Roy van der Merwe of ESC Covers received several USB sticks at the Eurovision song contest over the years and some of them are really special. He will highlight some of these over the next number of weeks. Continue reading USB STICKS AT EUROVISION OVER THE YEARS – RUSSIA 2016
Tag Archives: Stockholm
EUROVISION MEMORIES – 2000 – STOCKHOLM
Roy van der Merwe of Eurovision South Africa and the ESC Covers website attended several Eurovision song contests in person at the host cities. He is writing down his memories of those Eurovisions he attended with accreditation. Continue reading EUROVISION MEMORIES – 2000 – STOCKHOLM
EUROVISION HIGHLIGHTS FOR ESC COVERS FROM 1970 to 2023 – 1975
ESC COVERS started to look at 1 or 2 highlights from every Eurovision song contest from 1970 to 2023. This may be an actual entry, a cover from that year or just a specific artist. Continue reading EUROVISION HIGHLIGHTS FOR ESC COVERS FROM 1970 to 2023 – 1975
EN GANG I STOCKHOLM – MONICA ZETTERLUND
The next song in our short series of geography entries – where we feature a song with the name of a town, city or country in the title, is quite an old song. Continue reading EN GANG I STOCKHOLM – MONICA ZETTERLUND
COVER2COVER – T-SHIRT
On 23rd August 2020 we (ESC Covers, EuroVisionMusic, Eurovision Coverage and Destination Eurovision) started publishing pictures of VICTOR BUSH modeling a Eurovision t-shirt and holding the promo material for that entry. It is to make artists aware of entering the COVER2COVER SINGING contest we were arranging. Having received just 3 entries by the end of August – one in each of the 3 categories, it was clear we cannot have a competition with just 3 local entries. We had a rethink over the concept. As of 1 October, the COVER2COVER concept will change but it won’t be a competition anymore. It will be a PROMOTION PLATFORM where we will give exposure and promotion to any Eurovision related cover – an artist can send us any such song whether it is a professional video, a home video of just an audio video. There are also no limit on how many songs/videos an artist can send. The closing date will be 28 February 2021 so we can look at all entries ahead of the 2021 Eurovision song contest in Rotterdam in May 2021. A radio station RADIO 5XSTEREO will be joining us as a partner. We continue publishing the t-shirts at random and the 19th one is from 2016 Eurovision song contest in Stockholm, Sweden. This t-shirt celebrates the names of all the entries of that year together with the official double CD and the press bag. In total we will publish around 30 t-shirts and after that about 10 pictures of promotional Eurovision bags for a bit of variety.
STOCKHOLM – LENA PHILIPSSON
LENA PHILIPSSON, who represented SWEDEN at the 2004 Eurovision song contest, has a new song and video out. It is called STOCKHOLM. The video shows scenes of Stockholm, and those that attended Eurovision 2016 in Stockholm will recognize some scenes.
KEiiNO in STOCKHOLM
Ian Fowell and Graham Ridge from ESC Covers met up with the 3 members of KEiiNO, the Norwegian group that represented Norway at the 2019 Eurovision song contest. They are in Stockholm, Sweden and took part in the OGAE Sweden party last night.
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LONELY PLANET COMPETITION – ENTRY NUMBER SIXTEEN
Stockholm – super special by Michaela Sowden from Australia
Very little could have surpassed Copenhagen 2014 for me. I mean Conchita winning was my height of my longstanding following of Eurovision. Just amazing! Then to go to Vienna in 2015 was brilliant. How could anything get better?
My expectations of Sweden was up there. It was once again a family affair with number two son, his girlfriend and number two daughter. We were meeting up in Stockholm, after a brief get together in my original home town of Klagenfurt, Austria.
My first high arrived before leaving for Stockholm. I received the news that my fan accreditation had come through. I was on cloud nine! Such a coveted trophy, one that was not expected. My mood was set.
Arriving in Stockholm was traumatic, for the first time in years, me a seasoned traveller had not booked a seat on the train to Stockholm from Copenhagen. What was I thinking? We managed to get on the train. Asked the conductor about seats, and were told we had could have a seat til one and a half hours out of Stockholm. Then we would have to stand., which wouldn’t have been so bad, as the luggage was safe and secure, and my plan was to visit the dining car. Hmm, did not go down to well with Elle. So off we hopped onto the next train, three hours out of Stockholm, at a train station that was not user friendly. Finally found the next train to Stockholm, to be told that there were no seats at all. With some swift negotiating, some very desperate expressions on our face, and stating we would be happy to stand all the way to Stockholm, with some visits to the Dining car, the conductor softened and let us on. Yes we had to pay for seats, OK in the dining car and had to promise to move around, but hey we were again on our way to Stockholm! We eventually found somewhere to store our luggage, after Elle as punishment for her bad advice rearranged the luggage area. We spent the whole time in the dining car, with occasional movement around the train separately, ( he never said he had to move around together) eating and drinking our way to Stockholm. We arrived late but still managed to meet up with some really great people that afternoon.
Love Sweden! Thoroughly enjoyed the ABBA Museum. One memory that will stay with me was my rendition of Diggy loo in Swedish, a language I have no knowledge of, thankfully though being saved by a fellow fan.
The red carpet was phenomenal, and I had to endure the wrath of Elle, as that coveted selfie of her and Måns did not happen due to camera malfunction. There were so many opportunities to run into the stars and get a selfie. I gave a few koala away, one to a very grateful Eneda from Albania.
Oh, the press center was just fantastic. I loved manning that fan desk for three hours, even if I was alone! I had fun talking to all the press and to get their opinions.
The people I met up with are just the best in the world!
Would I do this again? Of course, the Eurovision bug has bitten me, once a fan, always a fan.
LONELY PLANET COMPETITION – ENTRY NUMBER FIFTEEN
Thank you for your time by Luc Spencer-Gardner from Australia
I have been to 4 Eurovision Song Contests over the past 5 years. The last two of these, Vienna and Stockholm, have been as a member of OGAE Rest of World. My absolute favourite event to this date has to be this year, Stockholm 2016. While it may sound cliché, this year Sweden really put on a show. The purpose built “Euroclub/Euro Fan Café” provided a haven for us die-hard Eurovision fans, and by having both in the one venue, this made it easier to coordinate friends and fellow fan club members to meet with throughout the week. But this was only one aspect. Putting all the fans, delegations, press accredited persons, and the artists themselves in the one place made for the most integrated event. Meeting people from fan clubs and media services throughout the whole of Europe was delightful, making many new friends and contacts. Having the artists on site also allowed for impromptu stage performances, and random chance meetings. Our very first night in Stockholm, we ran into the extremely engaging and charming Serhat, representing San Marino, and he was the loveliest man. At 5am on Thursday morning, as the Wednesday night was coming to an end, we ran into two of the band members from Cyprus. We spent a casual hour chatting and quite literally howling (at the sun however, not the moon). We also met the band from Georgia, who I am a huge favourite of. I literally ran into (my sincerest apologies again) Iveta from Armenia walking through the Euroclub. We met and found many more of the artists throughout the entire week, at various events, and it was an absolutely unreal experience to be so close to them, and engaging in conversation. The integration of the fans, delegations and press personnel this year was superb.
A quick note, we also availed ourselves to the fellow fan members in ROW and other fan clubs, and planned several meetings to ensure that the whole of our club and those from other clubs were able to integrate also.
I could not fault a thing this year. The show, the hosts, the technology, the integration, and the fans. Thank you for making 2016 Eurovision the best event yet!
LONELY PLANET COMPETITION – ENTRY NUMBER THIRTEEN
WORST AND BEST EUROVISION by Kyle Woods from the United States of America
As a disclaimer, since I’m participating in judging the competition, I will withdraw myself from eligibility for the prize, but it’s still fun to write a short note.
My best and worst Eurovision experiences…hmm…where to start. I have been to six Eurovisions now, starting in Düsseldorf and continuing through Stockholm.
Let’s start with the worst experience to get it out of the way. It was probably Copenhagen. The whole show felt cheap and poorly run. Having the show on a tiny island out of town accentuated transportation problems and really made me feel unwelcome in the city. Plus the Danes were homicidal with their bicycles. But let’s not dwell on the negative!
But I think my favorite experience from a travel perspective was, somewhat surprisingly, Malmo in 2013. The city was so small that I was constantly running into people I knew. Other cities like Vienna and Stockholm perhaps had more to offer in terms of things to see and do, but Malmo had its own charm and offered much more in terms of interactions with other fans.
I think my favorite thing I did in Malmo was a little river boat tour. It was just a cruise through the canals, and nothing particularly special. However, we happened to be there on the day they were doing a Balkan Music Party. You may not know that I spent a good portion of my life living in the Balkans (primarily in Croatia) so that music and those languages feel like home to me. I was also with a couple fans who live in Switzerland but are originally from Croatia, Serbia, and Kosovo. So it was a Balkan group on this little Balkan music cruise, and we just had a blast. We sang and danced and made utter fools of ourselves, rocking with Riva and longing for Dzuli.
It was a simple diversion, but it put a sort of stamp of approval on that whole Eurovision week, which was spent in many small memorable moments.
