Eurovision

It has been nearly a month since The Netherlands won the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. Preparations are now in full swing in order to choose the host city for next year’s contest. Dutch broadcasters NPO, AVROTROS and NOS have confirmed that they will aim to announce the host city in August. What’s the current picture? The Dutch broadcasters (NPO, AVROTROS and NOS) have notified potential host cities to present their bids, to ensure that they meet the criteria set by the broadcasters and the EBU. The following cities have expressed their interest in hosting the Eurovision Song Contest next year: Amsterdam – The capital city of The Netherlands is in contention. However, Mayor Halsema has mentioned that Amsterdam will not stand in the way of other cities who are interested in hosting the competition.Arnhem – The city has decided to team up with nearby city Nijmegen for a bid to host the contest.Breda Den BoschDen HaagLeeuwarden/Friesland – One of the European Cultre Capitals for 2018, its city council has unanimously supported its bid to host the contest.Maastricht/Limburg – The province of Limburg has expressed its support in bidding the contest.Rotterdam – Arguably, the favourite to host the contest …

It’s been a month since Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was held in Tel Aviv and the participating countries are already making up their plans for next year in The Netherlands. Georgia up next confirms participation for Eurovision 2020. Georgia in Eurovision 2020 Despite disappointing results from this year, not qualifying to the Grand final, Georgian Public Broadcaster GDP announced through INFE Georgia that they will choose their entrant through the means of the talent show Georgian Idol for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in the Netherlands. Therefore the talent show’s format will determine the next Georgian Eurovision representative once again.The Georgian Idol was used as selection methode for this year’s Georgian representative Oto Nemsadze. Oto represented Georgia with “Sul Tsin Iare” failing to qualify to the final ending up 14th in the first semifinal. However, further details as for example song selection format has not been given by the broadcaster yet. Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest Georgia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 12 times, debuting at the 2007 contest. Georgia has reached the final on seven occasions, achieving two top ten placements, with Sofia Nizharadze (2010) and Eldrine (2011) both finishing 9th. Georgia has however failed to qualify to the final on the last three occasions.What do …

The final of the Swedish music competition, P4 Nästa, will be held on Saturday, August 24th, in Linköping, according to Sveriges Radio. The contest is noted for providing the first of the 28 acts that will compete in Sweden’s national final for Eurovision, Melodifestivalen. All 25 local radio stations in Sweden are taking in submissions from both new and established artists all over Sweden. After all entries are received, only eight acts will get to compete for the coveted spot at Melodifestivalen in 2020. The P4 Nästa competition has been used to pick a Melfest artist since 2013. In 2018, over a thousand songs were submitted to compete in the P4 Nästa competition. Last year’s winning act was The Lovers of Valdaro, who competed in Melodifestivalen with the song “Somebody Wants.” They placed last out of 7 acts in the third semifinal. The 2018 winner of P4 Nästa, The Lovers of Valdaro, at Melodifestivalen 2019 Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest Sweden first competed in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958, and the 2020 contest will mark their 60th participation in Eurovision. Sweden has won six times. Their first win came in 1974 with the song “Waterloo” by ABBA and …

Although summer is regarded as the ‘off-season’ in the world of Eurovision, it is often the time where broadcasters confirm their participation for the subsequent contest. It is also a time where broadcasters from previously-withdrawn or speculated countries confirm their non-participation. Following Andorra’s RTVA confirming that the micro state will not return next year, Slovakia’s RTVS has the same unfortunate news. The recent success the Czech Republic in the most recent two editions of the contest, has stirred some hope that neighbouring Slovakia may return to the contest in the foreseeable future. It’s worth noting that, like the latter, the Czech Republic had an unfortunate start to their participation journey, before securing two consecutive top 12 finishes in 2018 and 2019. However, RTVS, the Slovakian broadcaster, has confirmed to eurocontest.cz that they will not be returning to the Eurovision Song Contest next year. Further, it seems unlikely that they will be returning to the contest for the foreseeable future. We do not plan on participating next year as the proportion of broadcasting to audience interest and interest rating is inadequate.Erika Rusnáková, press spokesperson for RTVS Slovakia at the Eurovision Song Contest The central European country has quite a poor track …

The Spanish broadcaster RTVE confirmed their participation for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in The Netherlands. Nothing confirmed yet about how the representative will be selected but it looks like we could continue with the current process! Spain confirmed for Eurovision 2020! RTVE, the Spanish broadcaster, confirmed their participation for the upcoming contest. The past two entries got selected via the show Operación Triunfo! The show is set to return to the TV screens at the beginning of 2020, so it could be used again to find the Spanish entry. Moreover, the show is a big success in Spain, which gives the Spanish entry always good attention. The show also got used to finding the Spanish entries for 2002 to 2004. Next year marks the 60th Spanish entry. We are sure Spain will try everything to make this a special year! This year Spain got represented by Miki and he delivered the party hit of the year with “La Venda”. He recently performed the song as part of the OT tour in Spain in Barcelona and the crowd went wild! Check it out below: We also had the chance to speak with Miki during the time in Tel Aviv:

National broadcaster, RTVA, has stated that there are no plans to return to Eurovision in The Netherlands next year. In response to a fan’s tweet, RTVA stated that “for the time being there are no plans to return“. Even when questioned about any possible way forward, RTVA apolgised and said they have no proposal to participate. Gràcies per la proposta @Liber_Montero! De moment, però, no hi ha plans per tornar-hi…— RTVA (@rtvandorra) May 22, 2019 It has now become an annual event in which fans seek to find out if non-participating countries are considering a return to Eurovsion. It was the same story last year and some further context back in 2017 tells us that it may take government support before we see the microstate back on Europe’s biggest stage. Andorra is the only participating country to have never competed in the Grand Final at the Eurovision Song Contest. The country last entered in 2009 with Susanne Georgi singing “La teva decisió” (Get a Life). It came 15th in the Semi Final with 8 points. Would you like to see Andorra return to the Eurovision stage? What do you think is the way forward for Europe’s microstates at Eurovision? Let …

Finland’s broadcaster Yle has today told about their plans for their national selection for Eurovision 2020. UMK 2020 will include an open search for the songs. Songwriters and artists can submit their songs in November, from 1st to 8th. More information about the format will come in the next weeks. Next year Yle’s radio station YleX will be closely working together with the UMK producers. The producer of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu Anssi Autio and YleX’s Hanne Kautto hope that this will give more energy and efficiency to the search and the whole competition. Over the past two years, Yle has selected Finland’s representative internally and the song was chosen in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu. Before that, since it’s launch in 2012, UMK was open for all artists and songwriters to send in their songs. The music supervisor of YleX, Tapio Hakanen, will be the leader of the team that chooses the songs that will take part in the national selection. What do you think? Let us know below or on social media @ESCXTRA!

Joe & Jake sang it at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 and the Netherlands are living by their slogan: “You’re not alone, we’re in this together.” It seems few cities will need to stand alone in their bid to host the contest on Dutch soil next year. The city of Arnhem has decided to team up with neighbouring city Nijmegen for their 2020 bid. 3 July deadline? Earlier this week, we heard that NPO, NOS, Avrotros and the EBU had opened the City Bid Process in order to determine the host city or region. According to alderman Jan van Dellen, responsible for economics and city marketing in Arnhem, the NPO have set a deadline by which they need to receive the bid book. That deadline is, according to him, 3rd July. In the weeks after that, the organisers will visit the cities they ‘seriously consider’ for the hosting job. Van Dellen says he hopes to see the EBU at his stadium, the GelreDome. He adds that the final decision will follow at the start of August. Arnhem’s GelreDome will provide a bidbook largely based around other major events which have taken place at the home base of football club Vitesse. …

First they said it would happen already in May, but now Yle has confirmed that they will give more information about their national selection Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) 2020 next week. Internal selection again? For the past two years, Finland has selected their artist internally and the song has been selected in the Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu. Before that, the national final was open for everyone to send in their submissions. After launching Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu in 2012, Finland has qualified to the grand final only three times. With the old way to choose their entry twice (in 2013 and 2014) and with the new system once (2018). This year, after announcing that Darude would represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contes 2019, the UMK producer Anssi Autio opened up about the frustration of getting a big name to represent Finland in the contest. He said that they asked many artists, including Robin, Antti Tuisku and Haloo Helsinki!, but they all declined. This suggests Yle might go back to the old format, where anyone could send in their songs. Before announcing that Saara Aalto would represent the country in Lisbon back in 2018, Yle said that for Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2019 …

While countries such as Australia, Israel and Sweden have confirmed their participation for Eurovision 2020, a large number remain to confirm. Albania has confirmed that their long-running music festival Festivali i Këngës will be returning for its 58th edition this December. As the country has used this to select its Eurovision entry since 2004, we can assume that this will be the case for 2020. RTSH, the Albanian state broadcaster, has opened the submissions for the 58th edition of Festivali i Këngës. As with last year’s edition, this will take place in December, making it the first national final of the Eurovision 2020 ‘season’. The broadcaster invites singers and composers from across Albania to submit entries. Although the call for submissions does not explicitly confirm that the winning entry will go to Eurovision, this has been the case since Albania’s debut at the contest. In 2018, RTSH announced that they would be making the most significant changes to the festival in years in a bid to engage a younger audience. Due to its inability to modernise in recent years, the contest has declined in popularity, especially when faced with competition from Kënga Magjike. FiK 57 marked a move in the right direction, …