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A MESSAGE FROM R O W – OUR FUTURE

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The start of a new year traditionally start with people having all kinds of new year’s resolutions as they reflect on the past year and see where things could improve in the new year. At R O W we are doing the same.
The club is now 10 years old and is regarded as one of the better functioning clubs in the OGAE family. Most of this is because both Andy and I do have in general more time to spend on club matters than the management in other clubs.
In 2000 I took a very drastic decision regarding my own future when my boss suddenly in February that year changed his mind about my leave in May for Stockholm when he approved the leave already 26 January 2000. I took the case to court and won and the company had to put me on “early retirement” so I could go to Eurovision. I decided not to work again full time and did just part time work if and when I feel like it. I stopped that also when I focused exclusively on Eurovision, the club and the covering of Euro songs in Afrikaans. it worked well.
It is, however, no secret that since 2014 and especially after Copenhagen, it has not been the same. Although I am mentally tough, there were times when things got too much even for me, but as things go in cycles, certain times thing again became better and then worse again. It took a strain on my health,the one thing I regard so high as no money can buy it and I started thinking about retiring from OGAE, R O W and Eurovision in general.
The day before the Copenhagen final I said to Morten I will only continue if Norway, Austria or Switzerland win (three countries I love attending Eurovision at), and the decision was made for me as Austria won.
Now I am going back to Stockholm in 2016, the city where things changed drastically for me in 2000 and now I am faced once again with a major decision.
I know you cannot please everybody, it is an impossible task, but something that is so special to me, is now routinely interrupted by 1 or 2 people – for me to enjoy Eurovision again like in the 90’s, I think it is time to re-think my involvement in especially OGAE. It is no secret that R O W is not liked by some at OGAE and we are treated like the Cinderella club, even virtually non existing clubs such as Bulgaria seem to enjoy a higher status than R O W. Yes, we do not have an own entry but we bring ten times more activity to fans than 50% of the other clubs put together – but more and more Andy and I get the impression that certain sections of OGAE (with the help of individuals inside R O W) will like nothing better than to see the end of R O W.
The term of the R O W board ends 31 May 2016 and new elections will have to do done. It is the ideal time to re-evaluate my own position. There are 5 months to go and unless things change, I will retire from OGAE on 31 May 2016. I know that Andy feels the same. We do not need OGAE and the club to enjoy Eurovision, and are part of the system because we enjoy it. The last year most of the joy has been taken away by others (and these people know who they are). We acknowledge their right to not like us but we cannot be treated differently from other OGAE clubs.
People who know me well, know I hate surprises and that is why I inform R O W members well in advance of the way we think after Stockholm.

R O W BEST SONG

R O W TOP 12 SONGS – WATERLOO

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What better way to start 2016 than with WATERLOO by ABBA, the 1974 Eurovision winner and the first Swedish winner. Many of you played their HAPPY NEW YEAR yesterday – I did not but heard it no less than 4 times on the radio.

This song set the tone for Swedish success at Eurovision and it is no surprise it is among our club’s top 12. It is also the oldest entry to have made it. As we are heading for Stockholm in May, we will interact with Abba songs a lot and even attend the ABBA museum,

012

Membership

INTRODUCING NEW MEMBER

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We are introducing CHRISTOPHER COBB of the USA

Eurovision for me starts in 2003. On holiday in Mykonos, celebrating
our tenth anniversary, my husband and I had the good fortune to catch
the show in a bar. Two close friends from the UK were vacationing with
us and explained the whole affair. I was hooked.

The next few years are a blur. We started with small parties at our
home in Tampa. Each year the parties got bigger. By 2010, it was too
much. We took a break in 2011 and went to England to celebrate with
our two friends from 2003. They fell asleep during the show.

Later that year my husband and I moved to Long Beach, California,
where we currently live. That’s like moving from Düsseldorf to Baku,
except in reverse. Fortunately, we still live under palm trees. We
haven’t resumed the parties but watch the semis and grand final over
the internet each year.

For years we have joked about wanting to go when the contest is in a
city of interest to us. Stockholm qualifies! We’re going in 2016 and
hope to join the hardcore fans on the floor for all six nights. We
have friends from Austria ready to show us the ropes. Now we just need
to prove ourselves worthy of the tickets.

competition

TAKE A CHANCE ON ME

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We start off the 60 day competition around ABBA since we will be in STOCKHOLM for Eurovision 2016.
I have selected 24 ABBA songs and the competition over 60 days will involve this 24 songs. Depending on how busy I am, every 2 or 3 days a new song will become available. The 24 songs have been picked at random and TAKE A CHANCE ON ME came up first so that is therefore the name of the competition.
There are 6 times 60 points at stake, so 360 in total, dividing that through 24 songs, is 15 points per song. But some will carry more points to a maximum of 30 and others less, but never less than 10 points. So the 360 points have been split between the 24 songs, and as TAKE A CHANCE ON ME starts the competition, it gets 30 points.
The competition will work as follows:
First of all, it is a joint effort between the WEBSITE and the FACEBOOK. The new song will be announced on the website but people can publish their response either on the website or the facebook under that song title.
I will take a sentence from the song lyrics and present that and you have to write a line or two about what memory this ABBA song brings – maybe your first kiss or a special birthday or whatever. The winner works as follows – if just one person responds, he or she gets the 30 points – if 2 respond, they each get 15 points, if three respond, then 10 points each. If more than 3, then I pick the best 3 in my opinion and each get 10 points.
If someone does not want his or her 10 points, then such a person can trade it in for half an euro discount on 2016 membership (or those that have paid already, then it is banked towards 2017 membership).
This gives everybody a chance – those that want points towards the ticket list for 2016 and those who for whatever reason cannot go and so want to earn “discount” towards their membership.
Winners will be announced one day after the next song is presented. So it gives people a couple of days to send their memory of a particular song.

Sweden 2015 final

SWEDISH FINAL 2015 – RUNNING ORDER

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Fred sent us this from Sweden.

Här är startordningen i finalen av Melodifestivalen 2015:

  1. Samir & Viktor – ”Groupie”
  2. JTR – ”Building It Up”
  3. Dinah Nah – ”Make Me (La La La)”
  4. Jon Henrik Fjällgren – ”Jag är fri (Manne leam frijje)”
  5. Jessica Andersson – ”Can’t Hurt Me Now”
  6. Måns Zelmerlöw – ”Heroes”
  7. Linus Svenning – ”Forever Starts Today”
  8. Isa – ”Don’t Stop”
  9. Magnus Carlsson – ”Möt mig i Gamla stan”
  10. Eric Saade – ”Sting”
  11. Mariette – ”Don’t Stop Believing”
  12. Hasse Andersson – ”Guld och gröna skogar”’
2015 Eurovision Song Contest

NEW BLOOD AT ESC COVERS

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As of today, Fred Medeiros joins us as an editor and he will concentrate on Melodifestivalen which starts this Saturday. He will report jointly for us and for ESC UNITED. During the semi finals he will report from home, but he and camera man Liam will be physically present at Andra chancen and the Stockholm final. We look forward to a lot of news. I have also more or less finished the library index for the SA covers of the Swedish selection songs and should have it 100% finished by Saturday.