Eurovision 2022: Gabriele Corsi tested positive in Covid-19!

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The spread of the Omicron variant, as expected, could not leave the microcosm of Eurovision unaffected. Posting on Instagram, the presenter of the Eurovision 2022 Allocation Draw, Gabriele Corsi, announced that he tested positive in Covid-19.

As a result, Corsi will not present the Allocation Draw of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place at the Palazzo Madama in Turin on January 25.

As expected, Corsi expressed his disappointment with this development:

This was the suit (and the smile) I was supposed to wear at the Allocation Draw, in Turin, on tuesday. Unfortunately, I tested positive for Covid today. Apart from disappointment (which, I believe, is legitimate), I don’t have any symptoms. Compared to what others had to go through, this is nothing. I am really upset, however, I guess I can still use the suit for some other occasion and that I will wear my smile anyway. At this point, we all learned how to dodge both major and minor difficulties. And, in order to do that, we don’t need a nice suit. Just a big smile. The event is just postponed. See you all in Turin in May!

With Corsi’s illness taking place two days before the draw, it remains unknown who will co-host Tuesday’s event with Carolina Di Domenico.

Tuesday’s draw will determine whether the countries will participate in the First Semifinal (Tuesday, May 10) or in the Second Semifinal (Thursday, May 12). Also, again based on the draw it will be determined if they appear in the first or second half of the semifinal. We remind you that the exact order of appearance is announced later by the organizers and after it has first been approved by the EBU.

Source: EurofestivalNews

Germany: Further insight regarding “Germany 12 points”

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After two consecutive last placing and three placings in the 25th position in the last six contests, the German national broadcaster decided to host a national final for the selection of the German representative at the upcoming 66th Eurovision Song Contest in Turin, Italy.

The national final is not going to be “Unser Lied für Turin”, as expected, but a new show under the name “Germany 12 points” which is scheduled to take place on the 4th of  March. Additionally, on 10th of February the six artists who are going to compete at the show in Berlin as well as the members of the jury are going to be revealed.

The jury panel consists of members from Bayern3, Antenne Brandenburg, Bremen 4, HR 3, MDR Jump, NDR 2, SR 1, SWR 3 and WDR 2. The only already known name of this jury is Alexandra Wolfslast, the head of delegation of Germany at the contest. The task of this jury was to select the artists of the German national final among almost 1000 candidates. The final six artists emerged among 25 shortlisted candidates, who performed live before the jury on 14th and 15th of January.

After the artists and the jury members revelation the public is going to choose who will fly the German flag in Turin through an online voting which starts on 28th of February and is going to continue on the day of the final too, through SMS and telephone calls.

The hostess of Germany 12 points is going to be Barbara Schöneberger.

Last year Germany was represented by Jendrik and his song “I Don’t Feel Hate” which finished on 25th place receiving three points from the jury and zero from the televoting.

Sources: Eurovision.de / esc-kompakt.de

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun.com for all the latest updatets regarding the German participation at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest

Spain: Will Tanxugueiras perform on stage, at Benidorm Fest?

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After Luna Ki, that has withdrawn from Benidorm Fest, another act is in danger of not being able to perform live on stage, at Benidorm Fest, due to Aida and Olaia getting infected by COVID-19.

As the group has already Tweeted a few minutes ago and as some members of their team is already at Benidorm, Aida and Olaia will travel within the next few days, as a precaution.

But how is it going to work with Tanxugueiras at this year’s Spanish national final, but also for any other contestant that might also get infected by COVID-19?

The three scenarios

Three different scenarios have been announced in case an artist tests positive for COVID-19 at Benidorm Fest.

In a recent article, RTVE unveiled the contingency plan in case a competing artist turns out positive before appearing in the upcoming Spanish selection process Benidorm Fest.

The producers, Boomerang TV and the broadcaster, RTVE, have come up with three different scenarios to ensure that every song and artist will be able to compete in this year’s Benidorm Fest.

  • The first scenario is that if the artist has already completed his first rehearsal, it will be broadcast during the live show instead of a live performance.
  • Second, if the artist comes out positive before his first rehearsal, then the official music video for the song will be played.
  • The final scenario is that, if there is no music video, the song will be played with montage of images and photos of the artist.

It was announced by Eva Mora, head of the Spanish delegation, that it was not possible to produce live performances, such as those created for this year’s ESCZ selection process and the expected process of Northern Macedonia, due to lack of time.

The Benidorm Fest will be held with two semifinals on January 26 and 27, leading to the Grand Final on January 29. The songs and the artists have been revealed and the order of the two semifinals has also been decided and announced.

The voting system

Only eight artists will make it to the grand final of the Benidorm Fest. The result will be done through a mixed voting system between a professional jury (national and international), televoting and a poll jury:

  • 50% of the grade will correspond to the professional jury consisting of five experts (three of Spanish nationality and two, international).
  • The remaining 50% will be in the hands of the public (where 25% will be by phone and SMS and the remaining 25% will be selected by a poll jury).
  • The artists will be given a phone number and as soon as everyone completes the show, the hotlines will be open for voting. The voting period will be approximately 15 or 20 minutes and the presenters, Alaska, Inés Hernand and Máximo Huerta, will be responsible for the announcement.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all news regarding Benidorm Fest and the spanish representative at Eurovision 2022!

Source: Tanxugueiras Twitter Account

Lithuania: Results of the third heat of Pabandom iš naujo

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The third heat of  Pabandom iš naujo 2022 took place today, which saw the final 12 hopefuls compete for the right to represent Lithuania at Eurovision 2022. The selection will consist of three heats, two semifinals and the final.

In each heat 6 songs will qualify for the semi finals, which were determined by 50% jury voting and 50% public voting.

The presenters of tonights show were Giedrius Masalskis, Ieva Stasiulevičiūtė and Richardas Jonaitis.

The running order for tonights show was:

• Basas Pegasus – “Ponai”

Rūta Loop – “Call Me from the Cold”

• Vasha – ” Nepaleidi “

Geleibra – ” Aš jaučiu tave “

• Vilija Matačiūnaitė – “Šimtas ir vienas“

• Emilija Valiukevičiūtė – “Overload”

• Gintarė Korsakaitė – “Fantasy Eyes”

• Živile Gedvilaitė – “Lioness”

• Monika Liu – “Sentimentai”

• Gebrasy – “Into Your Arms”

• Mėnulio Fazė – “Give Me a Sign”

• Lolita Zero – “Not Your Mother” 

 

The jurors who make up 50% of the result, who were revealed during the show are:

• Ramūnas Zilnys

• Darius Užkuraitis

• Gerūta Griniūtė

• Vytautas Bikus

• Ieva Narkutė

 

The 6 qualifiers from tonights show are:

1st – Monika Liu – “Sentimentai” (24 points)

2nd – Rūta Loop – “Call Me from the Cold” (16 points)

3rd – Lolita Zero – “Not Your Mother” (16 points)

4th – Gebrasy – “Into Your Arms” (14 points)

5th – Gintarė Korsakaitė – “Fantasy Eyes” (11 points)

6th – Vilija Matačiūnaitė – “Šimtas ir vienas” (10 points)

 

Monika Liu with the song “Sentimentai” was the winner of the second heat after placing 1st with the jury and 1st with the televote.

 

Jury Result:

Televote Result:

Overall Result:

 

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

Norway: Results of MGP 2022 Second Semi-Final!!

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Tonight we watched the second semi-final of Melodi Grand Prix 2022, which took place at 19:50 CET. Four artists competed for the one ticket that leads directly to the Grand Final of 19th of February 2022. We also had the chance to enjoy the performance of the pre-qualified entry “Wonder of the World” by Christian Ingebrigtsen.

The hosts of the show were Kåre Magnus Bergh, Annika Momrak, Mikkel Niva.

The four contestants of the second live show were:

Those aforementioned candidates have been divided into two duels, the winners of these will compete for the ticket to the final. The duels are:

  1. Lily Lowe – Bad Baby VS  Stefen Jakobsen – With me Tonight
  2. Farida – Dangerous  VS  Daniel Lucas – Kvelertak

The betting odds before the show looked as follows:

The winner of the first duel (Lily Lowe – Bad Baby VS  Stefen Jakobsen – With me Tonight) was

Stefen Jakobsen – With me Tonight

The winner of the second duel (Farida – Dangerous  VS  Daniel Lucas – Kvelertak) was

Farida – Dangerous 

Afterwards we had the chance to listen live to the automatic finalist Christian Ingebrigtsen and his entry “Wonder of the World”

Stefen and Farida once again performed their entries in this final duel.

 Stefen Jakobsen – With me Tonight VS Farida – Dangerous 

After this battle the second qualifier of MGP 2022 was Farida with the song “Dangerous”

The next semi-final is going to take place on 22nd of January at 19:50 CET! You can watch MGP 2022 by clicking here.

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun, for all the news regarding the Norway’s participation at Eurovision Song Contest 2022!

 

Norway: The betting odds just before the second MGP 2022 semi-final!

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The norwegian national final MGP 2022 continues tonight, with the second semi-final. Four songs will compete for the next ticket leading to the final on February 19th. But what do the bets predict for today’s semi-final?

The bets

Two songs seem to be fighting for the next ticket that will lead to the MGP Final. Stefen Jakobsen, with the song With me Tonight, has taken the first place in the bets the last few days, while he is also first in Spotify streams. On the other hand, Farida with Dangerous seems to be reducing the difference, being first in the rating of NRK critics.

We remind you that Frode Vassel with the song Black Flowers was the one to qualify from the first semi-final, overturning betting odds and charts, as he was last in both.

Second semi-final tonight

The second semi-final takes place tonight and includes the following four candidates:

The four participants have been divided into two duels, from which the two who will duel for a place in the grand final of the norwegian national final will emerge. The pairs, as they emerged from yesterday’s draw, are:

  1. Lily Lowe – Bad Baby VS  Stefen Jakobsen – With me Tonight
  2. Farida – Dangerous  VS  Daniel Lucas – Kvelertak

After both duels are completed, the winners advance to the golden duel and the winner advances to the final.

A guest appearance will be made by one of the five direct finalists, Christian Ingebrigtsen, who will be performing his song  Wonder of the world.

The presenters of the evening will be Kåre Magnus Bergh and Mikkel Niva.

You can watch the second semifinal of MGP 2022 at 19:55 CET through the official website of the norwegian public television, by clicking  here.

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

Australia: Listen to a snippet of Andrew Lambrou’s new Australia Decides 2022 song!

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As you have already read in one of our previous articles, regarding this year’s contestants of the Australian national final Australia Decides, Andrew Lambrou, an artist with Cypriot roots, is one of them.

Last night in one of his Instagram Stories, Andrew uploaded a long snippet of his competing song and commented:

What’s happening guys, a couple of days ago I posted a sneak peek of my next song. A lot of you absolutely loved it and wanted to hear more. So I’m gonna show you another sneak peek, but because I love Marvel I put the song over one of my favourite Marvel clips, and I just think it works. So have a listen and let me know what you think.

Earlier this week, on his Instagram account, he had uploaded a shorter snippet of his song, once more and also revealed that the song will be released soon in full:

Who is Andrew Lambrou

Andrew Lambrou is 23 years old, lives and works in Sydney. He writes and performs his own songs, starting at the age of five.

At the age of just 17 years old, he impressed all four judges of  XFactor Australia, and he advanced to the next stage quite easily. He received amazing feedback by the XFactor judges and global megastars – Danii Minogue, James Blunt, Chris Isaak, Guy Sebastian – Andrew got through the first phase with four YESes, after he’d performed “Chains” by Nick Jonas.

At the second phase, the one of five seat challenge, the coach of the boys under 25, Chris Isaak, had to choose just five of the guys to move on to the next phase. Andrew sang “Ain’t nobody” by Chaka Khan secured his place at the Top 5.

It’s worth noting that Andrew Lambrou was already well known, long before he took part in the XFactor Australia, as he was used to uploading videos of him doing song covers of massive worldwide hits, on his YouTube Channel.

Sadly, when he reached the phase of Super Home Visits, he was not lucky enough to advance to the Top 3 and take part in the live shows. This was due to him being too young and not experienced enough, at the same time. However, music industry moguls such as Simon Cowell commented on him really positively.

Already known song titles

Mid of January, in a previous article we had reported that the first song titles for Australia Decides 2022 had been revealed, as some candidates had announced the title of their songs that will compete to represent Australia in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

The song titles already revealed are:

  • Seann Miley Moore – “My Body”
  • Charley – “I Suck At Being Lonely”
  • Sheldon Riley – “Not the Same”

The lineup of Australia Decides 2022

Eleven acts will compete to be the next Australian Eurovision representative.  The participants for the next Australia Decides are:

  1. Isaiah Firebrace
  2. Jaguar Jonze
  3. Paulini
  4. Andrew Lambrou
  5. Sheldon Riley
  6. G-Nat! Ion.
  7. Sean Miley Moore
  8. Voyager Australia – “Dreamer“
  9. Charley
  10. Jude York – “I Won’t Need to Dream“

The eleven acts will compete at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Center on February 26 to represent Australia at Eurovision 2022. Australian broadcaster SBS decided to use Australia Decides as their national final after the success of  their national final.

Radio producer and presenter Myf Warhurst and comedian Joel Creasey will present the Australian national final.  Moreover, Creasey will be the SBS Eurovision commentator in May 2022.

Montaigne won the most recent edition of Australia Decides with the song “Don’t break me”.  Unfortunately her entry could not participate in Eurovision due to the cancellation of the competition in 2020.  She represented Australia in 2021 with “Technicolour”. You can watch her 2020 performance in the video embedded below:

Stay tuned at Eurovisionfun, for all the latest developments regarding the Australia Decides and the Australian entry for Eurovision 2022!

Norway: Spotify streams of the second semi-final of MGP 2022

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Tonight is the second semifinal of MGP 2022, Norway’s national final for the selection of the song that will represent the nordic country in Eurovision 2022.

There are four songs that competing tonight. The competition is going to be in the form of duels, and the winners of each duel will compete against each other for a ticket to the grand final. The duels are:

  1. Lily Löwe – Bad Baby VS  Steffen Jakobsen – With me Tonight
  2. Farida – Dangerous  VS  Daniel Lukas – Kvelertak

All four songs are available on Spotify and here is the rank by number of streams:

  1. Steffen Jakobsen – With me Tonight 67866
  2. Daniel Lukas – Kvelertak  56364
  3. Lily Löwe – Bad Baby  46223
  4. Farida – Dangerous 41896

Regarding all the songs of MGP 2022, Death Of Us by Elsie Bay and Give That Wolf A Banana by Subwoolfer are far ahead of the others.

Will we will see Steffen Jakobsen in the grand final of MGP? In just a few hours we will know the answer!

You can watch the second semi-final of MGP 2022 at 19:55 CET through the official website of NRK by clicking here

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun.com for all the developments regarding Norway and their participation at the upcoming contest in Turin.

photo: JULIA MARIE NAGLESTAD / NRK

Romania: Filming for the Selecţia Naţional semi-final is underway!

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The filming of the live performances of songs competing in the semi-final of Selecţia Naţional in Romania is underway at a TVR studio in Bucharest. The 46 participants have been filming their live performances since Thursday.

The performances of the artists will be uploaded online on February 5 and later, on February 9 and 10, the public will be able to vote for their favorite. The jury will select 15 songs to advance to the second part of the semi-final, while the audience will select 5 songs.

The songs competing in the national final are the following:

  • Alex Parker & Erik Frank & Bastien – “Best of me”
  • Aldo Blaga – “Embers”
  • Alexa – “Hoodies and cold nights”
  • Alina Amon – “Without you”
  • Ana Lazăr – “Youngster”
  • Andra Oproiu – “Younique”
  • Andrea Stocchino – “Avere paura” (To be afraid)
  • Andrei Petruş – “Take me”
  • ARIS – “Do Svidaniya” (Goodbye)
  • Ayona Iordănescu – “Let me come to you”
  • Barbara – “Hypnotized”
  • Bogdan Dumitraş – “Sign”
  • Carmen Trandafir – “Măşti” (Masks)
  • Cezar Ouatu – “For everyone”
  • Ciro De Luca – “Imperdonabile” (Unforgiveable)
  • Claudia, Minodora, Diana – “România mea” (My Romania)
  • Dan Helciug – “241”
  • Dora Gaitanovici – “Ana”
  • E-an-na – “Malere”
  • Eliza G – “The other half of me”
  • Eugenia Nicolae – “Doina”
  • Fabian Ferrara – “That way”
  • Forţele de muncă – “Hai afară, frate!” (Come out brother!)
  • Gabriel Basco – “One night”
  • Giulia-Georgia Beiliciu – “Find your way”
  • Ivelin Trakiyski – “Neverending”
  • Jessie – “Regret”
  • Kyrie Mendél – “Hurricane”
  • Letiţia Moisescu – “Mirunica”
  • Leyah – “I’ll be fine”
  • Mălina – “Prisoner”
  • Miryam – “Top of the rainbow”
  • MOISE – “Guilty”
  • Oana Tabultoc – “Utopia”
  • Olivia Miheţ – “Fragile”
  • Othello – “You’re worthy”
  • Outflow – “Running in circles”
  • Petra – “Ireligios” (Irreligious)
  • Popa Roberta-Maria – “Indigo”
  • Romeo Zaharia – “Until the fight is over”
  • Silvia Costache – “Save me”
  • Sophia – “Beautiful lies”
  • Stelian – “Remember”
  • VANU – “Never give up”
  • Vizi Imre – “Sparrow”
  • WRS – “Llámame” (Call me)

The second phase of the semi-final will take place on February 12, which will also be televised. There, the 20 songs that will have been selected will compete for the ten places of the final, while the verdict will belong exclusively to the members of the jury.

In the Grand Final, to be held on March 5, the 10 best songs will perform again and the winner will be selected by a combination of jury and audience votes. As in previous years, the televoting score will have the same weight as the score given by each member of the jury.

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

Norway: Interview with Elsie Bay from Melodi Grand Prix 2022! (Video)

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After the announcement of her participation in this year’s national final of Norway, Melodi Grand Prix 2022, Elsie Bay talks exclusively to EurovisionFun and George Zefteridis.

Elsie Bay is one of the automatic qualifiers at MGP 2022 finals, that also appeared and performed her song “Death of us“, live at the first semi final.

She mentions that she is really happy about her performance, as that was something she highly anticipated and with regards to the staging of her song, she mentioned that she had to keep it a secret, until she eventually performed it live.

I received quite some positive feedback and really nice messages about my semi-final performance. Currently we are working on my performance for the MGP finals, where there will certainly be some changes. But we’ve not decided on that, yet. 

“Death of Us” was born during a songwriting camp where she participated and as she says, she never expected she’d write a song which she would have to perform in the end.

I didn’t expect to compose a song for me, specifically for MGP. Last year, I’d composed the song “Witch Woods” which I decided to give to Emmy, as it suited her quite nicely. This year I had no idea what I could write about, flicked through some of my old notes, mixed and matched and then “Death of Us” came to life. And now I really believe that I got a chance to win the national selection.

From those songs of her competitors, she likes the songs of NorthKid, Subwoolfer, Vilde and Farida. Her favourite past Norwegian entry was the winning song “Fairytale” by Alexander Rybak (2009) and generally from the contest the loved last year’s winners Maneskin (Italy 2021), Loreen (Sweden 2012) and Gjon’s Tears (Switzerland 2021).

We couldn’t help but ask her about Amanda Tenfjord that will represent Greece this year, who is also half Norwegian. Elsie commented:

I know Amanda. I’m not sure if we’ve ever met in person, however, I think we’re under the same management. I’ve also worked with her producer, Bjorn. 

A few moments before we had to say goodbye to Elsie Bay, she sang a part of her song for us, acapella.

You can watch the entire exclusive interview of Elsie, one the video below:

You can listen to “Death of Us“, Elsie’s entry at MGP 2022 below!

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun, for all the latest developments regarding Melodi Grand Prix 2022 and the Norwegian entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest!