Austria already back in September - you can check out our article back then:

Get to know Conchita Wurst

What are the highlights of your previous career?
Well I appeared in 2011 for the first time as Conchita on the austrian talent show "Die große Chance". In 2012 I participated in the Eurovision national finals, I came second. While working on music and my career as an entertainer I got the chance to meet fabulous people like Stefan Raab, Brendan O'Connor and Jean Paul Gaultier. in 2013 I appeared on German TV the first time, in a show called "Wild Girls" which was made in Africa. And then of course the biggest milestone so far is the Eurovision Song Contest this year. Because of that i still get the chance to meet my fans all over Europe.
What's special about your entry?
For me the most special and honoring thing is that Austria shows tolerance and acceptance and I’m so happy to be this statement. I’m allowed to be the voice of their beliefs during this time and this really makes me very proud. We, and not at least myself, want to stand for a society without hate and discrimination. And if I’m honest, I think everyone of the contestants should stand for the same, cause we are joining a very opend minded project, so they should be open minded too.
What do you want achieve with your entry?
For me as a musician it’s like the biggest thing so far. I really want to reach a good place in the ranking for my country, and for myself, I want to be proud of my performance. Cause I’m my worst critic. Besides that, I really hope that I get the chance to change some minds all around Europe. I want to show them that you can look whatever you want and that everybody must have the right to live their life however they want it, if nobody gets hurt.
Where do you get your inspiration?
From so many different people and situations around me. From my parents to my granny and my friends to cher :-) I’m a person focusing on the good things in life and that's the most inspiring thing.
What is your message for your fans?
Well, first of all I’m so thankful and privileged to live the life I do. And that’s because there are people out there who care of what I do. Thank you so much for that. And then, I really want to convince them to be the best version of themselves rather than a bad copy of someone else! You can do whatever you want if you’re not hurting anyone.
What is your personal relationship to Eurovision Song Contest?
I watched the Song Contest as far back as I can remember with my mom. I always wanted to be on this stage and now it’s my turn and I’m beyond happy and thankful for this opportunity.

The lyrics


Rise like a phoenix

Out of the ashes
Seeking rather than vengeance
Retribution
You were warned
Once I'm transformed
Once I’m reborn
You know I will rise like a phoenix
But you're my flame
Go about your business
Act as if you’re free
Noone could have witnessed
What you did to me
Cause you wouldn’t know me today
And you have got to see
To believe
From the fading light I fly
Rise like a phoenix
Out of the ashes
Seeking rather than vengeance
Retribution
You were warned
Once I'm transformed
Once I’m reborn
I rise up to the sky
You threw me down but
I'm gonna fly
And rise like a phoenix
Out of the ashes
Seeking rather than vengeance
Retribution
You were warned
Once I'm transformed
Once I’m reborn
You know I will rise like a phoenix
But you’re my flame
1

What's Teo up to these days in Belarus?

What's Teo up to these days in Belarus?

What's Teo up to these days in Belarus?
Teo, the Belarusian representative.
Minsk, Belarus - Teo, the Belarusian representative in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, has a very busy period behind and ahead of him. During the last weeks, the singer was overwhelmed with a lot of sweet pieces of cheesecake and many good and clever advices from Eurovision stars.

Meeting with Yulia Volkova

Teo met Yulia Volkova, a former member of the Russian girl band t.A.T.u., who took part in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest reaching the 3rd place. Teo met Yulia in Minsk where she gave her solo concert. As Yulia has already gone through the Eurovision Song Contest, she shared her experience with Teo: "We came third, which was terrific, but it was already enough just to appear there on stage and see peoples’ eyes light up and smile. So much energy and passion," she said, smiling.

Charming her with a kiss and a bunch of roses, Yulia and Teo sat together watching his official video clip on a laptop. "It’s very stylish," she said, "and there’s a charismatic combination of Robert Miles and Ricky Martin in your performance. The song is very catchy." "I have always liked her music and was keen to meet her and seek her advice," Teo said afterwards.

Cheesecake party

On the same evening, Teo invited the fellow Belarusian singers from the national selection and local celebrities to officially launch his Eurovision entry song Cheesecake. The head chef at Victoria Casino, Alexander Zhilinsky, spent over fifty hours preparing and baking the two metre wide cheesecake, using over twelve kilograms of cookies, eight kilograms of butter, four litres of rum, six kilograms of sugar, twenty kilograms of mascarpone cheese and topped with 24 kilograms of fresh strawberries. He kept the recipe a secret, but it served over 320 people.

Dima Koldun's advice

A week later, in between dance rehearsals, vocal training and filming the postcard with the Danish crew , Teo met up with Dima Koldun, who represent Belarus in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Dima’s advice was simple but important: to enjoy himself, to do his best and to "work your magic". Two singers sang together karaoke.

A concert with Dina Garipova on March 18th

Now Teo is in Moscow where Dina Garipova, last year’s Russian representative invited him to take part in her concert on March 18th. Dina Garipova, invited Teo to take part in her concert on 18th March. "We intend to sing a cover version of Rihanna’s Umbrella and I'm hoping that we can also squeeze in Cheesecake too," Teo said. "We met at last year’s festival Slavonic Bazaar and have been friends ever since."

After Moscow, Teo will be busy with his promotional events that will hopefully include Malta and Latvia. He also plans to came to Eurovision In Concert in Amsterdam. "My five hours’ sleep per night is reducing every day!", he said.