Suspense is mounting as the last places in the Icelandic final on the 12th of February are up for grabs this coming Saturday. There are, as in previous heats, some well known names to look out for, but the entry by the late Sjonni Brink shouldn’t be underestimated in terms of sympathy votes. You might find… Read more
Various Eurovision sites have been citing young tenor Amaury Vassili as this year’s French entrant for the contest. Reports in the french media have yet however to confirm the story. According to numerous media sources as late as today, it’s still a two horse race between Amaury Vassili and Emma Daumas. France Télévisions is said… Read more
The Belgian group Clouseau, who represented their country in 1991 with Geef Het Op have long been massive favourites in their home country. Their status has been further cemented by the announcment that company VMM is to produce a musical about the band. Entitled Domino, the show will be based around the many hits of… Read more
Latvian press have just confirmed that one of the most popular artists of the Latvian music scene, Mārtiņš Freimanis, has tragically passed away aged just 32 years old. The star was well know to Eurovision fans after his participation for Latvia in 2003 as part of the trio F.L.Y. when they sang Hello From Mars on… Read more
With spaces in the Norwegian final starting to fill up, tension is rising as to which acts will advance straight to the final this coming Saturday and which other two acts get the chance to live another day and have another go in the Last Chance round on the 5th of February. After yet another… Read more
NRK have released 30 second clips of the seven songs that will be performed in the 3rd heat of Melodi Grand Prix on Saturday. Not to be outdone, Icelandic broadcaster RÚV have also published the next 5 candidates for Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins this Saturday. Heat three of Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix will take place in Skien on Saturday… Read more
With the second heat of Söngvakeppnin Sjónvarpsins finished, expectations among fans was huge. The overall standard of tonight’s heat was extremely high. Jóhanna and Matthías Matthíasson & Erla Björg Káradóttir join last week’s victors in the final on February the 12th. Hosts Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir and Guðmundur Gunnarsson welcomed us once again to the RÚV studios in Reykjavík for the second… Read more
Icelandic broadcaster RÚV has now revealed all participants competing in this Saturday’s 2nd heat of Söngvakeppnin Sjónvarpsins. Some of those taking part are already familiar faces, others less so, so perhaps it’s time to get to know the next 5 hopefuls. Song number 1: Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir – Nótt/Night (María Björk Sverrisdóttir/Marcus Frenell/Beatrice Eriksson/Magnús Þór… Read more
Irish broadcaster RTÉ seem to be sticking to the same formula as last year when selecting their representative to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest, 2011. As was the case last year, 5 acts have been chosen to take part in Eurosong, where all 5 acts will perform their songs for the first time… Read more
It’s time for us to turn our attention to the MGP sequel this coming Saturday from Florø! Will the particpants manage to top the show brought to us last week? This batch of hopefuls also have widely different backgrounds and represent many different musical genres. Here is a little information on each partipating act to… Read more
The Icelandic music scene suffered a tremendous blow today, following reports in the media of the tragic sudden death of young artist Sigurjón Brink. Sigurjón, otherwise known as Sjonni Brink, suffered what seems to be a heart attack at his home in Garðabæ yesterday evening, according to a press statement released by his family today. The… Read more
Both NRK and RÚV have now made available the entries in the forthcoming Melodi Grand Prix and Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins this coming Saturday. Whereas the full versions are available at RÚV, NRK has only published 30 second snippets of the upcoming contenders. We will naturally provide a link to the full versions once they come online.… Read more
Gott kvöld, Ísland, good evening Reykjavík! Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins got underway tonight with the first of 3 heats leading up to the grand final on the 12th of February. Out of the 5 acts presented, Erna Hrönn and Haraldur Reynisson advanced to the final, their hopes still high that they will be the successor of Hera Björk. Musically speaking, tonight’s… Read more
It will be a bumper weekend for fans of Nordic Eurovision, as both Finland, Iceland and Norway get their selection processes underway. Finland was the first off the starting blocks tonight, having chosen 3 of the 5 participating artists to go on the grand final to be held on the 12th of February. The show… Read more
With the first heat of Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2011 kicking off tomorrow all five participants are now known and their entries have been made available online. The first five artists are unknown to many, so perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at who they are and what they’ll be performing. Song number 1 :… Read more
This year’s qualification heats broadcast from Ørland, Skien and Florø, as well as the Last Chance round and the grand final will give fans the opportunity to see some of their past Norwegian favourites on stage once more. NRK really intend to push the boat out this year, when votes are pouring in from across… Read more
With the first Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix heat rapidly approaching, suspense is mounting as to how the acts will perform on the night, how their stage shows will be and not to mention their styling. The line up in the first show is, to put it mildly, a very mixed bag. To help give you the… Read more
Little information has previously been available regarding the first 5 challengers for the task of representing Iceland at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Broadcaster RÚV have now however prior to the first heat of Söngvakeppnin Sjónvarpsins this coming Saturday released full versions of the first 5 entries. The entries that are participating in the first heat… Read more
In the run up to the first heat of Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix taking place this coming Saturday, state broadcaster NRK has released 30 second samples from all 7 participating entries. You can listen to these audio samples by clicking on the link below. The 7 acts to compete in the first heat from Ørland… Read more
State broadcaster NRK has made public the running order in which the artists will take to the stage and perform their entries in the heats taking place on the 15th, 22nd and 29th of January. The shows are to be broadcast from Ørland, Florø and Skien respectively. The running order for the 1st heat, Ørland… Read more
Contrary to rumours that have been circulating in various media previously, French broadcaster France Télévisions have apparently decided against using a televised national final when selecting their successor to last year’s Jessy Matador. Following revelations that a televised selection was planned for 2012, questions began to arise as to whether France would employ a similar… Read more
The suspense has been mounting in the run up to the start of the Icelandic selection, Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2011. State broadcaster RÚV has kept details surrounding the participants strictly under wraps, but the wait is finally over, as now over half of the names are confirmed. The first 5 entries that will battle it out in… Read more
With hardly a week to go until the first heat of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix kicks off, plans have been unveiled about the making of a film based on and around the popular annual TV event. With the working title MGP, the film is based on the book with the same name. Author Magne… Read more
Ovi, one half of the 2010 Romanian act in Oslo, was recently announced as competing in the Norwegian selection for Dusseldorf as a composer. He will have another very important job to do in the run up to this year’s contest, host of the Romanian final, a job he will share with another familiar name.… Read more
In the run up to Christmas, many well known and much loved Icelandic stars have been involved in the annual Icelandic Christmas music project Frostrósir. The idea first took shape in 2002 when a concert was first held in Hallgrímskirkju, Reykjavík’s cathedral and the response was beyond all expectations. The project involves popular artists embarking… Read more
Following the deadline for entry submissions to next year’s edition of Eesti Laul on December 17th, Estonian broadcaster ERR had the challenging task of sifting through 140 prospective candidates in order to find the 20 songs and artists that would make up the starting field for Eesti Laul 2011. ERR have also decided to jump on… Read more