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Eurovision 2024: Stockholm planning to host the Contest!

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Preparations have already started ahead of the Eurovision 2024 Contest,with the city of Stockholm stating that they have already set in train the preparations to host the 2024 contest since March,when Loreen won Melodifestivalen with her eventual Eurovision winning entry “Tattoo”.

This marks the seventh time that Sweden is set to host the Eurovision Song Contest,with the first one dating back in 1975.

The Swedish capital is one of the strongest candidates of hosting the Eurovision 2024 Contest and has already hosted the contest in 1975,2000 and 2016.

Speaking to The Euro Trip, Tobbe Ek, journalist for Sweden’s biggest daily newspaper Aftonbladet, said: “Stockholm is extremely eager to host it.

“The City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm started having meetings in March when they realised Sweden might actually win this year.

When Stockholm hosted in 2016, the Avicii Arena – then known as the Globe Arena – was the chosen venue and could be a possible hosting venue for 2024 as well.

Other possible venues in the capital include the Tele2 Arena, the home ground of top-flight football clubs Djurgårdens and Hammarby, and the Friends Arena which plays host to the Melfest final every year.

Other Swedish cities that are lined up for bidding for the Eurovision 2024 contest include Malmö,which hosted the contest in 1992 and 2013,Örnsköldsvik and Gothenburg,which hosted the Eurovision 1985 contest.

Gothenburg boosts with a huge arena,the Scandinavium,whose building structure however is too obsolete to host a modern contest,due to the fact that it was built over half a century ago.Therefore,a new venue would have to be built within a year in order to host the Eurovision 2024 contest,something which seems very unlikely to happen.

Sweden earned its 7th victory in this year’s contest with Loreen and her song “Tattoo”,a song that made her the first woman to ever win the song contest twice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2Fj0W4jP4

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source:eurotrippodscast

 

 

 

Sweden: Loreen received a heroic welcome upon her return from Liverpool!

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The Swedish star of Eurovision, Loreen, received a heroic welcome upon her return from Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

SVT, organised an open concert for Loreen’s return, in Kungstradgarden. The concert was broadcasted in SVT2 and SVT Play. Loreen thanked the crowd for their love and support and offered them a special performance of her winning song, “Tattoo”. In the meantime the crowd shouted “Queen, Queen”.

After winning twice, Loreen broke a number of records:

  • She is the only woman to win the competition twice
  • She now equals Ireland’s Johnny Logan who has won the competition twice
  • She has given Sweden its 7th Eurovision victory thus equaling Ireland which has seven victories

The City Councilor of Stockholm, Karin Wanngard, was also present at the concert which was hosted by Per Sinding-Larsen.

Loreen then took the time to speak to her fans:

“With everything that the number stands for, humanity, hope, love. That’s what we Sweden stand for. I am so happy about it and proud of us.”

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Sweden: Örnsköldsvik interested in hosting next year’s contest!

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Last Saturday, Sweden won for the 7th time, equalling the victories of Ireland in the contest! Loreen with the song “Tattoo” brought the contest back home and even if only a couple of days have passed, cities around Sweden have started expressing their interest to host next year’s contest!

Following Malmö, Örnsköldsvik, a city in Northern Sweden with a population of about 30.000 poeple, joins the “hunger games” of the host city for 2024. Örnsköldsvik had bid to host the contest back in 2016, when Måns Zemerlöw won, but ahead of the contest Örnsköldsvik was reportedly unable to host the contest due to insufficient capacity!

Örnsköldsvik had hosted this year’s Melodifestivalen Semifinalen at Hägglunds Arena, where the arena looked a bit tiny compared to other shows of the tour and also there have been reports of rip-off prices to rather limited and not decent enough selection of hotel rooms, during the weekend of the contest.

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Sweden: The city of Stockholm in early talks, eager to host Eurovision 2024!

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Today, at Kungsträdgården, a celebration to welcome Loreen back to Sweden was held, with thousands of people enthusiastically cheering while Loreen was performing “Tattoo” on the stage that was setup for the Hemkosten event!

According to Gustav Dahlander, Swedish journalist and SVT in-house expert for Melodifestivalen, during the event, Karin Wanngård, the Financial City Commissioner of Stockholm, stated when interviewed:

“Eurovision needs a big arena. To get a good party, you want a big audience, so of course, in that case it would primarily be Friends Arena.”

Friends Arena has a total capacity of approximately 60.000 people, but whenever it hosts Melodifestivalen Final Show, it gets halved, but can still host the impressive number of 30.000 people all seated. If Martin Österdahl selects Stockholm as the host city and Friends Arena as the hosting venue, then it can be one of the largest venues ever to host the contest!

Today was not the first time Stockholm expressed interest in hosting next year’s contest

According to major Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the City Hall of Stockholm had been in early talks with the financial center, the chamber of commerce and the Visit Stockholm insitution since the last weeks of March, following the victory of Loreen at the Swedish national selection process, Melodifestivalen!

The City of Stockholm, started planning internally way to early in advance, compared to when Måns Zemerlöw won, when Stockholm held their first meeting on the Monday directly after the victory. It seems like this time they wanted to be even more prepared.

According to the independent business organization, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, the last time Sweden took home the Eurovision Song Contest and hosted the show in 2016, the created tourism economic effects were around SEK 263 million (approximately 230 million Euros), in the money value of the time. After a projection of the income at today’s prices, the same number of visitors would yield revenues of more than SEK 310 million (approximately 275 million Euros). Admittedly, it costs a lot to organize the competition, but hosting the contest can still bring significant profits to the city.

Loreen wants Stockholm to host the contest in 2024!

During the Winner’s Press Conference at M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool, UK, after our own Andreas Papayiannakis asked Loreen how she feels about equalling the victories of Ireland in the contest, Loreen unapologetically stated, referring to Swedish Head of Delegation Lotta Furebäck, that she prefers Stockholm to host next year’s contest!

“It better be Stockholm man! We need to talk about this, but it better be Stockholm!”

You can watch the relevant video below:

Despite the fact that major football teams AIK and Hammarby Fotboll, that play during the season at Friends Arena and Tele2 Arena respectively, are refusing to move temporarily to other stadiums for six weeks, Stockholm City is so eager to host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, that it is very likely for all issues to be resolved soon. The football association is perfecly OK with moving games due to European Cup participation, so maybe they could just move one or two AIK home games a month or two. As for Tele2, Hammarby Fotboll and Djurgården can play at home for two days in a row, so Stockholm City hosting Eurovision 2024 seems doable.

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Sources: Aftonbladet, Gustav Dahlander, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce

Loreen: “It didn’t bother me that the audience was singing Cha Cha Cha”!

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Loreen gave her first interview on Swedish TV after being the winner of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest and talked about the moment when during her victory the croud on the arena was singing “Cha Cha Cha”.

More specifically, Loreen said that:

“I mean Käärijä is so (f-word) awesome! An amazing performance. And it’s nice, when acts get such support. You can’t just go “Shush shush, you can only think I’m good“, that’s not how it works!

No, no. That doesn’t bother me. I have to work a little on my ego.”

Finally, she was also asked what message she would like to send to the Finnish representative and she stated:

To Käärijä I’d like to say that it’s not every day, that you see creators be that authentic on stage, and he has an authentic expression. He is himself. It’s pure all the way through, and that’s why people cheer for him. That happens when you are authentic. So I know things will go well for him. Things will go really damn well for Käärijä!”

During the rehearsals and the pre-parties we have seen several times the two artists coming in contact and chatting, showing the excellent relations they have with each other.

https://youtu.be/BE2Fj0W4jP4

https://youtu.be/l6rS8Dv5g-8

Source: Aftonbet

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Sweden: Loreen’s interview, just before the Grand Final!

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A few days ago we had the honor of meeting one and only Loreen from Sweden, for the third time! Of course we would like to thank Sweden’s public broadcaster, SVT, for giving us so many opportunities to speak with Loreen during the busy contest period.

The kind former Swedish winner, who is hoping to equal Johnny Logan’s record this year, spoke to us about the first semi-final and her goals ahead of the Grand Final:

We asked her whether she is happy with her performance in the first semi-final and if she intends to make any changes:

“What satisfies me is to connect with the audience and feel our energy and connection. If I don’t connect, I’m not satisfied.”

She then answered our question about whether her decision to return after “Euphoria” was easy:

“It was very spiritual. There were certain things that happened in my life during that time. I am a person who goes where there is positive energy. And I had a very positive feeling about the song.”

In the end, we asked her if her experience this year is as intense, as it was back n 2012:

“No, it’s intense but in a different way. It’s intense but there is also all the loving energy.”

The interview was also shown on Natalia Germanou’s show on Alpha TV, “Kalytera Den Ginetai!”. You can watch our full interview with Loreen in the video below:

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Sweden: BBC missed significant shot from Loreen’s performance!

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Loreen performed during the first Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 receiving wide acclaim from viewers and fans.  However, some of the viewers noticed a remarkable change between her Eurovision performance compared to Melodifestivalen.

There is a shot deemed as “decisive”, “best in the whole issue”, “with so much feeling and meaning” missing in the Semi-Final.  The missing shot takes place at the final minute of the performance when Loreen stands up.  In that moment the TV camera should have zoomed out in a wide shot showing the led screen above Loreen displaying a variety of signs and symbols.

You can see the difference between Loreen’s performance during Melodifestivalen 2023 on top and her performance during the First Semi-Final in the picture down below:

The Swedish Head of Delegation, Lotta Furebäck has replied to the questions from the fans and the media about this incident.  In her reply she said that it was not a choice of the Swedish team to change this shot:

“That image should be there, but on Tuesday the image was denser and then the image was not included.We have mentioned this to the production“

Source: Aftonbladet

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Eurovision 2023: Finland is now first on My Eurovision Scoreboard!

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In the most popular ranking application of Eurovision entries, the well-known My Eurovision Scoreboard, the first place for this year was occupied by Loreen, where with “Tattoo” as she was there from the first moment of her victory in Melodifestivalen 2023.

One of the biggest, if no longer the biggest, favorites to win this year’s competition was so far in the first place. And we say “was”, as a few minutes ago she was pinned down by another favorite. It is none other than Finland, where Kaarija with “Cha Cha Cha” is clearly now a highly measurable opponent for the victory next Saturday in Liverpool.

Sweden and Finland are also going head-to-head in the bookies for both the semi-final win and the grand final win, with Finland winning the first and Sweden the second.

See the new top 10 of the My Eurovision Scoreboard application:

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Loreen: “We need to recreate the staging in Liverpool, it’s really important for my audience!” | Exclusive Interview

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Eurovision 2012 winner, and this year’s Swedish representative at the Eurovision contest Loreen spoke exclusively at Eurovisionfun and Andreas Papagiannakis, all the way Liverpool, UK in the heart of this year’s contest!

Loreen sings “Until we meet again, cause this is not the end” and after all, it wasn’t the last time we’d talk to Loreen on March 11th, when she won the ticket to Liverpool, beating superstar duo Marcus & Martinus at Melodifestivalen 2023.

When asked if she is ready for her potential second win, second double (Johnny Logan, “What’s Another Year” – 1980 and “Hold Me Now” – 1987) and first double ever for a woman she told us:

“I’m not ready! I’m too focused! The only thing I’m ready for, that I’ve worked for, is to perform for all of you! And that’s exactly what I’m looking forward to and that’s what I’m focused on!”

Did she get stressed out by all the uncertainty caused by the staging restrictions of EBU, that didn’t allow her to have the exact same double LED screen (smörgåsgrillen, as I’ve called it) hanging from the Friends Arena ceiling at the Melodifestivalen final?

“We tried too hard to bring the same feeling on stage in Liverpool, if not what you call a sandwich toaster *laughs* at least a smaller version of it. I didn’t leave it up to my team, I always like to have a say and be 100% involved in solving problems that may come up!”

Eleven years after “Euphoria“, she believes that this year’s entry “Tattoo” will have the same impact in the audience;

“I don’t know at all, you are asking me this question but this is something I cannot control. What I do know is that I am trying my best to make something really beautiful for you!”

We challenged her to speak Greek to us and the only word she could think of was “souvlaki“, and then she added:

“A few days ago I was watching a video of a Greek dance, what’s it called? No, it’s not syrtaki! Tsifteteli I think, yes tsifteteli! I will learn to dance the tsifteteli! So when I meet you again we’ll dance together tsifteteli!”

She asked us and of course we taught her how to say “I love you, you are everything to me“! She can’t wait to see us, her audience, while she’s on stage:

“I am looking forward to seeing you all! I see literally all of you! I saw you in front of the Melodifestivalen stage in the finals too, that’s why I did that signal that I saw you before I started performing! That’s really my favorite moment before I start singing, to connect with all of you!”

Loreen remains the favorite to win, although she has seen her odds grow since the end of the rehearsals and Finland closing in dangerously close to her.

Sweden competes in the 11th place in the 1st Semi-Final on Tuesday 9 May.

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Sweden: Loreen comments on her Eurovision 2023 rehearsals!

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Big favorite to win Eurovision 2023, Loreen, commented on her rehearsals and renewed stage appearance.

In an interview with SVT after her second rehearsal, Loreen said that she wanted to keep the same stage concept in Liverpool, bringing to the M & S Bank Arena the same vision she had in Melodifestivalen.

Due to the smaller platform, Loreen explained that she had to change some elements of her choreography, but also to get used to the new size of the structure herself.

The big problem, as was seen both in Melodifestivalen and in Liverpool, is the amount of smoke, since there is a risk of being covered by it.

It is the law of nature, everything is alive. And I like the way that you don’t really know, you can’t direct smoke anyway. Just as it is not possible to direct nature in any way, you cannot say Tree, grow! and expect it to happen.

Loreen remains the favorite to win, although she has seen her odds grow since the end of the rehearsals and Finland closing in dangerously close to her.

Sweden competes in the 11th place in the 1st Semi-Final on Tuesday 9 May.

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