EurovisionVienna 2015

The weekend in Eurovision – a recap

Over a quarter of the songs have already been chosen for Eurovision 2015, but these last few days have been the first proper high activity weekend for this year’s contest, with a lot happening across Europe, including a song being chosen, high profile national selections kicking off, and quite a few familiar faces competing. If you missed some of the action, we’ve summarised it for you here to bring you up to speed!
Denmark
Melodi Grand Prix
The main headline of the weekend came from Denmark, where the 10th song for Eurovision 2015 was chosen. Out of the ten contenders, ‘The Way You Are’ by Anti-Social Media and ‘Suitcase’ by Anne Gadegaard were tipped to do well in advance of the contest, and in the end, they were well ahead of the pack.
It was ‘The Way You Are’ that just edged ahead however, and despite only coming 2nd with the Danish public, it gathered enough points to represent the country at Eurovision in Vienna, where Denmark will compete in the second half of the first semi-final on Tuesday 19th May.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnSiyaJ4rUk

Now that we’re into February, several countries have begun their quest to find their potential Eurovision winner, and Saturday night saw the start of a few of these.
Finland
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu
First of all, Finland kick-started the 4th year of UMK, with a much simpler format this year. Three semi-finals, each featuring 6 songs, 3 of which progress to the final. The first semi-final included pre-contest favourites Satin Circus and Pertti Kurikan Nimipaivat. Click here to find out who made it through to the final on Saturday 28th February.
Estonia
Eesti Laul
Elsewhere, Eesti Laul began in Estonia, where half of the 20 competing songs were performed and the Estonian public along with the jury decided which five would make it to the grand final. Find out who these five were by clicking here.
Sweden
Melodifestivalen

And of course, Melodifestivalen returned, with the first heat coming from Gothenburg. Two Melodifestivalen – and indeed Eurovision – veterans took part this week in the shape of Eric Saade and Jessica Andersson. Both of them managed to secure a place in the final, but there were some upsets elsewhere in the results, which you can see in full here.

Other national selections continued throughout Europe during the weekend, with Iceland completing their final line-up, and the last of the competing songs being performed in Hungary and Latvia.
Hungary
A Dal
The third heat of A Dal took place on Saturday and saw a further 6 songs progress to the next stage, including Kati Wolf, who represented Hungary at Eurovision in 2011. There are now 18 songs in total which will compete in two semi-finals on the 14th and 21st February. A list of last night’s qualifiers can be found here and they will join the qualifiers from the first and second heats.
Latvia
Supernova
Latvia also continued with its revamped national selection with the next ten songs being performed. Four songs made it through, and they will join four songs from the first heat in next week’s semi-final. There, the remaining 8 songs will be whittled down to just 4 by the public and jury, and these four songs will compete to become Latvia’s next Eurovision entry on Sunday 22nd February. Click here for Sunday night’s results.
Iceland
Söngvakeppnin
It’s the Icelandic final next week, where seven songs will be battling it out to represent Iceland in Vienna. Whilst one of the rules of the competition has been that all songs must be performed in Icelandic, the finalists will have the opportunity to sing in English (or any other language they wish) on Saturday should they so which. Find out which songs made it from Saturday’s heat to the final showdown by clicking here.
Lithuania
Eurovizijos Dainų Konkurso Nacionalinė Atranka

Finally, Lithuania’s mammoth selection process continued, and on Saturday five singers were whittled down to a final three. Now we are reaching the business end of the selection, as this week the separate competition for songs will also produce a final three, and on Saturday, the public will decide which song will be the Lithuanian song for Europe in 2015, before deciding next weekend which of the singers will sing it. Find out who the final three singers in the running are here.

So that’s that then! It has been a very busy weekend as you can see, and the pace shows no sign of letting up, with Iceland and Serbia choosing their Eurovision entries this coming weekend. The selection process in Hungary will be stepping up a gear as we reach the semi-finals stage, Lithuania will be choosing its song and Israel will be choosing the artist that will represent them in Vienna, plus much more. As ever, we’ll be covering all of the action here on escXtra, so please join us for all the latest news in the run-up to Eurovision 2015.
 

Back to top button