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Although March started out with just two Eurovision birthdays yesterday, it continues with today! Two of them are non-qualifiers, however the other two enjoyed strong top 10 finishes. One of today’s birthday girls is Mariya Yaremchuk!  Nina Morato, 52 Nina Morato is the oldest of today’s birthday stars. She represented France at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. Her song “Je suis un vrai garçon” recieved a lot of positive comments pre-contest. On the night she was awarded 74 points, thus finishing in a very respectable seventh place. Gjoko Taneski, 41 Gjoko represented Macedonia at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. He performed the song “Jas ja imam silata” in the first semi-final. He recieved no more than 37 points, thus finishing in a rather disappointing 15th place. Due to this, he did not get the opportunity to perform his song in the grand final. Filipa Sousa, 33 Filipa Sousa represented Portugal at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. She performed the song “Vida minha” in the second semi-final. There she finished in 13th place, thus failing to qualify for the grand final. Mariya Yaremchuk, 25 The wonderful Mariya Yaremchuk represented Ukraine at the 2014 Eurovision Song …

Yesterday on 28th of February four Eurovision artist had a birthday. Today however there are two Eurovision ladies that celebrate their birthday. One of them has represented her country in total of four times. That makes her one of three female singers that have the record of most participation at the Eurovision Song Contest. Bernadette and Valentina Monetta were born on this day.   Bernadette, 59 In 1983 Netherlands selected Bernadette to be their representative at Eurovision. Therefore she went on stage in Munich and performed the song “Sing me a song”. She did quite good at the contest, that is she was 7th out of 20 countries. Valentina Monetta, 42 San Marino is rather new at Eurovision, their debuting act was in 2008. Valentina tried to go to the contest that year, however was not selected. But out of the 8 times San Mario has taken part, Monetta has been selected four times! She first took part in 2012 with a controversial song, since the song was named Facebook. The needed to change the name and the lyrics. Therefore she sang “The Social Network Song” on the stage in Baku. She landed the 14th place in her semi final, …

Welcome to ROUND ELEVEN of Eurovision Prediction 2018. This may be the penultimate round of the competition, but there’s still a LOT of points on offer! This weekend, the national finals in Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Poland, San Marino and Portugal will take place. Now, it is up to you to predict who will be the winners! Key information A total of 54 points are on offer in this round. The breakdown of points can be seen below. Estonia’s Eesti Laul – up to 10 points available Finland’s UMK – up to 3 points available Iceland’s Söngvakeppnin – up to 6 points available Poland’s Krajowe Eliminacje – up to 10 points available San Marino’s 1in360 – up to 11 points available Portugal’s Festival da Canção – up to 14 points available For a full explanation of the rules, please read here! The deadline for predicting round eleven is 6pm CET on Saturday 3rd March 2018, prior to five national finals taking place later that evening. Of course, you can edit your prediction by revisiting this form up until our deadline. The results of round eleven will be announced early next week. Here is the current scoreboard following the conclusion of round ten! It’s time to predict! You will require a Google …

Over the past week, you have been taking part in rounds nine and ten of Eurovision Prediction 2018. We’ve now witnessed national finals in Serbia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia and Romania. Therefore, let’s see how the results of these shows affect our scoreboard! Calculating your points! As stated in the rules, our scoring system varies depending on what results are revealed during the broadcast. In almost all of these national finals, full rankings of the competing acts were broadcast during the show. Therefore, predicting first place earns you maximum points, second place earns you one point less than maximum and so on. The only exception was the national final in Hungary. In A Dal, we received rankings for 5th to 8th place. Therefore, predicting 5th earns you 4 points, predicting 6th earns 3 points and so on. However, amongst the top 4, only the winner was revealed. Therefore, the other superfinalists will receive 5 points as if they all placed fourth. Here is the scoreboard! So what does this mean for the scoreboard? With SO many points on offer, it is impossible to round up all of the key changes. Therefore, we’ve added a little statistic onto our scoreboard …

Yesterday we only had one Eurovision birthday to celebrate; today, let’s give you four! One of them is even a winner! We also have a guy who finished in third place. In addition to that, we also bring you two birthday Eurostars who finished in 20th place out of 24! However, let’s focus on the winner; Emmelie de Forest!  Jean Gabilou, 74 Jean represented France at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. He did so with the song “Humanahum”. He finished in a fantastic third place, only beaten by Germany and the United Kingdom. Paul de Corte, 44 Paul represented the Netherlands at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul. He did so as half of the duo Re-union, alongside Fabrizio Pennisi. They performed the song “Without You”, finishing 6th in the first ever proper semi-final in the history of the contest. As a result of this they qualified for the grand final, where they finished in 20th place out of 24 participating countries. Basty, 37 Basty represented Spain at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki. He did so as part of the boy band D’NASH. They performed the intensely hip moving friendly song “I Love You Mi …

Yesterday on February 26th there were two Eurovision singers that had a birthday. Today however is one Eurovision star that celebrates her birthday. See performed at Eurovision Song Contest in the year 2008. Evdokia Kadi was born on this day. Evdokia Kadi, 37 Cyprus selected Evodkia to be their representative at Eurovision in 2008. Therefore she went on stage in Belgrade, Serbia. Where she performed the song “Femme Fatale” at the second semi-final. Unfortunately for her, the entry placed 15th at the semi-final and did not advance to the final. Cyprus highest placement however in the last 10 years, is when “La La Love” scored the 16th place at the grand final. We all here at escXtra would like to wish Kadi a great happy birthday!

Quite many Eurovision artists celebrated their birthday yesterday on 25th of February. Today however are two Eurovision ladies that have a birthday. One took part for her country Croatia and the other one brought UK’s  first victory home. Sandie Shaw and Andrea Šušnjara were born on this day. Sandie Shaw, 71 In 1986, UK selected Sandie to go on their behalf to Vienna. That is why she sang the song “Puppet On A String”. Despite not liking the song that much it became a huge hit in the UK and in several other countries. It was her third number One Hit in the UK. Like mention earlier, the song did also really well in Eurovision, that is it won the show! Giving UK it’s first victory at Eurovision. Andrea Šušnjara, 31 Croatia selected Igor Cukrov and Andrea to be their representative at Eurovision in 2009. That is why they went on the stage in Moscow with the song “Lijepa Tena”. There song did fairly well, and were able to advance from the semi final.  In the final they got 14 points which lead the be number 18th at the contest. This was Šušnjara second try at  Eurovsision, but in 2004 …

Four Eurovision birthdays yesterday, another four today. All four are girls. Two of them are celebrating Xtra big days (turning 30 and 50). They represent a total of 8 Eurovision particiapations, but without massively good results; two top 10 placings are the best. One of today’s birthday girls is halfway to 100; Evridiki!  Ireen Sheer, 69 Ireen Sheer took part at Eurovision both in 1974, 1978 and in 1985. The first and last times she represented Luxembourg, while her second attempt was for Germany. At the 1974 Eurovision she performed the song “Bye Bye, I Love You”, finishing in fourth place. At the 1978 contest she finished sixth with “Feuer“. Finally, in 1985 she finished 13th with “Children, Kinder, Enfants“. On this occasion she performed with Margo, Franck Olivier, Chris Roberts, Diane Solomon and Malcolm Roberts. Ireen also participated in the German pre-selections in 1976 and 2002, though without winning the the right to go to Eurovision. Evridiki, 50 Just like Ireen Sheer, Evridiki has also participated in the contest three times. She represented Cyprus in all her attempts, but unlike Ireen, she never managed to make it into the top 10. Evridiki first participated at the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, with the …

Over the last few days, you have been submitting your predictions for round ten of Eurovision Prediction 2018. This time, your task was to choose who will win a whole bunch of different national finals! So without wasting any time further, let’s take a look at who you collectively expect to win the Hungarian, Latvian, Moldovan, Slovene, Ukrainian, Armenian and Moldovan tickets to Lisbon this weekend! Let’s look at the statistics During this sixth round of Eurovision Prediction 2018, 97 of you have predicted who you think will take the win in these seven shows. Here are the entries that have been predicted to win in order of frequency, from most to least: 🇭🇺 HUNGARY 🇭🇺 yesyes “I Let You Run Away” – 37.11% (36 predictions to win) AWS “Viszlát nyár” – 30.93% (30 predictions to win) Gergely Dánielfy “Azt mondtad” – 15.46% (15 predictions to win) Tamás Horváth “Meggyfa” – 12.37% (12 predictions to win) Viktor Király “Budapest Girl” – 3.09% (3 predictions to win) Gábor Heincz Biga “Good Vibez” – 1.03% (1 prediction to win) 🇱🇻 LATVIA 🇱🇻 Laura Rizzotto “Funny Girl” – 48.45% (47 predictions to win) MADARA “Esamība” – 37.11% (36 predictions to win) Markus Riva “This Time” – 9.28% (9 predictions …

Yesterday only gave us reason for a double Eurovision bithday celebration. Today doubles that however, and we’re having a quadruple one! It’s split down the middle, with two girls and two boys. Three of them were born in the early 1950s, while the fourth was born just as we entered the 80s. Although youngest, Stig Rästa is also the most successful at Eurovision!  Monique Melsen, 67 Monique Melsen represented her homecountry Luxembourg at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. She performed tha song “Pomme, pomme, pomme”, which among many fans has become a classic! Monique finished in 13th place out of 18 participating countries. Caren Wood, 65 Caren represented the Netherlands at the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb. She did so as part of the duo Maywood, the other half of which was her sister Alice May. They performed the song “Ik wil alles met je delen”, finishing in 15th place. Plastic Bertrand, 64 Plastic Bertrand represented Luxembourg at the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest in Brussels. He performed the song “Amour Amour”. He did however only finish in 21st place, beating only Turkey. Stig Rästa, 38 Stig Rästa represented Estonia at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. He …