The Internationalist Eurovision Blog

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...

Honestly, I don't know what Februarys would be like without national final season. In a world where February is just cold, dark and dreary and we don't get the amusement of Melodifestivalen, rumours on Eurovision acts or the utter bizarre (see below for the utter gem to come out of this year's Vidbir), it just wouldn't be the same! Seriously, how do normal people get through February (answers in the comments please). Meanwhile, there's no time to waste with us as we tuck in to the feast that is our four new members of the Eurovision's class of 2020 Australia Well, the hot favourite won and the fans seem to like it so everybody's happy, right? Now I should offer the disclaimer that I never rated 'Zero Gravity' last year and so maybe this is just one of these things I will just never get, but I really don't like this song at all. I don't actively hate the song, it just doesn't stand out to me in the context of anything and that is wh...

We're back and we're raring to go! I will admit, it can sometimes take a bit of time to feel entirely re-adjusted to the new Eurovision season and to be raring to go but yesterday's allocation draw really tipped the scales on my levels of excitement towards full mania. Eurovision is back and this year it is in the very capable hands of the Dutch broadcasters who have already begun demonstrating their capability to host an event of this size and magnitude with the right balance of accessible humour and intelligence. I love our two hosts, I love what the team are doing with the styling of the logo and how it looks through the screen, I loved the little pieces on winners' running order positions and Jon Ola Sand which were beyond the needs of a Semi-Final allocation draw but were nonetheless really appreciated. As somebody who has pretty much already wiped Israel from the memory, I am really looking forward to a new Eurovision Song Contest to get excited about and let'...

Hello everybody and welcome to the '20s, a new decade which represents a new era for Eurovision complete with a new executive supervisor of the EBU from next year onwards. As somebody doing the rounds on the various Facebook groups that I was a part of, I was proud of the Eurovision community's ability to ring in the New Year with a true sense of style and reflective fun! The image however that best caught my mind was one which tallied the total points from the 2010-2019 contests Whilst the results might not be a particular surprise, I was curious to look at the countries who placed highly whilst failing to clinch a victory at the contest during the last ten years. As we wait in the early stages of this current Eurovision season to see how things progress and who gets selected where, I'm eager to take a look at the five best-placed nations in the table above and explore why the 2020s potentially will and won't be the decade when they take victory. Italy Why ...

We're back with the last post of what has been a turbulent 2019 in the Eurovision world but has been a fantastic year for the blog in which we went to Estonia and Sweden and were part of organising a  the 2019 OGAE Song Contest. In our last article of the year, we are looking at everybody's favourite Swedish reality TV show. Many of us are excited about a number of the competing acts. Will Robin or Anna win the chance to represent Sweden again? Will Felix take the win he was robbed of in 2018? Will Victor earn the Eurovision ticket for his home country? Whilst I share in much of this excitement, I am also very conscious of a dark cloud that has settled over the contest with 2019 seeing a fifth straight year of a solo man representing the Swedes at Eurovision. In this article, we are going to explore what's going on with women at MelFest and question if it's something for MelFest fans, the wider Swedish population and the Swedish broadcaster to be concerned about. ...

*SPOILER ALERT* Please do not read any further if you have not gone and watched this year's OGAE Song Contest or if you have any interest in the result. As this article will explore, a lot of work went into this contest by various OGAE UK members including myself and it would mean a lot for you to watch the finished product before reading about it which you can do so here. The story of the OGAE Song Contest 2019 began of course with the previous year's contest. I watched the results from the Australia-hosted contest from Clapham Junction station in the brisk November cold as I made my way back to Chichester from London. To my great surprise, Steps had defied the odds to win OGAE UK a song contest, the first in my time as an OGAE member! There was something incredibly surreal hearing the phrase "And our twelve points go to the United Kingdom" from nations across Europe, something that is indicative of my country's current form at the main contest. In the excit...

It may be the Eurovision off-season but we all have two Dutch cities on the brain as we get closer and closer to the official announcement date for where we are headed next May. Meanwhile, I am sure that all of you have been taking some time to relax, reflect & ponder on the contest we love. When I haven't been working to organise the OGAE UK hosting of the OGAE Song Contest, I have been thinking about British commentary legend Sir Terry Wogan. Last year, I moved from London to Chichester, a small town on the English south coast. In making this move, I came across a very different perspective on cosmopolitanism, internationalism and Europe. When the Eurovision Song Contest came around, I came out with all my usual traditions and excitement. The attitude of people that I was greeted with is one that will be very familiar to many British Eurovision fans. Popular catchphrases including "We never do well because Europe hates us", "Everybody else just votes for their ...