Israel: Through Rising Star the representative for Eurovision 2024!

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Earlier today, the Israeli National Broadcaster KAN, decided to return to a familiar selection method for their representative in the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden. The country’s next representative will be selected through the music talent show Rising Star.

Rising Star was used from 2015 until 2020, to select the artist that represented Israel at the Song Contest. In fact, the results were quite positive, since the country always managed to qualify for the final, while Netta, who was selected from the show, won Eurovision in 2018 with “Toy“.

Based on what happened in previous years, after the talent show, the public broadcaster usually organised one more night, in which, a Jury and the audience chose the song for the winning artist to represent the country at Eurovision 2024.

More informations about the talent show will be given in later time.

Israel was represented this year by Noa Kirel with the song “Unicorn“, after an internal selection was held by Israel’s Public Television. The song ended up in third place with 362 points.

You can watch Noa’s apperance in the Grand Final here:

https://youtu.be/Z3mIcCllJXY

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Slovakia: Absent from Eurovision 2024!

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Slovakia will not take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2o24!

The head of the Department of International Relations of the national broadcaster, RTVS, Slavomira Kubickova confirmed that Slovakia will continue its absence not only from the “adult” Eurovision but also from the Junior Eurovision.

“RTVS is not considering the participation at the Eurovision or junior Eurovision in the coming future.”

Despite the renewal of the General Director of RTVS, Slovakia will remain outside the European competition.

The former General Director of RTVS was known for being against the participation of Slovakia in the Eurovision Song Contest, considering the Contest as the worst thing that has ever happened to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

In summer 2022, Mr. Ľuboš Macha was appointed as the new General Director of RTVS, however he will (at least for now)  continue the path of his predecessor, so Slovakia’s absence from the competition goes on.

RTVS claims financial reasons for their absence.

RTVS admitted that the reasons for not participating in the Eurovision Song Contest are mainly financial.

The organization acknowledges that it is impossible to cover the costs of the competition, as the participation of the country is associated with high financial costs for which RTVS currently has no resources.

The RTVS station has been mired in a financial crisis for years. However, the Slovak government intends to amend the funding of the public broadcaster in order to increase the funding of the public broadcaster by 46 million euros by 2024. If these changes are approved, RTVS will have a budget of around 160 million for the next year.

The country’s last participation was in 2012 where the central European country was represented by Max Jason Mai with the song “Don’t Close Your Eyes” taking the 18th and last place in the Second Semi-Final with 22 points.

Source: Eurofestivales

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United Kingdom: Sophie Ellis-Bextor will not represent UK at Eurovision 2024!

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Following media speculation that Sophie Ellis-Bextor could represent the UK at Eurovision 2024, the singer has ruled out participation.

After reports that Sophie Ellis-Bextor had been shortlisted to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest, the singer has commented on the rumors. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the singer commented:

“There’s been no direct conversation with me about it. I feel like this rumour also happened about a decade ago.

“I adore Eurovision. But I feel like at this point, and with what I’m up to, it would be like walking up to a casino and putting all my chips on red. I just don’t feel like I’m up for the gamble. But I will be willing from the wings whoever is doing their thing for the UK.”

She did however leave the door open for getting involved with the contest but not as a singer:

“You know what I’d really like to do: I’d like to write the song. Wouldn’t that be fun. I’d like to have a go at writing a Eurovision song.”

Typically, the United Kingdom announces its Eurovision participant around February or March of the following year, unveiling both the artist and the song simultaneously.

This year saw Mae Muller represent the United Kingdom on home soil in Liverpool with her entry, “I Wrote a Song”. Mae finished in 25th place after receiving a total of 24 points.

https://youtu.be/tvJEE2ryCRQ

Source: Eurovoix.com

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Sweden 2024: Zara Larsson would like to participate as interval act for Melodifestivalen!

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Zara Larsson is one of the biggest representatives of Swedish pop worldwide.  She may be only 25 but she has a vast career that includes an upcoming acting debut in Netflix film A part of You.

But apart her coming projects that include a tour and album, she also has time to enjoy Melodifestivalen and the Eurovision Song Contest which she declares herself a big fan.

Talking about the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 which will take place in Sweden, Larsson is considering participating as one of the interval acts.  Although she does not outright reject the idea of representing Sweden one day, it seems we will not see her giving a try at least in the near future.

I’m a huge fan of Eurovision and Melfest, which is just Swedish culture. It really is. Everybody’s watching it, because it’s so fun. It’s just the show of the year. It’s so fun watching, and I would love to be part of the interval act next year. I don’t know if I would be up to compete in the competition. But I watch it every year with my whole family and my friends. It’s a huge event and I’m so happy for Loreen. I feel very proud to be a Swede. We take that s**t so seriously. It would be quite weird if we didn’t win, or at least get some of the top placements, because we love it.

Talking about this year’s winner, Zara Larsson does not only show respect for Loreen and her work but when she also said she would like to work with Loreen in the future:

She’s a very special artist and she’s always had such a clear vision of what she wants to do, and how she wants to do it. I love the fact that she’s not your typical Eurovision act, or Melfest act. She’s very artistic and a little left… experimental.

Source: Attitude

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Italy: Changes to Sanremo 2024 imposed by government? │ Possible participants and rejections

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It’s been months now that Festival di Sanremo 2024 has been taking up italian media, which convey that key components of the Festival are in the process of being redefined, following suggestions by the current Italian government for changes to the programs of the national channel RAI.

The involvement of the Italian government in the procedures and possibly the participants of the 2024 Festival has resulted in reactions by many artists, who are expected to reject a possible participation in the Festival as a sign of protest. Thus, Italian media report that the chances of seeing artists such as Achille Lauro, Fedez, Rosa Chemical and Marracash are minimal. Elodie and Antonello Venditti are also added to this list and aren’t expected, neither as participants nor as presenters.

Italian media, however, have also predicted some names that would possibly be positive to a participation in the Festival. The biggest of these names is the legendary Al Bano. Next up are Giuseppe Povia, a possible father-son duet by Gigi D’Alessio and LDA, Rita Pavone, Enrico Ruggieri, as well as winners of the Festival and Italy’s representatives in Eurovision 2015 Il Volo.

In addition to the above, Italian media are reporting that Amadeus’s position as artistic director and presenter of the Festival is in danger, despite his renewed contract. At the same time, the rest of the cast of presenters is also unclear.

The winner of this year’s much-discussed Sanremo Festival was Marco Mengoni with his song Due Vite, with which he even managed to get Italy the 4th place in Eurovision 2023.

https://youtu.be/N4HBDAbdXUg

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Sanremo 2024!

Source: IL SITO

Switzerland: Preparations for Eurovision 2024 have already begun!

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The songwriting camps have already started all over Europe. One of this year’s Austrian representatives, Teya participated in the Swiss camp as a songwriter.

As she informed us via a tweet, she took part in the listening session for the songs yesterday and revealed that there is a 99.99% chance that she heard the Swiss entry for Eurovision 2024 and she is sure that if selected, we will love it. Thus making it clear that the Swiss have set their standards high and are working towards the best result.

It is worth noting that the composition of “Watergun” of this year’s Switzerland’s participation in Eurovision 2023 was also written at this camp in 2021.

Remo Forrer with the song “Watergun” won the 20th place for Switzerland in the Eurovision 2023 Grand Final!

Do you think Switzerland will be able to claim a better result at Eurovision 2024?

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all Eurovision news!

Iceland: Participation at Eurovision 2024 confirmed!

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Iceland is going to be present at Eurovision 2024 in Sweden.

The national broadcaster of Iceland, RÚV, confirmed the participation of the nordic island nation in the next Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Sweden, as the submission process for the Söngvakeppnin 2024 commences on the 15th of  June. This is the first time that the songs submission window opens so early.

The confirmation of participation came alongside with the reveal of the viewing figures of the Contest. An average 60% of the viewers watched the Grand Final with a peak of 73%.

The Manager of Söngvakeppnin, Rúnar Freyr Gíslason, commented:

“We are incredibly happy and proud of Diljá and the Icelandic scene. She is a young singer who is taking her first steps in the business and it is quite clear that she has a future ahead of her,”

“Our preliminary competition here at home, the Söngvakeppnin , has grown and prospered every year and Eurovision is getting bigger and bigger. Music streaming has increased tremendously and serious authors and singers all over Europe are starting to look at participating in the competition as a preferred option to let the world hear their music,”

Diljá represented Iceland in 2023 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Power” and finished 11th in the Second Semi-Final with 44 points, and thus did not advanced to the Grand Final.

Source: Eurovoix

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Norway: The most possible days for Melodi Grand Prix 2024!

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Through a research conducted by the website escnorge, several announcements were found from NRK, Norway’s public television, regarding the search for professionals for Melodi Grand Prix 2024. These positions are Producer, Producer for the artists’ appearances, content creator and arists coordinator for MGP 2024.

The most interesting about these announcements is that three of them mention the end date of the each job. The content creator’s last day is Sunday, February 4th, while the artist coordinator’s last day is Sunday, February 18th. This helps us estimate that the MGP will take place in February.

Since the artist coordinator has a deadline of February 18th, we can believe that the MGP 2024 final will take place on Saturday, February 10th.

The previous winner of Melodi Grand Prix and Norway’s representative at Eurovision 2023, was Alessandra Mele with the song “Queen of Kings” and placed 5th in the Grand Final:

https://youtu.be/PUHSM_vTqTI

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Norwegian participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, in Sweden!

Source: escnorge.no

Eurovision 2024: ABBA will not appear at the contest!

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Despite intense speculation, ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson have confirmed the legendary Swedish band will not appear at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight to mark the first anniversary of ABBA Voyage, their virtual concert residency in London, the pair said “we can celebrate 50 years of Abba without us being on stage.”

Although Bjorn made a brief cameo appearance before the voting sequence at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, he and bandmate Benny also dismissed the idea of composing Sweden’s entry next year.

In 2024 we will also have the 50th anniversary of the band’s historic victory with the song “Waterloo” but it seems that the members of ABBA are negative about a joint appearance on the stage of the competition as well as a joint tour!

Watch ABBA’s legendary win with “Waterloo” from the 1974 contest:

source: BBC

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2024!

Spain: Change of head of delegation after failure in Eurovision 2023!

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Spain’s public broadcaster, RTVE, has announced that Eva Mora will no longer be the head of delegation in the Eurovision Song Contest. The change comes after Spain finished 17th in Eurovision 2023, last in the TV audience vote.

The new head of delegation is Ana María Bordas, who was assistant head of delegation in Liverpool, but has served in various positions in connection with the Eurovision contest since 2017.

RTVE has also announced the team that will undertake to carry out Benidorm 2024. Thus, in addition to Ana María Bordas, César Vallejo and María Eizaguirre, executives of the Spanish public television, will be responsible for the conduct of its national final of Spain for 2024.

Three musicians were placed with them, as advisors. These are the following:

Pablo Cebrián – musician, composer and music producer
Rayden – singer, participated in Benidorm Fest 2022
Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson – Producer and composer

A committee will evaluate the songs submitted and select the 16 best songs to compete in Benidorm 2024. This committee will include the six persons mentioned above, but also José Pablo López, Director of General Content at RTVE, Virginia Díaz, Tony Aguilar and Miryam Benedict.

Source: RTVE

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2024!