The first semi-final of the 2017 Eesti Laul took place in Estonia and five acts made it to the final –
You can see one of the qualifiers below – Elina Born, who was on the Eurovision stage for Estonia in 2015.
Source: www.eurovision.tv
Another Nordic country and so I was delighted. Due to the accommodation problems I had in Stockholm, from this time onwards, I started to share a hotel with my friend Morten from Norway and I have to specially thank him for being such a wonderful friend over the years – we have been at Eurovision together since 1995. Our hotel was close to Tivoli, one of my favourite attractions in Europe and we even had a party there one evening and all rides were free to people with accreditation. Where Birmingham was my worst Eurovision, Copenhagen did not rank high with Morten. Firstly he loves attending Eurovision in new countries and Denmark is a neighbour and a place he had been several times. He also did not get the same press accreditation as me. The venue was the biggest and quite far from our hotel. Morten actually walked most mornings to the venue but I took the delegation bus which started quite close to our hotel.
I had a slight delay with my accreditation as the Danish woman who had to sign the form was quite busy and so I had to wait until she could come to the accreditation office, signed the form and had my accreditation badge printed. I missed the first 3 press conferences as I was unable to enter the press center without my accreditation.
Concerning the promo singles, most countries continued to bring special singles but I was extremely disappointed with Denmark having a single without a cover.
Spain brought David Civera and he sang a song called “Dile que la quiero” written by Alejandro Abad. At the press conference Dabid told us he is a passionate fan of singers like Elton John and Madonna. Besides the promo single, I also got a full CD of David from the delegation. I, however, have to confess that I have never listened to any of the other tracks (this is anyway not unusual as I normally listen just to one song from a full CD).
By now I have been involved in several covers of Eurovision songs in South Africa. Due to the fact that more and more fans now were coming to Eurovision with accreditation and due to the cost, delegations brought less copies, I thought it was time to produce a special CD from South Africa to swap for promo singles that were difficult to get. One of the record companies produced a special CD that looked like the same of Africa (in the colours of the South African flag) and many people wanted this. I, however, had just 10 copies as it was quite expensive to produce and so swapped it for promo CD’s that were hard to get.
I was very disappointed with the winner, the song from Estonia was in the bottom 5 of my rankings, but I was extremely happy to finally be going to my first Baltic country. It was, however, interesting to me that one of the members of the Estonian entry was born in an exotic country, Aruba.
Coming back from Eurovision, I moved house and in the move I lost my 2001 accreditation badge (I have all the others but this one is missing and although I have search many years for it without success).
My favourites from 2001 are
Sweden – Listen to your heartbeat – Friends
France – Je n’ais que mon ame – Natasha St-Pier
Turkey – Sevgiliye son – Sedat Yuce
Malta – Another summer night – Fabrizio Faniello
Greece – Die for you – Antique
And those I did not like are
Lithuania – You got style – Skamp
Estonia – Everybody – Tanel Padar & Dave Benton
Portugal – So sei ser feliz assim – M T M
To read previous years go to esccovers
http://www.escovers.com/tag/lookingback/
This was one of the best Eurovisions in many ways. This was the only time ever I had a direct flight to Eurovision. It was also the shortest flight (every other flight to Eurovision took almost 24 hours with lay overs somewhere) and the only time I could visit without a visa. But I had accommodation problems as the travel agent lied to me. Instead of securing me accommodation close to the venue, I was living in a guest house miles away from the venue. The travel agent said I wanted to stay CLOSE to a bus stop to take me to the venue, but my directive was that I want to stay as close as possible so I could walk there. It took almost an hour travelling by bus to Eurovision every day. Also I was totally away from any official hotels, so I was unable to use their transport and so I had to buy a bus ticket daily. I must say the guest house was out of this world, but totally wrong for me who came to Eurovision and wanted to be close to the venue.
Israel gave me my best accreditation ever – made me HEAD OF DELEGATION of SOUTH AFRICA so for the first and only time, I was allowed backstage to speak to the artists in private. They also produced for me a press card so that I was also able to get a pigeonhole. That year I represented the Portuguese radio station RADIO CIDADE.
Morten had a very special flight to Israel. He was on the same plane with all the artists from the Nordic countries. In the same plane were Selma (Iceland), Van Eijk (Norway), Charlotte (Sweden) and Trine and Michael (Denmark). Finland did not qualify for Jerusalem, so they were not there. Carola Haggkvist was also on the plane.
My flight from Johannesburg landed 3 minutes after the plane with the Nordic delegation. Charlotte Nillson spoke to me while we were waiting to go through customs and asked me what I thought of her song. At that stage there was a big debate about whether to sing in Swedish or English since the change of the language rule. I told Charlotte her song, “Take me to your heaven” would be a winner. More countries did televoting and I just knew for those viewers hearing/seeing the song the first time, this will do well. Patricia Lewis from South Africa covered the song and it sold 100 000 copies for her. She impressed the composers so much that they invited her to Stockholm where they produced a full CD for her.
Ralph Siegel was of course also in Jerusalem with Surpriz and their song Reise nach Jerusalem – kudus’e seyahat – it was exactly 20 years since he had been there with Dschinghis khan.
There were a change in rehearsals – Lithuania was suppose to be last on the first day but due to flying in only the next day (to save money), they swapped with another country which I cannot remember now but think it was Estonia.
Austria had a great promotion – their entry was “Reflection” by Bobby Singer and press people were given a disposable camera to take photo’s of Bobby and the person taking the best photo would win a holiday in some Austrian ski resort.
The biggest shock to me was the Friday before the final when the Jewish SUNDAY started and I was stuck 5 kilometers away from my guest house and no public transport and had to walk the distance home. Luckily it was mainly downhill.
Obviously with no transport to go to the venue from the guest house on the Saturday to watch the final from the press center, I stayed in my bed and watched the final on TV.
The entries I like best are
Sweden – Take me to your heaven – Charlotte
Iceland – All out of luck – Selma
Malta – Believe ‘n peace – Times three
Portugal – Conc tudo comecou – Rui Bandeira
And some horrors as well
Lithuania – Strazdas – Aisle
United Kingdom – Say it again – Precious
Spain – Lydia – No quiero escuchar
When people ask me to pick the most awful of all my Eurovisions, it is easy to answer. It is this one by a long shot. Even before arriving at Eurovision, the biggest horror was the fact that Germany sent Guildo Horn as their entry – one of my biggest hates to date (and for all those who like German schlager music). In all honesty I have to say that the 1998 German selection was not that special. A penfriend sent me the compilation CD and although there were 3 Ralph Siegel songs in the selection namely “Kids” by Sharon, “Can-can” by Ballhouse and “Carneval” by Kopenick – none of these songs really stood out. I remember listening to the songs with Lana who worked with me and she went crazy over the “Gel song” by Fokker.
The trip also started with a horror drama. A week prior to my departure, I got off my bus from work and the bus driver closed the door before I was completely off and my arm was caught in the door and it broke the glass of my watch. The bus company said they would pay for the repairs, but I had to get two quotes. Naturally they accepted the cheapest one and I handed in my watch, saying I wanted it back before departing for Eurovision. The day before my departure, the watch was ready and I went to fetch it. Suddenly a guy stormed into the shop with a gun, demanding money. He grabbed a female as hostage. She was looking at a tray of expensive golden rings. The shock of being grabbed as a hostage was too much for her and she collapsed. The robber thought someone had shot at him but hit the female, grabbed some of the rings and ran out. The rest of us in the shop finally got our speech back and realized what a close escape we have had. So I did not have a good start to my journey.
1998 also brought the biggest crisis for me surrounding accreditation. The BBC did not think it was special for me to come all the way from South Africa for Eurovision when tons of South Africans are living in London and surroundings areas. If Greece had not come to my rescue and offered me accreditation (knowing that I do shows for the Greek radio station in Johannesburg), I would have had an even more miserable Eurovision. I was so upset that I left the Thursday before the final and flew to the Netherlands where I watched it on TV and televoted for Estonia. It was the first and last time I had ever televoted.
My hotel in Birmingham was also not that special. It was near the venue and affordable but it was small and I was the only Eurovision journalist staying there. But most of all, for some strange reason there was no curtains in front of the windows. And my room looked out right on a lamppost in the street. Since I am totally unable to sleep when it is light, I had to use my bedspread every night in front of the window to make the room dark.
At Eurovision Guildo Horn had so many followers – they were all around – tons of them came by boat to Birmingham to support their singer. His press conference was packed.
1998 also had DANA INTERNATIONAL for Israel and a lot of hype, as it was the first sex change singer to be at Eurovision. The press predicted the winner would come from either Guildo or Dana.
This was also when I met up with Chiara from Malta who was still very young and I was able to see how she grew and matured in later years when I met her again in 2005 and 2009.
The year also saw the first introduction of televoting on a limited scale – I am not sure but I think 6 countries voted by phone instead of the normal juries.
The Finnish party in the aquarium in Birmingham was one small highlight – this must have cost a fortune! But it probably was one of the most exotic locations for a party. Pity their entry “Aava” was not really my cup-a-tea, reminded me too much of the Norwegian Eurovision winner of 1995.
Because I did not stay until the end, I left Birmingham without obtaining all the entries on CD – I missed 3 – Germany, Israel and France. Luckily I was able to get them all later through other people.
Interesting is that someone made a Grand Prix compilation of the entries – all 25 and live from the performance.
Musically the highlights were
Estonia – Mere Lapsed – Koit Toome
Sweden – Karleken ar – Jill Johnson
Macedonia – Ne zori zoro – Vlado Janevski
Slovakia – Modlitba – Katarina Hasporva
Romania – Eu cred – Malina Olinescu
And of course the biggest horror
Germany – Guildo hat euch lieb – Guildo Horn
But other dislikes were
France – Ou aller – Marie Line
United Kingdom – Where are you – Imaani
31 of the 42 Eurovision entries have made the ESC top 250 which was revealed on New Year’s eve.
lets look at them
204 – Malta
203 – Belarus
171 – Serbia
168 – Slovenia
166 – Ireland
148 – San Marino
146 – Italy
143 – Lithuania
142 – Germany
140 – Israel
135 – Azerbaijan
099 – Belgium
094 – Hungary
078 – Czech republic
076 – Croatia
058 – United Kingdom
056 – Latvia
053 – Netherlands
050 – Sweden
049 – Austria
048 – Iceland
045 – Denmark
043 – Estonia
033 – Spain
031 – Armenia
027 – Poland
015 – Australia
012 – France
006 – Bulgaria
004 – Ukraine
003 – Russia
1994 – NAGU MERELAINE – SILVI VRAIT = 1 CD
1995 – no participation
1996 – KAELAKEE HAAL – MAARJA-LIIS ILUS & IVO LINNA = 1 CD
1997 – KEELATUD MAA – MAARJA-LIIS ILUS = 1 CD
1998 – MERE LAPSED – KOIT TOOME = 1 CD
1999 – DIAMOND OF NIGHT – EVELIN SAMUEL & CAMILLE = 1 CD
2000 – ONCE IN A LIFETIME – INES = 1 CD
2001 – EVERYBODY – TANEL PADAR, DAVE BENTON & 2XL = 2 CD’S
2002 – RUNAWAY – SAHLENE = 1 CD
2003 – EIGHTIES COMING BACK – RUFFUS = 1 CD
2004 – TII – NEIOKOSO = 1 CD
2005 – LET’S GET LOUD – SUNTRIBE = 1 CD
2006 – THROUGH MY WINDOW – SANDRA – 2CD’S
2007 – PARTNERS IN CRIME – GERLI PADAR = 1 CD
2008 – LETO SVET – KREISIRAADIO = 1 CD
2009 – RANDAJAD – URBAN SYMPHONY = 1 CD
2010 – SIREN – MALCOLM LINCOLN = 1 CD
2011 – ROCKEFELLER STREET – GETTER JAANI = 1 CD
2012 – KUULA – OTT LEPLAND = 1 CD
2013 – ET UUS SAAKS ALGUSE – BIRGIT = 1 CD
2014 – AMAZING – TANJA = 1 CD
2015 – GOODBYE TO YESTERDAY – ELINA BORN & STIG RASTA = 1 CD
2016 – PLAY – JURI POOTSMANN = 1 CD
Song 5 : ESTONIA
(18th in semi final 1 : 24 points)
Artist: Jüri Pootsman
Song: Play
Music and Lyric: Fred Krieger, Stig Rästa, Vallo Kikas
18 – Estonia = 24 points
17 – Moldova = 33 points
16 – Greece = 44 points
15 – Finland = 51 points
14 – Iceland = 51 points
13 – Montenegro = 60 points
12 – San Marino = 68 points
11 – Bosnia & Herzegovina = 104 points
10 – Croatia = 133 points
09 – The Czech republic = 161 points
08 – Cyprus = 164 points
07 – Austria = 170 points
06 – Azerbaijan = 185 points
05 – The Netherlands = 197 points
04 – Hungary = 197 points
03 – Malta = 209 points
02 – Armenia = 243 points
01 -Russia = 342 points
