The Internationalist Eurovision Blog

It's here! It's finally bloody here! All this time waiting and the rehearsals are back on again, the Facebook groups are going wild and all of us Eurovision fans are regularly peeking at the odds to see if they hold the key to knowing our destination next May! I have so much I want to say in response to everything that has happened in Lisbon with the first round of semi final one rehearsals but I will wait to listen into the views from my beloved ESC Insight before commenting (after all, all I have personally is the YouTube clips that the official Eurovision channel posts to work from). I am usually excited when rehearsals come around but this year has become particularly exciting very quickly! Disappointing rehearsals from some of the favourites, fantastic rehearsals from some of my personal favourites and the odds fluctuating like a teacher controlling a rowdy group of Kindergarten students! In all of the developments of the last few days however, there is one thing that I ...

This year's contest is an extremely unique year in terms of being able to predict what will unfold. Whilst there is a favourite in Israel's entry, they are by no stretch of the imagination running away with the victory and there are definitely still doubts over if it can do the business in Lisbon. Aside from this, the success/failure of the Big 6 is all to play for, Semi Final 1 is possibly the most competitive semi final I have come across in all my years following Eurovision and big hitters such as Russia, Hungary & Poland could realistically not qualify this year. Fortunately or unfortunately, there is a lot to play for in Lisbon and ultimately it will come down to how the performance comes across live. With this in mind, let's take a look at specifically which factors will contribute to how the performance does on stage. Excellent Vocals This may sound ridiculous given that it's a song contest, but vocals are the backbone of the live performance that ultimat...

My favourite song at this year's Eurovision Song Contest is SuRie's 'Storm' representing the United Kingdom. There, I've said it. I hear so many people on the Eurovision Facebook groups bashing this song that I so often feel like I am the only person within the Eurovision community that highly rates this song. Even within British fans, I constantly find myself trying to explain to people why this is the best entry we have sent since Jade Ewen in 2009, so I'm just going to bite the bullet and use the voice that I am lucky enough to have with this blog in order to fight my corner. I should start by saying that I rarely support the United Kingdom at anything. I support the French football team, the Sri Lankan cricket team, Canadians at the Winter Olympics. Andy Murray and the Summer Olympics are the only time you will see me flying the Union Jack. In fact, I normally enjoy Eurovision for having the opportunity to support a country based on the quality of the song...

Yesterday was another milestone in the Eurovision world as it marked us being a month away from the Grand Final and a month away from crowning the next Eurovision winner! Whilst I am fairly certain that I don't have many regular readers who aren't family or friends (Thanks for reading this guys) I still feel a need to apologise for a lack of posts. This has mainly been due to me in the thick of my dissertation which is due for submission in a couple of weeks. However, as I am fairly confident with the position it's in, I thought I might check back in here with some insights as we go into the final month of the season! Running Order Not going to lie, I was pretty chuffed to see many of my predictions bang on the money for this one! Cyprus close the first semi as predicted, Norway open the second semi as predicted and Iceland get the first semi's golden deadly second slot! Winners from the draw in the first semi include Azerbaijan, Finland, Ireland & Cyprus whilst...

Hello all! So as promised, today we're going to be having a look at the favourites and looking at what a win would mean to them as a country, for their Eurovision futures and for the singer themselves. Israel Israel have won Eurovision three times but only hosted it twice (in 1979 and 1999) after they opted not to host it again when they won on home soil in 1979. To be honest, after our fears at the end of the 2017 contest that Israel would compete at all this year after the main national broadcaster went bust, it is amazing to not only see them back but leading the pack in the betting odds. A win for Israel would be massive! After a run of not making it to the final in the early 2010s, 2015's 'Golden Boy' sent them back to the top 10 and they have become regular qualifiers since. Netta's 'Toy' is almost certain to reach the top 10 but a win would definitely not be a surprise. Whether Netta will have much of a career beyond the contest is anybody's...

Greetings from the void that is the week between the 43 songs being confirmed and the pre-parties kicking off next week (I think Riga has one coming up very soon). Anyway, it is only a matter of time before the running order gets announced. I am actually a big fan of a producer-led running order because it allows the best to come out of the show more than a random draw does. We have little idea what the running order will be except for the information of who will be in the first and second halves of each semi. With this in mind, I am throwing my hat into the ring in trying to predict the running order and to explain my thinking. Semi Final 1 1. Czech Republic 2. Iceland 3. Israel 4. Belarus 5. Estonia 6. Belgium 7. Albania 8. Bulgaria 9. Azerbaijan 10. Lithuania 11. Finland 12. Armenia 13. Croatia 14. Switzerland 15. Greece 16. Austria 17. Ireland 18. FYR Macedonia 19. Cyprus The Czech Republic would be the perfect song to kick off the 2018 festivities. The son...

And here we are! For any Eurovision fans who have listened to all 43 Eurovision songs, we have now heard the winner! Whilst the road to Lisbon via the pre-parties now begins for our acts and the broadcasters begin working out the stage show logistics (unless you're Sweden), we as fans now have the chance to reflect on our acts and make some initial calls. I plan on doing plenty of posts previewing our 2018 spectacle in the run up to the first semi on May 8, but the first one is a straight up how well which each act do based on nothing except what we have seen in national final season and heard in each song. Semi Final 1 Predicted Qualifiers Israel Estonia Czech Republic Bulgaria Finland Belgium Lithuania Cyprus Azerbaijan FYR Macedonia Everybody thought that Semi Final 2 would be the bloodbath after this draw, but I still think there's going to be a battle for final slots. This is mainly because I can't see any reality in which the first six songs on this lis...