VOXXNEWS WEEKLY ~ Eurovision News Round Up
RTSH Albania Confirm They Are Opting For a National Final For Junior Eurovision
Albania via its national broadcaster RTSH has recently confirmed that it will be joining the party in 2017 in Tiblisi. Although it was earlier thought that a singer had been chose internally, it now looks as if this is not the case, and the artist will be chosen via a Junior Song Festival. It has been confirmed that this festival to chose its artist will take place on September 23rd 2017, where sixteen young artists will compete on the night for the honour of representing Albania. Songs need to be submitted by 1st September 2017, and have to range between 2.45-3 minutes in length. The song must be an original piece of music, and the artist must be able to sing.
Latvia Confirm Their Eurovision 2018 Participation
The National Broadcaster for Latvia LTV have confirmed their Eurovision 2018 participation that will be held in Portugal next year. No details have yet been given on their participation, or how they will select. 2018 will mark their nineteenth appearance at the competition. By confirming this Latvia will officially be the 14th nation to officially confirm it's will to participate next year.
Ukraine To Be Fined Over It's Handling Of The Eurovision Song Contest 2017
In a statement by the EBU, it has been reported by the news network Reuters that the host broadcaster UA/PBC are to be issued with a 200,000 Euro fine. This is due to the several delays in choosing a city, venue, hosts etc, and to the debacle that arose over Russia's participation when Julia Samoilova was refused entry into the Ukraine to sing her entry, "Flame Is Burning". The EBU were not happy and stated that attention was more focussed on the political drama and not on the actual contest itself. The Director General of UA:PBC argued that, "Formally, it wasn't us who made the decision not to allow her (Julia Samoilova), but I don't think that the SBU (State Security Service) or the Government will want to take part in this". Essentially there are not happy, as they said that the issue was out of their hands, and that the channel can't control what the law states. Do you agree with this sanction?
Russia's Channel 1 Is Reprimanded By The European Broadcasting Union
In a week of high drama for the European Broadcasting Union along with Ukraine and Russia it has finally been announced how the EBU have reacted and dealt with the debacle to the lead up to the Eurovision 2017. As reported this week, Ukraine have been sanctioned, and now it is the turn of Russia. It has been officially announced that Russia have been reprimanded. Russia has not officially reacted to the statement, although it still intends to be present at Eurovision 2018. Russia were sanctioned as a result of not televising the contest (which is no way their fault), also the EBU were unhappy that they failed to turn up to the head of delegation meetings to discuss a compromise. The official statement given by the EBU said, "Reference group believes that the competition rules violations were committed due to the fact that the Russian singer was not allowed access to the competition in Ukraine". Do you agree that both countries were treated fairly?
Switzerland Confirms It's Eurovision Participation For Eurovision 2018
The national broadcaster for Switzerland has announced its participation for the Eurovision Song Contest to be held next year. On doing so, they join an ever increasing list of countries to do so making them the 15th official country to express their wish to participate. It has also been revealed this week that Christer Bjorkman, and Martin Osterdahl have been asked to prepare a work shop to revamp and help improve their countries national final, and help prepare them for a win. Could Europe be having its second Melodifestivalen?
Aalborg Wishes To Host Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2018
Although DRK has yet to officially launch their search for the next Danish representative at Eurovision next year, it has been reported that the city of Aalborg has expressed their wish to be host city for the next Danish national final. The city administrators in Aalborg have approved potenetial funding of 1.5 million Danish Kroner which equates to around 200,000 Euros to host the next edition of the contest. The national final is on a smaller scale to the Swedish Melodifestivalen, however since 2000 it has turned up two Eurovision winners with the Olsen Brother and Emmeli De Forrest.
Belgium's Blanche Still Riding High On Her Eurovision Success
It has been over seven weeks since the Grand Final come to an end with Portugal's Salvador Sobral winning in spectacular style in Kyiv. This week her Eurovision 2017 song, "City Lights" has recently gone platinum. The single itself has spent around 15 weeks in the Belgium chart, and has gone platinum with over 20,000 sales of the record. She also went to number one with the hit in Lithuania, and has charted highly in over 16 European countries. Even in the United Kingdom it managed to break the top 40 which is quite a feat for a Eurovision song. Even now the song is still charting in some countries such as Switzerland, and Sweden. Only Salvador Sobral is the other contestant of the competition to match this.
Robin Bengtsson Has Announced His Tour Dates
The Swedish heart throb has certainly not slowed down after his success at the Eurovision Song Contest. Giving Sweden yet another top 5 performance, and it has been over seven weeks since. Robin Bengtsson is certainly showing that "He Can Go On" and announced on his Facebook page that he has 24 tour dates pencilled down for this summer. During the months of July and August he will be travelling across Sweden to reprise his Eurovision Song, "I Can't Go On" along with other new music that he is producing. The first show starts on the 12th July in Vänersborg, and ends on the 26th August in Kungsbacka. He will also be stopping in Stockholm along his travels to perform. Tickets will be released shortly, and will be available to buy via his Facebook page.
Malta's National Final To Be Held In January 2018
Television Malta have made an open submission for songs to participate in it's national final in January 2018. For those wishing to take part in being Malta's next star have until now to September 2017 to submit their song or songs to the broadcaster. As well as this they will also need to pay a fee of 150 Euros. As with previous years there will be a total number of 16 songs competing for the honour of representing Malta. The national Final will take place in January, and the winner will be chosen 100% by Televote. There will be three stages to the process. After the deadline in September, 60 of those songs will be shortlisted by a local jury. The second stage sees the song number cut down to half and 30 will be chosen by the local and international juries. The final stage will see them being whittled down to the final 16. In the event a singer has two songs, they will be asked to chose one of the two, and the composer and lyricist must then come up with a new song to make that figure 16.
Gianluca Cilla Has Been Chosen To Represent Malta At The JESC
Malta has selected its representative for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Tiblisi. Gianluca Cilia won this honour, and hopes to be the third participant from this small island to win the Eurovision crown. The show was hosted by Iz-Zona who is no stranger to the competition, being Malta's spokesperson at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The show was also hosted by Francesca Zarb. The singers did not sing any original songs, however the public were voting on how the artists sung a cover of a well know song, with Gianluca's performance of Perdere l'amore meaning he was crowned the overall winner. The song will be selected at a later date.
Albania Will Select Their JESC Entry on September 23rd 2017
Albanian Broadcaster RTSH have confirmed they will chose their entry for Junior Eurovision 2017 on 23rd September. A total of 16 countries will be chosen by a jury to compete in Junior Fest. It is unknown how the winner will be decided.
For all those who want to take part in Junior Fest, they must adhere to the following rules:
All singers must be born between 1st December 2003 and 30th November 2008
All songs must be original compositions and cannot have been previously released
All songs must be between 2 minutes 45 seconds and 3 minutes
All applications must be submitted to the broadcaster by 1st September at the latest.
Belarus Auditions For JESC Will Take Place On July 7th
Belarus will be holding live auditions on 7th July for all singers who have submitted their application to represent Belarus at Junior Eurovision 2017. A professional jury will then chose up to ten artists who will perform in the live televised national final. The winner will be decided by 50% televote and 50% jury vote. The date for the national final has not yet been confirmed. The deadline for sending in applications was 30th June, and as of this date, 30 applications have been received.
F.Y.R . Macedonia Confirms its JESC Participation 2017
The Macedonian broadcaster MKRTV has confirmed their participation in Junior Eurovision 2017, bringing the total number of participating countries up to 11. This year will mark the 13th appearance of Macedonia in Junior Eurovision. The broadcaster has not revealed any information on how they will select their entry for Junior Eurovision, but it is likely that they will select internally again, which is what they have done since 2013
Stay tuned for more information!!
Eurovoxx New Releases
It has been a brand new week of music, and a brand new week of former Eurovision artists releasing new material. As reported by Eurovoxx here is a summary of the fantastic new material. Eurovoxx loves it. Check them out here:
Iveta Mukuchyan With Her New Song, "Hayastan Jan / Հայաստան ջան "
Dana International With Her New Song, "Ruti דנה אינטרנשיונל - רותי (Prod. Ori Galili) "
Rosa With Her New Song, "Al Fin Pienso En Mi"
Barei With Her New Song, "Forget It"
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