The Internationalist Eurovision Blog

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...