The 33rd edition of the oldest OGAE fan contest, the OGAE Song Contest, has been offically kicked off by OGAE Australia. The Australian fanclub organizes this year’s contest after their victory in 2017, with Dami Im’s “Fighting for Love”.
The OGAE Song Contest is, as usual, the third contest of the off-season, after the Second Chance Contest and the Retro Second Chance contest. The results of those should be revealed in October.
What is the OGAE Song Contest?
The OGAE Song Contest first took place in 1986, between different OGAE national clubs. It is an auditory contest, which means that national clubs each submit one song as a track, and not as a performance or a videoclip (for the latter, there is the OGAE Video Contest). Voters should only judge the tracks.
Entries must respect some simple yet strict rules:
- The songs must be original (no cover)
- They must have been released the year of the contest or the previous year
- They must be sung in one of the country’s official languages
- There must be at least one member of the act from the country it represents (the UK can’t send an all-American band, for example)
- They must not have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest or any national selection (as a contestant)
OGAE members can vote through their national clubs, which will then aggregate the votes of their members and produce a national Top 10. The scoring system is similar to the Eurovision system (1-to-8-10-12).
The 2018 lineup
This year, 29 countries sent an entry to the OGAE. That is one more than last year, although the change is a bit more complex. The contest welcomes back Bulgaria, Cyprus and Ukraine, but Slovakia and OGAE Rest of the World don’t take part this year.
Here is the list of all entries, in the official “running order”:
- Norway – Kari Bremnes | “Det e min sønn”
- Spain – Lola Indigo | “Ya no quiero ná “
- Serbia – Lena Kovačević | “Café”
- Belgium – Charlotte | “Ta peau”
- Czech Republic Mirai | “Chci tančit”
- Denmark – Rasmus Seebach | “2017”
- Russia – Lolita | “Ranevskaja”
- Andorra – Buhos | “Volcans”
- Belarus – Skynet | “Kakhanaya”
- Portugal – Salvador Sobral | “Mano a Mano”
- Australia – Troye Sivan | “My My My!”
- United Kingdom – Steps | “Scared Of The Dark”
- Bulgaria – DARA | “Vse Na Men”
- Germany – Alina | “Nie vergessen”
- FYR Macedonia – Antonia Gigovska | “Svetlina vo mrak”
- Poland – Cleo | “Łowcy gwiazd”
- Croatia – Franka Batelić | “S Tobom”
- Malta – Emma Muscat | “I Need Somebody”
- France – Christophe Willem | “Rio”
- Hungary – Joci Pápai | “Özönvíz”
- Greece – Eleni Foureira | “Vasilissa”
- Finland – Evelina | “Tornado”
- Sweden – Samir & Viktor | “Put your hands up för Sverige”
- Turkey – Aynur Aydin feat. Turaç Berkay | “Bana Aşk Ver”
- Slovenia – Lea Sirk | “Moj Profil”
- Ireland – Koldaine | “Follow Your Fire”
- Ukraine – Kazka | “Svyata”
- Italy – Giorgia & Marco Mengoni | “Come neve”
- Cyprus – Michalis Hatzigiannis | “Erotas Agkathi”
==> You can find details on each artist on OGAE Australia’s official page for the OGAE Song Contest 2018 <==
This year’s lineup is exceptionally Eurovisual, with several very recent ESC participant: this year’s runner-up Eleni Foureira (for Cyprus, but here chosen by OGAE Greece), Lea Sirk (Slovenia 2018), Franka (Croatia 2018), Salvador Sobral (winner in 2017 for Portugal; the OGAE entry is actually the interval act of the 2018 final), Joci Pápai (Hungary 2017), Cleo (Poland 2014), Marco Mengoni (Italy 2013). Michalis Hatzigiannis represented Cyprus in 1998, and Antonia Gigovska was a backing singer for Eye Cue this year in Lisbon.
To those purely Eurovisual names, we can obviously add the likes of Samir&Vikor, who took part in several Melodifestivalens (including 2018), Kazka (Vidbir 2018, in Ukraine) and Christophe Willem, who was a French-speaking judge on Destination Eurovision 2018.
Finally, other clubs decided to send international big names, like Troye Sivan for Australia, Steps for the UK or Kodaline for Ireland.
The timeline
Voting opened today, on September 22nd 2018. It should remain open in national clubs until October 20th (although some clubs might close the voting a few days before that, in order to have time to organize the results). Then, OGAE Australia will receive the results of each country, create a scoreboard, and publish the video of the results on October 27th.
Last year’s winner, Dami Im, for OGAE Australia:
What do you think? Who is your favorite? Who can win this 33rd OGAE Song Contest? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media, at @escxtra !
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