The BBC have made the following announcements on Twitter regarding the UK staging:
22/04: We have chosen the violinists. All very handsome and will look extremely dashing in their (to be revealed) costumes. - Helen (Producer)
23/04: Our big prop is on its way to Russia. It left Blighty last week and hopefully it will arrive in Moscow before May 8th... - Helen (Producer)
So it seems the performance will be Jade singing, Andrew Lloyd Webber on piano, four dashing violinists and a 'big prop'. Sounds very mysterious. We won't actually hear the violinists playing live as the rules state that only a backing track may be used. I think it would be much better to have four backing singers as they'd really help lift the song and the violins would still be on the backing track anyway. Leave the violins to Norway and Slovenia.
It's tempting to read too much into internet polls. In previous years fan polls have favoured songs that either didn't qualify or fared badly in the final, songs such as 'DJ Bobo - Vampires Are Alive', 'Charlotte Perrelli - Hero', 'Kate Ryan - Je t'adore'. I remember distinctly in 1999 Cyprus was leading all the fan polls. That year Cyprus finished 2nd from last with only 2 points from the UK (see video below). The OGAE voting so far heavily favours Norway. That mirrors nearly every poll on the internet, which is a very good indicator Norway will win this year. However, let's look at the OGAE scoreboard from 2008:
1. Sweden 296 (12th in Semi-final 2 - jury wildcard - 15th in final) 2. Switzerland 194 (13th in Semi-final 2 - didn't qualify for final) 3. Serbia 166 (6th place) 4. Armenia 134 (5th place) 5. Ukraine 133 (2nd place) 6. Norway 130 (5th place) 7. Iceland 129 (14th place) 8. Portugal l86 (13th place) 9. Russia 73 (1st place) 10. Romania 62 (20th place) 11. Greece 59 (3rd place) 12. Turkey 39 (7th place)
Sweden was the clear OGAE favourite in 2008, as in many other polls, but only just scraped through to the final thanks to the jury wildcard and crashed out in 15th place. Switzerland, another fan favourite in 2008 didn't even qualify for the final. The winning country, Russia, was only 9th in the OGAE voting. This should make us wary of Norway's clear lead in the OGAE voting, but how does it compare to other ways of predicting the winnner?
Betting Odds
Russia was the bookies favourite last year, followed by Ukraine and Armenia and belatedly, Greece. The bookies have correctly predicted the winning song every year since Greece won in 2005. So, who is the bookies' favourite this year? Norway :-)
Cyprus 1999 - Marlain - Tha'ne Erotas (fan favourite - 22nd place in the final)
The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 album is now available to download from iTunes. It's currently only available in participating countries. The CD will be released 1st May (8th May in Australia).
According to iTunes the top songs are currently:
Be My Valentine (Anti-crisis Girl) - Ukraine Lose Control - Finland Illusion - Bulgaria Is It True? - Iceland Miss Kiss Kiss Bang - Germany
Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Various Artists
Release Date: 17 Apr 2009
Genre: Pop
℗ 2009 The copyright in this compilation is owned by CMC Entertainment A/S
Despite being slightly overshadowed by the huge Eurovision concert taking place in Amsterdam tomorrow the team behind the UK Eurovision Preview Party managed to pull off a fantastic show. Ukraine's Svetlana Loboda was the biggest surprise for me. When I first heard the song I thought it was terrible but they've really worked on the performance and it's very routine-heavy with four muscular Ukrainian men and two backing singers with Amy Winehouse beehives. It's gone from perhaps one of my least favourite entries this year to one of the ones I'm really looking forward to seeing performed in Moscow.
The Romanian and Icelandic acts also pulled off great performances. For me personally Poland, Cyprus and Bulgaria didn't have much impact.
A highlight of the night was the return of Imaani and Jessica Garlick who both performed their past Eurovision entries, 'Where Are You' and 'Come Back'. It was great to see two of our most successful Eurovision acts of recent times and they both gave great performances.
Oh and finally how could I forget Friðrik Ómar. He treated us to a wonderful candlelight/ballad version of 'This Is My Life', before launching back into the eurodance anthem that we know and love.
All in all what I was expecting to be a dull precursor to Amsterdam tomorrow actually turned out to be a great night in its own right.
Coming just a day after the UK Eurovision Preview Party this has somewhat stolen London's thunder. Over 20 acts are confirmed to perform, that's nearly half the entries. LoveEurovision will be there and is particularly looking forward to seeing the UK, Bosnia and Måns Zelmerlöw perform.
The following 22 countries have among others already confirmed :
* Denmark: Niels Brinck - Believe * Belgium: Copycat- Copycat * Iceland: Jóhanna - Is it true? * Montenegro: Andrea Demirovic - Get out of my life * Cyprus: Christina Metaxa - Firefly * Lithuania: Sasha Son -Love * Bulgaria: Krassimir - Illusion * Slovenia: Quartissimo - Love Symphony * Albania: Kejsi Tola - Carry me in your dreams * Bosnia and Herzegovina: Regina -Bistra Voda * Poland: Lidia Kopania - I don't wanna leave * Armenia: Inga & Anush - Jan jan * Moldova: Nelly Ciobanu - Hora din Moldova * Malta: Chiara - What if we * Spain: Soraya - La noche es para mí * Romania - Elena Gheorghe - The Balkan Girls * Belarus - Petr Elfimov - Eyes that never lie * Ireland - Sinéad Mulvey & Black Daisy - Et cetera * United Kingdom - Jade - My Time * Serbia: Marko Kon & Milan Nikolic - Cipela * Ukraine: Svetlana Loboda - Be my Valentine (Anti-crisis girl) * Slovakia: Kamil Mikulcík & Nela Pocisková - Let tmou
Special guest * Swedish popstar Måns Zelmerlöw * Dutch divas afterparty
The concert begins at 9pm and the whole event last until 5am. Tickets are €20 in advance and €25 on the door.
Ooh the BBC have released the official video for 'My Time'. It's rumoured to have taken so long because Andrew Lloyd Webber didn't like the first one and had it re-shot. The video gives us some idea of how the song will be performed in the final, with Jade in a lovely frock and ALW in the background playing the piano. I just hope they don't make use of the other 4 performers they're allowed on stage under Eurovision rules. Four backing singers would really help lift the song. Here's the video:
JADE's PROMO TOUR
Jade has been busy performing her entry all over Europe. I think it's really helped her develop the live performance. I'm still quite surprised her betting odds are still 18/1. I think it has a good chance of a top 4 finish, especially with it's placing near the end of the final.
UKRAINE
RUSSIA
BOSNIA
GREECE
MALTA
BBC YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU FINAL
CLUB REMIX
The 4 track DJ promo has been doing the rounds of the radio stations and already appeared on Youtube. They've done their best but it's really not the easiest song to do a club remix of:
Here goes with my predictions for this year's qualifiers. My predictions have generally been quite accurate in the past so let's see how I do this time around.
Semi 1
Turkey Bosnia Armenia Malta Iceland Sweden Portugal Bulgaria Romania Belarus
Semi 2
Norway Slovenia Greece Azerbaijan Denmark Ukraine Moldova Albania Latvia Lithuania
