Another week, another bunch of new songs and a heap of hints/details trickling through regarding internal selections. This is all without knowing anything about San Marino, Russia or Azerbaijan. Again, this feature is mostly focusing on internally-selected entries since we’ve been hearing and seeing a lot about national finals recently. However, national final winners undergoing revamps will also be featured.
Since last week’s instalment, we have been graced with five more entries (France, Belgium, Ukraine, Slovenia and Poland). If that wasn’t enough, we also saw the release of the five prospective entries for Romania and some much-anticipated news from the United Kingdom.
NOTE: Only confirmed artists will be featured in these updates.
Back in January, Nathan, Tim, Julian and myself reacted to the internally-selected artists we have so far (excluding Stefania and Roxen):
Now, onto the updates!
🇦🇱 Albania: Arilena Ara – “Shaj”
Announced: December 22nd
Status: Revamp ready for release
Release date: ‘Soon’
Last time we checked in with Arilena, she was busy recording the revamp in Los Angeles. At the time, fans (and her team, by the sounds of it) were debating whether “Shaj” should be translated to English or not. Now, Arilena has confirmed that the song has been recorded and is ready for release. She also confirmed that the entry will contain English lyrics, but it’s not known if the song has been translated completely. We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for that this week, just in case!
🇦🇹 Austria: Vincent Bueno – “Alive”
Announced: December 12th
Status: Recorded
Release date: 5 March
Just a minor update here. Last week we claimed the song would be released on March 4th, however, it has now been confirmed that the song will be released the following day, on March 5th. Like last year, the song will premiere on Ö3-Wecker broadcast by Hitradio Ö3.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria: VICTORIA – TBA
Announced: 25th November
Status: Song chosen
Released date: 7 March
After some details around Bulgaria’s song selection have been flowing for the past few weeks, this week we got some more concrete information. We now know that they have selected their entry. We also know that the official video, co-directd by VICTORIA herself, has been filmed and even got to see some clips of the filming process. Further, we know the song will be released on March 7th. We’re also due the song title ‘soon’, so we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for that this week!
🇬🇪 Georgia: Tornike Kipiani – “Take Me As I Am”
Announced: 31st December
Status: Recorded
Release date: TBA
A few weeks ago, it was announced that Tornike’s entry will be a “mix of classic rock, electro and dubstep”. This mix of genres can be heard in a recent news report, as Tornike records the song. Although we still don’t know when the song will be released, we now have some snippets of the song.
🇬🇷 Greece: Stefania – “SUPERG!RL”
Announced: 3rd February
Status: Music video filmed
Release date: 1 March
This week, we got yet another confirmation of an internally-selected song that will be released in March! Greece’s Stefania will be releasing the music video for her entry “SUPERG!RL” on March 1st. This week, filming for the music video took place at Flisvos Marina in Athens.
🇷🇴 Romania: Roxen – TBA
Announced: 11 February
Status: Song to be selected publicly
Release date: 21 February
Last week, TVR revealed that Roxen will represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. Roxen will perform five songs at the Selecția Națională 2020. The winning song will be selected by Romanian public together with a jury made up of music professionals.
This week, the five contenders to be her entry for Rotterdam were released. So, we have heard her entry now, we just don’t know which one it actually is…yet.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: TBA – TBA
Announced: 22 February (ish)
Status: Song ready, artist not revealed
Release date: 27 February
Much like the Swiss update last week, the BBC have provided an unorthodox strategy for us to unpack. We don’t know the name of the song…nor do we know who will be singing it…but we know how and when we’re getting it. All of the missing gaps will be filled on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 on Thursday. The artist and song will be revealed by Greg James on BBC Radio 1 and by Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2. The cross-over period between these two radio shows is 10:30-11:00 CET, so the announcement is expected around this time.
Confirmed entries so far
As for the other confirmed artists, there have been no public updates, so we’ll just keep a handy list of all the confirmed artists and songs for reference:
- Albania: Arilena Ara – “Shaj”
- Armenia: Athena Manoukian – “Chains On You”
- Australia: Montaigne – “Don’t Break Me”
- Austria: Vincent Bueno – “Alive”
- Belgium: Hooverphonic – “Release Me” (NEW)
- Bulgaria: VICTORIA – TBA
- Cyprus: Sandro – “Running”
- Czech Republic: Benny Cristo – “Kemama”
- France: Tom Leeb – “The Best In Me” (NEW)
- Georgia: Tornike Kipiani – “Take Me As I Am”
- Greece: Stefania – “SUPERG!RL”
- Israel: Eden Alene – TBA
- Italy: Diodato – “Fai rumore”
- Latvia: Samanta Tīna – “Still Breathing”
- Lithuania: The Roop – “On Fire”
- Malta: Destiny Chukunyere – TBA
- North Macedonia: Vasil – “YOU”
- Norway: Ulrikke Brandstorp – “Attention”
- Poland: Alicja Szemplińska – “Empires” (NEW)
- Romania: Roxen – TBA
- Slovenia: Ana Soklič – “Voda” (NEW)
- Spain: Blas Cantó – “Universo”
- The Netherlands: Jeangu Macrooy – TBA
- Ukraine: GO_A – “Solovey” (NEW)
Confirmed song selections and release dates
And here are the confirmed dates where national finals will be taking place where entries will be decided or announced:
- 27 February: Germany, United Kingdom
- 28 February: Belarus
- 29 February: Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Moldova
- 1 March: Greece, Romania, Serbia
- 3 March: Israel
- 4 March: Switzerland
- 5 March: Austria
- 7 March: Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Sweden
- Unknown: Azerbaijan, Russia, San Marino
And you can revisit the past editions of Songwatch below:
Did we miss anything? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our reactions to the news in the run up to Rotterdam!
