Sweden: Insight into the Melodifestivalen 2024 1st heat songs! | SVT Pre-Listening Event

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Melodifestivalen 2024 first show is on the forthcoming Saturday, February the 3rd, which will take place at Malmö Arena in Malmö.

What to expect

Already in this competition, the first of five, there will be an interlude with a capital I when the hit group A-Teens reunites to celebrate their 25th anniversary. For the first time in eighteen years , Marie Serneholt, Sara Lumholdt, Dhani Lennevald and Amit Paul are now appearing together, and will offer a cracking medley with both their own songs and some of ABBA‘s songs.

The Pre-listening Process

This year, we are invited to the pre-listening event that SVT holds every Tuesday at 10am CET, before each of the five heats of Melodifestivalen 2024, or as it is called “Förhandslyssningen“. Approximately 50 people, carefully selected by SVT are invited to listen the entire songs of each heat in the pre-listening events. So, we had the chance to listen to the entire running order of this week’s heat twice.

But how do the songs of this heat sound like?

    • “Supernatural” – Adam Woods
      Writers: Jonna Hall, Calle Hellberg, William Segerdahl and Adam Woods.

    It’s an EDM pop, reminds me of Avicii bangers. Amazing vocals, great production, but everything is there for a reason. When it gets staged it will sure be an immersive experience. Feels like you’re drowning in love. Would love to see him as a DTF!

    • “Hela världen väntar” – Samir & Viktor
      Writers:David Kreuger, Fredrik Kempe, Niklas Carson Mattsson

    Typical Samir & Viktor song in Swedish, of course an “oj oj oj” part would be there. This song will surely involve the crowds a lot. I secretly danced to it while listening. Low-key reminds me of “Ay Mamá“ by Rigoberta Bandini, Benidorm 2022.

    • “Min melodi” – Melina Borglowe
      Writers:Andreas Mattsson, Melina Borglowe, Thomas G:son

    It’s a guitar-based pop song with obvious indie elements. I can hear Thomas G:Son contribution to the song. Melina‘s voice is ethereal. Would this qualify directly to the finals though? Not sure, but a pleasant song overall.

    • “Forever Yours” – Elisa Lindström
      Writers:Elisa Lindström, Erik Bernholm, Henric Axelsson, Henrik Sethsson, Thomas G:son

    Schlager party is the theme, if you know what I mean. I can picture it with lots of light. Elisa does what Sweden knows to do best. High notes and an ear-candy key change! Hope this works on stage too!

    • “Awful Liar” – Lisa Ajax
      Writers:David Lindgren Zacharias, Sebastian Atas, Victor Crone, Victor Sjöström

    A love power-ballad for Lisa this year. Reminds me of a Natalie Imbruglia ballad. Guitar and strings on the plate for a hapily sad song. Beautiful song.

    • “Heroes Are Calling” – Smash Into Pieces
      Writers:Andreas ”Giri” Lindbergh, Benjamin Jennebo, Chris Adam Hedman Sörbye, Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Per Bergquist

    Their distinctive sound is there, stronger than their entry last year in my opinion. Low BPM but amazing production to the last touch. Is this song a contender for the win? Let’s find out. I think it is.

Our thoughts

It is hard to decide, the victory of Loreen has stepped up the game and everyone has done a great job this year. After the second listen, I would expect Adam Woods or Elisa Lindström and Smash into Pieces to be the DTF acts and Adam Woods or Elisa Lindström along with Lisa Ajax to remain in the competition.

Their staging remains to be seen so that we can have a clear picture of the finalists of this Heat. We will have a clear view tomorrow morning, when their first rehearsals start on stage, at Malmö Arena.

The show

Carina Berg is the host of all the shows of the tour this year! With the next show of the contest on Saturday February the 3rd, Melodifestivalen will take place in Malmö, then Göteborg follows and finally the final show in Stockholm on the 9th of March.

The schedule for the six shows of the Melodifestivalen 2024 tour

  • Heat 1: Saturday 3 February 2024, Malmö Arena, Malmö
  • Heat 2: Saturday 10 February 2024, Scandinavium, Göteborg
  • Heat 3: Saturday 17 February 2024, Vida Arena, Växjö
  • Heat 4: Saturday 24 February 2024, Stiga Sports Arena, Eskilstuna
  • Heat 5: Saturday 2 March 2024, Löfbergs Arena, Karlstad
  • Final: Saturday 9 March 2024, Friends Arena, Stockholm – Solna

Which two of the above artists do you think will be the direct qualifiers to the finals? Let us know in the comments section below.

Stay tuned at Eurovisionfun, for all the latest developments regarding Melodifestivalen 2024 and the Swedish entry for Eurovision 2024!

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Lithuania: Listen to “Simple Joy” by THE ROOP!

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As we’ve previously informed you, THE ROOP, former Eurovision participants of Lithuania in 2020 and 2021, announced that they are going to once again take part in the Lithuanian national final, for Eurovision 2024.  Read more

Spain: the results of Benidorm Fest 2024 First Semifinal!

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Tonight the first semifinal of the 2024 Benidorm Fest took place.  For a third year, the festival serves as Spain’s national final for Eurovision 2024. The first semi-final was broadcast live on RTVE.

A total of eight candidates performed in the first semi-final, competing for the first four spots for Saturday’s Grand Final.

The show was hosted by  Ruth Lorenzo (Spain 2014), Marc Calderó and Rodrigo Vázquez.

The candidates

  1. Lérica – “Astronauta“
  2. Noan – “Te echo de –“
  3. Sofia Coll – “Here to Stay“
  4. Mantra – “Me vas a ver“
  5. Miss Caffeina – “Bla Bla Bla“
  6. Quique Niza – “Prisionero“
  7. Angy Fernández – “Sé quién soy“
  8. Nebulossa – “Zorra“

The voting

50% of the result in all three shows (two semifinals 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 based on 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:

  • Beatriz Luengo (Spanish musician, composer, actress, dancer)
  • Ángela Carrasco (Dominican singer)
  • Carlos Baute (Venezuelan singer-songwriter and television host)
  • Guille Milkyway (Spanish singer, composer, DJ and producer)
  • Lee Smithurst (Executive Producer, BBC Head of Show for Eurovision 2023)
  • David Tserunyan (Armenian Head of Delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest )
  • Nicoline Refsing (Artistic Director at Eurovision 2014)
  • Marta Piekarska. (Poland Head of Delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest)

The results

The split results of the first semifinal of Benidorm 2024 were as follows:

Juries (50%)

  1. Nebulossa 84 points
  2. Miss Caffeina 64  points
  3. Angy Fernández 62 points
  4. Sofía Coll 58 points
  5. Noan 46 points
  6. Quique Niza 45 points
  7.  Lérica 40 points
  8. Mantra 33 points

Demographic jury (25%)

  1. Angy Fernández 40 points
  2. Nebulossa 35 points
  3. Sofía Coll 30 points
  4. Noan 28 points
  5. Mantra 25 points
  6. Lérica 22 points
  7. Quique Niza 20 points
  8. Miss Caffeina 16 points

Televoting (25%)

  1. Mantra 40 points
  2.  Angy Fernández 35 points
  3. Nebulossa 30 points
  4. Sofía Coll 28 points
  5. Miss Caffeina 25 points
  6. Noan 22 points
  7. Lérica 20 points
  8. Quique Niza 16 points

Overall ranking

  1. Nebulossa 149 points
  2. Angy Fernández 137 points
  3. Sofía Coll 116 points
  4. Miss Caffeina 105 points
  5. Mantra 98 points
  6. Noan 96 points
  7. Lérica 82 points
  8. Quique Niza 81 points

The finalists of the first semi-final in Benidorm are therefore:

  1. Nebulossa – “Zorra“
  2. Sofia Coll – “Here to Stay“
  3. Miss Caffeina – “Bla Bla Bla“
  4. Angy Fernández – “Sé quién soy“

You can watch the performance of the winner of the first semifinal, Nebulossa, below:

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for more news about the Benidorm Fest 2024 and Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024!

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Germany: The fourth episode of “Ich will zum ESC” is finished!

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As we informed you in our previous article, the fourth episode of “Ich will zum ESC” took place. It is a six-episode competition show, the winner of which will win a place in the “Deutsche Finale”, the national final through which Germany’s entry for Eurovision 2024 will be selected.

The contestants will be supported during this process by two coaches, Rea Garvey and Eurovision 2014 winner Conchita Wurst. In the first five episodes, the contestants will choose to perform covers or songs of their own composition, while in the sixth and final episode they will perform the song with which, if they win, they will participate in the “Deutsche Finale”, which will be held on February 16.

The artists who participated in the fourth episode of “Ich will zum ESC” were divided into 4 groups:

  • Christos & Sven: Take Me To Church
  • Anne, Luca & Sophie: Time After Time
  • Flo & Bibiane: Dancing On My Own
  • Esther, Béranger & Paul: You Get What You Give

After the performances of the artists, two contestants left “Ich will zum ESC”. The artists who left are:

  1. Christos
  2. Esther

Thus, the two groups have been formed as follows:

  • Team Conchita: Anne, Luca, Sophie, Sven
  • Team Rea: Béranger, Bibiane, Paul und Florian

Source: ESC Kompakt

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun to be the first to read about all the developments regarding our favorite competition!

Christer Björkman: “We will be effective and we will be able to shorten the show!” | Exclusive Interview

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Andreas Papayiannakis and EurovisionFun was invited along with a limited number of media by SVT, to attend the official hand-over ceremony of the contest hosting, from the City of Liverpool to the City of Malmö and the Eurovision Allocation Draw which was broadcast live on eurovision.tv and Ertflix tonight.

There we had the chance to meet several of the people involved in the production of the contest, the Mayor of the City of Malmö Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, the Program Executive of the City of Malmö Karin Karlsson, Eurovision Executive Producer Ebba Adielsson, and Show Producer Christer Björkman.

Christer Björkman spoke exclusively to us about his comeback and more. Christer has been a show producer for five times, now he’s coming back for the sixth time. But how does it feel to be back? Was he planning on his return? Christer said:

“No, I mean to me it was something that I have left behind me and I felt I was done with it. But then when they called and said, you know, we want you, we need you, it’s very hard to say no to Eurovision. You know that, we all know that, we’re fans, you know, in the back of our bones we’re fans. And I’m very proud to be back.”

SVT has always been a trendsetter throughout the years and now with the help of Christer, they are planning on cutting down on the show for up to one hour this year. Christer clarifies:

“Well, we’re trying to be effective. We set up a goal for ourselves to have a show that is 3.30, which is roughly what it was in Malmo last time. That’s sort of the national ego that makes us do that and having done this in Sweden quite recently, you know, in 2016 and we did 2013, so we don’t have to do all that over and over again. So we will be effective and we will be able to shorten it. Maybe not all the way to 3.30, but not far from it.”

Christer has done so many great shows in the past, so his opinion on competing songs and staging matters a lot. So we asked him what he thinks of the Cypriot entry “Liar” and Silia Kapsis! Christer admitted he has listened to the song of Cyprus and got really enthusiastic about telling us his opinion about it:

“Oh my God, I have. I think it’s a very good song. I have not seen Silia live, so I cannot judge the artist’s ability when it comes to a live performance. But the recording is great and I love the song. And it will definitely be one of the songs that I will be very keen on to work with because I think it can be a really good stage performance as well. So that one is good.”

The last time there has been a comment like this about a Greek or Cypriot entry, was back in 2018 with the participation of Cyprus with Eleni Foureira and the song “Fuego“.

You can watch our exclusive interview with Christer Björkman at the video down below:

Special thanks to SVT for inviting us and the City of Malmö for the great hosting at this lovely ceremony, but also many many more that are about to come.

Stay tuned at Eurovisionfun and don’t miss out on anything regarding our most loved contest!

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Christer Björkman: “I’m here to make the greatest TV show in the world, SVT can answer on Israel’s participation!”

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On Monday, more than 1.000 Swedish artists, sent a petition to the EBU and the public broadcaster of Sweden, SVT, in order to ask for Israel’s exclusion from Eurovision, as we’ve previously informed you.

Read more

Norway starts MGP 2025 preparations with first songwriting camp!

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Norway’s national final Melodi Grand Prix 2024 has not finished yet, but the nordic country is starting preparations already for next year’s Eurovision.

Norwegian music studio “The Woods” has invited interested musicians to participate in the songwriting camp, for  Melodi Grand Prix 2025. The songwriting camp will take place in  April 2024.

MGP 2025 Songwriting camp

“The Woods” will host the first songwriting camp which will start modeling the first demo songs and ideas that may end up competing on the stage of Melodi Grand Prix.  Songwriting camps are significant events.  They are aimed to connect artists and composers and kickstart the creative process to get the best candidates for the Eurovision Song Contest. The songwriting camp will take place in Rennes, Norway.  Furthermore, some of the songs created there may compete in MGP 2025 and even in Eurovision 2025.

The writing camp will start on April 5, 2024, and will last approximately two days. The organizers promise that all songs will be considered for the Melodi Grand Prix 2025 selection. In addition to this, the head of the Norwegian delegation to Eurovision, Stig Carlsen will also be present.

The writing camp in Norway is one of the many songwriting events that take place in Europe every year, where many creators gather and write songs, many of which end up competing in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The final of the 2024  Melodi Grand Prix will be held on Saturday, at  19:50  CET.  A combined vote of the public (60%) and an international jury (40%) will decide who will represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 held in Malmö, Sweden.

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for more news about Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024!

Source: thewoodsnorway.com, euromix

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Eurovision 2024: The Semi-Final Allocation Draw Results!

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Malmö with a very nice event hosted a few minutes ago the draw for the semi-finals of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest.

The analyzes of the fans and not only, have been on fire for a few minutes now. Since the theories based on the pre-history of the countries in the competition, it is a first insight into how passable the qualification to the final is or not. In other words, it’s time to make our predictions, about who will go through to the final and who are the favorites to say goodbye to Malmö early…

The presenters and the handover ceremony

Presenters of the Eurovision 2024 semi-final draw were Pernilla Månsson Colt and Farah Abadi. It is worth mentioning that Pernilla Månsson Colt was also the presenter of the corresponding draw in 2013, eleven years ago when Malmö hosted the Eurovision Song Contest for the last time. Both of them are part of the SVT staff, being some of the most beloved faces of the Swedish state broadcaster.

During the draw, the ceremony of handing over and accepting the emblem of the contest took place. The mayor of Liverpool, Steven Rotheram, formally handed over the “keys to the event” to the mayor of Malmö, Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh.

Draw Procedure

Big 5 and Sweden

With the big winner of last year’s competition, Sweden, directly in the final, along with the Big 5 (UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain), the first part of the draw determined the semi-final that the direct finalists would vote for.

Will vote in the 1st Semi-Final:

  • Sweden
  • United Kingdom
  • Germany

Will vote in the 2nd Semi-Final:

  • Spain
  • Italy
  • France

In the semi-final that the six aforementioned countries were drawn to broadcast and vote for, the video from their dress rehearsal will also be shown. This was done at Eurovision 2016 for the first time, for reasons of equal exposure of the countries directly in the final and the countries that qualify from the semi-finals. Essentially, viewers see each entry twice during the shows.

Semi-Final Allocation Draw

The allocation draw for the two semi-finals had two parts. In the first part the 31 countries participating in the semi-finals were drawn in which of the two they will compete in. Fifteen countries will compete in the first semi-final and sixteen in the second semi-final.

In the second part, each country learned whether it will appear in the first or second half of the semi-final in which it will compete. The exact order of appearance will be determined by the EBU and the show’s producers at a later date.

1st Semi-final (May 7):

1st Half

  • Ukraine
  • Cyprus
  • Poland
  • Serbia
  • Lithuania
  • Croatia
  • Ireland

2nd Half

  • Slovenia
  • Iceland
  • Finland
  • Portugal
  • Luxembourg
  • Australia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Moldova

2nd Semi-Final (May 9):

1st Half

  • Austria
  • Malta
  • Switzerland
  • Greece
  • Czechia
  • Albania
  • Denmark
  • Armenia

2nd Half

  • Israel
  • Estonia
  • Georgia
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Latvia
  • San Marino
  • Belgium

Malmö will host the 68th Eurovision Song Contest from 7 to 11 May at the Malmö Arena. The motto of this year’s event, as chosen by the organisers, is “United by Music“, retaining the motto first chosen for last year’s contest in Liverpool.

You can see the draw again through the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_-2hMEq5sk

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the developments regarding Eurovision 2024!

 

San Marino: The allocation of the 129 artists in the semi-finals of Una Voce per San Marino!

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SMRTV, the public broadcaster of San Marino announced the allocation of the 80 artists competing in the semi-finals of Una Voce per San Marino, in a special press conference. Read more

Latvia: The running order of the semi-final of Supernova 2024!

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On February 3, the semi-final of Supernova 2024, the national final of Latvia, will take place. 15 artists will win the ticket for the Grand Final, to fight it out for the country’s representation in Eurovision 2024!

The public will have the chance to meet the contestants and evaluate their performances for the first time in the semi-final, with Ketija Šēnberga and Lauris Reiniks as the hosts of the night. The vote of the pubic and the jury, are of equal power, as the ones with the most votes combined, will qualify for the Grand Final. The ten best entries will have the chance to represent Latvia in Eurovision 2024!

The running order of the semi-final of Supernova 2024 is:

  1. Agnese Rakovska – “AI”
  2. Patrīcija Spale – “Heaven’s Raining Down on Me”
  3. B/H – “Amsterdam”
  4. Alekss Silvers – “For the Show”
  5. Jar of kings – “Wildfire”
  6. St Levića – “Tick Tock”
  7. Sasha Sil – “Love is a Language”
  8. Papīra Lidmašīnas – “Mind Breaker”
  9. Avéi – “Mine”
  10. Ecto – “Outsider”
  11. Dons – “Hollow”
  12. Katrīna Gupalo – “The Cat’s Song”
  13. Funkinbiz – “Na Chystu Vodu”
  14. Vēstulēs – “Kur?”
  15. Edvards Strazdiņš – “Rock n’ Roll Supernova”

Supernova 2024 Program:

  • Semi-Final– February 3
  • Grand Final– February 10

The previous winners of Supernova, and Latvia’s representatives in Eurovision 2023, were Sudden Lights, with the fan-favourite “Aijā”, who ended up in 11th place of the first semi-final:

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

Source: lsm.lv