Norway: NRK decides that “Ulveham” need to be re-written!

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Just a few days before the final of MGP, NRK announced through its website that the big favorite of the show, Gåte with the song “Ulveham“, needs to change its lyrics.

More specific, NRK’s article mentions that the lyrics of the song are taken from a 1000- years- old medieval ballad and given the fact that both MGP and Eurovision are a competition of original songs, the band needs to make some changes. The channel’s head of music, Stig Karlsen, informed us that the title and the theme of the song will remain the same.

Despite the fact that EBU had approved the song in case it competed for Norway, Stig mentioned that the lyrical content is not widely know or prevalent, however a part of the country’s music industry had talked about this. He also mentioned that the music is based on un-known no copyrighted material so it is not a case of plagiarism and he is surprised that both the band and NRK hadn’t detected sooner so as to be fixed.

Could the band still win MGP 2024 and take the ticket to Sweden?

Source: NRK

Ireland: Eurovisionfun Reacts to Eurovision 2024 Entry “Doomsday Blue”!

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RTÉ’s Irish national final, Eurosong 2024, on ‘The Late Late Show’ has concluded for another year with Bambie Thug with ‘Doomsday Blue‘ as the big winner!

We also had the pleasure of hosting her on our YouTube channel for an exclusive interview!

The Eurovisionfun team once again watched and reacted to the live performance of the country’s entry for the upcoming Eurovision contest! Enjoy Filippos, Apostolis and Spyros in a Reaction video with detailed commentary on Ireland’s participation in Eurovision 2024!

What do you think of Ireland’s participation this year? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to enjoy interviews, reaction videos and Live streams for our favorite competition!

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the latest developments regarding Eurovision 2024!

 

Luxembourg: TALI will represent the Dutchy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with the song “Fighter”!

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Luxembourg joined the Eurovision Song Contest again this year and they will have their representative perform in Malmö Arena in the hopes of winning the contest for the 6th time. Their national final, called Luxembourg Song Contest 2024, just finished and the public has chosen TALI with the song “Fighter” to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 to be held in Malmö, Sweden!

The show

The Final show was hosted by Désirée Nosbusch, Melody Funck, Raoul Roos and Loïc Juchem and was broadcast live from Rockhal, Luxembourg.

Anne Marie David, French singer who has represented both Luxembourg and France at the Eurovision Song Contest, winning in 1973 and placing third in 1979, opened the show, followed by a “flag parade” style intro where all the contestants entered the stage.

It is worth mentioning that one of the most prominent Greek singers, Vicky Leandros, made an amazing guest appearance at Luxembourg Song Contest 2024, singing “Après toi“. This was the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1972 performed in French by Vicky, when she represented Luxembourg.

All the contestants performed “Poupée de cire, poupée de son“, the winning entry of Luxembourg  at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965, held in Naples.

After the first voting round, all the contestants paid tribute to this year’s host country, Sweden, by singing one of the most iconic Swedish Eurovision entries, ABBA‘s “Waterloo“.

Many eurostars were there as guests, such as Charlotte Perelli, Ruslana, Katrina Leskanich of Katrina and the Waves and Alexander Rybak all performed their winning entries live!

Vicky Leandros also performed “L’amour Est Bleu” acompanied by Alexander Rybak who played his violin!

rybak leandros

The voting system

The winner will be decided through a 50-50 split, with 50% coming from the jury’s vote and the remaining 50% from the audience. Specifics include:

  • The jury, contributing 50% to the result, comprises representatives from eight countries, with five members from each country.
  • The audience voting is open not only to the local audience but also to the international audience, giving everyone a say in who will represent the Grand Duchy at Eurovision 2024.

The songs

The following eight contestants competed in the hopes of getting selected to represent Luxembourg in Malmö:

Our take on the eight competing songs

Our rating is on a Eurovision scale, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3

Rating: 10

Joel has a great stage presence, amazing vocals and a song that personally reminds me of Melodifestivalen entries. I could definitely see him represent Luxembourg.

Rating: 3

The song of EDSUN is kinda funky, but for me it has nothing special. Maybe the choreo and the staging does something, especially when they were stacked on the ground. It is very intuitive, but no more than that. I have to admit that his voice was very good, he was never out of tune, even though he was heavily choreographed.

Rating: 8

Eight. For Naomi‘s voice and for the French lyrics. The song is okay. I could see this represent Luxembourg in Malmö this year.

Rating: 7

Love the vibe of the song! However since it is a televised show and the image plays an important role, I disagree with their styling. Angy and Rafa stack up their voices on an amazing duet! Nice duet!

Rating: 6

The only group act tonight, with a nice staging, but nothing special song-wise. Let’s see how they will do tonight!

Rating: 12

I see the winner here (wrote this before the announcement, so in case she wasn’t please bear with me). Amazing vocals, song, stage presence! I can see this doing good at this year’s contest. Would she win though? In my honest opinion, I don’t think so.

Rating: 5

CHAiLD might have been a bit stressed out. His vocals were not good, he kind of lost it at times. Loved his style though. The LED stage projections were great!

Rating: 4

Such a catchy song but TALI doesn’t seem to be doing much, the dancers carry the job. Four, only for the song.

The results

The eight contestants that competed in Luxembourg Song Contest were given the chance to be voted twice by the public, within two voting intervals during the show.

After the first interval, the below three artists were selected to take part in the second voting interval, as the hosts of the show called it, the Super Final of Luxembourg Song Contest:

But let’s have a look on how the jury voting went?

Jury voting 12 points

jury results

TALI grossed a total of 94 points from the international juries. After the public vote was added, these are the final results that determined the winner and this year’s representative of Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Malmö, Sweden.

 

The selection of the representative of Luxembourg adds up to the list of selected artists and songs that we will get the chance to watch being performed live later next May in Malmö, Sweden! At the video down below you can watch this year’s representative of Luxembourg, who will get the chance to perform on stage in Malmö this May:

Do you like the artist and song that is selected to represent Luxembourg at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest? Let us know in the comments section below!

Stay tuned at Eurovisionfun for all the latest news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest!

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Lithuania: The results of Heat 3 of “Eurovizija.LT 2024”!

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After two heats, Lithuania continues the search for its representative and entry, that will fly the Lithuanian flag for the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Lithuania comes back to the contest with a new national final format called “Eurovizija.LT”. The national final consists of six shows – five heats and a grand final –. Few minutes ago, the third heat was completed, with two new contestants being advanced to the Grand Final of the show.

The presenters of the show are Gabrielė Martirosian and Nombeko Augustė Khotseng. At the Green Room, the presenter is Nerijus Trilikauskas.

The hosts of Eurovizija.LT 

For the record, two artists from Heat 3 were advance to the final, following the vote from the  public audience and a specially formed jury.

This Heat’s members of the jury were:

  • Ieva Narkutė (artist)
  • Gerūta Griniūtė (TV presenter LRT)
  • Kristupas Naraškevičius (TV presenter of LRT)
  • Vytautas Bikus (composer and music producer)
  • Jievaras Jasinskis (composer and musician)

The Judges for the third heat of Eurovizija.LT 2024

Eight artists competed to this Heat for the two Golden Tickets for the Grand Final of Eurovizija.LT, these were:

  • Anžela Adamovič-Gečienė – “Paskubėk”

  • MeidĖ – “Zoo”

  • Sun Francisco – “Trauka”

  • Mary Mo – “Done”

The Results

With the panel already voting, tonight the Lithuanian audience had the chance to see the live performances for the first time and vote for their favourites. The result was determined 50% by the jury and 50% by the television audience

 

The two artists who qualified for the Grand Final are:

Jury Vote of Heat 3

Public vote of Heat 3

Overall Results of Heat 3

Until now, six (out of ten) artists were qualified for the Grand Final and these are:

 

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the lastest developments regarding Lithuania’s participation to Eurovision 2024!

Iceland: Listen to the songs of Söngvakeppnin 2024!

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RÚV, the public broadcaster of Iceland is going to select its representative for Eurovision 2024, once again through Söngvakeppnin, the country’s national final!

Read more

Norway: Results of MGP 2024 third semi-final!

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The third semi-final of  Melodi Grand Prix 2024 was broadcast tonight at 19:50 CET. Six artists competed for the three tickets that lead to the Grand Final on February 3rd 2024. Today and until the next Saturday, Norway will have to choose the artist that will represent them in Sweden this year.

The show took place at Spectrum in Trondheim hosted by Marion Ravn and Fredrik Solvang and the schedule of the shows is as follows:

  • Grand Final:  February 3rd

Format

As a reminder, this year’s Melodi Grand Prix will take place with the same format as last year, as there will be no duels or second chance rounds. Three artists will qualify from each semi-final in which only the TV audience will vote, while the final will for once again feature an international jury that will determine 40% of the result.

Running Order

The six artists who competed in the third semi-final of MGP 2024 performed in the following order:

  • Vidar Villa – “MER”
  • MISTRA – “Waltz of Death”
  • Thomas Jenssen – “Take Me To Heaven”
  • Annprincess – “Save Me”
  • MiiA – “Green Lights”
  • KEiiNO – “Damdiggida”

Results

The qualifiers of the third semi-final were:

The final is going to take place on February 3rd at 19:50 CET! You can watch MGP 2024 by clicking here.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the news about Norway’s participation in Eurovision 2024, in Malmö!

Norway: Palestinian activists protested outside NRK against Israel!

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Palestinian activists on Saturday used powerful measures in the fight against Israel‘s participation in Eurovision. 30 men sat bare-chested, blindfolded and hands stripped outside NRK. Activist and initiator Rami Samandar says to VG:

“We are here to highlight Israel’s violations of international law. What we see in Gaza is absolutely horrific.”

The protesters staged an incident on Saturday that occurred in Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip on December 7. Then over a hundred Palestinian men and boys were captured by Israeli soldiers. They were ordered to undress and kneel in the street and were accused of belonging to Hamas or being terrorists. Samandar continues:

“But it’s too cold for all 30 people to sit outside NRK at the same time, so we have divided them into groups of ten who each take a dare in front of NRK.”

It was around zero degrees outside NRK Saturday morning and Samandar says that there was great interest in taking part in this action.

“We received so many inquiries that in the end we had to say no.”

In groups of ten, a total of 30 men walked up and down between the parking lot below NRK and the main entrance.

There have been calls to ban Israel from Eurovision 2024, like 1000 Swedish musicians that signed today a petition to the EBU against Israel outside NRK right during the first two weeks of MGP. In Iceland, more than 500 artists signed a petition asking RÚV to withdraw from the contest, while Silvia Night signed an open letter to the EBU asking to ban Israel. In Finland, 1300 artists signed a petition asking for Israel to be removed. The British representative Olly Alexander has also shared in public his opinion against Israel. Also just recently Montaigne signed an open letter to the EBU asking the ban of Israel from the contest and Ben Dolic joined her by doing the same.

Source: VG
Photo: VG

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Sweden: Around 1000 artists want Israel banned from Eurovision!

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Around 1,000 Swedish artists are demanding that Israel be banned from the Eurovision Song Contest, according to a petition that Expressen has taken part of. The document, which is currently being prepared to be handed over to the EBU writes:

“Put down the double standards, exclude Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest. For more than 100 days, we have witnessed the Israeli army committing what leading human rights organizations describe as grave war crimes.”

Among the artists who seem to have signed are musicians well-known in Sweden such as Alba August, Hoffmaestro, Jonathan Johansson, Malena Ernman, Markus Krunegård and Titiyo.

The EBU has previously excluded Russia and Belarus

The European Broadcasting Union announced in connection with Iceland‘s and Finland‘s appeal that Israel will not be excluded. Their position is that the Eurovision Song Contest is a contest between public service broadcasters rather than states.

However, the EBU has previously excluded countries from competing. In 2022, Russia was excluded due to the war against Ukraine. In 2021, Belarus was not allowed to participate in the competition after the EBU expelled the Belarusian public broadcaster BTRC for violating the EBU‘s press freedom rules.

There have been calls to ban Israel from Eurovision 2024, like outside NRK right before the first and second semi-finals of MGP. In Iceland, more than 500 artists signed a petition asking RÚV to withdraw from the contest, while Silvia Night signed an open letter to the EBU asking to ban Israel. In Finland, 1300 artists signed a petition asking for Israel to be removed. The British representative Olly Alexander has also shared in public his opinion against Israel. Also just recently Montaigne signed an open letter to the EBU asking the ban of Israel from the contest and Ben Dolic joined her by doing the same.

Source: Expressen
Photo: Jessica Gow / TT News Agency

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Luxembourg: The running order of Luxembourg Song Contest 2024!

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Today is about to be a very important day for fans of the Contest, as tonight, one of the most successful countries, Luxembourg , is going to officially return to Eurovision, with the selection of its representative for this year’s Contest.

The country has announced that it will choose through a national final, and today all these preparations will be completed with the Grand Final of the Luxembourg Song Contest, where the representative of Luxembourg will emerge for their great return.

Moments ago, RTL, the public bradcaster of the country, announced the running order of the finalists:

  1. Joel Marques  –  “Believer”
  2. EDSUN  –  “Finally Alive”
  3. Naomi Ayé  –  “Paumée sur terre”
  4. Angy & Rafa Ela  –  “Drop”
  5. One Last Time  –  “Devil in the Detail”
  6. Krick  –  “Drowning in the rain”
  7. CHAiLD  –  “Hold On”
  8. TALI  –  “Fighter”

The winner will be decided through a 50-50 split, with 50% coming from the jury’s vote and the remaining 50% from the audience. Specifics include:

  • The jury, contributing 50% to the result, comprises representatives from eight countries, with five members from each country.
  • The audience voting is open not only to the local audience but also to the international audience, giving everyone a say in who will represent the Grand Duchy at Eurovision 2024.

You can read more about the national final of Luxembourg, in our article.

You can catch the grand final at 20:00 CET through the official website of Luxembourg’s public television by clicking here.

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

Source: rtl.lu

Luxembourg: Vicky Leandros as a guest in Luxembourg Song Contest 2024!

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One of the most prominent Greek singers, Vicky Leandros, is going to make a guest appearance at Luxembourg Song Contest 2024, the national final show of the country for Eurovision 2024 in Malmö, Sweden.

It was revealed by the very same Vicky Leandros in an exclusive interview on Songfestival.be, but it was confirmed a few minutes ago, by RTL, the public broadcaster of the country.

Vicky Leandros is the first Greek singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1972 representing Luxembourg with the song “Après toi” receiving 128 points in total.

She went also to comment on the return of the Duchy to the contest:

“I think it’s great that Luxembourg is back. I think joining will do a lot more for you as a country than sending your cat.”

Vicky Leandros is of course also a very big star in Germany. In 2006, she also took part in the German national process for the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, while she did not avoid to comment on the country’s failed attempts at the Contest.

“Germany just needs better songs. That’s where it all starts. This should not be so difficult, because Germany has many talented songwriters. The Eurovision Song Contest was very important to me. You should not see participation as some kind of risk. If you’re good and have the right personality, you can’t lose. People get to know you and you’re building a career”

Luxembourg Song Contest 2024

The eight artist that are going to take part for the ticket in Malmö are as per below:

  1. Joel Marques – “Believer”
  2. EDSUN – “Finally Alive”
  3. Naomi Ayé – “Paumée sur terre”
  4. Angy & Rafa Ela – “Drop”
  5. One Last Time – “Devil in the Detail”
  6. Krick – “Drowning in the rain”
  7. CHAiLD – “Hold On”
  8. TALI – “Fighter”

We remind you that the national final of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is scheduled to take place on January 27th and will allow the people of Luxembourg to choose the song and artist that will represent them at the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in May in Malmö. The winner will be determined by the combined vote of a jury and the public (50%/50%).

Below you can watch the most successful entries of Luxmebourg at the Eurovision Song Contest

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the updates around the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest!

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Source: songfestival.be, rtl.lu