Norway: 40 songs will participate in the Melodi Grand Prix 2020

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Early in March, Norway first confirmed its participation in Eurovision 2020, while announcing significant changes to the Melodi Grand Prix 2020.

In 2020, MGP, Norway’s national final for the selection of the Eurovision country’s representative, will close 60 years of existance, conducting six big shows following the standards of the Swedish Melodifestivalen. The last years that the country made so many shows was 2014.

Today, NRK has announced that 40 songs will compete at MGP 2020, celebrating 60 years of Norway’s presence in the Eurovision family.

Each of the five semi-finals will vary according to the geographical origin of the artists.

The program is as follows:

Show 1: 8 songs will compete in Northern Norway
Show 2: 8 songs will compete in Central Norway
Show 3: 8 songs will compete in Western Norway
Show 4: 8 songs will compete from East Norway
Show 5: 8 songs will compete in South Norway
Show 6: 2 songs selected by each semifinal will compete in the Grand Final of the Melodi Grand Prix 2020

All 6 shows will take place in Oslo, with no dates announced yet.

In the semifinals, the result will be judged by both the television audience and the jury, while in the final, the final decision on who will travel to the Netherlands will be made by the TV audience.

This year Norway was  represented by KEiiNo, with the song “Spirit In The Sky”, winning the 6th place with 331 points, scoring 1 in the televoting.

Israel: Two shows for the next country’s national selection

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The Israeli broadcaster, KAN, has confirmed the country’s participation in Eurovision 2020, making Israel the 25th country that announces its participation.

Together with confirmation of participation, KAN also announced how it will choose its  representative but also the song.

Initially, the selection of the artist will be made another year through the talent show « HaKokhan HaBa L’Eurovizion », which makes sense since,using this option after 2015, the country has not lost the qualification to the final – including of course Netta ´ s victory  in 2018.

But the selection of the song is the detail that will be changed. Until this year, the song was chosen by a team of experts.  However, for 2020, KAN will organize an additional show for the selection of the song which will be determined this time by the television audience.

KAN  is expected to invite artists to participate in HaKokhan HaBa next week, but the dates of the talent show have not yet been announced.

After Netta’s victory, Israel’s next representative was Kobi Marimi with the song « Home ».  Kobi won 23rd place.

Source : eurovoix.com

2 Dutch cities fight for hosting the Eurovision Song Contest!

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Despite the fact that 5 Dutch cities have submitted for hosting the contest next year, it is said that only two of them are considered to be the most suitable ones! The Eurovision 2020 Core Team will visit only these two cities in order to decide which of them can fulfil their plans the best.

Firstly, it was 9 cities that expressed their interest to host the show. But, after receiving the requirements they have to accomplish, only 5 of them have officially submitted their bid books to the Dutch national broadcaster (Find out more here).

It’s not clear which are these two cities, but, according to Dutch media, Maastricht and Rotterdam meet the criteria for hosting the event.

Sietse Bakker, Executive producer Event, claims:

You produce perhaps the most complex TV show worldwide, It is important that you have a location where you have the space to do that. And then the city itself: do you have the hotel rooms and can you handle the logistics so that not only the visitors, but also all kinds of other people attracted to it can stay in the city centre?

source: eurovisionary.com

Switzerland: Directly assign for the Eurovision 2020

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Following Luca Hänni’s successful tour at Tel Aviv, Switzerland’s broadcaster SRF confirmed the country’s presence in the upcoming event in May 2020 in the Netherlands.

After this year’s great result that brought Switzerland to 4th place, the best that has been achieved since 2005, SRF,  decided to follow the same recipe, choosing internally, for the second consecutive year, both its representative and and the song as well.

For this choice, the broadcaster will nominate a panel of experts, composed of 100 members and a twenty-member international committee, to decide who will fly the Swiss flag in the Netherlands.

Interested composers, producers and songwriters can send their entries until September 2. More information about the participation is here.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: Abstain from the Contest for another year

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BHRT,Bosnia-Herzegovina‘s  national broadcaster confirmed on the esctoday.com website that the country will not return to the 65th Eurovision Song Contest.

The reason for abstaining, as in previous years, is the large debt of BHRT to the EBU.

The country of the former Yugoslavia completes the list of countries, together with Slovakia and Andorra, who have already announced that they will not participate in Eurovision 2020.

The country participated for the last time in 2016 when it was for the first time blocked in its history. Between 2013 and 2015, the country abstained from Eurovision. Bosnia-Herzegovina competed in the Grand Final for last time in  2012. The country’s representative for that year was Maya Sar with the song “Korake Ti Znam (I know your steps)” and won the 18th place.

The country’s best place is reduced back to 2006 when Hari Mata Hari, with the emblematic “Lejla“, won the 3rd place.

Source: esctoday.com

Croatia: the participation in Eurovision 2020 still uncertain

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Croatia‘s participation in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in May 2020 in the Netherlands is unclear.

Croatian public broadcaster HRT, speaking on the ESCXTRA website, said they still can not confirm their presence in the next contest. More information was not provided, which suggests the country’s withdrawal from the upcoming event, as a possible scenario, considering the bad results of the last two years.

However, as announced earlier, the Croatian capital, Zagreb will host the Eurovision Song Contest for young musicians in 2020, which may work for or against the above decision.

If Croatia withdraws, it will follow the example of Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia, who have been reluctant to return to Eurovision 2020.

This year, Roko represented by Croatia, with “The Dream“, where he finished in  14th place with 64 points in the Second Semi-final without being able to qualify for the Final.

Changes in the EBU statutes have not been aprooved – Kosovo can’t apply for full membership of EBU

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The vote at the EBU General Assembly, held in Oslo, was just completed. Changes in the statute that would help Kosovo joining the union have not been accepted, and so they will have to wait more time to make their debut in the Eurovision Song Contest. Read more