Internal selection round-up: Several countries announce presentation dates

Over the past couple of days, several broadcasters have announced the presentation dates for their internally selected Eurovision entries. The most recent announcements have come from Australia, Belgium and Croatia. This gives us the perfect opportunity to look at the situations with countries that have internally selected their entries for the 2017 contest. Let’s go through them in chronological order of presentation dates:

Austria (February 28th)

At the end of January, ORF revealed that Nathan Trent would present his entry on February 28th. It is expected that he will perform his song in English.

Cyprus (March 1st)

At the beginning of this month, CyBC announced that Gravity would be presented on March 1st. The song will be performed by Hovig who was the first artist to be chosen for Kyiv back in October. Over the past couple of days, Hovig has been filming the music video for his song composed by Thomas G:son. Of course, Thomas was responsible for 2012 Eurovision winning entry Euphoria.

Croatia (March 2nd)

HRT have revealed lots of information regarding their entry in the past few days. Jacques Houdek will present his entry My Friend on March 2nd. His opera-influenced song is expected to be performed in both English and Italian.

The Netherlands (March 3rd)

O’G3NE were the second act to be selected for Kyiv. The former Junior Eurovision contestants were announced as the 2017 Dutch representatives back in October. Rumour has it their selected song is a ballad, written by the father of the sisters as well as the boyfriend of band member Shelley Vol. In addition, AVROTROS revealed that their song will be presented on March 3rd.

Greece (March 6th)

Demy was finally unveiled as Greece’s 2017 representative last month after many rumours. However, her song will not be internally selected. Demy will present three potential entries in an ERT show on March 6th. Viewers will select their favourite entry which Demy will then take to Kyiv.

Australia (March 7th)

SBS confirmed earlier today that their 2017 entry will be presented on the evening of March 7th, early morning for the Europeans among us. It is currently expected that both the artist and song will be revealed on the same date. In addition, rumours are pointing towards Isaiah Firebrace and The Veronicas being amongst the front-runners to have been chosen. We shall wait and see!

Belgium (March 8th)

Similarly to Australia, Belgium’s RTBF also revealed today that their entry would be presented. Blanche will reveal her song a day later than the Aussies on March 8th. Blanche was the fourth artist to be selected for Kyiv. The announcement came in late November.

Other presentations confirmed for March

Armenia (AMPTV), Bulgaria (BNT), Czech Republic (ČT), Montenegro (RTCG) and Serbia (RTS) have all confirmed that their entries will be presented sometime in March. We already know that Artsvik, Martina Bárta and Slavko Kalezić will represent Armenia, Czech Republic and Montenegro respectively. Martina’s entry will be titled My Turn while Slavko will be singing Space. It was recently revealed that Space was being produced by a Swedish team. The team includes Stefan Örn who has produced several previous Azerbaijani entries including 2011 Eurovision winner Running Scared.

Countries that will also be internally selecting

Azerbaijan (İctimai), F.Y.R. Macedonia (MKRTV), Ireland (RTÉ), Israel (IBA), Russia (C1R) and San Marino (SMRTV) will also be internally selecting their entries. However, none of these have revealed any sort of timeframe as to when to expect their entry presentations. Nevertheless, we already know that Diana Hajiyeva, Jana Burčeska, Brendan Murray and Imri Ziv will represent Azerbaijan, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Ireland and Israel respectively.

Rounding up the rest

That takes care of the 18 countries that are yet to reveal their internally selected entries this year. With 13 entries revealed so far and 43 participants in total, that leaves 12 countries who will be selecting their entries through national finals that have yet to conclude.
This weekend (February 24th-26th), Denmark, Latvia, Moldova, Slovenia and Ukraine will complete their national selection processes. The following weekend (March 4th-5th), Estonia, Portugal and Romania will select their entries.
Lastly, on the final Saturday (March 11th) prior to the head of delegations meeting where all delegations must submit their entries, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden will choose their entries for Kyiv. That will complete the 12 national selections that have yet to finish.
Which national finals and song presentations are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments section below and via our social media pages @escXtra! Remember you can click the embedded links in the article above to find out more about each artist selection.