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Israel: All the highlights from the 30th episode of HaKokhav Haba!

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Last night, Tuesday 14th of January, the 30th episode of HaKokhav Haba, the song contest through which Israel will select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, which will take place in Basel, Switzerland, on May 13, 15 and 17, 2025, was broadcast.

The 30th episode of HaKokhav Haba was held with six artists. The three artists who achieved the lowest percentage were also candidates for elimination, with the jury deciding who would bid farewell to the music competition. In this episode, the contestants performed songs by the legendary Israeli singer Rita, who was on the jury for this occasion.

Hosts and Judges

Rotem Sela continues as the host of the show, alongside Assi Azar, one of the hosts of Eurovision 2019. Azar has been a host since the first season of HaKokhav Haba in 2013, while Rotem Sela began hosting from the second season, a role she still holds today.

The judging panel includes:

  • Assaf Amdursky
  • Keren Peles
  • Shiri Maimon
  • Eden Hason
  • Ran Danker
  • Itay Levi

The performances

Moran Aharoni and Red Band

Moran and Red opened the night with Rita’s song “Cry.” They performed the song in its English version. All members of the jury voted positively, and thus this special duo achieved an 88% score.

Dolev Mandelbaum

Dolev performed “Shir Ahuvat HaSapan” and dedicated the song to his late stepbrother, Drew, who was tragically murdered in the United States. The judges also voted positively for this performance, and thus Dolev achieved an 89% score, securing a place in the semifinals.

Yuval Gold

Yuval chose to perform “Mechaka,” with a unique arrangement that reflected his unique vocal style. However, the jury’s assessment was mixed, and thus he was limited to 72%.

Daniel Wais

Daniel performed “Ani Chaya Mul HaMayim” sitting on the floor, with a performance that immediately evoked strong emotions. Despite one jury member voting negatively, his score reached 81%, securing a spot in the semi-finals.

Valerie Hamaty

Valerie chose to sing “Machol Metoraf,” showcasing her unique voice and confidence. However, three judges voted negatevily, leaving Valerie with 63%.

Yuval Rephael

Yuval performed “Ani Chaya Li MiYom LeYom” in a ballad version that perfectly suited her vocal tone. All jury members voted yes, and Yuval achieved 95%, securing a spot in the semi-finals.

By the end of the competitive part, the jury decided that Yuval Gold would leave the competition.

Last year’s winner of HaKokhav Haba and thus the country’s representative at Eurovision 2024 was Eden Golan. Eden Golan, with her song “Hurricane”, finished in fifth place in the final ranking.

Source: euromix

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Belgium: Snippets of the first 4 songs of Eurosong 2025 and the names of the jury members revealed!

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Belgium’s Dutch-language national broadcaster, VRT, has released snippets from the first four songs of Eurosong 2025, the national competition through which Belgium is going to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, in Basel, on May 13, 15 and 17.

The snippets released by VRT concern the first four songs that are going to compete in the first semi-final of Eurosong 2025, which is going to take place this Saturday, January 18.

The fist four songs of the frist semi-final of Eurosong 2025 are the below:

  • Grace – “Pull up”
  • Lenns – “Air balloon”
  • Le Manou – “Fille à papa”
  • LEEZ – “Perfectly imperfect”

Below you can watch the repsective snippets.

Furthermore, the broadcaster revealed the names of the 15 members of the jury of Eurosong 2025. which are aas per below:

  • Gustaph – Winner of Eurosong 2023 and finished 7th at Eurovision 2023
  • Bart Cannaerts – Spokesperson at Eurovision 2023
  • Merol – Dutch singer
  • Emmelie de Forest – Winner of Eurovision 2013 for Denmark
  • André Vermeulen – Former commentator for VRT between 1991 and 2013
  • Els Germonpré – music coordinator VRT1
  • Leslie Cable – Head of Delegation for RTBF at Eurovision
  • Stephan Monsieur – Chairman of OGAE Belgium
  • Jasper Van Biesen – Song Contest expert and author of “65 Years of Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest”
  • Indy van Cauwenbergh – Choreographer
  • Kim Debrie – Radio 2
  • Anja Daems – Radio 2
  • Laura Govaerts – MNM
  • Imane Boudadi – MNM
  • Nona Van Braeckel – Studio Brussel

The studio versions of all entries will be released upon completion of the second semi-final of Eurosong 2025 on January 25. The final of Eurosong 2025 is going to take place on February 1 in the city of Vilvoorde.

Source: VRT

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Israel: All the highlights from the 29th episode of HaKokhav Haba!

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Last night, Sunday 12th of January, the 29th episode of HaKokhav Haba, the song contest through which Israel will select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, which will take place in Basel, Switzerland, on May 13, 15 and 17, 2025, was broadcast.

The next phase of HaKokhav Haba began with 8 contestants, which is the duel challenge. Four duets competed in this episode, where two of the contestants left the competition at the end of the competition process.

Hosts and Judges

Rotem Sela continues as the host of the show, alongside Assi Azar, one of the hosts of Eurovision 2019. Azar has been a host since the first season of HaKokhav Haba in 2013, while Rotem Sela began hosting from the second season, a role she still holds today.

The judging panel includes:

  • Assaf Amdursky
  • Keren Peles
  • Shiri Maimon
  • Eden Hason
  • Ran Danker
  • Itay Levi

The duets

Dolev Mandelbaum vs. Yuval Raphael

Dolav Mandelbaum opened the night with Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” The cover perfectly suited Dolav’s vocal range. It started out softly, and as the song progressed, so did his vocal abilities. All judges gave a positive vote, receiving an 86% score.

Yuval Raphael chose to perform Bruno Mars’ “Talking to the Moon.” Yuval dedicated the song to the Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas, especially her friend Matan Tzengauker, who is still being held hostage in Gaza. All judges also gave a positive vote, receiving a 96% score, ensuring her qualification to the next round.

Moran Aharoni and Red Band vs. Yuval Gold

Moran and Red chose to sing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” As usual, Moran and Red managed to surprise us with another unique, precise and amazing performance. Once again, Moran and Red proved that their combination is relevant and correct. Ran Danker was the only member of the jury to give a negative vote, receiving 82%.

Yuval Gold chose to sing Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” dedicating it to his good friend Daniel Sheinkerman who was murdered in the Nova Festival massacre. Two of the judges, Eden Hason and Itay Levi, gave a negative vote, receiving 71%, and thus Moran and Red moved on to the next round.

Amit Sade vs. Daniel Wais

Amit chose to sing Adele’s “Skyfall”. Amit is so captivating and touches the soul with her unique and soulful vocal tone. Itai, Ran, and Keren gave negative vote, receiving 60%.

Daniel chose to sing Andra Day’s “Rise Up”, along with artists from the “Shoofuni” project. Eden and Asaf gave negative vote, receiving 65%, ensuring her qualification to the next phase.

Ido Malka vs. Valerie Hamaty

Ido chose to perform “The Story of My Life” by One Direction. The song suits him perfectly. Ido sounded great in the song, as if it was written for him. Keren and Asaf voted against it, receiving 75%.

Valerie chose to sing “Rise Like a Phoenix”, by Conchita Wurst, who represented Austria and won Eurovision 2014. All judges voted in favor, receiving 83%, ensuring her qualification to the next phase.

At the end of the competition part, the jury decided that Amit Sade and Ido Malka would leave the competition.

Last year’s winner of HaKokhav Haba and thus the country’s representative at Eurovision 2024 was Eden Golan. Eden Golan, with her song “Hurricane”, finished in fifth place in the final ranking.

Source: euromix

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Azerbaijan: Eurovision 2025 entry to be released before March!

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The entry of Azerbaijan for the 69th Eurovision Song Contest will be released before March!

Azerbaijan is one of the participating states that tend to release their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest within March. However, things seem to be chnaging this year. The Head of the Azeri Delegation in the contest, Nurlana Cafarova, commented that the entry of the reveal of the artist and the song will not be that late.

She specifically stated that:

“For now, I can say that we will not have to wait for March. Our representative and his/her song will be presented to the public together in the near future.”

We remind you that the following three artists remain in the race to represent Azerbaijan at Eurovision 2025:

  1. Mehin Hümbətova
  2. Nataone
  3. Murad Arif

Last year, in Eurovision 2024, the country was represented by Fahree and Ilkin Dovlatov and the song “Özünlə apar”  without success as it failed to reach the final again, finishing in the 14th place of the first semi-final.

https://youtu.be/QhN9r8TH2Hw

Source: 12 Xal

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Eurovision 2025: The hosts to be revealed on 20th of January!

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The hosts of Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel are going to be revealed on 20th of January.

The national broadcaster of Switzerland, SRG SSR, revealed on ESC Discord channel, on Discord platform, that the announcement of the hosts of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled on Molday 20th of January. The announcement is going to take place during a press event broadcast live on the official Eurovision YouTube channel at 15:00 CET.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is going to take place in Basel Switzerland on the below days:

  • Tuesday 13th of May – A’ Semi-Final
  • Thursday 15th of May – B’ Semi-Final
  • Saturday 17th of May – Final 

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

Iceland: The first names rumoured for Söngvakeppnin 2025!

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A few days after the official announcements by RÚV, Iceland’s national broadcaster, for this year’s Söngvakeppnin, the national competition through which the country’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is selected, the first rumours began about the artists who will claim to represent the island in Eurovision 2025.

The first rumoured artists

The well-known Icelandic website Vísir, through two recent articles, publishes the first three names that appear to be on the list of Söngvakeppnin 2025.

The first name is ICEGUYS. This is a boyband that has enjoyed enormous popularity on the Arctic island in recent years with five recent soldout concerts. ICEGUYS consists of Friðrik Dór, Rúrik Gíslason, Jón Jónsson, Herra Hnetusmjör and Aron Can.

The band’s manager Máni Pétursson has already stated in an interview:

“It’s from time to time that the Iceguys are going to participate in Eurovision”

The second name rumored is that of Juli Heiðar Halldórsson. He is one of the most well-known artists in Iceland and already has experience in Söngvakeppnin, having participated in 2017 with Þórdís Birna Borgarsdóttir and the song “Heim til þín” without much success, however, as they finished in 5th place in the first semi-final and failed to advance to the final of the national competition.

The third name is Ágúst Þór Bjarnason. Ágúst is a young and aspiring musician, living in Akureyri. Last summer, he played for Magnús Kjartansson, the singer of Stuðlaband, and performed with the band at all the biggest outdoor festivals in the country. Ágúst was previously the singer in the band Færibandinu.

On Friday, January 17, the presentation of the artists and songs that will take part in Söngvakeppnin 2025 is scheduled at 20:40 CET through the special TV show “Lögin í Söngvakeppninni 2025”. For this year’s bid for the Icelandic representation, 110 entries were submitted to the Icelandic competition.

Source: Vísir

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Moldova: Etapa Națională 2025 final to take place on 22nd of February!

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The date for the 2025 version of Etapa Națională, the national competition through which Moldova selects its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, was announced today.

Moldova’s national broadcaster, TRM, announced today two dates related to Etapa Națională 2025. Specifically, on Saturday, January 18, the auditions of the candidates are going to be broadcast live, and on Saturday, February 22, the final of Etapa Națională 2025 is going to take place.

10 artists are going to participate in the final of Etapa Națională 2025. The result will be determined 50% by the audience and 50% by the committee, with the organizers deciding in case of a tie.

Last year, Moldova was represented by Natalia Barbu for the second time (first time in 2007) with the song “In The Middle”, where she failed to qualify for the grand final, finishing 13th in the first semi-final with 20 points overall.

https://youtu.be/evIoGkZXj2s

Source: TRM

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Croatia: The songs of Dora 2025 to be released on 9th of January!

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The release date of the songs for the 2025 version of Dora, the national competition through which Croatia selects its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, has been announced.

According to the Croatian website Jutarnji list, the songs that are going to take part in Dora 2025, claiming to represent Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel, Switzerland, will be announced next Thursday, January 9.

In addition, the website itself also publishes the dates of the two semi-finals of Dora 2025. Therefore, the full schedule of Dora 2025 is as per below:

  • First Semi-Final – Thursday, February 27
  • Second Semi-Final – Friday, February 28
  • Final – Sunday, March 2

In the two semi-finals, the winners are going to be decided solely by public vote. In the Final, the result is going to be determined 50% by public vote and 50% by two committees, one Croatian and one international.

The 24 contestants of Dora 2025 are as per below:

  1. Ananda – “Lies Lay Cold”
  2. EoT – “Bye, Bye, Bye”
  3. Filomena – “Strong”
  4. Irma – “Enigma”
  5. IVXN – “Monopoly”
  6. Jelena Radan – “SALUT!”
  7. Laurakojasong – “NPC”
  8. LELEK – “The Soul of my Soul”
  9. Luka Nižetić – “Južina”
  10. Magazine – “AaAaA”
  11. Marin Jurić Čivro – “It Burned”
  12. Marko Bošnjak – “Poison Cake”
  13. Marko Škugor – “What Should I Ask of God”
  14. Marko Tolja – “Through the dark”
  15. Martha May – “Running to the Light”
  16. Matt Shaft – “Welcome to the circus”
  17. Natalie Balmix – “LIFE GOES ON”
  18. Natally – “Home to My Heart”
  19. NIPPLEPEOPLE – “SIGN”
  20. Fire – “Give, Give”
  21. Petar Brkljačić – “THE END”
  22. Supersonic Trio – “Animal”
  23. Swingers – “Ful Kul”
  24. Teenah – “Aurora”

Source: Jutarnji list

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Iceland: All the details of Söngvakeppnin 2025!

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Iceland‘s national broadcaster, RÚV, has made official announcements for this year’s Söngvakeppnin, the national competition through which the country’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is selected.

Benedikt Valsson, Guðrún Dís Emilsdóttir, and Fannar Sveinsson are going to present Söngvakeppnin 2025. They are no strangers to presenting the Icelandic contest as Benedikt and Fannar were presenters in 2020 and Guðrún in 2016.

As we mentioned in our previous article (here), until recently, only the date of the first semi-final of Söngvakeppnin 2025 was known. Now, the full program of the Icelandic competition has been announced, which is as per below:

  • First Semi-Final – Saturday 8 February
  • Second Semi-Final – Saturday 15 February
  • Final – Saturday 22 February

As in previous years, five songs are going to compete in each semi-final. Three songs from each semi-final advance to the final, which is going to consist of six songs instead of the five that were used in previous editions of Söngvakeppnin. In previous editions of the Icelandic song contest, the fifth entry to the final was determined by RÚV itself.

Additionally, in previous years the top two songs in the Söngvakeppnin final would compete against each other again in an additional round where only the public voted to determine the representative of the land of ice and fire. This process was abandoned for this year’s contest. The winner and therefore Iceland’s representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 will be the one who comes first in the combination of the public vote and the vote of an international jury consisting of 7 members, with a 50% – 50% system.

Rúnar Freyr Gíslason, the executive producer of Söngvakeppnin, explained that this approach is used in both Sweden’s Melodifestivalen and the Eurovision Song Contest itself.

“We are very excited to adopt the Swedish method with this new format and believe it will create an even more thrilling competition.”

The competition returns to RVK Studios in Gufunes in the northeastern part of Reykjavík, which also hosted the competition in 2022 and 2023. There will be a significant upgrade in direction and production.

Selma Björnsdóttir, who represented Iceland twice at Eurovision (1999 2nd place, 2005 elimination from the final, 16th place in the semi-final), will return as a member of the artistic team. She has directed shows all over the world and has worked on shows such as Ísland got talent, Idol and Allir geta dansað. She will be joined by Thomas Benstem, a Swedish director, choreographer and graphic designer who has directed Melodifestivalen, So You Think You Can Dance, the MTV Music Awards, Eurovision and other major events. The team will also be joined by choreographer Baldvin Alan Thorarensen.

On Friday, January 17, the presentation of the artists and songs that will take part in Söngvakeppnin 2025 is scheduled at 20:40 CET through the special TV show “Lögin í Söngvakeppninni 2025”. For this year’s bid for the Icelandic representation, 110 entries were submitted to the Icelandic competition.

Source: RÚV

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Finland: New clues about the candidates of UMK 2025!

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The countdown to the reveal of the artists who are going to participate in the 2025 Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), Finland’s national competition for the Eurovision Song Contest, continues. With five days left until the list of artists who will claim the representation of the country at Eurovision 2025 in Basel on 13, 15 and 17 May is revealed, the national broadcaster, Yle, has made a third cryptic post on Instagram. You can read more about the first two posts in the article below.

Countdown to UMK 2025: Clues about Finland’s national final candidates revealed

The third post entails new clues related to one of the artists who is going to compete in UMK 2025.

 

Δείτε αυτή τη δημοσίευση στο Instagram.

 

Η δημοσίευση κοινοποιήθηκε από το χρήστη UMK (@uudenmusiikinkilpailu)

  • Mary J. Blige: Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actress, and businesswoman. Her presence in the enigmatic post may indicate the style of the song, which may be in a similar style to Mary Jane Blige’s songs, or the artist’s profile may be similar to that of the American artist. Could it also indicate an artist from the United States? We’ll see.
  • Great Sphinx of Giza: The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the most famous monuments in the world. The presence of the monument in the post has multiple interpretations. The Sphinx as an ancient mythological creature was known for its riddles/enigmas, so it may refer to the title of the song “Enigma”!?!?. The song could also make references to personalities of ancient Egypt, such as Cleopatra or a Pharaoh. Finally, it may indicate the artist’s relationship with Egypt themselves.
  • Colourful flowers: The presence of flowers hides various meanings and may be one of the messages of the song. If we can group the meanings then the flowers may indicate 1) love and romance, 2) hope and new beginnings, 3) futility and transience, 4) spirituality and purity, 5) sadness and farewell, 6) friendship and joy.
  • Husky: The Husky dog ​​breed fits the profile of northern countries like Finland. Among other things, the presence of a Husky dog ​​may indicate endurance and perseverance, freedom and independence, but also resilience in difficult situations and circumstances.
  • Water: Water is a dominant element in the geography of Finland. It is no coincidence that Finland has the title of “Land of a Thousand Lakes”. As a symbol, water symbolizes life and rebirth, purification and cleansing, emotions, transformation and change, but also destruction.

On Wednesday, January 8, 2025, the UMK 2025 artists are going to be revealed. From January 9 to January 17, 2025, each song and music video will be released one at a time. One month later, on February 8, UMK 2025 is scheduled to take place in Nokia Arena, in Tampere.

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

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