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Over the last five
years "All Kinds Of Everything" has given fans a
chance to hear the songs competing for a place on the
Eurovision stage, months in advance of the contest. For 2010,
we once again look forward to the competition
in Oslo by providing some information on the songs vying for a
place in Oslo. With 39 countries expected to compete in May
and only six likely to make internal selections, the vast
majority of the entrants will be chosen through open
national selections of various types. Between now and
March, we will be looking at and and listening to the
songs in contention for Eurovision 2010.
Please remember that any
MP3 files will only be available for a limited period.
Where better to begin, than
with the country that will be staging this year's contest on
May 29th? Following the victory of Alexander Rybak and
"Fairytale" in Moscow, NRK has decided to adopt the same
selection process as last year, with three semi-finals in
regional towns, with two songs from each progressing
directly to the Norwegian final on February 6th and two
going to a "second chance" semi where they get another
chance to book a place in the final. The first Norwegian semi-final,
staged in Ørland on January 8th saw the first step in the
potential return to Eurovision of Maria Haukaas Storeng, who came
5th in Belgrade in 2008 with "Hold On Be Strong". Last year she
managed a rather unusual double of presenting the Norwegian
selection and competing unsuccessfully as part of a duet witt Anna
Sahlene (Estonian 2002) in the Swedish qualifiers. For 2010
she's back as solo artist and trying to represent her home
country for a second time. While her son "Make My Day" may not have
the instant hook of "Hold On Be Strong", it qualified for the final
at the first attempt and Maria is not second favourite behind A1, to
sing for Norway in Oslo.
Moldova has managed to reach the Eurovision
final on four occasions, since making their debut in Kyiv in
2005. Their year TRM is having a rather unusual selection
process, where as well as having a regular open call for
entries, they are also inviting songwriters from Europe to
submit songs, which they then put on the internet for local
artists to hear and potentially record and enter the
selection. At the end of the process, it is hoped to have
one of the biggest Eurovision selections of the year, with
25 entries competing in a national final, in the middle of
February. While American singer Lady Gaga may be a lot of
people's ideal Eurovision act, it is unlikely we will see her in
person in Oslo. Nonetheless, we could have a song dedicated to her,
competing in the competition. Boyband Akord are made up of 25 year
old Igor Stribiţchi, 23 year old Igor Sârbu and 26 year old Victor
Răilean and are already gaining a lot of interest in Moldova. The
trio say they are influed by American groups like the Backstreet
Boys and Russian Eurovision stalwart Filip Kirkorov and their well
produced pop song "Lady Gaga" is an early favourite to fly the
Moldovan flag in Oslo. The finalists will be confirmed next week.
After losing out for two
years in a row, Malta finally made it to the Eurovision
final in Moscow, although Chiara's 22nd place was somewhere
disappointing for a performer who had twice come close to
winning the contest. Nevertheless interest in Eurovision in
Malta remains high and a massive 36 songs are currently
being showcased in six semi-finals. The top twenty songs
will make it through to the final which will be held on
February 20th at the Malta Fairs & Convention Centre in Ta'
Qali. The winner will be chosen by televoting and a jury.
The qualifiers will not be announced until all the showcase
shows have been transmitted. Among the favourites to make it
through to the Maltese final are the Foxy Federation and "Fired Up".
Foxy Federation are an all-female group that were put together by
concept creator and songwriter Gerard James Borg after meeting
Stephanie Chircop on a television show one year ago. Former model
and beauty queen Claudia Calleja and singer Andreana were later
brought into the evolving group after some gruelling auditions.
Their sassy pop song "Fired up is co-written by Borg and Philip
Vella, who came second at Eurovision in 2002 with "7th Wonder".
TVE has made minimal changes to their
selection process after the poor result achieved by the
Spanish entry in Moscow, when Soraya finished second last.
This year, potential Eurovision entries are being accepted
until January 12th and the following day, all entries that
meet the necessay criteria will be put online, for three
weeks of internet voting. The public will then choose their
favourites, which will compete in a national final to be
staged in late February or early March.
Before the voting even begins, one of the
entrants has launched a strong media campaign to represent Spain in
Oslo in May. Jose Galisteo who hails from Barcelona, is already
signed to the successful Vale Music company. He has already gained a
large following with Spain's gay community and is hoping to utilise
that support in order to help his Eurovision hopes. The electro-op
song "Beautiful Life" is sung predominantly in English, although a
Spanish version has also been recorded. You can find our more more
about Jose Galisteo on his
MySpace site and on his official
website.
Finland is another country
using the internet to help select their Eurovision entry for
2010. In October, 30 potential entries were put online by
YLE and the public chose their top three, which progressed
to the three televised semi-finals, where they joined twelve
other contenders. The semi-finals started on January 8th and
three songs from each semi will qualify for the final, to be
staged in Tampere on January 30th. The winner of the first semi-final,
was the Finnish language song "Anastacia" performed by 20 year old
Amadeus. Amadeus Lundberg hails from Helsinki and first came to the
Finnish public attention in the summer of 2009, when he was crowned
"Tango King", in a very popular television competition,
previously won by 2005 Finnish entrant Jari Sillanpaa. While the
rather
unusual baritone voice of Amadeus may be an
unusual choice for a pop song like "Anastacia", his fame and already
established following may help him overcome Eläkeläiset, the red hot
favourites to get the Finnish ticket to Oslo.
Slovakia returned to the Eurovision Song
Contest in Moscow, after an eleven year absence from
the competition. Unfortunately they seemed blissfully
unaware of the changes the event had undergone while they
were away and sent a song which would have been more suited
to the 1999 contest. Undeterred, STV will be back in Oslo
and they are organising the biggest selection process of the
year. Sixty songs, all in he Slovak language will compete in
a selection of qualifiers and semi-finals before the twelve
finalists will compete on February 28th.
One of the songs competing in the Slovak
selection and thought to have a strong chance to make it to Oslo is
"Môžeš Íst" (You Can Go) sung by 21 year old Martina Šindlerová.
Bratislava born Martina burst onto the Slovak music scene in 2005,
as a contestant on the local version of "Pop Idol", where she
finished as the runner-up. Since then she has gone on to release two
albums and a couple of singles and has also developed a career in
modelling. In 2009, she finished 5th in the Slovak Eurovision
selection . You can find Martina's website
here.
One of the reason that some countries will
not not be in Oslo and put the participation of others at
risk, is the cost involved in sending an entry to
Eurovision. Nevertheless one of the first countries to
confirm their participation in Oslo was Iceland, a country
that has suffered more that most in the current economic
recession. Icelandic broadcaster RUV is staging three
semi-finals which began on January 9th, with two songs from
each progressing to the final which will be staged in
Reykjavik on February 6th. One of the qualifiers from the first In the first
semi-final is the ballad "The One" sung by
Íris Hólm. Íris is another singer
that has come to public attention through television talent shows.
She appeared in the local version of "Pop Idol" and as part of the
duo Gís, she came fourth in the Icelandic version of "X Factor". As
well as having a solo career, Íris is the lead singer of the band
Bermudaz and a DJ, and a singer, in the band Elektra.With the
similar sounding "Is It True" finishing second for Iceland in
Moscow, Íris could be a very good bet to be "The One" to represent
Iceland in Oslo In May. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
