More people dropping in and meeting the team working on the Fan Desk every minute. This time Nadav Guedj representing Israel says Hi and greets the boys and signs the odd autograph. Thanks for the photos, Daniel, President of OGAE Israel.
Eurovision Radio International today launched a new Eurovision Award, to be known as ‘The Mozart Award’ marking both the 60th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna and the concept of ‘Building Bridges’ between the Adult Contest, and its much younger sibling, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Radio International’s founder and regular show host Jürgen Börning, known to all as ‘JP’, said that he wished to mark the wonderful support the station receives from the organisers of both Contests by inaugurating a new award in the spirit of ‘Building Bridges’ from one Contest to the other.
There have already been a number of instances of young artists ‘graduating’ from Junior to Adult Eurovision – last year’s Russian Eurovision entrants the Tolmachevy Sisters being just one example. The ‘Mozart Award’ will be awarded to the person or group who graduate from being lead artists for their country at a Junior Eurovision Contest to performing the same role at the Adult Contest in the shortest time span. The award will be held by that artist until the record they have set is beaten.
Former 2013 Junior Eurovision participant Michele Perniola is singing for San Marino this year, but the time span of 18 months or so that Michele has set is completely overshadowed by his singing partner here in Vienna, Anita Simoncini.
Anita, who only recently turned 16, performed for San Marino as part of girl-group The Peppermints in the 2014 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Malta on Saturday 15th November. On Thursday 21st May Anita will sing for her country once again, this time alongside Michele performing ‘Chain of Lights’ in the second Semi-final of Eurovision 2015 – just 187 days after performing at the Junior Contest.
‘JP’ presented Anita with her award during the San Marino Press Conference in Vienna on Saturday. So many congratulations to Anita for her achievement. We feel it likely that Anita’s record short ‘graduation’ time-span is going to be a very difficult one to beat too!
One of the last compilations for Vienna is now finished,NORWEGIAN NOVELTIES. Again Gerry of the USA did a stunning cover design.
There are 180 compilation CD’s of the 6oth celebration of Eurovision. As reported 67 will go to the artists in Vienna, 13 more to special people and then 100 to be won by fans – either in VIENNA or not, either OGAE R O W members or not.
This post will be updated daily as we announce some winners prior to EUROVISION.
1 MAY 2015
The first winner is announced today and he is very special. It is GERRY AVELINO from the USA – he has been the designer of the covers. He is an OGAE R O W member not coming to Vienna and so I have posted off the CD’s for him and he has received it the last day or so. Because he worked so hard on the covers, I have decided he is one of 2 or so people to get the COMPLETE set of 6 CD’s.
Gerry I hope you enjoy listening to 60 euro covers over the years.
2 MAY 2015
Two more winners are announced today, JOHN JAGODOWSKI from the USA and DAVID SCOTT from the USA – both are OGAE R O W members and not coming to Vienna. Their CD’s have been posted and they reported receiving it yesterday. John has already started reporting on listening and he is blown away by some of the songs.
3 MAY 2015
Another 2 winners are announced today. JEFF NEAL and ADELE ADELLE from AUSTRALIA – both are OGAE R O W members but unfortunately they cannot join us this year in Vienna. Their CD’s have been posted but they have not arrived as yet.
4 MAY 2015
There are more than 60 SA singers on the 6 compilations and just 2 of them wrote to be on the list of winning a compilation. So these 2 singers will be the only artists to get a copy of the 60th anniversary compilation – of course each singer will get a copy of the compilation his or her song is on.The two singers are
HENRY VAN DYK
RINEL DAY
5 MAY 2015
Two South African members not going to Vienna are the winners today
PIKKE DE LANGE
HENNIE DE LANGE
6 MAY 2015
And another two SA members, not going to Vienna are the winners today.
MICHAEL DE LANGE
LIZETTE VAN DER WALT
7 MAY 2015
Today’s two winners are from EUROPE
ARMIN DUTTLE – SWITZERLAND
ANDREAS BLASCHKE – AUSTRIA
Finland felt a little left out since special compilations made for the other Nordic countries, so we sort of “forced” to also do one for Finland although of the 5 Nordic countries, the least covers exist but luckily, one song Lose control has several covers, even one in Spanish. This compilation will also be available in Vienna. And Gerry again designed a fantastic cover.
Last year we had a compilation in Copenhagen called DANISH DELIGHTS. Although we had no less than 25 copies, it proved so successful that we had calls for more copies. Unfortunately the original master has been replaced and so I did a new one with some other songs included. Gerry in the USA again did the most beautiful cover design.
In Vienna we will have a compilation ICELAND IDOLS and we will hand over a copy of it to HERA BJORK who will be there as backing singer for Iceland. On the compilation is an Afrikaans cover of her Euro entry. But also in Vienna will be Sveinn from Iceland who composed the 2004 Iceland entry, HEAVEN of JONSI. There is also a cover on the compilation of his sing. So he will also receive a copy. Now 2 fans can each win a copy as well, one by someone who is NOT in Vienna and one by someone who is in Vienna. The person in Vienna also will have the chance to hand the copy to Hera personally. Now what to do to be a winner? Go to the CONTACT US page and answer the question – HEAVEN is covered in Afrikaans and the title is that of a big city in South Africa – name that city. Then also indicate whether you will be in Vienna or not. On 1 May we will announce the two winners.
Yes, we are really into the groove of showcasing just how many songs have been covered in South Africa and this compilation has been done on the request of some SWEDISH composers – this is to once again remind Eurovision fans that it is a SONG CONTEST and a good song can be sung by any artist in any language. This compilation also highlight just how success Swedish composers are as it feature Eurovision songs they have written for countries other than Sweden. Gerry from the USA once again created a special cover design.
We have another special CD for Vienna. It is called ICELAND IDOLS and it feature Icelandic euro songs covered in South Africa. The CD was a once off copy in Copenhagen but I had requests for more so a limited amount have been done and will be available in Vienna. Thanks again to R O W member Gerry of the USA for doing such a beautiful cover.
