The UK branch of OGAE is one of the larger fan clubs in Europe, and each year holds a its Boom Bang-a-Bang party. This gives fans a chance to mull over the current year’s crop up songs. Which ones would get their seal of approval?
The Revolution Bar was again the venue for one of OGAE UK’s most popular events. It was realised several years ago that many fans don’t actually make it to the contest, so Boom Bang-a-Bang is an ideal opportunity for them to get together in a very friendly atmosphere to compare their widely differing views.
Paul Marks-Jones, President of OGAE UK was again our host and explained the format for the evening’s fun. We’d see the previews to the two semi-finals in performance order, and get together in small groups to decide our favourites. They would then be collated and, for a bit of fun, ten individuals would read out, in no particular order, what we decided.
In addition, the fan club held a prediction competition, to try and pick as many of the semi-finalists as possible that would make it to the Grand Final in Baku on 26 May. We obviously wouldn’t know the outcome of this competition for about four weeks, but nevertheless there are some prizes on offer.
Amid the full house at Revolution, the ‘delegates’ chose the following songs.
Semi-final one: Iceland, Greece, Latvia, Romania, Switzerland, Cyprus, Denmark, Hungary, Moldova, Ireland.
Semi-final two: Serbia, Netherlands, Malta, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, Estonia, Norway.
After this, we had the raffle, for which the organisers had obtained some fabulous prizes. And then the only thing left to do was continue the party into the wee small hours with a Eurovision disco.
All in all a very entertaining night. The UK fan club is always looking for new members, so visit the website for more details. And if you want to attend Boom Bang-a-Bang 2013, get in early as the tickets rapidly sell out.
