Around the Continent 2022 – Week 27

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.

General

On Tuesday, the 25th of January 2022, the semi-finals allocation draw will be held in Turin.
The 36 countries that will participate in the semi-finals will get an allocation for the semi-final and half of each show.

The 36 countries will be assigned into 6 pots, based on their voting relations and patterns (which are sometimes geographic relations). 3 countries of each pot will participate in each one of the 2 semi-finals.

Ronela Hajari, who will represent Albania at Eurovision 2022, had an interview on Albanian TV.
She said her song will be revamped before Eurovision. The lyrics will be in both English and Albanian.

Ronela would like to work on the production of the song with Diztortion (he is based in London and has worked with big names like Shakira, Major Lazer, David Guetta, Sean Paul, and Rita Ora).
Part of “1,2,3, ta marrsha” will be kept in Albanian

For an unknown reason, the announcement of the Austrian artist for Eurovision 2022 was postponed. We expect the name to be published in the second half of January 2022.

According to local media, the singer Evangelia submitted songs to the Cypriot internal selection, after she failed to achieve the right to represent Greece

Finland will reveal the identity of 7 competing artists in “UMK 2022” on Wednesday the 12th of January 2022.
Finnish broadcaster YLE continues to give us some hints about the participants.

First artist (Suspected: Antti Tuisku)

The artist has 10 million streams on Spotify
The artist was a nominee for Emma-Gala
“The Beast is off”

The second artist (Suspected: Portion Boys / HesaÄijä):

Super popular party bopper
Bold and Effervescent
The artist has collaborated with big names in Finland.

Third artist (Suspected: The Rasmus / Kaija Koo)::

Performed all over Europe
The artist’s albums reached gold and silver.
The artist is a veteran (has a long career in Finland)

The songs will be gradually revealed – once a day.

Earlier this week, the auditions round for “C’est Vous Qui Décidez 2022” have started.

The auditions took place in Apollo Théâtre in Paris – the same venue where the auditions for the 2021 selection process took place.

12 artists will participate in the national selection that will take place in February.

One of the potential songs in the line-up is the following:

Some rumors in the German media, claim that the following 6 artists will take place in the national selection “Unser Lied für Turin“.

Eskimo Callboy – Pump It
IZZA – Easier
KLAN – Fiebar
Marie Reim – Illusion
Paula Dolle Corta – Clearer Now
Samuel Rösch – Gstern

We don’t know how reliable the rumor is, but we are here to give you the rumors

Last week, “X-Factor Israel” had 2 special episodes dedicated to Eurovision 2022.
At the moment, 10 candidates remained in the race to represent Israel:

Sapir Saban (Girls team)
Inbal Bibi (Girls team)
Anna Stefanie (Girls team)
Eli Huli (Boys team)
Michael Ben David (Boys team)
Shahar Adawi (Boys team)
Ilay Elmakayas (Youngs team)
Adi Cohen (Groups and Over 30 years old)
Linet (Groups and Over 30 years old)
Shiran and Ron (Groups and Over 30 years old)

The grand final of “X-Factor Israel” will probably take place on the 5th of February 2022.

The rehearsals for “Festival Di Sanremo 2022” have just started this week!

LTV reveals 16 participants in “Supernova 2022“:

Bermudu Divstūris – “Bad”
Markus Riva – “If You’re Gonna Love Me”
Aminata – “I’m Letting You Go”
BUJĀNS – “He, She, You & Me”
Citi Zēni – “Eat Your Salad”
Inspo – “A Happy Place”
Miks Dukurs – “First Love”
Beatrise Heislere – “On the way home”
The COCO’NUTS – “In and out of the dark”
KATŌ – “Promises”
Elīna Gluzunova – “Es pabiju tur” (I was there)
Mēs Jūs Mīlam – “Rich Itch”
Linda Rušeniece – “Pay My Own Bills”
RAUM – “Plans”
Zelma – “How”
Patriks Peterson – “Can’t Get You Outta My Head”
Wildcard winner

The wildcard winner will be chosen by the public in an online voting session that will be available between the 10th and the 14th of January 2022. The winner will be the 17th semi-finalist.

All the songs are available on the playlist:

The semi-final will be held on the 5th of February, while the grand final will be held on the 12th of February.

Here is the official promo:

Tonight (8th of January), Lithuania will hold the first heat of “Pabandom iš naujo 2022“.
The hosts of the selection are: Giedrius Masalskis, Ieva Stasiulevičiūtė, and Richardas Jonaitis.

Here is a reminder for the format:

Heat 1 – 8th of January 2022: 12 participants, 6 qualifiers
Heat 2 – 15th of January 2022: 12 participants, 6 qualifiers
Heat 3 – 22th of January 2022: 12 participants, 6 qualifiers
Semi – Final 1 – 29th of January 2022: 9 participants, 4 qualifiers
Semi – Final 2 – 5th of February 2022: 9 participants, 4 qualifiers
Grand Final – 12th of February 2022: 8 participants

11 artists will compete in the first heat. 6 of them will qualify for the next round (semi-finals).
The results will be determined by 50% public vote and 50% jury voting
The running order will be:

Elonas Pokanevič – ”Someday”
Joseph June – ”Deadly”
Urtė Šilagalytė – ”Running Chords”
Gabrielė Goštautaitė – ”Over”
Mary Mo – ”Get Up”
Augustė Vedrickaitė – ”Before you’re 6 ft under”
Sun Francisco – ”Dream Again”
Voldemars Petersons & The Break Hearters – “Up”
Aldegunda – ”Holiday”
Viktorija Faith – ”Walk Through The Water”
Erica Jennings -” Back to myself”

Singer Vladana will represent Montenegro at Eurovision 2022 with the song “Breathe“. Her song will be released at the end of February 2022.

It will be an emotional ballad, performed fully in English. The composer is Darko Dimitrov.
You can read the full details here

Up to 6 artists will take part in the national selection “Eurosong 2022“.
The format will be similar to the one in the Czech national selection – online voting with pre-recorded performances.

On Monday, the 10th of January 2022, NRK will publish the 21 competing artists in the Melodi Grand Prix and their songs.

It seems like one of the artists has already won the “Melodi Grand Prix” in the past.
I’d put my guess on Agnete (2016) or Ulrikke (2021).

We were supposed to get all the songs and artists today, but it’s moved to the 8th of January.. only two days before official release. BUT, there’s rumoured a previous MGP winner to join the party again!
— Eurovision Norway (@euroviNOR) January 6, 2022

Other rumored artists are:

Anna-Lisa Kumoji
Alexandra Joner
Oda Gondrosen
Kim Wigaard
Northkid
Mari Bølla
Christian Ingebrigtsen
Elsie Bay
VILDE
Farida
Maria Mohn

Next Saturday, Poland will reveal the artist for Eurovision 2022.
The leading contenders, according to Polish media, are:
Daria Marcinkowska, Krystian Ochman, and Lidia Kopania.

The 46 songs in “Selecţia Naţională 2022” have been published.

You can find the playlist here:

YouTube

The semi-final of the Selecţia Naţională 2022 will take place between 5th of February 2022 and 12th of February 2022, and has two stages.
The first stage of the semi-final will take place between 5th of February 2022 and 10th of February 2022. Special jury members will judge the songs. 15 songs will be shortlisted by the jury.
In the second stage the public will be able to select an additional 5 songs.
Public voting will be available on the Eurovision Romania Facebook page, between 9th of February 2022 (20.00 o’clock) and 10th of February 2022 (20.00 o’clock).
On the 12nd of February 2022. the televised semi-final with live performances will take place with 20 songs.
A special jury panel will judge the songs.
10 songs out of 20 will advance to the final.
The grand final of “Selecţia Naţională 2022” will be held on Saturday the 5th of March 2022.
The results of the grand-final will be determined by a combination of 50% public vote and 50% jury vote.

The auditions for “Una voce per San Marino” are in progress.
Earlier this week, Elis Mraz (runner up in “ESCZ 2022“) auditioned for San Marino’s selection.

At the end of January 2022, the 2 semi-finals of EMA Freš 2022” will be held.
The potional dated are 2 days from the list: 22nd, 23rd, 28th, 29th of January 2022.

Here’s a first glance at “Benidorm Fest 2022” stage:

You’re invited to read our review of “Benidorm Fest 2022″:

For the second year in a row, SVT will provide English commentary for the final show of “Melodifestivalen“

Even though the submission window is still open, we can mention several artists that have submitted entries to “Vidbir 2022“. Some of them will probably be chosen to perform in the show.
This information was taken from MUZVAR