Spain: Eurovisionfun Reacts to Eurovision 2023 Entry ”Eaea” (video)

Spain’s national final, ‘Benidorm Fest 2023‘, has ended and Blanca Paloma and the song ‘Eaea‘ will represent the country in the upcoming song contest.

The Eurovisionfun team couldn’t help but comment on the Spanish entry for the upcoming Eurovision contest! Enjoy Matamis Apostolis, Bogiannos Apostolos and Stella Gialetzi in a delightful video, with detailed commentary on Spain’s next participation, for 2023!

Enjoy the live performance of Blanca Paloma from Benidorm Fest Final:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxuO0qZITko

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to enjoy interviews, reaction videos and Live streams for our favorite contest!

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding Spain’s participation in Eurovision 2023, in Liverpool!

 

Kuumaa: A Eurovision winner in Finnish? Why not? | EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!

Kuumaa has recently won the Finnish Grammy Award for Band of the Year.  Moreover, their UMK competing song, Ylivoimainen, has reached the Spotify Top in Finland.

Eurovisionfun had the pleasure to talk with the guys from Kuumaa.  Johannes, Jonttu and Aarni took some time in their agenda to sit and answer our questions.  In this interview they discussed with us how is their UMK journey going on and how they are taking one step at the time this road to eventually represent Finland in Eurovision.  Here are their answers.

Eurovisionfun: What motivate you to represent your country in the Eurovision Song Contest?

Kuumaa: Well first we’ll focus on the UMK competition and if it will lead to the Eurovision Song Contest, we’ll have to see. Right now we are going to try and chew (and enjoy!) one bite at a time!

Eurovisionfun: What are you planning to bring to the UMK stage next February?

Kuumaa: We are definitely trying to channel our live gig energy and bring it to the big stage. This is the perfect chance to try and transform our club gig energy and joy of performing to the biggest stage performance in the band’s history. We are so excited and honored to take on the challenge of UMK!

Eurovisionfun: For the audience outside of Finland, how would you describe your band?

Kuumaa: KUUMAA is a band that has been built on friendship and the joy of making music. For us, the band is above all a group of friends. We are all united by ambition and the thought of taking things seriously but not being too serious. We have a lot of fun together and humor is one of our core values: if working together is fun, it’ll most likely lead to good things.We are also very self-sufficient as a band: Johannes (vocals) is mainly responsible for our lyrics, Jonttu (drums) is involved in the production side and Aarni (bass) is in charge of our visuals. Composition work is done together with our executive producer Jonas Olsson.

Eurovisionfun: Last year a song in Ukrainian language won the Eurovision Song Contest and the year before it was a song in Italian. Do you think a song in Finnish could win the Eurovision Song Contest?

Kuumaa: Finnish is a beautiful language, why not! However we believe that the song, live show and artist combined as whole will determine who wins, not only the language.

Eurovisionfun: Do you see yourselves releasing a single in English in the near future?

Kuumaa: As of now making music in our mother tongue feels like the right thing to do and it’s hard to imagine KUUMAA in English. However: never say never!

Eurovisionfun: Do you have any memories from the Eurovision Song Contest? Are you fans of the show?   

Kuumaa: We’ve followed the Eurovision Song Contest for a long time. Johannes had admired the power and community spirit of the contest since he was a child. Jonttu remembers taking party in an ESC night hosted by drag queens and Aarni got to stay up late for the first time when the legendary Lordi won the competition in 2006.

Eurovisionfun: What are your favourite Eurovision songs in general and from Finland?

Kuumaa: We’ll forever be fans of the amazing Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät who represented Finland in 2015.

Eurovisionfun: Apart from your own work what artists and genres do you like to listen?

Kuumaa: The 1975 is a big inspiration to us, we love the surprise element that their whole existence entails in music, performance and visuals. From our artist colleagues in Finland we’d like to give a shoutout to Chisu and Olavi Uusivirta who are both such inspirations as music makers and performers.

Eurovisionfun: What message would you like to send to the audience with your song Ylivoimainen?

Kuumaa: The song is an energetic pop song with a hint of danger. Ylivoimainen came together very intuitively and it represents an universal energy that is easy for anyone to catch on to. The tension of the song arises from the fact that the narrator is ready to do anything to get what he wants. The feelings of longing and love have been put aboard a tuned Ferrari so to say. The friction between these things is interesting.

Eurovisionfun:. Finally, to close this interview, what message would you like to give to the Eurovision fans?  

Kuumaa: Whether we are in the running or not, we are so excited to see what the lineup for the contest will look and sound like. The beauty of Eurovision is how music brings people and countries together. Long live music!

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for more updates on the UMK 2023!

Ιreland: Eurovisionfun reacts to Eurovision 2023 entry “We are one”

Ireland: Eurovisionfun Reacts to Eurovision 2023 Entry ”We Are One” (video)

The national final of Ireland “Eurosong 2023” has ended with Wild Youth  and the song “We are One” receiving at the end of the night the ticket to Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool!

The Eurovisionfun team couldn’t help but see and comment on the Irish entry for the upcoming Eurovision contest! Enjoy Koumparos Apostolis, Barboutis Paschalis and Roupakias Christos in a delightful reaction video with detailed commentary for the next entry for the 2023 competition!

Below, you can see the live performance of “We Are One” by Wild Youth:

Will Ireland manage to bring a good result after many years? Make your prediction in the comments!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to enjoy interviews, reaction videos and live streams for our favorite competition!

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for more reaction videos of our favourite contest!

Germany: The Wild Card announcement and further details regarding Unser Lied für Liverpool!

Yesterday during Alles Eurovision show, the Wild Card finalist of the Unser Lied für Liverpool, the show which will determine the next German representative in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, was announced.

The selection process took place through TikTok and Ikke Hüftgold was the winner of the Wild Card selection with the song “Lied mit gutem Text”. The Wild Card selection included the below artists:

  • Ikke Hüftgold – “Lied mit gutem Text” – 52% – Wildcard
  • From Fall To Spring – “Draw The Line” – 28%
  • JONA – “10/10” – 14%
  • Betül – “Heaven” – 3%
  • Mitchy & André Katawazi,  NashUp – “Summertime” – 2%
  • Leslie Clio- “Free Again” – 1%

After the end of the aforementioned process, the line up of Unser Lied für Liverpool consists of the below artists:

  • Will Church – “Hold On”
  • Patty Gurdy – “Melodies of Hope”
  • TRONG – “Dare to Be Different”
  • Lonely Spring – “Misfit”
  • Anica Russo – “Once Upon a Dream”
  • Lord Of The Lost – “Blood and Glitter”
  • Frida Gold – “Alle Frauen in mir sind müde”
  • René Miller – “Concrete Heart”
  • Ikke Hüftgold – “Lied mit gutem Text”

After the Wild Card announcement NDR revealed more details regarding the voting procedure. After 2019, an international jury is going to determine the 50% of the final result. It is going to consist of 8 countries, five people from each country. The names of the 8 countries of the international jury are yet to be announced.

Additionally, the public, who is going to determine the other 50% of the result, is going to have three voting options: 1) online voting, 2) SMS voting, 3) telephone call. The online voting process is going to open ahead of the live broadcast.

Tickets for Unser Lied für Liverpool are going to be available later today at 20:00 CET here.

Unser Lied für Liverpool is going to take place on the 3rd of March at 22:20 CET in the MMC Studios in Cologne. The host of the show is going to be Barbara Schöneberger and it is going to be broadcast live on Das Erste, ARD Mediathek and eurovision.de.

Last year Malik Harris with the song “Rockstars” represented Germany in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Turin but once again they ended up in the last place, 26th with only 6 points.

Who do you think is going to be the next German representative? Let us know your thought in the comments below.

Stay tuned on Eurovision Fun for all the updates around Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023!

Source: Eurovoix

Spain: Blanca Paloma and “EaEa” to represent the country in Eurovision 2023!

The grand final of Benidorm Fest, the national final of Spain, has just been completed, with the country choosing Blanca Paloma as the festival’s winner and therefore their representative on Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool.

A total of eight finalists, who qualified from two semifinals, competed in the grand final, claiming the ticket to Turin.

The eight candidates of the night were:

  1. Karmento – “Quiero y duelo”
  2. Megara – “Arcadia”
  3. Alice Wonder – “Yo quisiera”
  4. Fusa Nocta – “Mi familia”
  5. Agoney – “Quiero arder”
  6. Blanca Paloma – “Eaea”
  7. José Otero – “Inviernos en Marte”
  8. Vicco – “Nochentera”

The voting

50% of the result in all three shows (two semi-finals and a final) comes from the jury, while the other 50% comes from the audience. The jury is divided into Spanish and international, while 50% of the audience is divided between the televoting and a sample of the Spanish population selected on the basis of statistical and demographic data (the demographic jury). This is a criterion used in both the Sanremo Festival (Italy) and the Melodifestivalen (Sweden).

The Benidorm Fest jury, which determines 50% of the voting, consists of:

  • Nina (Spanish singer, representative of Spain in 1989)
  • Christer Bjorkman (Swedish singer and producer, former manager of Melodifestivalen)
  • Tali Eshkoli (Israeli television producer and Israel’s Head od Delegation)
  • Nicola Caligiore (Italian, former Italy’s Head od Delegation)
  • Katrina Leskanich (American singer, representative of the United Kingdom in 1997)
  • William Lee Adams (Founder of the wiwibloggs website)
  • Irene Valiente (Spanish presenter and producer)
  • Juan Jose Santana (Spanish, president of OGAE Spain and composer of previous Spanish entries)

The results

Juries (50%)

  1. Blanca Paloma (94 votes)
  2. Agoney (80 votes)
  3. Vicco (59 votes)
  4. Alice Wonder (53 votes)
  5. Megara (50 votes)
  6. José Otero (37 votes)
  7. Karmento (35 votes)
  8. Fusa Nocta (24 votes)

Demographic jury (25%)

  1. Vicco (40 votes)
  2. Blanca (35 votes)
  3. Agoney (30 votes)
  4. Megara (28 votes)
  5. Fusa Nocta (25 votes)
  6. José Otero (22 votes)
  7. Karmento (20 votes)
  8. Alice Wonder (16 votes)

Televoting (25%)

  1. Blanca Paloma (40 votes)
  2. Agoney (35 votes)
  3. Vicco (30 votes)
  4. Megara (28 votes)
  5. Karmento (25 votes)
  6. Fusa Nocta (22 votes)
  7. Alice Wonder (20 votes)
  8. José Otero (16 votes)

Overall ranking

  1. Blanca Paloma (169 votes)
  2. Agoney (145 votes)
  3. Vicco (129 votes)
  4. Megara (106 votes)
  5. Alice Wonder (89 votes)
  6. Karmento (80 votes)
  7. José Otero (75 votes)
  8. Fusa Nocta (71 votes)

You can watch Blanca Paloma’s performance below:

Do you agree with Spain’s choice of representative for Liverpool? Let us know in the comments below!

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the latest news regarding Spain’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023!

Latvia: The results of Supernova’s 2023 semi-final!

The semi-final of Latvia’s national final, Supernova 2023, was completed successfully and the 10 finalists of Supernova were decided.

A total of fourteen candidates competed in the semi-final, claiming ten tickets for Saturday’s grand final. Presenters of the evening were Ketija Šēnberga and Lauris Reiniks.

The participants:

The participants of tonight’s semifinal were:

  1. Artūrs Hatti – “Love Vibes”
  2.  Alise Haijima – “Tricky”
  3.  Inspo – “Sway”
  4. Toms Kalderauskis – “When It All Falls”
  5. Katrine Miller – “Beaten Down”
  6. Justs – “Stranger”
  7. Adriana Miglāne – “Like I Wanna”
  8. 24. Avēnija – “You Said”
  9. Markus Riva – “Forever”
  10. Avéi – “Let Me Go”
  11. Patrisha – “Hush”
  12. Raum – “Fake Love”
  13. Luīze – “You To Hold Me”
  14. Sudden Lights – “Aijā”

50% of the results in the two shows (semifinals and a final) comes from the jury, while the other 50% from the audience.

The qualifiers:

The qualifiers of tonight’s semifinal were as follows:

  1. 24. Avēnija – “You Said”
  2. Alise Haijima – “Tricky”
  3. Artūrs Hatti – “Love Vibes”
  4. Avéi – “Let Me Go”
  5. Luīze – “You To Hold Me”
  6. Markus Riva – “Forever”
  7. Patrisha – “Hush”
  8. Raum – “Fake Love”
  9. Sudden Lights – “Aijā”
  10. Toms Kalderauskis – “When It All Falls”

Last year’s Supernova winner was Citi Zeni with “Eat Your Salad“. They ended up 14th in their semi-final with 55 points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM0_0WfuxSk

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Latvia’s participation in Eurovision 2023!

Norway: With Alessandra Mele and the “Queen of Kings” in Liverpool!

After the three semi-final rounds, the 2023 edition of the Melodi Grand Prix came to its end with the Grand Final which once again determined the representative of the Scandinavian kingdom at the upcoming 2023 Eurovision Song Contest which is going to take place in Liverpool, the United Kingdom in May.  The final show took place in Trondheim Spektrum.

9 artists competed for the gold ticket that leads to Liverpool. This year’s Final was quite different in comparison to the previous editions. For the very first time the auto-tune technology was introduced while the final result was determined after four years again by the combination of the votes from the televoting and from the international jury.

The hosts of the show were Arian Engebø and Stian Thorbjørnsen

The participants

The 9 finalists of the show were as follows:

  1. JONE — “Ekko inni meg” (Echo in me)
  2. Eline Thorp — Not Meant to Be
  3. Skrellex — Love Again
  4. Ulrikke Brandstorp – “Honestly“
  5. Umami Tsunami – “Geronimo“
  6. Atle Pettersen — Masterpiece” 
  7. Swing’it — “Prohibition”
  8. Elsie Bay — “Love you in a dream”
  9. Alessandra Mele – Queen of Kings“

After the performances of the aforementioned artists, we enjoyed last year’s winners Subwoolfers who also removed the masks and revealed their real faces. The people behind the masks are Gaute Ormåsen and Ben Adams as we have mentioned almost a year ago in our article here.

Results

The votes of the international jury were announced and afterwards the televoting points were added up.

The 10 countries that formed the international jury were the United Kingdom, Finland, Azerbaijan, Spain, Ukraine, Czechia, France, Iceland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

After the votes of the jury the first part of the voting process was as per below

With the aggregation of the votes from the jury and the televoting, the representative of Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 is Alessandra Mele.

Alessandra Mele and Norway are going to participate in the first half of the first semi-final which is scheduled on 9th of May. Do you think that Norway is going to achieve a better placement than last year’s 10th place? Let us know in the comments below!

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun.com for all the developments regarding the Norwegian entry at the upcoming 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. 

 

Lithuania: The results of Semi-Final 1 of “Pabandom iš naujo! 2023”!

Lithuania has started seeking its representative and participation for Eurovision 2023“Pabandom iš Naujo! 2023”, as the Lithuanian public television process is now called, consists of two qualifying rounds (Heats), two semi-finals and a final. A few minutes ago, the First Semi-Final was completed, with ten contestants qualifying for the next phase of the Grand Final.

The presenters of the evening were Giedraus Masalskis and Augustė Nombeko. In the Green Room the presenter was Richard Jonaitis.

The jury is composed of:
  • Ramūnas Zilnys (Music Critic),
  • Ieva Narkutė (Singer),
  • Vytautas Bikus (Composer)
  • Stanislavas Stavickis-Stano (Singer and Composer)
  • Leonas Somovs (Producer)
The 10 songs that claimed the tickets for the final are:

Results:

With the jury already having voted, tonight the Lithuanian audience had the chance to see the live performances for the first time and vote for their favourites. The result was determined 50% by the jury and 50% by the TV audience.

Jury Results

Televoting Results

Final Results

The five artists that qualified to the Grand Final are:

Rūta Mur with the song “So Low” was crowned as the winner of the First Semi-Final by both the jury and the TV audience.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding Lithuania’s participation in Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool!

Source: LRT

Sweden: Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods and Tone Sekelius are the two direct finalists of the First Heat of Melodifestivalen 2023!

Ninety minutes ago, the second show for the First Heat of Melodifestivalen 2023, started off on SVT and SVT Play. And we are here to share the results of the night with you!

The two numbers that qualify directly to the finals are Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods with the song “Where You Are (Sávežan)” and Tone Sekelius with the song “Rhythm Of My Show” and we will get to see them perform their songs live, on the 11th of March, when the finals will take place at Friends Arena.

But how things developed during the night?

The show

Jesper Rönndahl and Farah Abadi will present Melodifestivalen 2023. All restrictions were lifted this year and the heats will follow the touring concept again, after SVT had pulled back last year due to health restrictions in Sweden, with the finals being held at Friends Arena!

With the opening of the contest in Göteborg, Saturday February the 4th, Melodifestivalen will be held in Linköping, Lidköping, Malmö, Örnsköldsvik and then in Stockholm on the 11th of March.

Jesper and Farah are at the arena and everything is ready to begin! It’s time to face the music!

Read more

Slovenia: Listen to “Carpe Diem” from Joker Out! for Eurovision 2023!

Slovenia’s public television (RTVSLO) in a special press conference announced that Joker Out!, a pop/rock band will fly the country’s flag in Liverpool. Joker Out! they were already working on the song they intended to submit to EMA (the Slovenian national final for Eurovision), when the RTVSLO people made them a proposal.

RTVSLO has announced that the song that Joker Out will represent Slovenia with is titled “Carpe Diem”, it was previously confirmed that the song is in Slovenian.

Through a special show entitled Misija Liverpool, the participation of Joker Out! for Eurovision 2023 was revealed moments ago!

Listen to “Carpe Diem” below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDBSIGITdY4&fbclid=IwAR0Rb4joLu9a3j_PVrj8_lhtGgqbXGSsIi8OcfmYATpbZNhfhLsJ6TxJL-w

Who are Joker Out! 

Joker Out! consists of Bojan Cvjetićanin, Kris Guštin, Jan Peteh, Jure Maček and Martin Jurkovič . They have already released four singles and a full length album since 2016 when they were formed. They are one of the most popular Slovenian artists in recent years. In 2020 they won the award for the best new artist, and in 2021 for the artist of the year! All their concerts are sold out, while they recently released a single in Serbian, aiming to target a broader market in the former Yugoslavia region.

Slovenia has been drawn to compete in the Second Semi-Final on 11 May and will specifically appear in the second half of the show (positions 09-16).

What do you think of Slovenia’s participation this year? Will they manage to qualify for the Grand Final?

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Slovenia’s participation in Eurovision 2023!