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Newsletter: Tickets, Draws and more National Selection Madness… Written by on January 25, 2020

With the Semi Final Allocation Draw and Host City Handover scheduled for this Tuesday, Eurovision 2020 is officially up and running.  John Lucas rounds up the latest developments and looks ahead to this weekend’s activities in this week’s edition of the ESC Insight newsletter…

The Week Ahead…

It’s a slightly calmer week for National finals this week, with heats airing tonight for Lithuania and Norway plus live auditions in Belarus the only major points of interest. But with February just around the corner, things are going to heat up quickly. Here’s what to look out for in the meantime…

Belarus will kick off the first stage of their national selection for Rotterdam on Monday, when 49 shortlisted hopefuls face the first round of live auditions. Participants include the ever-present Napoli, who has competed every year since 2014, Artem Mihalenko of the group 3+2 and former Britain’s Got Talent contestant Vitaly Voronko. Tragically, Daz Sampson does not appear to have made the cut this year…

From this intimidating event, 12 finalists will be selected for the televised Grand final, which will be broadcast at a later date.

Lithuania will continue their Eurovision journey with the third Semi Final of „Pabandom iš naujo!” 2020 on Saturday night. Participants in this heat will include perennial bridesmaid Aistė Pilvelytė, who has enlisted ‘Euphoria’ scribe Thomas G:son for the Sanna Nielsen-esque schlager banger Unbreakable, popular indie band THE ROOP with ‘On Fire and KaYra with the quirkily Kate Nash-esque ‘Alligator‘.

The show will be available for live-streaming from 20.00 CET at lrt.lv

Norway will also press on with their extensive selection process on Saturday, as four more artists compete for a ticket to the Melodi Grand Prix final. These include former boyband member Alexandru with ‘Pink Jacket‘, The Voice of Norway winner Thomas Løseth with ‘Vertigo‘, popular country-rock outfit Sie Gubba with ‘Kjære Du‘ and newcomer Kristin Husøy with ‘Pray For Me‘. In addition, auto-qualified contender Akuvi will present her song ‘Som du er.’

The show will air from 18.50CET on NRK1

You can read more about this week’s news by signing up to the ESC Insight NewsletterRead this week’s edition online here.

About The Author: John Lucas

A writer and content marketing professional with a passion for getting lost in strange cities and a strange fascination with micro states, John has been with ESC Insight since 2015 and has also had his writing featured in publications including The Guardian, Popjustice and So So Gay. Tweetable @JLucas86.

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