Continuing our series where we ask noted Eurovision writers and personalities the question ‘Why Eurovision’, this week we turn to the Song Contest’s Events Supervisor Sietse Bakker. A long and 21st century career path has led him to where he is today, but how did it all start and what does it have to do with Eurovision?

With the introduction of the producer-led running order, another few variables can be addressed by the delegations looking for victory at the Eurovision Song Contest. Being anointed as ‘the favourite’ was a nice label to have in previous years, now it’s a label that can offer a better chance of walking away with the trophy.

Ross Tillbrook and Andrew Main join Ewan Spence for the second Juke Box Jury podcast of the 2014 season. We continue with Norway, Slovenia, Lithuania, Ireland, and Norway.

Putting aside the debate on whether a producer-led running order being appropriate for an international competition, we now know the fate of many countries. As expected some countries have done well out of the draw, while others have fared badly. Given the history of the semi-finals, and our work here at ESC Insight on analysing how viewers compare songs and decide who to vote for, we’ve come up with our Winners and Losers from today’s news.

Even with the deadline passed, we had two more songs to hear, videos to watch, and more details on Copenhagen. Ben Robertson rounds up the week in our next newsletter.

We have our 37 songs, so let’s recap the final selections from the 2014 Nationals Seasons, the last internal selections, and a bit of a call to arms from Norway’s Oda and Christer. The ESC Insight podcast, as always, is hosted by Ewan Spence.