The Internationalist Eurovision Blog

Following a somewhat successful reading of the World Cup through Eurovision eyes last year (https://internationalisteurovisionblog.blogspot.com/2018/07/world-cup-semi-finals-2018-eurovision.html), we are back to do it all again with the Women's World Cup. Amazingly, we can start unusually early with this tournament as 7 of the 8 competing nations in this year's quarter finals are European and the last is the United States of America. Fortunately for us, there have been many American participants over the course of time and they will be flying the stars and stripes in our mini competition. Please vote for your favourite by writing it in the comments section below and we will post the results along with the next round of matches when the Semi Final line-up is revealed. So without further ado, here are the Women's World Cup 2019 Quarter Finals... Eurovision style! Norway vs. England 1985 We start in the Scandinavium in the year that the Norwegian curse was finally lifted

Another year gone and another opportunity to reflect on a year of Eurovision history and heritage. As regular readers will know, I maintain two separate rankings of all nations at Eurovision. The first is a points ranking in which I give countries 2 points for a song I love and 1 for a song I like. The second is a proportional ranking which takes into account the number of times that each country has participated at the contest. With that in mind, let's have a look at this year's update starting with the state of play pre-update. Point Rankings (only showcasing countries with 5 or more points): 1. United Kingdom-22,  2. Sweden-18, 3. Ireland-15, 4. France-14,  5. Estonia-13,  6. Greece-13,  7. Norway-11,  8. Germany-11,  9. Malta-10,  10. Italy-10,   11. Denmark-10, 12. Switzerland-10,  13. Spain-9, 14. Netherlands-9, 15. Iceland-9, 16. Romania-8, 17. Russia-7,   18. Cyprus-7, 19. Ukrain

Feel that? It's the gentle breeze of summer coming through. We have made it through another year of Eurovision and it's time for that beautiful reflection period that allows us to have a breath, take stock and begin looking forward to doing it all again in a few months time. This year brings some added excitement since a full-scale bidding war is now breaking out in the Netherlands and even though Rotterdam is the favourite, I definitely wouldn't say it's a done deal by any stretch of the imagination. So as the many Dutch cities fight it out for the chance to host the 2020 contest, let's take this opportunity to celebrate Dutch heritage within Eurovision history. This is my list of the top ten Dutch Eurovision entries of all time and I think it's a list that will surprise many. 10) 'Amsterdam' by Maggie MacNeal (1980) Perhaps it is apt that we kick off this top 10 with a celebration of the Dutch capital sung as the home entry during the last contest