With the 2015 Melodifestivalen starting this weekend, I have been listening to music by ONE MORE TIME, one of my favourite groups from Sweden. Pity they never had the same success as ABBA for example. Here is an vinyl single by them which they signed for me during EUROVISION 1996 in Oslo.
Often an artist from Eurovision visits South Africa but the media hardly give attention to it. The latest is KATRINA AND THE WAVES who are in South Africa and I did not even know it until yesterday. They are part of a show called BACK TO THE 80’s and it is on at several of the casino’s around South Africa. Cole van Dais was one of the backing singers at the show on 31 January at Carnival City and she informed me that Katrina and the waves were part of the show. Other people who are here are the likes of Billy Ocean, Hazel Dean, Nick Kershaw and M People.
Karen Harding has come straight in to the Official UK Top 40 Singles Chart with her song, Say Something. It is set to be a big dancefloor smash hit with a strong beat and production.
Karen was a participant in the United Kingdom Eurovision: Your Country Needs You competition in 2010. That year legendary producer and songwriter Pete Waterman was responsible for the selection and ultimately writing the competing Eurovision song. She just missed out on the final round that year. She performed the Kylie Minogue hit, What Do I Have To Do.
Karen also tried for the UK X Factor 2013 edition where she reached the Bootcamp stage and was eventually eliminated in the six seat challenge phase.
You can see the video for Say Something below.
Source: www.esccovers.com
Latvia kicked off their Eurovision 2015 season yesterday with the first round of the Supernova selection to decide their song for Vienna. 10 acts competed and four would qualify for the next round. An expert jury would decide on two songs to go forward and televoting another two.
The expert jury were Ieva Kerēvica, Kaspars Roga (from Brainstorm ESC 2000 Latvia), singer Don and Guntars Račs. The 10 acts competing were –
The acts selected by the jury were Antra Stafecka and Framest. Televoting sent MNTHA and ElectroFolk through.
Source: www.eurovision.tv
The titles of over 400 covers of Eurovision songs by South African artists have been loaded in the library and this is more or less complete with there and there the original title of a song to be added once I have checked the spelling. That is the first part of the library – the covers are done alphabetical by original country and inside each country, by date order. The second part is the covers of melodifestivalen songs and this index is in date order and is about 40% complete. I hope to have it finished before the 2015 edition of melodifestivalen starts. I also got requests to do a third section – this is covers of songs by EUROVISION artists, for example not just Abba’s Waterloo but every ABBA song that has been covered in South Africa. This has never really been done and so I have no idea how many such covers exist but I have already loaded a lot – covers from Euro artists such as ABBA, Nicole, New Seekers, Celine Dion, Karel Gott, Nana Mouskouri, Vicky Leandros, Olivia Newton John, Mouth & Macneal etc. Hopefully some fans will see some interesting covers and go and search for them on Itunes or Youtube or wherever. 99% of the songs listed are in my own private collection- either on CD or vinyl single.
Last night, Cyprus held the Grand Final of their national selection show, The Eurovision Song Project in Nicosia. The final consisted of six contestants (whittled down from the original 60 entries vying to represent Cyprus) and votes consisted of both Jury Votes and the Public who finally announced the winner as Giannis Karagiannis with his entry One Thing I Should Have Done.
What do you think off the Cypriot entry for Vienna?
Czech Republic have decided internally to select Marta Jandová & Václav Noid Bárta to represent them in Vienna at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. Together they will perform the song Hope Never Dies. The song was composed by Václav himself.
Marta Jandová was born in Prague in 1974. She was part of the band Die Happy in Germany, where she lived for 16 years in mostly Hamburg and Berlin. Since then she has performed as a solo artist and with other bands and also she was a member of the jury on the Czech/Slovak Superstar talent show in 2009.
Václav Noid Bárta was born in 1980. He was part of a rock band called Dolores Clan and has appeared on the stage in popular musicals. He is also a talented singer and songwriter.
Source: www.eurovision.tv; wikipedia
Iceland kicked off their 2015 Eurovision Söngvakeppnin season with their first semi-final show. Six acts performed and three would progress to the final.
The acts and songs were –
The three acts to progress by televoting process were Friðrik Dór, Björn & Friends and Elín Sif.
Source: www.eurovision.tv
10 more acts performed in the second quarter final of the A Dal competition in Hungary. Six acts progressed to the semi-finals.
The 10 acts that performed were –
The five acts selected by the jury were Ádám Szabó, ÍV, Gyula Éliás Jr. feat. Fourtissimo, Pankastic!, Oláh Gergő. The act chosen by the televoting was New Level Empire.
Source: www.eurovision.tv; MTVA
The next leg of the Lithuanian Eurovision process took place on Saturday night. Seven acts remained and performed a potential Eurovision song for Vienna. All the acts have been swapping around and trying the different songs. Two of the acts Edgaras Lubys and Mia sang a duet together last night instead of performing separately.
The six acts and songs tonight were –
After a combination of local and international expert juries and the televoting two acts had to leave the competition this week. They were Liepa Mondeikaitė and Neringa Šiaudikytė. Both acts were strong contenders and will no doubt try again for Eurovision in future years.
Source: www.eurovision.tv; lrt
