Natalia Gordienko is in Elounda, a favorite part of their vacation for the whole Dream Team. At the Elounda Peninsula Hotel, along with Philipp Kirkorov and Elias Kokotos, the Moldovan representative at Eurovision 2021 is spending her summer vacation, but is also preparing for her participation in the next contest. Read more
ERT, which in recent months has shown great mobility at all levels, preparing a very rich program for the autumn, with ambitious and meticulous productions, still keeps its papers closed regarding the Eurovision Song Contest. Read more
On the 1st of April, SBS has confirmed that Montaigne will have another chance to sing on the Eurovision stage. In fact, the news was not an April Fool’s joke.
Yesterday, Montaigne revealed that she has already written the song with which she will compete in Eurovision 2021.
The news came to light through the singer’s personal Twitter account and you can see it below:
i reckon i’ve written my eurovision song for next year it’s totally fucked, lets see what mgmt says
— Montaigne (@actualmontaigne) August 20, 2020
Australia Decides does not stop, as stated by the Australian head of delegation, Josh Martin, in 2022 will return as a method for selecting the song with whom Australia will compete in the contest.
The above news of course means that we will have to wait a year (and something) for the possible return of Dami Im to the Eurovision stage. As she had stated at Australia Decides 2020, where she appeared as a guest, she revealed that would participate in next year’s national final. But the direct assignment to Montaigne means that this will be possible in 2022.
The song with which Australia would be represented at Eurovision 2020 was Don’t Break Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr-wWxu4974&feature=emb_title
Although Sarah Dawn Finer has not been able to represent Sweden, in all the attempts she made at the Melodifestivalen, she has associated herself with the Eurovision Song Contest, as few artists in her country. Now, with a post on Twitter, she publicly expresses her interest in representing her father’s homeland at Eurovision 2021, the United Kingdom!
Sarah Dawn Finner, 39, has participated twice in the Melodifestivalen and has presented it three times. Eurovision fans literally adored her as Lynda Woodruff, at Eurovision 2013 and 2016 held in Sweden, with her humorous videos going viral.
In a Twitter post, Sarah Dawn Finner, who has a British father and an American mother, but was born and raised in Sweden, making a remarkable music and television career there, says she is now ready to represent the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2021.
I would love to represent the UK!
— Sarah Dawn Finer (@sdfinerofficial) August 20, 2020
At the same time, again on Twitter, she rules out participating in Melodifestivalen 2021, while she also denies the posts of the previous days that wanted her to participate, even as a composer.
FYI (for me). To avoid speculation. Yup, I was invited to be there as a songwriter for other artists. I did Not and will Not, participate as an artist. If the songs would make the cut.
— Sarah Dawn Finer (@sdfinerofficial) August 20, 2020
So far BBC has not clarified how its representative will be selected in the next Eurovision song contest.
Below you can see Sarah Dawn Finner performing with Dotter, Bulletproof, at the night of the presentation of the video clips of this year’s participations, on Swedish public television:
Would you like to see Sarah Dawn Finer, representing the UK at Eurovision 2021?
EBU has made it clear for another year that it does not intend to make a special invitation to Kazakstan or Kosovo in order to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. Although the case of Kosovo is quite complex and any participation would have bad consequences, as there are political and diplomatic implications, this is not the case with Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan is indeed a predominantly Asian country, with a small part belonging to Europe. It is not geographically located in the EBU area countries and is therefore not a member, although the Caucasus countries also do not belong to its broadcasting area, EBU exceptionally accepted the public broadcasters of these countries.
The argument, of course, that Kazakhstan cannot participate because it is not in Europe does not apply, since every year Israel or formerly Morocco, countries that do not belong to Europe, take part. Of course in recent years we have also Australia, a country located on the other side of the earth.
Many argue that Kazakhstan’s political regime is inconsistent with a contest that promotes freedom and respect for diversity like Eurovision. Indeed, Kazakhstan does not have one of the best democracies in the world, but is it worse off than Azerbaijan or, as we now see, Belarus?
It could not be a new case of Australia, that is, to participate with a special invitation, as it is a unique case, which has shown great interest in the competition, before it is finally given the right to participate, say some others. But when 365 songs have been submitted to Kazakhstan for Junior Eurovision this year, think about the interest for the senior Eurovision!
Now if the problem is where the contest will take place if Kazakhstan wins, the same can be said here as in the case of Australia, although Astana is not that far away. That is, to organize it in cooperation with another EBU member country, in the territory of the latter.
While according to the above there is no serious excuse for not participating in a country that has been participating in Junior Eurovision for three years with a special invitation, the EBU continues to close the door unnecessarily in Kazakhstan, despite its great desire to participate.
Kazakhstan, however, continues to hope every year that it will receive the special invitation to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, just as it does with Australia. The issue is that now the majority of fans are with him, considering the relevant decision of the EBU unfair and selective.
What is your opinion? Should Kazakhstan be invited to the Eurovision Song Contest or not?
A comment from the EBU on the ESCXtra website clarifies the picture of the possible participation of Kazakhstan and Kosovo in Eurovision 2021. The EBU leaves no room open, saying that there are no plans to invite the public televisions of Kazakhstan and Kosovo to Eurovision 2021. Read more
In an interview with the French-speaking Swiss public television RTS, Nadja Burkhardt, who is in charge of EBU events, referred to the conduct of Eurovision 2021. According to what she reveals, the organizers are in discussions with all parties involved, while considering every possible parameter , having come up with two basic scenarios for the next competition. Read more
Natalia Gordienko confirmed earlier that she will be the Moldova’s representative at Eurovision 2021 and now we can share with you everything we know so far. The song that Natalia will perform in Rotterdam next year, will have nothing to do with the song with which she would compete in this year’s contest. Read more
EurovisionFun had the pleasure and the honor of hosting Go_A in an exclusive interview. Go_A is a Ukrainian electro-folk band and consists of Kateryna Pavlenko, Ihor Didenchuk, Taras Shevchenko και Ivan Hryhoriak. This year, after their victory in the national final Vidbir 2020, they were set to represent Ukraine in Eurovision with the song “Solovey“, while from very early, after the cancellation of the competition, it was announced that they will internally represent the country in 2021 in Rotterdam.
Info: The idea to form a band that will combine modern electronic music with ethnic motifs first came to Taras Shevchenko in 2011, but the first attempts to work with actual musicians were in 2012. At the end of that year, in December, the first song “Koliada” was released. The band’s name means “return to the roots” and was made by combining the English word “Go” with the Greek letter “Alpha“, which symbolizes the beginning of everything.
First of all, thank you for this interview. You won Vidbir 2020 and you would represent Ukraine in Eurovision 2020 with the song “Solovey”. How you felt after winnng your country’s national final this year?
Actually it was quite a surprise for us. We couldn’t believe that a band that had been staying in musical underground for 7 years without a manager or label support could win such contest. So our first impression was “Ok, what’s the catch?”. But then we felt a great responsibility, because we understood we were the first band in Eurovision history that would perform a song fully in Ukrainian. We find it very important. As one of our European fans said, not many people in Europe or the rest of the world know that Ukraine has its own language and culture – and we have a chance to show it.
How you felt after the heartbreaking announcement that this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled?
Taras: When Eurovision was cancelled everything happened so fast, there hadn’t any time for feelings. We were working in the studio when we received two messages on my phone. The first one – Eurovision was cancelled, the second one – UA:PBC (which is responsible for Eurovision in Ukraine) had decided that we would be the Ukraine’s entry for Eurovision 2021.
Could you tell us more about your team behind “Solovey”? Will be the same team for your next year’s entry?
The song was written by Taras & Kate so next year it will be the same way. As for the performance team – we are looking for professionals that will help us implement our ideas.
“Solovey” has a unique and traditional sound and it’s in Ukrainian language. What that, singing in your own language, means to you? Will you still use traditional sounds and Ukrainian in 2021?
Our aim is to show our cultural heritage to the whole world because we believe it should take its place in pop music the same way it has already happened with Indian, Arabian and Latin folk music. And of course it includes us singing in Ukrainian and using traditional Ukrainian sound techniques.
As I said before, your song was among the few traditional songs this year. Do you believe that in the future contests, the countries should prefer to use traditional sounds and their own language?
We think that depends on the artist. Every artist expresses his/her thoughts and emotions through the song’s lyrics. Some of them are great in writing songs in English, others prefer to do it in their own language. Our song Solovey wouldn’t sound like Solovey any more if it was translated in English but still there are a lot of great songs in English and I can’t imagine them being performed in a different language. Again, it’s all about the artist’s attitude.
In 2016, Jamala won Eurovision for Ukraine. How would you feel if you were the 3d act which will bring the contest in your country?
We would consider it to be a great honor and responsibility. But based on our experience of winning Ukraine’s national selection we understand it’s difficult to predict one’s feelings till the very moment.
The last years, Ukraine used to organize a national final. How did you feel when you noticed that you have internally selected for 2021?
We had very little time to feel anything. For us it was like “Ok, we need to write another song for the next year, so lets get started”.
As you already let us know, you will create five songs for your personal national final so people will choose the best one. Have you already some songs on hand? Have you started the preparation about that?
The idea first came up as a joke but then we realized it was a good way to show some respect to people who voted for us this year. We started to work in the studio right after Eurovision had been cancelled and so far we have several pieces of music. But you’d never know which song will be THE song or in our case – one of several songs. I mean, in the past we had situations when we did a song, put it on the shelf, then listened to it in several days and realized it wasn’t “us”, it didn’t feel like a Go_A song – so we just threw it away. Maybe we’ll treat our song we did for the last two months the same way. Maybe not. Time will tell.
This year, Greece would be represented by the 17 years old Stefania with the song “Supergirl”. Stefania also already confirmed for 2021. What do you think about her?
“SUPERG!RL” is incredibly powerful and yet very tender song, and so is Stefania herself. Can’t wait to hear her new song for Eurovision 2021.
*In closing, Go_A sent a message to EurovisionFun as well as to all Greeks who will be invited to vote for Ukraine at Eurovision 2021!*
We warmly thank Go_A for this interview and we wish them best of luck next year in Rotterdam!
