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
Last Monday and Tuesday, the meeting of the head of delegations took place.
Here are the main points of the meeting:
- Each country will be asked to supply a backup live-on tape version of their Eurovision 2022 song. This will be used in cases where a delegation won’t be able to attend the events in Turin. Possible scenarios where it can be used are Covid restrictions or any complex/sensitive situation in the country (like the war in Ukraine).
- The theme of peace will be one of the central messages this year. It will be emphasized by the 3 hosts: Laura Pausini, Alessandro Cattelan, and Mika.
- The stage construction will start soon
The Eurovillage will open on the 6th of May 2022 at the Parco del Valentino:
Regarding the tickets, there’s still a delay in the selling. It looks like the first wave of tickets will be available only in April, a little bit more than a month before the shows!
Rosa Linn, the Armenian representative will release her Eurovision entry “Snap” on Saturday, the 19th of March 2022
The team behind the song was revealed ahead of the release.
The song writers are: Rosa Linn, Larzz Principato, Jeremy Dusoulet, Allie Crystal, Tamar Kaprelian, and Courtney Harrell.
Tamar was part of the group Genealogy that represented Armenia at Eurovision 2015 with the song “Face The Shadow“. In 2018, she competed in the Armenian selection for Eurovision 2018 with the song “Ari, Ari (Poision)“.
You can listen to the audio version here:
Nadir Rustamli will release his song for Eurovision 2022 on Monday, the 21st of March 2022.
The known details so far are that the song is a ballad whose probably named “Stay“.
Here you can watch a teaser from the video clip:
OGAE Azerbaijan reported that there are 2 Swedish writers behind the song:
- Thomas Stengaard – was the producer behind a number of Eurovision entries: San Marino 2021, Cyprus 2021 and was also a part of the team behind Denmark 2013
- Andreas Stone Johansson – was part of the team behind the Swedish entry for Eurovision 2019 – “Too Latt For Love” by John Lundvik
Croatian media (and namely “All Thing Dora“) reports Mia Dimšić will perform with a new staging concept on the stage in Turin.
Usually, HRT insists on sticking to the staging concept like in the national selection “Dora“.
The first known change is about the outfit, that no longer will be black.
We Are Domi has released the official video clip of their Eurovision entry “Lights Off“.
The song was slightly revamped.
You can see spme photos from the video recordings:
Main Changes In The New Version
- The song was slightly modified, especially in the production.
- For example, the instrumental part in the introduction was shortened.
- The lead singer removed some of the long notes in the chorus.
- The opening beat at the beginning of the song is now more powerful
- The first live performace of this version could have been found on the guest performance of the band at the Romanian selection for Eurovision 2022 (on the 5th of March 2022)
Circus Mircus has released the video clip of their Eurovision 2022 song “Lock Me In“:
Last Saturday, Iceland held its national final for Eurovision 2022 – “Söngvakeppnin 2022“.
The winners are Sigga, Beta and Elin with the song
A couple of days ago, the group has decided on rebranding as Systur (In Icelandic: sisters).
In addition, RÚV pubished the full results of the the semi-finals and the final:
Semi-Finals Reuslts
Grand Final – Round 1
Grand Final – Round 2
As we can see, Reykjavíkurdætur (Daughters of Reykjavík) leaded the scoreboard in all the round, except the super-final.
One possible explanation is that some of the eliminated acts supporters preffered Sigga, Beta and Elín at the moment of truth.
Michael Ben David has released the revamped version of his Eurovision 2022 song – “I.M“, alongside a video-clip:
Here are the main changes new version, compared to the original version:
- There are no changes in the lyrics in the melody frame.
- The majority of the introduction remained the same.
- One remarkable change is the addition of bass/low backing vocals that are edited with digital effects (like echo for example)
- The volume of the backing vocalists in the first verse (“I know I’m”) was slightly increased.
- Another main change is in the chorus. The dance beat was changed into a cyclic sampling of flute playing, electro keyboards with oriental elements
- The oriental ethnic break that was in the original version, was kept.
During the meeting of the head of the delegations, Italy (as the host country) was drawn to perform 9th in the running order of the Eurovision 2022 grand final.
The position was picked randomly.
The rumor turned out to be true.
Malta has decided to replace Emma Muscat‘s song for Eurovision 2022.
Initially, she was meant to perform the song “Out of Sight” with whom she won “MESC 2022“.
Last Monday, the new song for Eurovision 2022 was revealed – “I Am What I Am“:
Apperantely, the song was rejected by the Danish broadcaster to participate in “Dansk Melodi Grand Prix”. It was revealed that the Maltese broacsster has started the searching for new song for Emma on the say after the selection ended.
Last Saturday, Portugal held the final of “Festival da Canção 2022“.
The winnwe was Maro with the song “Saudade,saudade“
RTP has published the scoreboard of each show:
Semi-Final 1
Semi-Final 2
Final
Chanel has released the official video clip of her Eurovision 2022 entry – “SloMo“:
Last Saturday, Sweden held the final of “Melodifestivalen 2022“.
The winner was Corenlia Jakobs with the song “Hold Me Closer“
In addition, SVT published the full results of each show:
Semi-Final 1 (note: app votes weren’t counted in ths show, due to technical isuue)
Semi-Final 2
Semi-Final 3
Semi-Final 4
Second Chance
Final
The art director of the Swiss perofmance at Eurovision 2022 will be Sacha Jean Baptise, like in Eurovision 2019 and 2021
Marius Bear will represent the conutry with the song “Boys Do Cry“:
Another outcome of the head of delegations meeting was the news about Ukraine’s participation in Eurovision 2022.
The country is determined to participate, despite the current situation.
Nowadays, the band Kalush Orchestra is working on recording the backup performance, somewhere in the west of the country.
There’s a chance that the band will have to use this backup, if the war doesn’t permit them to travel to Italy in May 2022
