Around The Continent #18

The Executive Producer of Eurovision 2020 Sietse Bakke has revealed more information about Eurovision 2020 stage. A semi-transparent LED screen will be added to the stage. It will be located between the main stage and the area that will be surrounded by fans.

Moreover, 7 former Eurovision winners will participate in the interval act of the grand final. The seven winners are:
Gigliola Cinquetti – The winner of Eurovision 1964 (Italy)
Lenny Kuhr – One of The winners of Eurovision 1969 (The Netherlands)
Getty Kaspers – The lead singer of the band Teach-In, the winners of Eurovision 1975 (The Netherlands)
Sandra Kim – The winner of Eurovision 1986 (Belgium)
Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan – The winners of Eurovision 1994 (Ireland)
Alexander Rybak – The winner of Eurovision 2009 (Norway)
Duncan Laurence – The winner of Eurovision 2019 (The Netherlands)

Edsilia Rombley, one of Eurovision 2020 hosts, will be a taxi driver in a special pre-recorded act. Edsilia Rombley will take 4 former Eurovision winners for a ride in the city of Rotterdam. The 4 special guests will be:
Anne-Marie David (Luxembourg 1973)
Izhar Cohen (Israel 1978)
Niamh Kavanagh (Ireland 1993)
Ruslana (Ukraine 2004)

Last Saturday, the final of the national selection “Depi Evratesil 2020” was held.
The winner was Athena Manoukian with the song “Chains On You”

The full results can be seen in the following table:

Last Monday, Hooverphonic released their song for Eurovision 2020, “Release Me”:

Victoria Georgieva will release her song for Eurovision 2020 on Saturday the 7th of March 2020.

The national selection “Dora 2020” will be held on next Saturday, the 29th of February 2020. 16 artists will compete in the national selection.
The competing acts won’t be released before the show. We will probably get snippets versions. The competing acts will be:

Marin Jurić Čivro – Naivno
Edi Abazi – Coming home
Mia Negovetić – When it Comes to You
Colonia – Zidina
Zdenka Kovačićek – Love, Love, Love
Lorenzo feat Dino Purić & Reper Iz Sobe – Vrati Se Iz Irske
Jure Brkljača – Hajde nazovi me
Damir Kedžo – Divlji vjetre (Tuga u bojama jeseni)
Lorena Bućan – Drowning
Alen Vitasović & B. Matija Čerina – Da se ne zatare
Aklea Neon – Zovi ju mama
Indira – You Will Never Break My Heart
Nikola Marjanović – Let’s forgive
Đana Smajo – One
Bojan Jambrošić – Više od riječi
Elis Lovrić – Jušto

Last week, Estonia held the two semi-finals of “Eesti Laul 2020”.
From each semi-final, 6 artists qualified for the final.
The competing acts (ordered by the running order) are:

#1. Inger – “Only Dream”

#2. Rasmus Rändvee – Young

#3. Stefan – By My Side

#4. Synne Valtri feat. Väliharf – Majakad

#5. Uudo Sepp – I’m Sorry. I Messed Up

#6. Uku Suviste – What Love Is

#7. Shira – Out In Space

#8. Anett & Fredi – Write About Me

#9. Jaagup Tuisk – Beautiful Lie

#10. Traffic – Üks Kord Veel

#11. Egert Milder – Georgia (On My Mind)

#12. Laura Põldvere – Break Me

The full playlist (including eliminated acts) is available in different digital platforms:

Spotify

AppleMusic

Youtube

Last Sunday, Tom Leeb released his song for Eurovision 2020 – “The Best In Me”.
Lyrics: Amir Haddad, John Lundvik, Léa Ivanne, Peter Boström, Thomas G:Son, and Tom Leeb
Melody : Peter Boström, Thomas G:Son

Some of the writers and composers names are familiar.
John Lundvik represented Sweden in Eurovision 2019 and was among the writes of The Uk entry for Eurovision 2019.

Amir Haddad is a French-Isreali singer that represented France in Eurovision 2016.

Thomas G:Son is a Swedish writer and composer. He is well known is the Eurovision scene, since a lot of his songs were performed at Eurovision. Some of his songs are:
Sweden 2012 (Loreen – Euphoria), Spain 2012 (Pastora Soler – “Quedate Conmigo”), Malta 2018 (Christabelle – “Taboo), Georgia 2015 (Nina – Warrior) and more.

Tornike Kipiani will perform a song called “Take Me As I Am“. Earlier this week, he published a snippet from the recording sessions of the song:

The song may be described as a mixture of rock, dubstep, and electro. It will probably contain the phrase ” I love you” in different languages such as French.

The song of Germany for Eurovision 2020 will be revealed on Thursday, the 27th of February 2020 at 21:30 CET.
The show where the selected entry will be revealed will be hosted by Barbara Schöneberger.
The selection process was based on the judgment of 2 jury pannels. The first group includes 100 German Eurovision fans. The second group is an international expert jury of 20 music professionals. All of them were judges of their home country in the selection process or Eurovision itself.
Each jury group gets 50% of the overall vote. The two groups rated several artists and hundreds of performances.
The broadcaster mention that the main advantage of the process is getting more time to plan the performance, staging, and choreography of the selected entry.

Here is a video in Dutch that explains the selection process in a funny way

Stefania Liberakakis will reveal her song for Eurovision 2020, “Supergirl” on Sunday the 1st of March 2020.

Iceland held the two semi-finals of “Söngvakeppnin 2020“.
From each semi-final, 2 artists qualified for the final. Besides, the jury gave a wild card for one of the eliminated acts.
The final of the national selection will be held on Saturday, the 29th of February 2020.
The competing acts (ordered by the running order are):

#1. Ísold & Helga – Meet Me Halfway

#2. Daði and Gagnamagnið – Think About Things

#3. Nína – Echo

#4. Iva – Oculis Videre (The singer decided to perform the Icelandic version in the final, although she recorded an English version):

#5. DIMMA – Almyrkvi

The final will include 2 rounds.
First-round – All of the artists will perform. The results will be determined by 50% jury voting and 50% public voting.

Second-round- The top 2 acts from the previous round will compete. The winner will be decided solely by public voting.

Ireland drops another hint for Ireland representative in Eurovision 2020.
This time it’s a photo that was taken in the first rehearsals where 4 pairs of socks can be seen:

The Irish fans claim that the country will be probably represented by the band ELM. The band includes 4 members: Dilan, Gary, Ca, and Aidan.

The members of the band are LGBTQ members which satisfy the first hint about The Irish representative for Eurovision 2020.

Two days ago the band have droped a new single “Golden”. Is it possible we have another entry for Rotterdam out?

Yesterday, Israeli broadcaster revealed the running order of the national selection songs:

The running order will be:

#1. Eden Alene – “Savior In The Sound”
#2. Eden Alene – “Roots”
#3. Eden Alene – “Rakata”
#4. Eden Alene – “Feker Libi”

The songs will be published on Thursday, the 27th of February 2020.
The national final selection “Hashir Habe La’Eurovision” will be held on Tuesday the 3rd of March 2020.

The results of the selection will be determined by a combination of 50% professional jury, 40% public voting, and 10% local area jury.

Last Saturday, Lithuania chose their act for Eurovision 2020.
The band “The Roop” will perform the song “On Fire”:

The roop got more than 59% of the total public voting which is a record in the Lithuanian national selection history.

Last Saturday, Norway chose their act for Eurovision 2020. After 5 semi-finals and grand final that included 3 rounds, “Melodi Grand Prix” ha come to an end.
The winner is Ulrikke Brandstorp that will perform the song “Attention”

Poland will select an act for Eurovision 2020 on Sunday, the 23rd of February 2020.
3 artists will compete in the national selection. Each candidate will perform 2 songs: a cover of Eurovision song and an original song that he/she intend to perform in Eurovision 2020 for Poland.
Two songs have been already revealed:

#1. Kasia Dereń – “Ufaj Mi”

#2. Albert Černý feat. Lake Malawi – “Lucy”

#3. Alicja Szemplińska – Song to be revealed

There is an option that the song will be “Prawie My“. The singer released it at the end of November 2019.

The voting system in the national selection “Szansa na Sukces” will be 50% public voting and 50% jury voting.

Tomorrow’s night Portugal will hold the first semi-final of “Festival da Canção 2020“.
8 acts will compete for 4 spots in the final. The qualifiers will be determined by a combination of 50% jury voting and 50% public voting.
The semi-finals jury will include 7 members. One of them if last ear representative: Conan Osiris

The competing acts and running order are:

01– MEERA – Copo De Gin 02 – Filipe Sambado – Gerebera Amarela do Sul
03 – Ian Mucznick – O Dia De Amanhã
04 – Bárbara Tinoco – Passe-Partout
05 – Blasted – Rebellion
06– Elisa – Medo De Sentir
07– J.Jazz – Agora
08– Throes + The Shine – Movimento

You can read our review of the festival songs right here

The playlist is available in different digital platforms:

Spotify

AppleMusic

YouTube

Today at 20:00 CET, Roxen will release her 5 songs that will be performed in the national selection. The national selection will be held on Sunday the 1st of March 2020.

Meanwhile, there are snippets of the songs:

#1. Roxen – “Alcohol You”

#2. Roxen – “Storm”

#3. Roxen – “Beautiful Disaster”

#4. Roxen – “Cherry Red”

#5. Roxen – “Colors”

The Russian broadcaster will select the artist for Eurovision 2020 until the end of February 2020. At the moment, there are 3 leading artists. 2 of them are Zivert and Alexander Panayotov.

Next week, on Friday and Saturday, Serbia will broadcast the semi-finals of “Beovizija 2020”.In each semi-final, 12 artists will participate and only 6 will qualify for the final.
The final will be held on Sunday the 1st of March 2020.

Semi-Final 1 (February 28th, 2020):

EJO -Trag
Milica Mišić – Kiša
Ivan Kurtić feat. Mistik Cello – Sabajle
Thea Devy – Sudnji Dan
Karizma – Ona Me Zna
Andrija Jo – Oči Meduze
Sanja Bogosavljević – Ne Puštam
Marko Marković – Kolači
Srđan Lazić – Duša i Telo
Neda Ukraden – Bomba
Amvon Duo i Bilja – Raj
Igor Simić – Ples Za Rastanak

Semi-Final 2 (February 29th, 2020):

LIFT – Samo Mi Kaži
Bane Mojićević – Cvet Sa Prokletija
Bora Dugić i Balkubano – Svadba Velika
Bojana Mašković – Kao Muzika
Naiva – Baš, Baš
Rocher Etno Bend – Samo Ti Umeš To
Lazar Živanović – Puklo je nebo
Ivana Jordan – Vila
Nenad Ćeranić – Veruj U Sebe
Hurricane – Hasta La Vista
Ana Milenković – Tajna
Milan Bujaković feat. Olivera Popović – Niti

The playlist is available on YouTube

Tomorrow at 20:00 CET, Slovenia will hold the national selection final “EMA 2020“.
12 artists will compete for representing the country in Eurovision 2020.
The competing acts are:

01 – Simon Vadnjal – Nisi Sam
02 – Saška – Še Kar Lovim Tvoj Nasmeh
03 – Gaja Prestor – Verjamem Vase
04 – Ana Soklič – Voda
05 – Inmate – The Salt
06 – Manca Berlec – Večnost
07 – Tinkara Kovač – Forever
08 – Božidar Wolfand Wolf – Maybe Someday
09 – Parvani Violet – Cupid
10 – Klara Jazbec – Stop The World
11 – Imset – Femme Fatale
12 – Lina Kuduzović – Man Like U

Last Saturday, Sweden held the third semi-final of “Melodifestivalen 2020″.
The qualifiers were:

Mariette – Shout it Out

Mohombi – Winners

Tomorrow at 20:00 CET, Sweden will hold the 4th semi-final of “Melodifestivalen 2020″.

The running order will be:

01 – Frida Öhrn – We Are One
02 – William Stridh –Molnljus
03 – Nanne Grönvall – Carpool Karaoke
04 – Victor Crone – Troubled Waters
05 – Ellen Benediktson & Simon Peyron – Surface
06 – Jakob Karlberg – Om du tror att jag saknar dig
07 – Hanna Ferm – Brave
You can listen to the snippets of the songs right here

Tomorrow at 18:00 CET, Ukraine will broadcast the final of “Vidbir 2020”.
6 artists will compete for representing the country in Eurovision 2020.
The results will be determined by 50% jury voting and 50% public voting.
The running order will be:

01 – Krutь – 99