The Internationalist Eurovision Blog

Well, not going to lie, it has been an emotional roller-coaster of a Eurovision season and not for any of the reasons that we would have thought it was going to be before the word "coronavirus" entered our vocabulary. As I look back now on Eurovision Season 2020, it's clear that reaching the end of a season that had its legs cut off in March was about gaining a sense of closure that we were never going to get upon the cancellation of the contest. That said, I still wanted to know what the result of a 2020 Eurovision would have looked like for myself so I took it upon myself to recreate the rest of the contest from what was left by the Rotterdam organisers. #EurovisionAgain was organised as a means of bringing people together. OGAE proceeded with their poll but with a fan vote twist. Several nations organised their own votes to see who would have won their nation's 12 points (with Spain and Austria including their own songs in that vote). But let's start with what

We are now at May 4th, the day that would have marked the start of rehearsals as we made our way towards the three live shows in Rotterdam. Everybody has marked the period in their own way but fortunately Eurovision parody-writer Fatih Melek has kept on doing his thing and in many ways, we have never needed work like his more than we do now. I sat down with Fatih last week to chat through him, his work and his next steps: Tell us about you? I’m Fatih Melek from Istanbul. I work in advertising and I’m a writer. I’ve also been doing Eurovision videos for a couple of years. So far, I am enjoying it a lot. What are your first memories of the Eurovision Song Contest? I woke up on a Sunday and my parents were super happy about something. I asked why and they answered that Turkey came 3rd in Eurovision. It was 1997 and Turkey has been waiting for a good result for decades. That’s the first time I’ve heard about the contest and I’ve been watching it ever since. When did the idea

Before Coronavirus, I was a freelance workshop facilitator, a football fan and a Eurovision lover. As I write this post on March 20th 2020, I have lost my livelihood, will not see any football until at earliest May and proceed back into the winter that is the period without the Eurovision Song Contest. On the day that the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest was announced, Eurovision fans embarked on the longest wait yet for a Eurovision Song Contest and the joys of the contest we love have never seemed further away. I (like most of you probably are) am in mourning. Yes I know that health and safety is more important than a TV show. Yes I know how vital it is that we prevent the spread of this virus as much as possible. Yes I know that people have died and that this is an unprecedented health crisis. But yes, I am allowed to feel sad about the first time that the contest has been cancelled and the loss of all 41 of our songs who will not grace the Eurovision stage. I attended

In the title of our final post of the Eurovision 2020 National Selection season, I ask if we are at the end of the beginning. This is not simply a statement of the obvious but an honest look at how a certain virus has successfully managed to shut down life as we know it. In times like this, it is important to take a moment to appreciate quite how globalised a society we are and how a disease which started in a regional Chinese city now leaves no nation on this earth unaffected. Whilst we don't yet know what the effect will be on this year's Eurovision Song Contest, I can only wish that everybody reading this washes their hands and stays safe. No matter how much we love this show of ours, nothing should threaten the health and safety of the people who love it. With that in mind, let's get to talking about the last bundle of songs.   Austria  Eurovision 2020 has its Bruno Mars. When Vincent Bueno was announced as the Austrian act last year, I definitely wouldn't have

Can you believe we’re in March? It’s like Festival I Kenges happened, we blinked and suddenly we were a week off from the MelFest final! Whilst the excitement is not quite at the fever pitch levels of last year’s bonkers final fortnight, there are still a lot of twists to the tale approaching. More on those later! For now, let’s meet the new classmates heading to Rotterdam in May. Belarus So I’m not claiming that this will win or even that it will necessarily qualify but there is a lot of dross at this year’s contest and this is categorically not part of that. This song has atmosphere, the singer has charisma and with an upgraded staging package, this has a chance to at the very least make waves in Rotterdam. I wrote Belarus off pretty quickly in my last post and whilst I’m not sure how they will get out of that first semi, I am placing them from the no to the maybe camp on its qualification hopes. Croatia Can't remember the singer or the song or the staging. And that

And suddenly, we had 14 of the 41 songs set to do battle in Rotterdam come May! It's feeling tense and exciting and thrilling and above all so very, very, very European! Yes, some of our favourites have fallen and yes, we have had surprises (and a missing televote) in national final season but it's all part of the game, isn't it? There's been a lot that's happened so let's all just take a moment to recap starting with our new class members! Armenia So to start by giving credit where credit is due, this at the very least feels different in terms of the sound and the genre and the beat. Armenia has a history of doing this even if that hasn't been apparent over the last few years. The problem is that any time you have a song that attempts to put itself out there in a way that is very different you run a risk of if people will get it or not. I don't get this and I'm not sure that much of the voting public at Eurovision will get it either. However, it