The recently married Ben Robertson is back on the grid with the next edition of the ESC Insight Newsletter, covering the latest news in the world of Eurovision.
This week we look at the front runners of Vienna and Innsbruck for Eurovision 2015 (and try to remember Graz is still on the radar); looking back at the latest Voting Insight here on the website; Ewan’s push to listen to Every Eurovision Song; and the resurgent status of ESC Insight.
Ben also talks about his Eurovision tinged honeymoon in Lithuania:
We chose Lithuania based on the weather (baking in a heatwave at the moment), it’s cheapness so we can treat ourselves to fancy honeymoon things and also to fulfil Alison’s wish to get around to all the European countries she can…
I haven’t gone around the country asking everybody’s opinion about Eurovision, but I had a night out in Kaunas on Friday where I chipped in the Eurovision stuff into conversation around here. People bemoaned the Song Contest as many of us I am sure are used to. But the difference here was that the finger of blame wasn’t being cast on Europe, but the finger was pointed directly at themselves. ‘Our songs are no good’ was one quote. ‘We don’t write good music’ was another. Many of the people I had spoke to had worked abroad for a while elsewhere in the EU where wages were higher but music was cooler. These people knew that ‘Something’ was ten years out of date with lyrics a ten-year-old would cringe at. They knew that ‘Attention’ was the best of a horrible bunch of songs to pick from, many of which were rejects from other countries. They knew Lithuania has the problems internally and they had to be the one to do better.
You can read Robertson’s Reflection, and all the headline, in our regular newsletter. It’s online to read, and you can subscribe there as well so you never miss an issue!
Congratulations on the marriage Ben, I hope you have many happy years together 🙂
It’s great to see that Lithuania still have a positive attitude towards Eurovision. There have been a few too many years when they’ve had great singers let down by poor songs, so I look forward to the time when they can fix their selection process and find that magic combination needed to do well in the final.
Lithuania has become the best of the Baltics. What fab entries in 09, ’12 and ’14.