The Internationalist Eurovision Blog

We're so nearly there everybody! The preview parties are over, stand-in rehearsals from the arena are being leaked onto the internet and bags are being packed in preparation for rehearsals kicking off on May 4th. The only thing we have left to discuss in advance of passing comment on staging from next week onwards is the annual OGAE poll which is set to provide us with the latest fan verdict on who has the best song. Is this poll a useful bellwether? How good is the poll at giving us an idea of the overall result? Are we as Eurovision fans out of touch with the tastes of the general public watching the Saturday night Grand Final? In order to get an idea of this, we should start by taking a look at the recent results of the poll and compare them with the results from each respective contest. Whilst there are many possible ways to look at these results, we have gone for the more aesthetically pleasing way off offering you the top 5 of each year's poll with the top 5 of each yea...

It would not be the Eurovision Song Contest without the glorious spring weather that many of us in Europe are now experiencing. It would not be the Eurovision Song Contest without the constant analysis of the odds and what they do or do not mean for the result. It would not be the Eurovision Song Contest without some form of controversy. Over the previous several years, Russia and Ukraine have been stealing the controversy limelight but this year a band from Iceland have stepped into the fray to tell us all that hate will prevail. Some people love them, some people hate them and I have gone back and forth as to picking a side whilst simultaneously acknowledging that it is impossible to feel indifferent about Hatari. With that in mind, I'd like to walk you through the strange dilemma I face as a Eurovision fan who thinks that Hatari winning the contest would be simultaneously one of the best and worst things to happen to Eurovision. A Song with Character & Heart I'm ...

  We are just over a month away from Eurovision fever reaching its peak on the night of the first Semi Final on a May Tuesday night in Tel Aviv. With this in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to offer the blog's guide on Tel Aviv and some of the exciting things that those making the pilgrimage can expect to get up to whilst out in Israel. We have squeezed everything into a weekend but people can obviously take the recommendations on our post and fit them to their own time-frames in Tel Aviv. The first thing it is important to note is the currency exchange-rate. 1 Euro equals approximately 4 Shekels whilst 1 Pound is closer to 5. This should leave a good round number to approximate when calculating prices. Please also note that from Friday afternoons to Saturday evenings, public transport normally grounds to a halt in Israel owing to Sabbath. It is believed that some form of public transport will exist for fans during the contest but I have yet to find any specific plans to...

Forgive the dark title, but this year represents a very serious situation. Eurovision is built on a foundation of music from different regions around the continent being represented on a major stage but could this be the year when one of those regions is completely unrepresented? 2017 saw a Baltic blackout in Kiev as Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania all fell at the first hurdle but could we see an even more serious situation this year when as many as seven south-eastern European nations fail to qualify for the Eurovision Grand Final? What are we defining as the Balkans? So what is or is not considered the Balkans is very subjective. The Balkans get their name from the Balkan peninsula, the area in South-Eastern Europe that is based between the Adriatic, Mediterranean, Marara & Black Seas. Culturally, you could take many different definitions of which countries consider themselves Balkan vs. which ones don't based on Ottoman and Yugoslav influences throughout the history of m...