Malta: Destiny to compete in “X Factor”

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17-year-old Destiny Chukunyere, who won Junior Eurovision in 2015, is a candidate for the “X Factor” which will be aired on public television in the coming months, making the winner of this talent show the Malta’s  representative in 2020 ESC.

In 2015, Destiny brought Malta to the first place in Junior Eurovision. with her amazing voice and retro song, “Not My Soul”. A year later she took part in Britain’s Got Talent, reaching the semifinals. This year, she participated in the vocals of the Maltese mission to Tel Aviv, assisting on stage with Michela, who represented her country after her X Factor victory.

The possibilities to see Destiny representing Malta in the Netherlands is high, as both Maltese fans and public broadcaster seem to believe very much in her voice.

To do so,she must be the winner of the X Factor, which will be broadcast on Malta’s public broadcaster in the coming months for the second consecutive year, giving the winner of the talent show a chance to represent the country in  at the Eurovision Contest.

Destiny seems to be chasing the dream and this opportunity, as local media reports have already qualified for the bootcamp, from which the photo below

The set of contributors (reviewers, presenter) will be the same as the previous season altough it is not yet announced the date of broadcasting,which is expected from October, if,of course, the timetable will be followed.

Eurostars: Mikolas Josef’s new hit

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The 23-year-old Czech star Mikolas Josef, also known by his Eurovision participation in 2018, just released his new summer song titled « Acapella ».

Mikolas Josef, well-known and pan-European, has earned the best impression both from his songs with millions of streams on digital platforms and YouTube views as well as his sold out shows.

Josef has also been voted the most influential artist in the Czech Republic by the Forbes30 magazine.

Now he presents his new song titled ‘Acapella’ with Frankie J & Fito Blanko, along with his video clip.

Albania:Till 15 September the submissions to FiK 2019

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Albania’s public broadcaster,RTSH, will choose the song and the artist that will represent it in the Eurovision 2020 contest through the country’s historic « Festivali i Kenges » , as it does every year since 2004 when it made its debut in the competition.  The submission deadline for the FiK 2019, to be held sometime at the end of this year, began today and ends on 15 September.

Through FiK 2019 the representative of Albania in the Netherlands

Albania wants to continue its series of qualifying to Eurovision finals also in 2020 in the Netherlands.  After two qualifications in 2018 and 2019, the next representative will be called upon to do something better and,why not, bring Albania to the top10 after eight whole years.

Already, a very popular artist living in US,is rumored to be preparing the participation in FiK 2019. It is about Arilena Ari, which we mentioned in a previous article.

Interested parties can send their applications electronically to festival@rtsh.al or in person at the headquarters of Albania’s public broadcaster in Tirana.  More regulations for FiK 2019 were not released, although this year’s winner is expected to be featured only by the jury vote.

Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest

Albania’s maiden participation in the contest took place in 2004, winning the seventh place. Since then the country has been participated 15 more times, with moderate results.  The country became known in the contest for female ballads with demanding vocals.  In 2012, Rona Nishliu with « Suus », won the fifth place, which is up to now the best position of Albania in the ESC.

This year, in Tel Aviv, Jonida Maliqi with « Ktheju tokës », the song which won in FiK 2018, brought Albania to the final, winning the 17th place with 90 points.

Italy:The dates of the 70th Sanremo Festival revealed

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The 70th Sanremo Festival will be held at the Teatro Ariston on February 4-8, 2020. This is all that became known from the meeting between RAI and the Sanremo’s city officials earlier this month.

The favorite for the position of presenter / artistic director

Since Claudio Baglioni has resigned as an artistic director and host of the last two very successful editions of the Festival, nobody seems to know who will take that position or whether there will be a distinguished artistic director and presenter.

Numerous names have already been rumored for the new artistic director such as  Carlo Conti, Andrea Bocelli and Lucio Presta recently, as well as Amadeus and Alessandro Cattalan, without excluding Baglioni for one more year, though  this seems unlikely.

Another name that sounds great is Paolo Bonolis, who, however, in unsubstantiated time, has stated that he will only do so if Sanremo departs from the tiny Ariston theater, and could do a great event like  Eurovision in a larger arena.

Meanwhile, the municipality of Sanremo, co-organizer of the Festival together with RAI, looks at the possibility of building a new space (3000-4000 capacity) in the near future for the festival, which seems to be encouraged by Rai.  The female face that will be found next to any male host it will be Diletta Leotta.

The Mayor of Sanremo is worried-the voting system is changing

However, the mayor of Sanremo expressed his concern on the delay of  the whole organization this year and stressed the importance of getting the best possible preparations, since in 2020 we will have the 70th edition of the Festival.  He also underlined the importance of the Young Artists Festival (which recently gave us names like Francesco Gabbani, Ermal Meta and Mahmood).

After the disappointment followed Mahmood’s victory, thanks to the judging panels (even if the audience showed that loved his song along the way), the voting system and the winning method will be reviewed and a special team is working on it. However, 100% televoting even at Superfinal seems unlikely.

The next meeting will take place in September, when we will have the official announcements about the new presenter and artistic director of the Festival.

Nevertheless,whether Italy uses or not m the Sanremo Festival this year to choose its representative in the Eurovision Song Contest will be announced  when the regulations of the 70th Festival will be officially published.  However, it is most likely that RAI will use again the Festival winner in the upcoming Song contest in the Netherlands.

Eurovision 2020: Netflix to broadcast Eurovision 2020 in the USA

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A problem that afflicts fans on the other side of the Atlantic seems to have come to an end after EBU announced a while ago that Netflix will have the Eurovision shows available on its platform right after the end of its live broadcasting.

On Monday, July 22, all Netflix subscribers in the US will have  both the semifinals and the final of Eurovision 2019 available.

Jon Ola Sand, executive supervisor of all the EBU’s live events, stated:

« The EBU is thrilled that the world’s biggest television entertainment program will now be available to viewers in the US, one of the largest television markets. The US viewers will now enjoy all three fantastic evenings this year for the first time and the entire contest in 2020. This is a perfect timetable with plans to launch an American version of the Contest in 2021 ». 

Until recently, it was impossible to watch the contest, as well as all the videos, later on YouTube, as they were blocked, on the other side of the Atlantic.

A very important development that will bring the US closer to the Eurovision Contest, always backing plans to convey the concept in 2021 there!

This news comes as a follow-up to Netflix’s announcement that it is preparing a film about the Eurovision contest, starring Will Ferell.

Source: EBU

Eurovision 2020: Rotterdam – Maastricht: the battle of the venues

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The battle of Rotterdam and Maastricht to claim Eurovision 2020 hosting has been culminated, with the visit of the Dutch public broadcaster , the so-called ”Eurovision 2020 Committee”, in the two cities, to look closely at everything they propose for the next contest , in case ,of course, this takes place in their city.
The focus of interest for the the Eurovision 2020 Executive Producer, Sietse Bakker, was of course the venues  visit proposed to host the next event.
The questions that concern the people involved are of course the size, the location in the city center, its accessibility, the lights that can be supported by the roof, the existence of space for journalists, delegations, dressing rooms, press room etc .

MECC – Maastricht:
What do we know about the MECC in Maastricht?
* Capacity: about 11,000 – 12,000 people
* Floor area: 10.225 m2
* Ceiling height: about 16 meters

As the Maastricht’s  municipality has revealed, the city has been preparing its candidacy for hosting the contest for five years since the Netherlands came to a breath near to victory in 2014 with Common Linnets and ”Calm After The Storm”.

During the Committee’s visit to MECC, the officials had the opportunity to see in virtual reality how the venue will be set up to for the needs of the Event.

Ahoy – Rotterdam:
What do we know about Ahoy in Rotterdam?
* Capacity: about 11,000 – 12,000 people
* Floor area: 3.300 m2
* Ceiling height: about 23 meters

Ahoy of Rotterdam looks more ready for such a big event, since it hosts many important concerts each year.

The final decision on the city that will host the 65th Eurovision Song Contest will be announced in August.

Source: NOS

Australia: Diana Rouvas declares willing to compete at Eurovision

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After Sheldon Riley, Diana Rouvas, the big winner of The Voice All Star Australia ,is ready to compete on the Eurovision stage.
In a follow-up question to Instagram whether she would like to “go” to Eurovision with either Australia or Greece, she gives her answer:

”I would love to….!!! Should it be with Australia not? But I’m a piece of Greek heritage”.

35-year-old Greek, Diana Rouvas currently has Greek parents and lives in Sydney. She has already excelled in her first attempt at The Voice in 2012 when she reached the semifinals. She is a vocalist, while she also writes her own songs. She was the great winner of the final of The Voice All Star in Australia. Diana is the first woman to win the popular talent show over the past three years, giving her the first win to her mentor, Boy George.

JESC 2019: Nineteen countries to take part in the contest

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A total of 19 countries will participate in the Junior Eurovision 2019.

Kazakhstan and Wales will take part for the second time in the event, after last year’s debut, while Spain will return after 13 years of abdication! However, the number of entries has been reduced since last year as 20 countries took part. Despite the return of Spain, Israel and Azerbaijan will not participate in the 17th Eurovision Children’s Contest.

https://youtu.be/tClLS3Io7xY

In detail, the countries that will take part are:

Albania
Armenia
Australia
Northern Macedonia
France
Georgia
Ireland
Spain
Italy
Kazakhstan
Belarus
Malta
Netherlands
Wales
Ukraine
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Serbia

The Junior Eurovision 2019 will be held on November 24 in Gliwice, Poland.

Last year’s winner country was Poland with Roksana Wegiel and the song ”Anyone I Want to Be”.

https://youtu.be/PT-EzzJxySI

Source: eurovoix.com

Eurovision 2020: The Eurovision 2020 Committee also inspected Rotterdam

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Following the visit to Maastricht, yesterday it was Rotterdam’s turn to welcome the Eurovision 2020 Committee, consisting of the three responsible broadcasters for the organization of Eurovision 2020 (NPO / NOS / AVROTROS), to examine the city’s potential  to host the event, according to what it has submitted  in its candidacy bid.

The committee was welcomed by Mr. Said Kasmi (Rotterdam City Council) and Ms. Jolanda Jansen (Rotterdam Ahoy Director). And of course, their first and foremost station was Rotterdam Ahoy, the proposed venue for the event, where the members of the committee observed the excellent work done by the staff  while they are already in contact with the relevant venues of other cities which had hosted Eurovision events  in order to be prepared better.

The officials, of course, Committee do not forget that Rotterdam and Rotterdam Ahoy specifically have hosted the 2007 Junior Eurovision , which will be taken into serious  account for the final decision  in mid-August.

Ms. Jolanda Jansen (Rotterdam Ahoy Director) said:
“The meeting was incredibly substantive. First we went through the bidbook in great detail, we presented ourselves as a city and toured the premises. We spent a few hours discussing various ideas about the different spaces and halls.We have been doing a lot of homework lately, for example we have been in touch with some of the former Eurovision venues and host cities that have organized the contest in recent years, such as Stockholm, Vienna and Lisbon.
It was very good to discuss all these things with each other. A very important lesson is that all of this is greater than anything I’ve ever experienced. ”

Mr. Said Kasmi (Rotterdam Councilor for Culture) stated:
“We could soon host the biggest music competition, I suppose there will be 246 million viewers worldwide watching the show. All eyes will be focused on Rotterdam and we will have lots of visitors landing in the city. We are working hard so that everything falls into place ».
Finally, Mr. Sietse Bakker (Eurovision 2020 Executive Producer) concluded:
“The EBU has had a very good experience with the 2007 Junior Song Contest here. I think that certainly counts. Ahoy is a very nice location for three very spectacular TV shows. There are many spaces and halls in close proximity to the main hall that can house the press, delegations, production and technical teams etc ».

Eurovision 2020: What did the Eurovision 2020 Committee see in Maastricht?

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The Eurovision 2020 Committee  (NPO / NOS / AVROTROS) completed yesterday  its first visit to Maastricht,the first is the two candidate cities for hosting ESC 2020.

The committee, as we wrote in our previous article, had technical meetings with the responsible parts  as well as visits to the proposed venues for the contest.

The Eurovision Committee 2020 was welcomed  by the Director of MECC MAASTRICHT, Mr. Van de Wiel and ESC Maastricht Project Leader, Ms. Inge Dovermann.

The meeting began with a virtual trip to the MECC, emphasized of course, on the stage created to host the great musical event.

The journalists did not have access to the meetings of the two parties but were given the opportunity to meet the city’s  officers  and the Eurovision 2020 Committee afterwards.

Sietse Bakker, Executive Producer ESC 2020, at the end of the meetings, stated:

« The MECC is a good, fantastic location with many options. You could host a great Eurovision here.
I am pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm in Maastricht. It’s really amazing! »

while, regarding the stage, he said:

« In terms of height, width and depth, the MECC hall is reminiscent of the venues in Kiev and Tel Aviv. This makes it challenging! They really want to have the contest here in Maastricht.
In both cities we look at the suitability of the location, what the city itself contributes and which accommodations are available. Rotterdam and Maastricht both meet these three points ».

Finally, Mr. Van de Wiel, MECC Director,said:

« They wanted us to move the stage a little, because the logistics around the stage are much bigger. So we have to go back to the drawing table ».

We are expecting tomorrow the Committee’s impressions from its meetings in Rotterdam!

Source: esctoday.com, 1 Limburg, Limburger.nl