Lithuania: First Pabandom iš naujo 2022 semi-final tonight!

Three weeks after the start of Pabandom iš naujo 2022, it is time for the first semi-final of the selection process for the Lithuanian representative in Eurovision 2022.

As it is known, Pabandom iš naujo 2022, consists of six shows: three quarterfinals, two semifinals and the grand final. The result for all 6 nights will be determined 50% by the TV audience and 50% by a five-member jury. For the first time, the judges will not be revealed, with the results announced at the end of each show to ensure that the audience’s vote is not affected.

Presenters of this year’s edition of Pabandom iš naujo are Giedrius Masalskis, Ieva Stasiulevičiūtė and Richardas Jonaitis.

Participants

Nine artists will be competing in tonight’s first semifinal Pabandom iš naujo 2022, aiming to qualify for the grand final on February 12th.

These artists are:

  1. Elonas Pokanevič – “Someday
  2. Joseph June – “Deadly
  3. Gebrasy – “Into Your Arms
  4. Emilijana – “Illuminate
  5. Queens of Roses – “Washing Machine
  6. Gintarė Korsakaitė – “Fantasy Eyes
  7. Lolita Zero – “Not Your Mother
  8. Justė Kraujelytė – “How to Get My Life Back
  9. Erica Jennings – “Back To Myself

Only four of them will have the opportunity to claim, until the night of the final, the representation of Lithuania in Eurovision 2022.

Program

The full program of Pabandom iš naujo 2022 is as follows:

  • 1st Quarterfinal – January 8th
  • 2nd Quarterfinal – January 15
  • 3rd Quarterfinal – January 22
  • 1st Semifinal – January 29
  • 2nd Semifinal – February 5
  • Final – February 12

You can watch the first semifinal of Pabandom iš naujo! 2022 at 20:00 CET on the official website of lithuania public television, by clicking here.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Lithuania’s participation in Eurovision 2022!

Moldova: Song and representative for Eurovision 2022 to be chosen today!

The time for Moldova to select the song and artist who will represent them at the 66th Eurovision Song Contest in May has arrived.

The Moldovan public broadcaster, TRM, will internally select the artist who will be competing in Turin, with today’s live auditions largely determining the final selection.

According to yesterday’s TRM press release, the decision not to hold a national final is directly linked to the epidemiological situation in the country, which is at the mercy of the Omicron mutation.

The candidates

A total of twenty-eight artists with twenty-nine songs are competing to represent Moldova in Turin.

The candidates are:

  • Annet Smirnova – Toxic Eyes
  • Denis Midone – Run Away
  • Dianna Rotaru – My Time Is Now
  • Katy Rain – Lele
  • Naminal – Stop Tonight
  • Ricky Ardezianu – Cherche la femme
  • Sasha Bognibov – (I Just Had) Sex with Your Ex & My Friend Is Gay
  • The Tramps – Sky Blues
  • Trio Eva – Get a Kiss
  • Y-Limit – Nothing More
  • Tudor Bumbac – Iartă-mă că te iubesc
  • Carolina Gorun & Danieli Shvets – Take Me Anywhere
  • Emilia Vlas – Yama
  • Lemonique – Boys
  • Marcela Scripcaru – Starlight
  • Maxim Zavidia – Ready
  • Mihaela Andrei – Libre
  • Zdob și Zdub & Fratii Advahov – Trenulețul
  • Lanjeron – Magic Carpet
  • Pelageya Stefoglo – I’m the Only One
  • Ana Cernicova – Silent Battlefield
  • Angel Kiss – The Sunshine in Me
  • Diana Elmas – Spirit High
  • Ferum – Love Is
  • Sendrei – Beginners’ Luck
  • Valeria Barbas – My Tree
  • Viola Julea – Before (Twin Flame)
  • Viorela Moraru – Tell Me That You Love Me

The decision will be made by those responsible for Moldovan state radio and television, together with a jury.

The live auditions start at 13:00 CET and will be broadcast on channel Moldova 2. You can watch the Moldovan selection process by clicking HERE. The final selection is expected to be announced around 18:00, through the main news program of TRM.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Moldova’s participation in Eurovision 2022!

Norway: Interview with Frode Vassel | From The Voice Norway to the finals of Melodi Grand Prix 2022 ! (Video)

After the announcement of the contestants of the Norwegian National FinalMelodi Grand Prix 2022, Frode Vassel talks exclusively to EurovisionFun reporters, Apostolos Bogiannos and Apostolis Matamis.

Frode is one of the finalists of the Norwegian national selection process for Eurovision 2022 and is bidding on representing his country with the song “Black Flowers”. In 2021, even though he is an experienced  artist already, he took part in the Norwegian version of The Voice, where he managed to get a four chair turn by impressing the judges. Fast-forward to now, he wins his semi-final earning him a ticket to the finals of Melodi Grand Prix 2022.

In the first duel, I was very stressed out, to such an extent, that I forgot a part of the lyrics. Thank God, nobody had realised that. When I reached the gold duel, I was more laid back and it was a wonderful experience. 

Him securing a place at the finals of MGP, contradicted all the betting odds for the night:

I was not the favourite for that semi-final, but “Black Flowers” is one of those songs that sound better, when they’re performed live. I had a good feeling about the results and I kinda new that with a nice live performance, I could convince even those having the most doubts. Due to COVID-19, there was no audience at all at the venue. But I hope that we will have a live audience at the finals, it will make the whole show even better. 

Regarding his final performance, Frode admits that there might be some slight changes and these will mostly affect the camera shots. After that, he discussed the meaning behind his song “Black Flowers”.

The title has a metaphorical meaning and the song is all about the decisions that everyone has to make on a personal level, or maybe on the society or the world, for example the environment. There’s always somebody that makes some decisions and these have an impact on everyone else. Whoever can’t do this, is the one who has to pay the consequences of these decisions. We make decisions that we don’t know if they’re right and this happens quite often, just because this is the most convenient way of doing things. So “Black Flowers” speaks exactly about that, about the maturity of a person and how they eventually use their own powers. 

Frode is very satisfied with his song and as he states, “Black Flowers” had been selected from a bunch of different songs he had prepared, when the idea of competing at Melodi Grand Prix 2022 came up. He might release some of those songs, after the contest.

From his competitors’ songs his favourites are those of Subwoolfer, Elsie Bay and NorthKid.

His favourite Norwegian entry is the one of Alexander Rybak (2009) while his favourite entries from the entire contest are Loreen (Sweden 2012), Go_A (Ukraine 2021) and Sanja Ilić & Balkanika (Serbia 2018).

We couldn’t help but ask his thoughts about Amanda Tenfjord, who is half-Norwegian as well, Frode commented:

I haven’t met her in person but she is well known in Norway. It would be interesting, if I got selected to represent Norway and met her in Turin. Of course 12 points go to Greece, this year.

A while before we said goodbye to Frode, he sang a part of his song acapella.

Don’t miss out on our exclusive interview with Frode! You can watch it on the video below:

You can listen to “Black Flowers“, Frode’s song for Melodi Grand Prix 2022 at the video below!

North Macedonia: Listen to the participating songs of Za Evrosong!

As it was already known through the broadcaster’s Facebook account, the public television of North Macedonia, MRT, revealed earlier tonight the songs for Za Evrosong, the national final of North Macedonia for Eurovision 2022.

The six artists who will participate in the national final are (click on the song title to listen to the songs):

As a reminder, online voting is now open and will run for 7 days, until 4 February. The national final will take place on February 4 and the winner will be determined by the results of the online voting, as well as by the vote of the international jury of experts in a 50%-50% ratio.

Source: MRT

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the latest news regarding the North Macedonian participation in Eurovision 2022!

Slovenia: The four winners of EMA FREŠ!

A little while ago, EMA FREŠ was completed and alongside it, the list of the finalists of EMA 2022, Slovenia’s national final for Eurovision 2022, is completed as well!

The hosts were Eva Boto (Slovenia 2011), Melani Mekicar and Arne Međedović!

Fourteen new artists competed today for the four spots left on the semi-finals of EMA 2022.

The 14 young artists were:

  1. Mia Vučković – Telenovela
  2. De Liri – Obstajam
  3. Jon Vitezič – Jesus Style
  4. INA – Moj dopamin
  5. Marijan & Špela – I am so in Love
  6. Stela Sofia – Tu in zdaj
  7. Leya Leanne – Naked
  8. Nika S. – Počakaj me
  9. Katja Kos – “Deadly Flower“
  10. Jaka Hliš – “Svoje sreče krojač“
  11. Anja Vodošek – “Maniac“
  12. EMMA – Moja sreča
  13. LPS – Disko
  14. LUMA – All in

Juries decided upon the first two artists moving to the semi-final and the last two were decided using televote.

The four artists that move on to the semi-finals of EMA 2022 are:

So after the completion of EMA FREŠ the artists for EΜΑ 2022 are:

  1. July Jones – Girls Can Do Anything
  2. David Amaro – Še vedno si lepa
  3. Le Serpentine – Tud teb se lahk zgodi
  4. Bowrain & Brina – Čas je
  5. Jonatan Haller – Obzorje
  6. Batista Cadillac – Mim pravil
  7. Zala Smolnikar – V ogledalu
  8. Manouche – Si sama?
  9. Mia Guček – Independiente
  10. Gušti feat. Leyre – Nova romantika
  11. Klara Jazbec – Chasing Dreams
  12. Vedran Ljubenko – H2O dieta
  13. Anabel – Tendency
  14. BQL – Maj
  15. Hauptman – Sledim
  16. Eva Moškon – Kliki
  17. LUMA – All in
  18. Stela Sofia – Tu in zdaj
  19. LPS – Disko
  20. Leya Leanne – Naked

We remind you that EMA 2022 consists of two semi-finals and one final. The semi-finals will take place on February 5 and 12 and the grand final on February 19 at 20:00 CET on TV SLO 1. In each semi-final, eight known artists and two artists from EMA FREŠ will compete to move on to the final. The juries and the public will decide on three finalists each. In the final, a five member jury (50%) and the public(50%) will decide which one of the 12 finalists will represent Slovenia in Turin

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding the Slovenian participation in Eurovision 2022!

Moldova: The representative for Eurovision 2022 to be selected tomorrow!

A few minutes ago Moldova’s broadcaster, TRM, announced that they will select Moldova’s song for Eurovision 2022 after tomorrow’s round of live auditions!

According to the press release, “the Organising Committee notes the impossibility of organising and broadcasting the final stages of the TV broadcast due to the epidemiological situation in the country and the significant increase, lately, in the number of COVID-19 cases”.

A total of twenty-eight artists with twenty-nine songs will compete to represent Moldova in Turin.

The artists and songs competing are the following:

  • Annet Smirnova – Toxic Eyes
  • Denis Midone – Run Away
  • Dianna Rotaru – My Time Is Now
  • Katy Rain – Lele
  • Naminal – Stop Tonight
  • Ricky Ardezianu – Cherche la femme
  • Sasha Bognibov – (I Just Had) Sex with Your Ex & My Friend Is Gay
  • The Tramps – Sky Blues
  • Trio Eva – Get a Kiss
  • Y-Limit – Nothing More
  • Tudor Bumbac – Iartă-mă că te iubesc
  • Carolina Gorun & Danieli Shvets – Take Me Anywhere
  • Emilia Vlas – Yama
  • Lemonique – Boys
  • Marcela Scripcaru – Starlight
  • Maxim Zavidia – Ready
  • Mihaela Andrei – Libre
  • Zdob și Zdub & Fratii Advahov – Trenulețul
  • Lanjeron – Magic Carpet
  • Pelageya Stefoglo – I’m the Only One
  • Ana Cernicova – Silent Battlefield
  • Angel Kiss – The Sunshine in Me
  • Diana Elmas – Spirit High
  • Ferum – Love Is
  • Sendrei – Beginners’ Luck
  • Valeria Barbas – My Tree
  • Viola Julea – Before (Twin Flame)
  • Viorela Moraru – Tell Me That You Love Me

You can listen to all the entries on the TRM website here.

As a reminder, the live hearings will take place tomorrow, 29 January and will be broadcast live on Moldova 2 channel, but also online and will last 3 hours, from 15:00 to 18:00 CET.

Source: TRM

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding the Moldavian participation in Eurovision 2022!

Spain: The running order of the Final of Benidorm Fest 2022!

Through Spain’s official Twitter profile for Eurovision, the running order of the eight finalists of the national final, Benidorm Fest revealed.

The running order and the eight songs are:

  1.  Rayden – Calle de la llorería
  2.  Tanxugueiras – Terra
  3. Varry Brava – Raffaella
  4. Chanel – SloMo
  5. Rigoberta Bandini – Ay mamá
  6. Xeinn – Eco
  7. Gonzalo Hermida – Quién lo diría
  8. Blanca Paloma – Secreto de agua

We remind you that the winner of the first semi-final was Chanel, singing fourth in the final, and the winner of the second semi-final was Rigoberta Bandini, singing fifth. The final of Benidorm Fest 2022 will be broadcasted on Saturday February 29, by La 1, on 22:05 CET.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding the Spanish participation in Eurovision 2022!

Germany: “ESC vor acht” to promote National Final!

ARD, the Germany broadcaster, announced the beggining of eight short length shows for the promotion of their national final this year.

The name of those shows is “ESC vor acht”, which means Eurovision before eight, and they will be broadcasted for eight days at 20:15. The show will promote “Germany 12 points” and will also show the history of Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest.

“ESC vor acht” will be on the German TV those dates:

  • Monday 21 February 2022
  • Tuesday 22 February 2022
  • Wednesday 23 February 2022
  • Thursday 24 February 2022
  • Tuesday 1 March 2022
  • Wednesdasy 2 March 2022
  • Thursday 3 March 2022

The main goals that the channel wants to achieve with those shows is to promote online voting, which will start at February 28 until March 4, and also make Eurovision more appealing to older people, that’s why the shows will be broadcasted before the news.

The German National Final, “Germany 12 points”, will happen at the 10th of March and the participants would have already been revealed at the 10th of February.

In 2021, the country was represented by Jendrik and the song “I don’t feel hate” which achieved the 25th place with only 3 points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m0VEAfLV4E

Stay tuned in Eurovisionfun for all the latest news!

Source: Eurovoix

Spain: The results of the second semi-final of Benidorm Fest 2022!

Benidorm Fest, the festival which will determine the representative of Spain in Eurovision 2022, continues tonight with the second semifinal, live from the spanish state channel RTVE.

A total of seven candidates competed in the second semifinal, claiming four places for Saturday’s grand final.

Presenters of the evening were Alaska, Inés Hernard and Máxim Huerta.

The candidates

The seven candidates of the night were the following:

  1. Xeinn – Eco
  2. Marta Sango – “Sigues en mi mente
  3. Javiera Mena – “Culpa”
  4. Gonzalo Hermida – Quién lo diría
  5. Rigoberta Bandini – Ay Mama
  6. Rayden – “Calle de la llorería”
  7. Sara Deop – Make you say

The voting

50% of the results in all three shows (two semifinals and a final) comes from the jury, while the other 50% from the audience. The jury is divided into spanish and international, while 50% of the audience is divided into televoting and a sample of the spanish population selected on the basis of statistics and demographics (demoscopic jury). This is used in both the Sanremo Festival (Italy) and the Melodifestivalen (Sweden).

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

National jury:

Natalia Calderón – Professor of Vocals
Miryam Benedited – Director and Choreographer
Estefanía García – Singer, mezzo-soprano of the RTVE choir

International jury:

Marvin Dietmann – Director of many entries in the Eurovision Song Contest
Felix Bergsson – Head of the Icelandic delegation to Eurovision

Results

JURY

  1. Rigoberta Bandini 56 points
  2. Xeinn 46 points
  3. Rayden 45 points
  4. Marta Sango 36 points
  5. Javiera Mena 28 points
  6. Gonzalo Hermida 28 points
  7. Sara Deop 21 points

DEMOSCOPIC JURY

  1. Gonzalo Hermida 30 points
  2. Rigoberta Bandini 25 points
  3. Rayden 20 points
  4. Sara Deop 18 points
  5. Xeinn 15 points
  6. Marta Sango 12 points
  7. Javiera Mena 10 points

TELEVOTE

  1. Rigoberta Bandini 30 points
  2. Rayden 25 points
  3. Xeinn 20 points
  4. Gonzalo Hermida 18 points
  5. Marta Sango 15 points
  6. Javiera Mena 12 points
  7. Sara Deop 10 points

OVERALL

  1. Rigoberta Bandini 111 points
  2. Rayden 90 points
  3. Xeinn 81 points
  4. Gonzalo Hermida 71 points
  5. Marta Sango 63 points
  6. Javiera Mena 50 points
  7. Sara Deop 49 points

As a result, the four artists that qualify to the final of Benidorm Fest this Saturday are:

  1. Rigoberta Bandini – Ay Mama
  2. Rayden – “Calle de la llorería”
  3. Xeinn – Eco
  4. Gonzalo Hermida – Quién lo diría

You can watch the performance of this semi-final’s winner, Rigoberta Bandini, here:

What are your thoughts on today’s results? Tell us in the comments!

Moldova: Details about the live auditions “Audieri LIVE”!

A while ago the public broadcaster of Moldova, TVR, confirmed the way that the first round of the national final, Selecţia Naţională, will take place,  for the 66th Eurovision Song Contest

The live auditions, as we informed you in previous article, will take place in January 29, and will be broadcasted from the channel Moldova 2, as well as online and will last three hours from 13:00 to 16:00 CET.

The auditions “Audieri Live” will be evaluated from juries, with basic criteria the song, the vocal performance and not the staging, while the results will be announced on the evening news report of Moldova 1, at 18:00 CET.

The 28 competitors that will take part in the live auditions, after the withdrawal of Misscatylove and Intro due to travel restrictions from COVID-19, are:

  • Annet Smirnova
  • Denis Midone
  • Dianna Rotaru
  • Katy Ryan
  • Naminal
  • Ricky Ardezianu
  • Sasha Bognibov
  • The Tramps
  • Trio Eva
  • Y-Limit
  • Bumbac Tudor
  • Carolina Gorun & Danieli Shvets
  • Emilia Vlas
  • Lemonique
  • Marcela Scripcaru
  • Maxim Zavidia
  • Mihaela Andrei
  • Zdob și Zdub & Fratii Advahov
  • Lanjeron
  • Pelageya Stefoglo
  • Ana Cernicova
  • Angel Kiss
  • Diana Elmas
  • Ferum
  • Sendrei
  • Valeria Barbas
  • Viola Julea
  • Viorela Moraru

You can listen to the songs here.

After the live auditions, as the rules of Moldova’s national final say, the organizer will decide whether the national final will take place on March 5, 2022.

Last year, Natalia Gordienko raised Moldova’s flag at Rotterdam with the song “Sugar” and ended up in  13th place with 115 points

What is your favorite song Moldova’s national final? Write in the comments down below!

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Moldova’s participation in Eurovision 2022!

Source: TVR / Eurovoix