As we continue our weekly series Around The Continent, we will discuss the news and tell the story of each country’s preparation for Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
Last Tuesday, RTSH revealed 20 participants of “Festivali i Këngës 60”:
- Alban Ramosaj
- Denis Skura
- Eldis Arrnjeti
- Evi Reci
- Endri & Stefi
- Ester Zahiri
- Gjergj Kacinari
- Janex
- Kastro Zizo
- Kelly
- Kejsi Rustja
- Mirud
- Olimpia Smajlaj
- Rezarta Smaja
- Ronela Hajati
- Sajmir Çili
- Shega
- Urban Band
- Viola Zhemali
- Xhuliana Pjetr
Among them, we can find some familiar names who competed in “Festivali i Këngës 59“
Evi Reci
Mirud
Gjergj Kacinari
Kastro Zizo
Meanwhile, Alban Ramosaj won the last edition of “Kenga Magjike”:
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The format is still unknown. In a few years, the performances were split into 2 semi-finals (the 2 first nights of the festival).
Afterward, the qualifiers from each night qualified for the final.
However, in other years (like the last edition), all the contenders performed in all 3 shows.
The second night was dedicated to acoustic versions of the songs.
Last year, 18 out of 24 artists qualified for the final. The results were determined by jury voting.
The songs will probably be revealed by the first half of December 2021.
Two weeks ago, 3 of the “Australia Decides 2022” participants revealed. It is still too early to know who the other competitors are.
However, we can infer that the singer Vanessa Amorosi (who participated in “Australia Decides 2020“) won’t take part in “Australia Decides 2022“.
The singer published her future tour dates.
We can see that she will be performing live a few days before Eurovision 2022, which suggests she won’t be able to take part in rehearsals of Eurovision 2022:
More than 20 songs have been made into the first listen, compared to previous years, when we had 10-15 songs per year. Most were approached by Austrian broadcaster ORF.
At the moment, there are 4 acts in the race to represent Austria at Eurovision 2022.
It has been revealed that ORF tried to convince the band Bilderbuch to take part as well, but they refused due to the fear of failure.
Eberhard Forcher, an Austrian musician and producer who is the project manager for Eurovision in ORF, gave 2 interviews this week: ”Merci Cherie” podcast and Eurovision website Wiwiblogs.
Eberhard claimed it had been best to see him since he was in charge. He also says 3 acts are well-known artists of the Austrian music scene and he confirmed that one of them is a real big name. Eberhard also said the act will be decided next week but announced in December 2021.
Based on these interviews, we can learn more about the 4 contenders:
Act 1 – It is an electronic duo with origins in Southern Tyrol. The duo is composed of a woman and a man. They have lived in Vienna for the last 15 years. The duo have a distinctive sound. Eberhard said that they are his personal favorites.
Visually, it seems that the male has long hair and for some viewers he may look like a woman.
Act 2 – It is an act that plays music which can be classified as the intersection of EDM and electro swing. They have a charismatic female singer.
Act 3 – This is another group, they are based in Styria. Their genre is unique pop with foundations of soft funk. They are considered to be Marvin Dietmann‘s favorite act.
Act 4 – It is a duo, that is composed of a young successful DJ and a young female singer. The guy is considered one of the most successful Austrian DJs ever with over 180 million Youtube views, and 80 million Spotify clicks.
Next week, the final versions of the 4 songs should be ready.
Eberhard Forcher will introduce them to the top managers of ORF. The artist will be selected internally. The artist will be revealed in December 2021, while the song will probably be revealed in March 2022.
“Eesti Laul 2022” will be broadcast next week.
The official promo was published this week:
For 4 consecutive weeks, we will have quarter – finals of the selection.
10 artists will compete in each quarter-final. 10 artists will be revealed each Monday / Tuesday before the show. However, the songs will only be revealed in the show itself.
About the Selection Process
- This year, “Eesti Laul” will have 4 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals, and a grand final.
- Out of 202 songs, 40 songs were shortlisted for the quarter-finals.
- The initial plan is to build a line-up of 20 songs in Estonian and 20 songs in other languages.
- A jury panel of 17 music experts ranked the songs without knowing who the singers, composers and lyricists were behind them.
- 10 songs will be included in each quarter-final. 5 of them will qualify for the semi-finals: 3 will be chosen by the public and 2 others by the jury.
- In the quarter-finals, songs won’t be performed live. We will watch the video clips of each one of them.
- As always, the semi-finals will have 2 rounds, where in the first round winners (jury votes and TV viewer’s phone votes combined) will qualify for the grand final and 2nd round decided by the public vote.
- Each semi-final will include 10 songs and only 5 of them will qualify.
- In the grand final, the 10 competing songs will face 2 rounds vote. The first round will be determined by 50% public vote and 50% jury voting.
- 3 artists will qualify for the “Superfinal,” which will only be determined by a public vote.
- A total of 202 songs were submitted
- 84 songs are in Estonian, while the other 118 songs are in foreign languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish and a fictional language.
- 7 of the artists have already represented Estonia in the past.
- Some of the song writers are well known Estonian musicians, composers and lyricists
- The dates of the shows are:
- Quarterfinal 1:November 20th 2021
- Quarterfinal 2:November 27th 2021
- Quarterfinal 3:December 4th 2021
- Quarterfinal 4:December 11th 2021
- Semi Final 1: 3rd February 2022
- Semi Final 2: 5th February 2022
- Grand Final: 12th of February 2022
It seems like we will receive some news regarding “UMK 2022” next week.
The information will probably be the number of participants in “UMK 2022” and when the artists will be revealed.
Last Thursday, Facebook page Eurovision Georgia published the following statement:
According to the statement, the Georgian representative for Eurovision 2022 has already been chosen internally by Channel 1 Georgia.
In fact, a Group will represent the country at Eurovision 2022.
Members of the group will be revealed one by one, starting December 2021.
We can assume that a group of artists will probably join together in order to represent the country at Eurovision 2022.
The professional jury panel who will judge the submitted songs are: Giannis Petridis, Maria Kozakou, Fotis Apergis, Petros Adam and chairman Dimitris Papadimitriou.
The committee will reduce the list of 40 submitted songs to 5-10 songs.
In December, ERT will decide whether the song will be chosen in national selection or internally
We would like to remind you of the list of known contenders:
- Good Job Nicky
- Evangelia
- Joanne (Ioanna Georgakopoulou)
- Amanda Tenfjord (Amanda Georgiadis)
- Nikos Ganos
- Elias Kozas
- Konstantinos Christoforou
- Jimmy Sion
- Artemis Matafia
- Konstantina Zerva (Kianna)
- Marseaux
3 additional episodes of auditions for “X Factor Israel” have been broadcast this week.
There are 5 judges, and each candidate has to receive at least 4 yeses in order to qualify.
The candidates that advanced for the next round are:
Shahar Edvi (5 Yeses)
Ido B. And Zuki (4 Yes,1 No)
Amit Ben Zaken (5 Yes)
Uriya Azari (5 Yeses)
Guy Sims (5 yes)
Stevie John (Nofar and Yarden) (4 yeses,1 No)
Amit Shetach (5 Yeses)
Itay Paz (4 Yeses,1 No)
Zehava Cohen (5 Yeses)
Shira (4 yeses,1 No)
Shimi Tavori (5 Yeses)
Next week, another 3 episodes of auditions will be broadcast on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
The deadline for “Supernova 2022” was extened from 7th of December 2021 to the 23rd of December 2021.
Here are the main regulations for the selection:
- Soloists, duos and groups of up to 6 people can apply.
- Each soloist or group member should be at least 16 years of age on the 1st of December 2021.
- Only citizens of Latvia and permanent residents of Latvia can apply.
- Foreign musicians may only participate if they are producers with up to 33.33% authorship distribution.
- The submission period will close on the 23rd of December 2021.
- The submitted songs have not been published on any publicly available platforms or played (also in live performance) at public events before September 1, 2021.
- The maximum song length is 3 minutes.
- A professional jury panel will estimate and rank the submitted songs. They will base their estimates on: arrangement, message of the song, compliance with modern market trends, potential to compete in the international pop music market, vocational abilities, personality of the performer;
- The titles of the entries selected by the jury and included in the next round, including the Song Authors, will be published by LTV in December 2021.
- The final of the competition “Supernova 2022” will take place in February 2022;
- The selection process (or in fact “Supernova 2022” format) will be revealed in January 2022.
- According to unofficial sources, 16-24 songs will be shortlisted for the second round
You can submit the song here
Instagram followers on the “Supernova” page were asked to suggest their own favorites. Here are the top 5 results:
According to rumors in Lithuanian media, we can expect the 13th participation of a 42 years old Aistė Pilvelytė in the Lithuanian selection.
It is still unknown whether she will participate as a solo artist or as part of a group.
Her best achiements are 2nd places in the years: 2008, 2010 and 2017.
Her last participation was in 2020 with the song “Unbreakable“. She ended up 5th in the final:
The submission window will close at the end of this month.
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet continues to supply more potential names for artists in “Melodifestivalen 2022“:
The 4 new names are:
- John Lundvik
John Lundvik represented Sweden at Eurovision 2019 with the song “Too Late For Love“.
He ended up 5th in the grand final:
If the rumor is true, it will be his 3rd participation in “Melodifestivalen“.
2. Theodor “Theoz” Haraldsson
Theoz is a 16 year old Swedish Tiktok star. It will be his debut in “Melodifestivalen“.
3. Malou Prytz
18 year old Malou Prytz will probably make her 3rd appearance in “Melodifestivalen.”
In 2019, she performed the song “I Do Me” and ended up 12th in the grand final
While in 2020, she performed the song “Ballerina” and didn’t advance for the final
4. Cazzi Opeia (Moa Carlebecker)
33 year old singer and songwriter will probably make her debut “Melodifestivalen“.
She has won 3 awards in “Musikförläggarnas pris” – best newcomer and best international artist of the year (twice).
She has also written songs for international artists, like K-Pop band BTS.
You can listen to one of the songs:
5. Medina
The hip-hop duo that’s composed by Sami Daniel Rekik and Ali Jammali will probably participate in “Melodifestivalen 2022“.
One of the duo members, has already participated in “Melodifestivalen“.
In 2021, he collaborated with WAHL on the song “90 talet“:
So far, we have 11 ruimored artists for “Melodifestivalen 2022“:
- Robin Bengtsson
- Liamoo
- Klara Hammarström
- Alvaro Estrella
- Angelino
- Lance Hedman
- John Lundvik
- Theoz
- Malou Prytz
- Cazzi Opeia
- Medina
In an interview for the newspaper Vesti.Ua, Ukarinian band Kazka confirmed they won’t compete in the upcoming national selection for Eurovision 2022.
Eurovision is one of the group’s dreams, but as for the lead vocalist Oleksandra, they don’t have the right song for Eurovision 2022.
In 2019, the band performed the song “Apart” and ended up 3rd in the final.
Oleksandra said they won’t rule out participation in the national selection for Eurovision 2023, but will only participate if they have a song with winning potential.
