Stockholm 2016

One of Europe’s most prestigious radio and television awards, the Rose d’Or, has been awarded to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The annual ceremony of the Rose d’Or honours the best international radio and television shows, and this year a total of 400 shows from more than 130 broadcasters were nominated. Last night’s gala took place in Berlin and the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest won in the entertainment category. Proud and honored! Congratulations @svt and team, well-deserved 🎉 https://t.co/kmJ2wJwos3 — Jon Ola Sand (@jonolasand) September 13, 2016 The Eurovision Song Contest 2016, produced by the Swedish public broadcaster SVT, was nominated alongside with ‘Adele at the BBC’ and the German television film ‘Mordkomission Berlin’. ”It’s fantastic to win this award. There are shows from all over Europe competing, and the Swedish television hadn’t won a Rose d’Or since 1987 -said Martin Österdahl, executive producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016- The award belongs to all of those who worked on the production and made Sweden and the SVT the leading producers of the Eurovision Song Contest” –he added. But Martin Österdahl was not alone in Berlin, Måns Zelmerlöw and Christer Björkman were also there to celebrate the …

Today was the annual ‘Armenian Street Festival’, where all things Armenian were celebrated from food and wine to music. Of course, with me being a lover of all things Armenian, I just had to go to the event and witness how amazing it was, and let me tell you I was not disappointed. When I arrived, I was thinking ‘Please God, do not let me have missed Iveta Mukuchyan’s performance and thankfully I hadn’t. However what I did witness was quite hilarious. An Armenian auction with various Armenian objects ranging from a bottle of Brandy that dated back all the way to the year 1913, yes you heard right 1913. Now that’s not the most shocking part of it, the fact that it sold for over £600 was astonishing. Nonetheless it was lovely to see how united the Armenian community were through this event. Now let’s look at the woman herself, that needs no introduction but I will give her one. Miss Iveta Mukuchyan. As soon as she walked onto stage I was in awe of her, it was as if my heart stopped beating (LITERALLY). I couldn’t believe that the woman, who I loved for so long and wished …

For the fifth time, the Berlin Eurovision fanclub has organised the “Eurovision Weekend” in Berlin. The event will start on Friday, July 15th and will end on the 17th morning. After Finland, Israel, UK and Denmark, the OGAE Netherlands has been invited to co-organise the event. The dutch singers Sandra Reemer (1972, 1976, 1978) and Esther Hart (2003) will be on stage. This year’s Austrian representative, Zoë as well as national final entrant Laura Pinksi (Unser Lied für Stockholm 2016) will join the Dutch artists. The weekend will start with Friday’s opening ceremony at März Restaurant, where previous co-organisers will pass the baton to OGAE Netherlands. DJ Louis from the Netherlands and DJ Jay-T will make the guests dance to Eurovision classics until early morning. The saturday morning will see two guided tours through the city: a classical tour will start from Hotel Ramada, sponsor for the event, covering the city centre, meanwhile a “special” tour across East Berlin, starting at 2pm. The sumptuous Gala will kick off at 7.30 pm at Pfefferberg, official venue since the first weekend. Judy LaDivina, drag queen and show director, will perform and host alongside Erik Enter from the Netherlands. During the first part …

The Eurovision crazy island of Malta makes you experience Eurovision every now and then. During last weekend’s religious feast of St. George in Qormi, the Fireworks Factory managed to present an amazing show. This show included a synchronized fireworks display with this year’s Russian entry You are the only one. What if Sergey Lazarev had this presentation in Globen? Watch the Russian entry synchronized with fireworks

The Archbishop of Malta highly criticized this year’s Eurovision cost and slammed the Maltese national broadcaster for spending a lot of money on Ira’s adventure in Stockholm. Mgr Charles Scicluna was discussing the Eurovision costings during a programme on the national radio station. He said that the Maltese broadcaster spent thousands of euro on a hologram coat, which Ira didn’t use, due to some technological hiccups. Meanwhile it only happens in Malta or let say in Russia too! Which other country has the President of the Republic that visits Eurovision rehearsals? This happened both in Malta during the 2014 Junior Eurovision Song Contest and in Russia, when Vladimir Putin caught everyone by surprise as he toured the 2009 Eurovision venue. However the passionate Eurovision island has set a new record by having their bishop, who often is clad in bright robes discussing the expenditure on Europe’s favourite show.  

It’s not even been a week since Jamala took the crown in Stockholm, but some countries are already preparing for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The count currently contains fourteen (almost) certain countries, but there are also a few that are unclear as to what their plans for 2017 are as well as one country saying ‘No’ to Eurovision. Let’s list them below. Confirmed Estonia Estonia were one of the first countries to confirm their participation in 2017. Jüri Pootsmann finished last in his semi-final, but that doesn’t stop Estonia from going to Eurovision. The Estonian Head of Delegation, Mart Normet, confirmed on Twitter that Eesti Laul would indeed be taking place once more in 2017. Ma ei usu ise ka, kust ma paegu tulin. Tegime päev otsa Eesti Laul 2017 reklaame! #juba — Mart Normet (@martnormet) April 7, 2016 Sweden This certainly is no surprise to anyone. Sweden hosted the contest a week ago and have confirmed their participation in 2017. Christer Björkman said, before the 2016 contest, that Sweden are out to catch Ireland in terms of most Eurovision victories. In even less surprising news, Melodifestivalen 2017 will be taking place once again to select Sweden’s entrant for Kyiv. Switzerland …

Now that the glitter was cleaned up from Globen and we have celebrated the winners of the Eurovision 2016, let’s discuss the losers. Who did the jury screw over? Who did not connect to the audience? Who upset the fans?  These 3 questions we will answer today. Let’s go for the most obvious first of all. Russia. Royally screwed by the juries, the whole nation is frustrated with the new voting system and questions why was the system changed this year. Well, Italy won the televote last year as well and ended up 3rd behind Polina. There were no complaints from the Russian side then… Whether the jury voting was political or not that depends on how each of us looks at it. Perhaps the performance was too inspirational? Perhaps Sergey did not connect to the camera enough? Perhaps the juries managed to hear bum notes? One thing is certain – the public completely disagreed with the juries and supported Russia which I certainly hope will translate to success for his later career. What happened to Malta? After the whole scandal surrounding “Chameleon” being scrapped, the hype that was “Walk On Water” and the juries support in the final (4th!) it all went …

After a heroic arrival on Sunday to Ukraine where Jamala was met by a huge crowd celebrating her victory, the “1944” singer did not rest. Today, she was awarded with the highest honour the artist can receive and became the People’s Artist of Ukraine joining the likes of Ani Lorak (Ukraine 2008), Ruslana (Ukraine 2004) and… Philipp Kirkorov! The award was handed by the president of Ukraine himself Pyotr Poroshenko. After receiving the award Jamala simply stated: “It’s nice, but I was singing not for the awards, but for the sake of Ukraine. Thank you!” If you missed Jamala’s return to Ukraine, here is a short clip.