Cyprus: Two men and one woman candidates for Eurovision 2020 | Exclusive

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We are already in October, we know the first artist participating in Eurovision 2020, and the Cypriot Broadcaster (CYBC), which is used to us in early announcements, is working feverishly for Cyprus’s next entry in the contest. Two men and one woman, unlike what has been writen in media of CYBC’s exclusive interest in male artists, are under the microscope of Cypriot public broadcaster in order to take on the heavy burden of representing the country in Rotterdam. Read more

Malta: The X Factor launches on October 6th

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The country’s public broadcaster, TVM, has announced that the second season of “The X-Factor” will launch on October 6, but it has not been clarified if Malta will choose its representative for the Eurovision 2020 Music Contest through this show.

The game’s auditions have already been completed, with the Six-Chair Challenge taking place on September 20 and 21.

The panel of judges will be the same as last year. Ira Losco will once again be one of the 4 judges to take part in the talent show. The well-known singer has already participated twice in the Eurovision contest. It was the first time in 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia, with the song “7th Wonder” and took the 2nd place with 164 points. The second time was in Stockholm in 2016, when she reached the final with ‘Walk on Water’ and finished 12th with 153 points.

While the other three chairs belong to: Howard Keith Debono, manager of the most prominent Maltese artists, Ray Mercieca, composer and producer, having worked mainly with bands, and Alexandra Alden, who lives in the Netherlands, although Maltese in origin, having her assets. already two very successful albums, to complete the jury’s four.

X Factor Malta’s presenter will be Ben Camille, well-known in Eurofans, having presented both the MESC and the last Junior Eurovision in Malta in 2016.

This year, 18-year-old Michela emerged victorious and traveled to Tel Aviv with the song “Chameleon”, ranking 14th with 107 points.

Eurovision 2020: It’s official: Rotterdam will host the 65th Eurovision Song Contest

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Although rumors about the next Eurovision host city had been circulated since two days ago,actually today the official announcement from Dutch public broadcaster has come out.

The official announcement by the organizing committee

The announcement was made through the contest’s  official website, EBU social networks, and the Dutch public broadcaster .

When Duncan Laurence won the Eurovision Song Contest for the Netherlands earlier this year, a total of nine cities initially applied in the hope of hosting the contest.  But the battle proved difficult for many of them, after one withdrew its candidacy, starting with Leobarden, since the arena it had did not meet the height requirements set by the EBU.

Then Amsterdam, The Hague and Breda left the race on a variety of issues, with only five cities officially submitting their candidacy.  Eventually Rotterdam and Maastricht were left to arrive at today’s announcement that Rotterdam will be the city that will host the next Eurovision.

A city in the center of Europe

Rotterdam was the favorite to win the event and eventually it did it. It has easy accessibility and a wonderful arena, the Ahoy, where big music events take place every year, and it also hosted Junior Eurovision in 2007.

Rotterdam has Europe’s largest port and is well connected by ferry to the United Kingdom and France.  Travelers wishing to travel to Rotterdam from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport can be reached in about 20 minutes by train.  The city is 23 km from The Hague and 61 km from Utrecht.  In addition to trains, Rotterdam has various modes of transport, such as trams, subways and buses as well as water buses.

This will be the fifth time the Netherlands hosts the Eurovision contest on its territory (1958, 1970, 1976 and 1980), but the first in Rotterdam!

The dates of the three shows

At the same time, the announcement of the hosting city came the dates of the three shows also locked.  Specifically, the two semifinals will take place on Tuesday May 12 and Thursday May 14, respectively, with the Grand Final scheduled for Saturday May 16, 2020.

 

 

 

Eurovision 2020: Rotterdam or Maastricht: The long-awaited date revealed

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The two candidate cities, Maastricht and Rotterdam, had until yesterday  at 17.00 CET  the opportunity to send the latest details on the nominations for the Eurovision 2020 contest to the Dutch public broadcaster . As EBU announced yesterday, its final decision will be announced in Friday the 30th of August.

The anxiety for the two city staff and for all fans of the Eurovision is over.  After Rotterdam and Maastricht have submitted all the information they have requested, the Dutch public broadcaster(NOS, NPO and AVROTROS) having already visited both cities will come up with what they consider appropriate to host the next big event.  The decision will of course be made in co-operation with the EBU.

In the case  of a Maastricht win, the competition will be hosted at the 11,000-seat MECC Exhibition Center, while in the event of a Rotterdam victory then Ahoy’s 16,000-seat stadium will host the next Eurovision.

We’ll know in three weeks from now whether Maastricht or Rotterdam will host the 65th Eurovision Song Contest.

Stay tuned for the long-awaited announcement and all the details about out favorite contest.

Slovenia: Submissions to EMA 2020 begun

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After a very good result in Tel Aviv, Slovenia is bowling for Eurovision 2020 in the Netherlands, choosing its representative of course through the well-known EMA.  Submissions will last until November 18th.

Through EMA for another year 

Slovenia has achieved four qualifications in the last six years and of course wants to maintain this good result in the Netherlands as well. EMA 2020 regulations have not been announced yet, but we are already aware of a change to the next Slovenian national final.

EMA is looking for new talents 

RTVSLO has announced the launch of EMA along with a separate option, EMA FREŠ.  This is an online option where songs submitted by users  will be posted on the RTV website and across social media.  Visitors will have the opportunity to vote on their favorite composition  on a daily basis, with the winners coming out of the vote at the end of the week.  The winner of the competition will be announced during the night of the EMA 2020 final.

Eligible to participate in EMA FREŠ, are artists under the age of twenty-six who have released no more than three copyrighted  songs, that is, they have been released commercially, in any way.

RTV hopes that the introduction of EMA FREŠ will encourage younger musicians to submit their own compositions.  The application deadline for EMA FREŠ is September 19th.

Will the good results in the comfiest continue?

Earlier this year, Slovenia scored its best in Eurovision since 2015. Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl finished 15th in the grand final with the atmospheric “Sebi”.  In addition, the duo won Slovenia’s fourth qualification in the last six years – Slovenia’s most successful run since the semifinals.

Sergey Lazarev and Helena Paparizou together again in Cyprus!

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Sergey Lazarev and Helena Paparizou at the 13th Cyprus-Russia Gala at Nicosia!

 

Since 2007, the Cyprus-Russia Charity Gala is one of the most significant events of the country and a great chance to get closer with Russian culture! The 13th Cyprus-Russia Gala will take place in the Presidential Palace in Cyprus on Saturday 5 October 2019 under the high patronage of the First Lady of the Republic of Cyprus, Mrs. Andri Anastasiades.

This year’s gala reminds us a little bit of Eurovision since two fan-Favorite stars will perform. It’s Sergey Lazarev, who took the 3rd place at the Eurovision 2016 and 2019 as well, and Helena Paparizou, the one and only winner for Greece! The program will also include performances by the Bondarenko Brothers virtuoso accordion duo from the Moscow State Academic Theatre of Nadezhda Babkina and Cypriot acclaimed Dionysos Dance Group.

 

The amount of money and other funds raised through auction sales and donations will be given to Radiomarathon Foundation, which helps children with special needs and their families. For more information about the tickets, click here

source: www.cyprusevents.net

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.