I feel like I could almost reuse the intro paragraph I used last year for this country – it’s the modern day Eurovision superpower and juggernaut, Sweden. 6-times winners, their dominance has been almost absolute recently. Since 2011, they have won the contest twice, and only once in that period finished outside the top 5 in the grand final. So the young Benjamin Ingrosso has a lot to live up to – can he carry on Sweden’s remarkable run of success? Continue reading “Eurovision 2018 previews countdown: #27 SWEDEN – Benjamin Ingrosso – “Dance You Off””
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)”
Eurovision may be some months off yet, but the Eurovision 2018 season began at the start of this month (any song publicly released from 1 September onwards is eligible for the next contest). I’ve still got many country top 5s to do before the national final season begins around Christmas, so kicking off my autumn season is that superpower of the last two decades of Eurovision – Sweden. Continue reading “My top 5 songs from…Sweden”
Earning a place in the top 3 once again is Eurovision’s current superpower, Sweden. Last year’s hosts, they and Ukraine are the only countries to have won more than once since semi-finals were introduced in 2004. Six times winners, and rarely out of the top 10 in finals in recent years, it seems inevitable Sweden will eventually take Ireland’s crown of most successful Eurovision country. Could that be this year?
Continue reading “Eurovision 2017 previews countdown: #3 SWEDEN – Robin Bengtsson – “I Can’t Go On””
We celebrated Eurofest’s 5th birthday with a great night (my hangover is a testament to that) and fabulous show by Magnus Carlsson, who will know from Melodifestivalen and a former member of Alcazar. Enjoy these vids – sorry, first two I filmed in portrait rather than landscape until my friend Zoltan pointed it out! Continue reading “Magnus Carlsson performing at Eurofest at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern”
It may not have escaped your notice, but Abba were back in the news this week, announcing plans for a “new and virtual live [Abba] experience“. It’s not, as some people overexcitedly thought, a reunion concert, but nonetheless it sounds a great concept! Abba remain by far the most famous, enduring and commercially successful act to have emerged from Eurovision, so with the news earlier this week, what better to finish a Friday than a spot of Abba! Continue reading “A top 5 of my favourite less well-known Abba songs”
200 days to the Grand Final of Eurovision 2017! Some bits of Eurovision news today: Slovakia confirms they won’t be participating next year (they haven’t taken part since 2012) and Moldova confirms that they are taking part, bringing the number of confirmed countries to 41. Moldova haven’t missed a Eurovision since their debut in 2005.
While Eurovision season has indeed begun, news will be quite intermittent until we hit the Christmas period when it will pick up a lot of pace. In the meantime, I’ll be posting up lots of Eurovision content. Today, we’re looking at the top 10 countries by average finishing position in the Grand Final. I haven’t included countries that have not competed in less than 5 finals, and I haven’t included semi-final performances, just how the countries have performed in the finals. This does include countries who no longer compete in Eurovision (or at least haven’t competed for some time). Some familiar or expected countries in this list, as well as some surprises!
Continue reading “Top 10 countries by Grand Final finishing position”
Back to back Nordic countries in the countdown and it’s this year’s hosts – Sweden. Considering the superpower/juggernaut status of Sweden within the world of Eurovision, this might be a surprise to see them down this far in the ranking list, but Frans and his song have been dividing opinion amongst Eurofans it seems. Can Sweden hold on to their title and win for a seventh time to match Ireland’s record?
Continue reading “Eurovision 2016 previews countdown: #24 SWEDEN – Frans – “If I Were Sorry””
No less than 5 countries in this next batch of video clips, including the host country, Sweden. Zoë from Austria got a huge ovation, and getting her quite emotional! She came back after Romania’s two performances (which are shown here) to do an accappella reprise of Loin d’ici. We’ve also got fan favourite Poland and the hotly tipped Croatia here as well. Continue reading “London Eurovision Preview Party 2016 video clips part 3: Zoë, Ovidiu Anton, Nina Kraljić, Michał Szpak and Frans”
