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ESC Insight’s Coverage Of The 2016 Contest

Sweden, the spiritual home of the modern Eurovision Song Contest, hosted 2016’s Grand Prix of Music, and delivered a show that looked back respectfully at history, presented the music in impeccable fashion, and pushed the Contest’s boundaries forward for the continent to follow. It had lots of fun doing it as well.

ESC Insight followed the story of the Contest from the moment ‘Heroes‘ took the glass microphone in Vienna, until Mans Zelmerlow passed over the trophy to Ukraine’s Jamala.

We’ve gathered together all the links to our articles, podcasts, videos, interviews, and more, on this page. Our story of the  Eurovision Song Contest 2016 goes something like this…

Jamala arrives home. Photo: Popenko, NTU

Jamala arrives home. Photo: Popenko, NTU

The Guide Book

Our seventh guide book to a Eurovision Song Contest proved a popular download both in PDF Format and in an Amazon Kindle suitable file format. Featuring all 42 countries performing at this year’s Contest, as well as thoughts on each song from the ESC Insight team, it provided the popular mix of information and opinion we’re proud of to everyone. It was also a handy reference for us while we reported from Stockholm.

The ESC Insight Email Newsletter

Our regular email newsletter was posted out throughout the year. During the summer months it was fortnightly, and as the ‘season’ started in September the newsletter was posted weekly, before moving to a thrice-weekly format during the two weeks in Vienna. Editor Ben Robertson collated stories from around the Eurovision site, not just from ESC Insight, as well as providing his own regular ‘Robertson’s Reflection’ editorial column.

Details on the Newsletter, access to the archives, and subscription options can be found here on ESC Insight.

ESC Insight Website Changes

The code that runs the ESC Insight website underwent a complete reworking to create a new responsive design that was suitable for desktop users, smartphones, tablets, and small screened devices. This increased the speed of the site, and improved navigating to promote more exploration of the content.
The second stage of this total redesign will take place over the summer months of 2016 to increase the individual visibility of our authors and contributors.

Articles, Editorial and Insight around the 61st Contest:

Notes From The Press Centre

John Lucas’ popular series of stories from backstage at the Song Contest as he told the story of this year’s Eurovision that you could only find behind the scenes in the Globen Arena. ‘Notes From The Press Centre’ highlighted another aspect of the Contest for those who could not travel and experience the buzz of a Swedish Song Contest.

Tourist And City Guides

During April and May, ESC Insight ran a weekly series on Stockholm for those visiting the capital city to attend the Song Contest. Travel writer Alison Wren went through what people needed to know before arriving in the capital in looking at food and drink, tourist sites, day trips, and other experiences to enjoy all of Stockholm, not just the Contest.

Every Song A Story

Following a successful debut during 2015, ESC Insight continued to improve the discussion and appreciation of the staging of live performances at the Song Contest. We researched and produced a series of films that provided a second year of ‘Film School for Live Music And Music Videos’ to an analyses the visual side of the Contest.

Every Song A Story continues to attract viewers and is an evergreen guide to watching the Song Contest.

  • The Youtube Generation
    The Eurovision Song Contest is as much about the presentation as it is the music. Ewan Spence explores the impact of the music video on the Contest.
  • Cinematic Television
    From West Wing and Katrina and the Waves, to Mad Men and Mans Zelmerlow, how has the Eurovision Song Contest adopted the lessons of cinematic television?

FM/AM/DAB Radio Coverage

ESC Insight makes available a number of worldwide radio syndication package designed to give smaller community and local radio stations around the world Eurovision content in the run up to the live shows. These radio-edited packages are not available online. The 2015/2016 season saw our radio packages broadcast on stations based in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Singapore.

This year ESC Insight offered:

  • A radio-specific preview package that profiled every song entering this year’s Contest.
  • A ‘radio-edit’ version of ‘Juke Box Jury.
  • A daily discussion show from backstage in the Press Room in the two weeks ahead of the Contest.

We also produced the live radio broadcast of the most recent Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and have an ‘out of season’ music show (‘Europe’s Heartbeat’) that showcases a wide range of European music.

Podcasts and Online Audio

ESC Insight’s core product is our audio podcast. This runs throughout the year, fortnightly over the summer months, weekly during the ‘on-season’ period of September-April, and daily from the Press Centre.

For most of the year it runs as a magazine format, with news headlines, short discussions, and musical performances. During the time in Stockholm it switched to the discussion panel format, hosted by ESC Insight’s Ewan Spence and featuring contributors from ESC Insight and other noted Eurovision voices.
The shows are available to stream direct from ESC Insight, via RSS, or for download through iTunes.

The Daily Podcast Chat Shows

The successful and anticipated daily chat shows were the backbone of the coverage from Stockholm as the weekly ESC Insight podcast switched to a daily schedule. This allowed us to provide more of our trademark in-depth coverage and analysis from backstage, bringing all the news and opinions of the 2016 Contest as it happened, though a rotating line up of guests from many Eurovision websites.

Juke Box Jury

In the eight weeks running up to the semi-finals and finals, we previewed each country’s song in our Juke Box Jury format, with discussion between two judges and host Ewan Spence before rating each song as hit, miss, or maybe.

The Alternative Commentaries

Our Alternative Commentaries are an integral part of the Eurovision experience for many of our readers and listeners as the download the commentaries to watch alongside the Song Contest, either live or synced with the on-demand streams of the Eurovision Song Contest (via www.eurovision.tv/esctv).

Letters From Eurovision

New to the podcast this year was a series of monologues from Jon Jacob to provide a different viewpoint to the Contest during the two weeks running up to the Grand Final, and beyond.

In-Depth Insight Podcasts

The occasion ‘in-depth’ Insight podcasts allow ESC Insight to explore the Eurovision Song Contest with a single guest for an extended length show. For 2016 we focused on the renewed efforts of the UK delegation, the creative process an entry experiences, and the thoughts from the Contest’s scriptwriter.

Thank You To Our Supporters

ESC Insight is a year-round operation, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our supporters from the 2015/2016 season.

  • Radio Six International
    Radio Six (www.radiosix.com) is a private non-profit radio station operating from Scotland and playing an interesting mixture of songs from the world’s unsigned and indie artists in their native languages. Radio Six supported ESC Insight with radio broadcast and production facilities throughout the year, with a particular focus on broadcasting from JESC and ESC.

Thank You To Our Readers And Listeners

ESC Insight aims to deliver a unique and thoughtful experience for our readers, and we continue to strive to deliver a unique experience that provides in-depth editorial, discussion, and commentary around the Eurovision Song Contest for our existing readers, and those who have yet to discover us.

Onwards To 2017!

That wraps up the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, and we’re starting to plan our coverage for the 2016/17 season.  If you’ve any comments on our coverage, let us know in the comments or get in touch.

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