We are now well into 2015’s National Final season and last weekend saw three more artists selected for Vienna and six countries progress even further into their selections. If you weren’t able to catch up on the action or decided to sit through the entire run of San Remo (pat yourself on the back if this applies to you!), you’re most probably overdue a catch up. So let us bring you up to speed on how things went…
Lithuania
We can’t deny the fact that Lithuania’s selection method is a mammoth one – we’ve already seen six heats where artists have been showcasing their vocal ability by taking on popular songs and Eurovision hits. On Saturday however, the selection really started to take off as it was finally decided which song the country would be sending to Vienna. Three songs were up for the prize and the public decided to send cheerful number This Time to the contest. Next week, it will be decided exactly who will be performing the song in Vienna as the finalists perform the song live.
Iceland
Seven songs battled it out to win the title in Iceland, however only two made it to the super-final round – María Ólafsdóttir and the odds on favourite Friðrik Dór. But as we’ve learned to realise in national finals is to expect the unexpected and that’s exactly what happened as María scooped the victory with her song Unbroken. You can read our live blog of the show here
Italy
Festival di Sanremo is one of the most watched annual events in Italy and has become popular with Eurovision fans since it usually determines the artist and song that the country will send to the contest. This year was no exception – the show ran for five nights and came to a climax on Saturday when after some voting drama, it was determined that trio Il Volo had won the competition and would represent Italy in May. Although it has not been officially announced if they will perform their San Remo entry Grande amore in Vienna, its looking very likely as the song has since charted in Europe and become a firm favourite with fans.
Serbia
Serbia were the last country to select and they chose Sunday night to do it – very much appreciated by those of us who wanted to catch a bit of everything this weekend! After a year’s absence, they wasted no time and got straight to it with a three song final. We were made to wait until the live show itself to hear the entries for the first time and after 20 minutes of voting, a mixture of televote and a jury selected Bojana Stamenov as the Serbian entrant with her song Ceo Svet Je Moi. – Read what happened, as it happened with our live blog of the final here.
As mentioned earlier, as well as adding three to this year’s stack of songs – six countries continued their quest for an artist and song. Here’s a brief look at how things are going:
- In Finland, Shava, Opera Skaala and Jouni Aslak proceeded to the final of UMK. – Listen to them all here.
- Four more finalists were chosen in Latvia, in a mixture of public voting and jury choice – MNTHA, Aminata, Elektrofolk & Markus Riva. Read more here.
- Estonia’s final is shaping up nicely with five more qualifiers selected – Find out who they were here.
- In Hungary, the first semi final of “A Dal” took place. See who qualified for the final here.
- Lastly, in Sweden – two more acts proceeded directly to the final and two were given a lifeline, qualifying to the second chance round. More here.
