After an exciting weekend of surprises, shocks, and the occasional runaway victory, we’re two steps closer to this year’s Eurovision line up.
The highlight of the weekend was probably Finland. While Norway had a far more popular song (at least in fan circles), Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu promised a close contest between three performers – Diandra, Mikael Saari,and Krista Siegfrids were all in with a realistic chance of victory as the weekend’s shows started.
This Week’s Results
Who did Finland give the ticket to? Krista Siegfrids’ ‘Marry Me’ has the ticket for Malmo with an energetic performance that was fun to watch – and it’s probably the first fun entry of the 2013 season.
The second scandic final was in Norway, and the fan favourite of Margaret Berger with a mix of schlager structure and Industrial melodies.
Sean Banan’s witty title of Copacabanana qualified from the second heat of Melodifestivalen in Sweden ‘direct to the Friends Arena’, along with Lousie Hoffsten and the delightfully named ‘Only The Dead Fish Follow The Stream’. Anton Ewald and Erik Segerstedt & Tone Damli are through to the Andra Chanse round.
Hungary continued with A Dal contest, and six acts qualified from the second heat; Plastikhead feat. Laci Gáspár, Odett, Tamás Vastag, Bye Alex, Veca Janicsák, and András Kállay-Saunders.
Latvia also had six qualifers from their first heat; Liene Candy, Antra Stafecka, Headline, Samanta Tīna, Sabīne Berezina, and PER.
Coming Up This Week
- It’s San Remo week in Italy, and while the competition does not directly choose the Eurovision singer, the performer will be selected from those taking part in the Song Festival. It also looked fabulous on the stream last year!
- Germany take to the stadium on Wednesday with a huge National Final. No heats, no second chance, it’s winner takes all.
- ORF run a single show as well on Thursday night to select Austria’s entry for Malmo.
- Saturday night is another busy one, as live heats continue in Hungary (heat 3 of A Dal) and Sweden (Melodifestivalen’s third show), along with the airing of the first Eesti Laul semi-final in Estonia.
- Finally for this week, Latvia’s National Final also takes place on Saturday night, which will take us up to 14 entries for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
ESC Insight on the road
With a nice run of National Final shows this weekend, some of the ESC Insight tea are taking to the road. Ewan and Terry will be racking up the air miles and attending the shows in Germany, Austria, and Hungary this week. We’ll be joined by Luke Fisher (from the parish of EscXtra) on the trip, so watch the two sites (and Twitter!) to see how we get on as we check in.,
Shame Terry couldn’t have made it to Finland, as an interview with Krista could have been hilarious!
True… but Terry is going to Malmo, and as we now know, so is Krista!