One of the longest of all the national selections is also the last country to reach its national final. The long selection process didn’t help Lithuania much last year with a lowly result in the semi-final. Do any of the 6 finalists have what it takes and make Eurovision 2018 a happier hunting ground for Lithuania? Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 national selections: Eurovizijos dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka (Lithuania preview)”
Always one of the biggest, if not the biggest, of the national selections, after 4 semi final shows and the “Andra Chansen” show, we’ve nearly reached this year’s final of Sweden’s long-running Melodifestivalen. 12 finalists battle it out this Saturday to take up the baton for Sweden and try to maintain their Eurovision success. Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 national selections: Melodifestivalen (Sweden preview)”
We’re almost at the end of the national final season but there are three more still to go this weekend – and three-times winner Norway chooses from their finalists on Saturday (10 March). Unlike Sweden, whose final falls on the same evening, there have been no semi-finals, there is just a single show. The 10 strong line up includes three former Eurovision participants, one of whom is a Eurovision winner! Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 national selections: Melodi Grand Prix (Norway preview)”
It’s a very busy weekend for national finals and song releases – as well as the trio of northern countries with national finals (see my preview), we have three other countries releasing their songs (Azerbaijan, Cyprus and The Netherlands), and also three further national finals of countries stretching from the westernmost country of continental Europe to the eastern borders of the EU… Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 national selections: from east to west (Poland, Portugal and San Marino previews)”
“The north wind doth blow and we shall have snow”… Well, that has certainly been true for Europe this past week as we shiver under a Siberian blast and snow falling in unlikely places. And aptly, this coming weekend will see us finding out which songs will be representing a cluster of northern countries.. Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 national selections: the north wind doth blow (Estonia, Finland and Iceland previews)”
Here in the UK we might be braced for the “beast from the East” cold blast, but this weekend it’s a bumper set of national finals from no fewer than seven Eastern countries. Some of these finals contain a lot of songs so I’ve just pulled out my favourites from what I have seen, any particularly unusual ones, and collections of snippets of all the entries. Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 national selections: Look East (Armenia, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia and Ukraine previews)”
The final member of the big 5 to hold their national selection final, Germany are, like the UK, also having a midweek final with a selection of 6 finalists. It seems a decent quality field this year, although, again like the UK, Germany needs to send something exceptional to avoid finishing low in the grand final of the contest itself. Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 national selections: Unser Lied für Lissabon (Germany preview)”
After two years of internal selection, Serbia returns to a national final, and a big one at that – there are 17 entries bidding for a place at Eurovision. It takes place on evening of Tuesday 20 February (one of two mid-week national finals this week with Germany on Thursday). On first listen, it’s a solid and quality field – probably one of the most consistent out of the national finals this year so it’s hard to predict who will win! Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 national selections: Beovizija 2018 (Serbia preview)”
Two more finals approach in east and south east of Europe. Belarus is never without a little bit of intrigue, drama or even state interference; for Montenegro, it’s their first time in almost a decade they haven’t selected internally. By end of Saturday (17 Feb) we should have 11 confirmed artists with released songs – a quarter of the way there! Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 national selections: Belarus Decides and Montevizija 2018 (Belarus and Montenegro previews)”
