Eurovision Cruise 2024: The biggest Eurovision party went back to Helsinki and Stockholm!

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Eurovision fans meet once again in Helsinki to celebrate with their favorite acts and party at the sea.  This year, the Eurovision Cruise departed from Helsinki to Stockholm.

In these three days in the Baltic Sea, Eurovision fans could party inside the cruise, meet their favorite Eurovision acts, sing at the Eurovision Karaoke, and of course, attend the live performances at night.

These are some of our highlights of this year’s Eurovision Cruise.

Suzy

The Portuguese representative had time to talk with Eurovisionfun about her experience performing for the very first time on a Cruise, the love fans have for her and Quero Ser Tua.  Find out some not so well known facts about Suzy in this exclusive interview

Suzy performing Quero Ser Tua

DQ

There was no drama with DQ, who not only performed at the Eurovision Cruise but was also one of the main hosts of the biggest Eurovision party at the sea.  In this interview, DQ talks about what makes a drag artist great, her memories in Eurovision, and which drag act she will give it 12 points.

You can also watch the performances of Silvester Belt, Poli Genova and Hera Björk in the links embedded below:

 

Poli Genova was the last act announced for the cruise.  Initially, Ari Ólafsson was scheduled to perform at the Eurovision Cruise.  Unfortunately, he could not make it, and the Bulgarian representative at Eurovision joined us instead.

Another interesting fact: during her performance, Hera Björk performed her 2024 song “Scared of Heights” in both English and the Icelandic version of her song.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for more news and updates about Europe’s favorite music festival!

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Switzerland: 431 songs for Eurovision 2025!

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The submission of songs to Switzerland’s internal selection for Eurovision 2025 has ended. A total of 431 songs were submitted, four more than last year.

The host of Eurovision 2025 Switzerland has already started the process of selecting the song and the artist, who will represent the country at home next May.

According to what Swiss public television announced earlier, 431 songs were submitted for Eurovision 2025. As in previous years, the entry will be selected through a multi-stage selection process involving both audience and expert panels.

In addition to a Swiss audience jury, an international audience jury will also take part in various rounds of selection to determine which artist will represent Switzerland and with which song. These audience panels will be supplemented by a 25-member international jury of experts, members of which have already participated in jury duty at some point for their respective countries at the Eurovision Song Contest. The featured song will be announced early in the new year.

Switzerland was represented this year by Nemo with The Code, taking first place in the competition and bringing Eurovision 2025 to Switzerland for the third time. The city that will host the 69th Eurovision Song Contest will be announced on August 30, at 11.00 Greek time.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates!

Source: swissinfo

Kazakhstan: The country will not return to Junior Eurovision 2024!

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Earlier today, Khabar, the public broadcaster of Kazakhstan, announced through the director of content acquisition, that the country will not return to Junior Eurovision 2024, having the 2022 contest as its last participation!

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Sertab Erener’s reaction to Israel’s participation in Eurovision 2024

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Videos with reactions, as well as statements by Sertab Erener in this year’s participation of Israel – Hurricane with Eden Golan, have been circulating in the last few hours on the internet. The only winner of the competition for Turkey, condemned the participation of Israel, and with her grimaces, when Eden Golan performed her song on the stage of the contest, she showed her emotions.

The first excerpt is from the second semi-final, in which Israel also participated and in which Sertab Erener appeared as a guest, along with Elena Paparizou and Charlotte Perelli. Sertab Erener while preparing for her own performance in the dressing room, listens to Eden Golan perform Hurricane and her expressions are indicative of her feelings.

The second video is from the final. Sertab is watching the contest and at the time of the Israeli participation, she says to the camera that she is completely opposed to the presence of Israel in Eurovision 2025.

The above does not make any impression, since the Turkish government, but also to an overwhelming extent the Turkish society, is in favor even of the terrorist organization Hamas, many of its members, have found safe haven in Turkey. Israel in the previous decades was one of the closest allies with Turkey. However, in recent years and especially since Tayyip Erdoğan has taken over the government of the country, the two countries have drifted far apart, with Israel now having allied relations with Greece and Turkey considering itself the protector of Gaza, but and the terrorists operating there.

Watch Sertab Erener’s performance in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zITpWTXZjgk

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates!

Joost Klein: “There is no time to deal with filing a lawsuit against the EBU”

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Joost Klein does not intend to take legal action against the EBU, despite initial information to the contrary, the artist’s manager announced. There is no time and space to deal with something like this, was the relevant announcement of the representative of the Dutch artist.

Joost Klein immediately after the Swedish prosecutor’s office dropped his criminal prosecution, due to doubts and insufficient evidence, he had stated through his lawyer that he was considering filing a lawsuit against the EBU.

Joost is the right person to file a police report. Joost’s manager called me and we will think about it.

Gerard Spong, lawyer of Joost Klein

This statement came immediately after the publication of the decision of the Dutch public television – AVROTROS, not to pursue the case in court, but to resolve any pending issues with the EBU through dialogue.

Today, the artist’s manager states that he will not take any other legal action himself, since he has neither the time nor the space to deal with such a thing.

I sent Gerard Spong a quick email thanking him for his interesting take, but to be quite honest, we don’t really have the time or space to work on it right now.

Rick Bakker, manager of Joost Klein

AVROTROS has stated that it will soon meet with the EBU to discuss everything that happened behind the scenes of this year’s competition. So far it has not been clarified whether the country will participate in Eurovision 2025.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates!

Source: rtl

Sweden: Two important changes for Melodifestivalen 2025!

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Just before the official start of the Eurovision 2025 season, more and more countries are revealing their intentions and their selection method for their representative in the contest. Sweden will once again of course use Melodifestivalen to highlight the song and the artist that will represent the country in Switzerland. But the Swedish national final comes with two important changes compared to what we knew until now.

Second chance becomes more difficult

From August 23rd until September 14th, interested artists and composers will be able to submit their songs to the Swedish public broadcaster SVT, in order to claim one of the 30 spots in Melodifestivalen 2025.

Melodifestivalen 2025 will again consist of five semi-finals, in which six songs will compete, with the top two in votes advancing to the grand final. So far there is nothing different.

As this year, 12 songs will participate in the final, the ten songs that have qualified from the five semi-finals (the first two in votes from each semi-final) and two more songs that will come from the second chance method.

The first major change of Melodifestivalen 2025 will be about the two songs that will participate in the final and qualify through the second chance. This year, after the fifth semi-final all the songs that had finished in third and fourth place in the five semi-finals were put to a new vote by the television audience, immediately after the end of the fifth semi-final, and the first two songs in votes also qualified for the final. This changes in 2025.

Only those songs that finish third in their semi-final will have a second chance to qualify for the final. In particular, the song that collected the most votes and was in one of the third positions of the five semi-finals, will automatically advance to the final. The twelfth song of the final will be chosen after voting by the TV audience, among the four remaining songs. This whole process will take place like last year after the last semi-final is completed.

Before the semi-finals we will listen to the songs

The second major change has to do with the availability of the songs that automatically qualify for the final on the electronic platforms. Until now these songs became available at the end of the fifth semi-final, when all the songs of the final were known. Now, on the Friday before each semi-final, the songs in their full form will be released to the public and can be made available on electronic music platforms as well.

For more information on the Melodifestivalen 2025 regulations and submission of entries, please see the official SVT website.

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the updates!

Source: Eurovision.tv

The Netherlands: Joost Klein is thinking of suing the EBU!

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Joost Klein is considering filing a defamation lawsuit against Eurovision organizer the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The singer’s manager has already contacted the lawyer Gerard Spong.

The news comes a day after AvroTros had indicated that it did not want to press charges.  The lawyer wrote that it is “absolutely a defamatory allegation” that the EBU, despite the fact that according to the Swedish Public Prosecutor’s Office there is no or insufficient evidence, continues to insist that Joost Klein “would have committed an act worthy of disqualification”.

The fact that AvroTros doesn’t want to create an issue is a sign of weakness according to Spong.

“They must have their reasons for it. They may also have to continue with the EBU next year, so maybe they think: we shouldn’t have any. I think it’s weak.”

“Joost is the right person to file a police report. I’ve been called by Joost’s manager and we’re going to think about it.”

Source: De Telegraaf

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2025!

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Junior Eurovision 2024: Cyprus returns to the contest | Maria Pissarides will represent the country in Madrid!

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It is now official! Cyprus, one of the contest’s founding members, returns to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for the first time after seven years.

Moreover, RIK, the Cypriot broadcaster, has also revealed its representative as well, the 11-year-old Maria Pissarides.

Who is Maria Pissarides?

The eleven-year-old Maria Pissarides will participate in Junior Eurovision 2024, being the nation’s tenth representative in the contest. Maria Pissarides is a singer, actress, and dancer and has also studied music theory at a London-based institution.

Maria exhibited a passion for performance from a very young age, while in her home country of Cyprus. She is an enthusiast of the arts and, although her initial steps were in dancing, over time she is progressing on to musical theatre.

Maria has held leading roles in multiple shows within her community, including an adaptation of Matilda. She also likes to write lyrics and has taken part in the European Radio 2023 song writing and singing competition, achieving third place with her team. 

Currently, at 11 years of age, Maria is a full-time student at a performing arts school in the UK and seeks every opportunity to progress and learn new skills. Maria’s favourite day would include watching movies, drawing, playing with her dog, eating chocolate and berries and spending time with her two brothers!

 

Maria’s song as well as the music video will be revealed by RIK at a later stage. In fact, Maria’s entry is written by Sofia Patsalides, the Cypriot entrant in Junior Eurovision 2014.

In the meantime, the dancers who will join Maria Pissarides on the stage in Madrid will be selected through auditions conducted by RIK as well as the spokesperson of the Cypriot votes, who will travel with the delegation in Madrid. The stage performance will be conducted by the British creative director Layla Ellison.

Cyprus in Junior Eurovision 2024

Cyprus is the sixteenth country to confirm its participation in the 22nd Junior Eurovision Song Contest, though another country is also expected to make its return. As we had exclusively informed you before, two countries would make its return in Madrid, with the first ultimately being Cyprus. Regarding the second country, announcements are expected soon.

This year will mark Cyprus’ tenth participation in the contest. The country’s best result is eighth place, in 2004 and 2006, while Cyprus’ last appearance in the contest, in 2017, also marks its worst placement, finishing last.

Will Maria Passarides manage to bring Cyprus its best Junior Eurovision result? Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the news!

Source: RIK

United Kingdom: Initial staging idea for “Dizzy” was rejected by SVT!

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The United Kingdom went full throttle with the pop sensation “Dizzy” and the well known Olly Alexander in Eurovision 2024. This impressive staging with special camera movements seems that it was a much simpler presentation than it was originally planned by Olly Alexander’s team, specifically Theo Adams.

Ola Melzig, the Senior Technical Director of Eurovision 2024, spoke to “The Euro Trip Podcast” and mentioned the following about Olly Alexander’s performance:

If the UK hadn’t reached out very early on this year, you wouldn’t have seen that performance. 

Their first idea was impossible to do on our stage because we have less than 50 seconds to do a changeover – you can’t show up with something that weighs a tonne and takes two minutes to do.

It appears that the original concept was too big and impractical to implement in time for a live show with a strict schedule, which is why SVT rejected it. Though scaled back to fit Eurovision’s requirements, the concept behind what we actually saw and what was initially planned remained the same.

As a result, Ola Melzig emphasizes the importance of early communication in order to have enough time to adapt and bring the submitted ideas to life as closely as possible to their original state.

Despite the impressive staging, Olly Alexander’s performance was also criticized by the European public for being provocative; thus, he was not awarded a single point from the audience, finish in eighteenth place with a total of 48 points.

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the news!

Source: eurotrippodcast

Get ready for the Eurovision Cruise 2024!

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The Eurovision Cruise is departing again from Helsinki bringing the biggest summer Eurovision party.

The Eurovision Cruise is organized by OGAE Finland.  Fans from Finland and all over Europe meet in Finland every year to enjoy two days of Eurovision celebration, music and a fancy journey inside a Cruise that travels from Helsinki to Stockholm, Sweden.

This year, the tradition will continue with previous Eurovision acts performing live.  We will also have a Eurovision Karaoke and a Eurovision disco by DJ Werneri & DJ First Rank.

The Eurovision Cruise will be hosted by DQ (Denmark 2007) who will also be one of the main performers.  Matleena is joining DQ as a host of the Eurovision Cruise.

Let’s review the programme of the Eurovision Cruise 2024.

Thursday 22 August

    • Ami Aspelund (Finland 1983): Ami Aspelund represented Finland in Eurovision with her song Fantasia in Munich.
    • Suzy (Portugal 2014): Suzy represented Portugal with her song Quero Ser Tua in Copenhaguen.  Although Portugal did not qualify to the Grand Final that year, Quero Ser Tua has become a Eurovision anthem that is played in almost every Eurovision party across Europe

Friday 23 August

    • DQ (Denmark 2007): Peter Andersen, better known by his stage name DQ represented Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007.  DQ is returning to Helsinki in their role as a performer and co-host of the event.
    • Silvester Belt (Lithuania 2024): This year’s Lithuanian representative is also joining the Eurovision party
    • Poli Genova (Bulgaria 2011, 2016): Ari Ólafsson (Iceland 2018) was initially scheduled to participate at the Eurovision Cruise.  Unfortunately, he cancelled his participation.  However, the show must go on and Poli Genova was later announced as a participating act.  Poli Genova needs no introduction.  She represented Bulgaria in 2011 but did not qualify.  However, she raised the Bulgarian flag once again in 2016 with her song If Love Was A Crime and this time she did not only qualify but ended up in 4th place.
    • Hera Björk (Iceland 2010, 2024): Hera Björk is one of the most beloved Icelandic representatives in Eurovision.  She represented Iceland in 2010 with Je Ne Sais Quoi and once again this year with Scared of Heights

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for more news and updates about Europe’s favorite music festival!

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