It seems fans of Chelsea are trying to spoil the chances of Norway winning the Eurovision Song Contest, if The Daily Star is to be believed. Football supporters being what they are, the Chelsea fans are still angry at the performance of Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovreboof during last week’s Champions League semifinal, when they… Read more
After days of press conferences by the performers, the media had the chance to meet the presenters today. The hosts of the semifinals, Andrey Malakhov and Natalia Vodianova, and the hosts of the final, Ivan Urgant and Alsou all made themselves available for questions. It was also a chance for host broadcaster, Channel 1 to… Read more
Today’s rehearsals were the last opportunity for individual rehearsals before attention turns to the first rehearsal of the first semifinal. The countries who automatically qualify for the final were on stage for the second consecutive day. Lithuania had made a number of changes to the presentation of their song, including singing the final chorus in… Read more
A week into rehearsals and finally the five countries already in the final took to the stage. Before that, it was the turn of some of the remaining countries in Thursday’s second semifinal to rehearse for the second time. It was Denmark’s turn first. Black is the colour for Brinck and his backing musicians. Brinck… Read more
Despite the problems with the press conference as reported by EuroVisionary, the sixth day of preparations continued with competitors from the first semifinal and some from the second semifinal taking to the stage. Romania went first. Elena’s rehearsal revealed a bit more about the way the song will be presented; Elena makes her entrance on… Read more
Today saw the start of the second round of rehearsals. Thirteen countries from the first semifinal rehearsed again, and also gave press conferences. Montenegro was first, and singer Andrea Demirovic and writer Ralph Siegel said they were happier with the second rehearsal. The assembled press were treated to a rendition of the Siegel song, Moskau,… Read more
Day 4 saw the remaining participants from the second semifinal rehearse for the first time, followed by the obligatory press conference. Slovenia were the early risers this morning, Dutch group, De Toppers brought the day to a close. Quartissimo were keen to show their musical skills, starting their conference with an acoustic version of Love… Read more
Tuesday saw the first rehearsal for seven of the countries participating in the second semifinal. Croatia got the ball rolling and Denmark rounded things off. Igor was asked why he gave up studying Theology to begin a career in pop music. He said that it is now his sole ambition to become a pop star,… Read more
After the first nine countries competing in the first semifinal strutted their stuff yesterday, it was the turn of the remaining nine countries to make their first appearance today. Israel’s press conference was shorter than scheduled due to the delegation arriving late for it. There was time for Mira to explain "The idea of the… Read more
Finally, here we are. The National Final season started in Bulgaria last October and the next two weeks will see the 2009 Eurovision season reach a climax in Moscow. After each delegation has rehearsed, they will give a Press Conference to the media. Eurovisionary will bring you a summary at the end of each day.… Read more
Over the last couple of weeks, Eurovisionary has assessed the chances of the songs competing in the semifinals. Now it is time to analyse the chances of the ‘big 4’ and the hosts. Since the inception of the semifinals, the so called ‘big 4’ have suffered disappointing results in the contest. Some say it is… Read more
Last week, we at Eurovisionary gave our predictions for the first semifinal. Now we turn our attention to the second semifinal. Croatia – Igor Cukrov – Lijepa Tena – After two or three dodgy years, Croatia is back on form. This is a song in the mould of true Croatian music. Its beauty will win… Read more
Having previously announced that the public televote will be combined by a jury vote, the EBU have now announced details of how this new system will work. Ruurd Bierman, Chairman of the Reference Group, explained the decision: "We strongly believe in televoting as a way of measuring the opinion of our millions of viewers across… Read more
It’s almost here! Very soon, the delegations will arrive in Moscow and rehearsals will begin for the 54th Eurovision Song Contest. The question on everyone’s lips is who will be celebrating participation in the final, and who will stomp off in a huff? Eurovisionary has listened to the songs and would like to share who… Read more
Diane Warren, award winning songwriter, and composer and lyricist of the United Kingdom’s song for Moscow, It’s My Time, took time out of her busy schedule to answer questions exclusively for EuroVisionary. How did you get into songwriting? I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I listened to the radio when… Read more
Czech representatives in Moscow, Gypsy.cz were guests at the Slovakian national final. While they were there, they took time to speak to Eurovisionary’s guest correspondents, John Stanton and Ian Fowell. They interviewed lead singer and Romany rapper, Radoslav ‘Gipsy’ Banga. So Gipsy could you tell us how long Gipsy.cz have been together? We have been… Read more
Slovakia was finally returning to the Eurovision fold after a gap of some 11 years. To celebrate this, they arranged a lavish selection process of five semi-finals with a final of 16 songs. Martin ‘Pyco’ Rausch was our genial host, after previously hosting Slovensko Hľadá Superstar. STV’s Martin Kontúr was a reporter in the Green… Read more
After yesterday’s semifinal, Serbia has now decided the song to hopefully win them the Eurovision Song Contest for the second time. They will be represented by Marko Kon & Milan Nikoli with the song Cipela. Ten songs survived the semifinal, they were; Oscar & Beauty Queens feat. Dorde Marjanovic – Superstar Danijel i Milica –… Read more
This evening, Serbia, last year’s hosts, held the semifinal of the Beovizija contest to decide the ten songs to perform again in tomorrow’s final. The competing songs in order of appearance were; 1) SevdahBABY and Miki Element – Previse Reci 2) Zbogom Brus Li – Ha Ha Ha 3) Trio Pasaz and Katarina Sotirovic –… Read more
This evening, Slovakian broadcaster, STV, hosted the fifth and last semifinal. Three more songs took the remaining places available. Two songs were chosen by a public phone vote, and one by a jury. Eleven songs competed, the unusual number being due to the participation of Desmod & Lucia Nováková . They should have competed in… Read more
They have come in for a lot of criticism since the introduction of the semifinals, but the Big Four are showing that this year, they really do mean business. Call it envy if you like, but there are those who think that the Big Four should have to fight for their place in the final… Read more
After considering withdrawing from the 2009 contest last year, Latvia held the semifinal and final of their selection contest, the Eirodziesma, this weekend. Friday evening saw twenty songs reduced to ten for Saturdays final. The full list of the twenty semifinal participants is below. The songs which qualified for the final are in italics. Camillas… Read more
Marco Carta has won the 59th Sanremo festival with the song, La Forza Mia, which he also wrote. His victory was decided with a combination of votes from a jury and the public. Before any of the ten remaining Artisti performed, the other six having been eliminated earlier in the week, the winner of the… Read more
This evening at the Echo Awards in Germany, there was a special performance of the song thas was internally picked to represent Germany at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. This is the oppertunity to get an idea about how the song will look on the stage in Moscow. Alex Swings, Oscar Sings, the duo… Read more
After a marathon selection process which began on 2nd October, Bulgaria finally selected the song to go to Moscow. The winner was Krassimir Avramov with Illusion who will then be representing the country at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Bulgaria has been drawn for the first of the two semi-finals. The first performer in… Read more
It was an eventful evening in the Teatro Ariston on Friday. Arisa won the Proposte, while Al Bano was voted back into the festival after being eliminated on the second evening. Iva Zanicchi was not so lucky. The main event of the fourth evening of the 59th Sanremo festival was the conclusion of the Proposte… Read more