Junior Eurovision Song Contest is next month, but already our stories are full of which songs are going to make it to the contest next year in Vienna. Updates on who and what is making the Eurovision headlines are all in the latest ESC Insight Newsletter.
This edition looks at the latest news from the Montenegro and Belgium who have selected their acts for Eurovision 2015, news from Albania, Macedonia and Switzerland who have all the runners and riders announced for their national selections as well as the updates from the upcoming Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Newsletter Editor Ben Robertson has come up with his own Robertson’s Reflection as well, this week looking back on his recent weekend holiday to Turku, Finland, where he met Tommi Soidinmäki who took part in Euroviisut 2011.
“It was interesting to be on the lookout for the Eurovision influence in the town. Turku is a bilingual town with the west coast of Finland the last enclave of Swedish speakers as a first language in Finland. Eurovision is big business to the Swedish minority. Krista Siegfrids, Paradise Oskar and of course Pernilla Karlsson were all from the small Swedish community. Even this year Clarissa (feat. Britain’s finest Josh Standing) was the pre-market favourite to win the competition based largely on the power of this voting block. Swedish-language YLE Fem organises the Melodi Grand Prix (what would be Finland’s Junior Eurovision selection if they entered) with the provision that songs are only in Swedish. In the West of Finland, Eurovision matters.
Snippets of Eurovision crossed over with the culture. Old CD stalls were selling compilations of classics by Fredi (with or without his friends), and posters around town featured Jari Sillanpää who still commands top level tickets in the local ice hockey arenas.
To read more about Ben’s thoughts and the rest of the newsletter automatically in your inbox make sure to read and subscribe to it online. Special editions of the newsletter will come out on Monday 10th November and Friday 14th November in the run up to Junior Eurovision 2014.