Terminal 3.... The Eurovision Blog

and the end of the 2007 Finnish Year of Eurovision and the start of the Serbian one. Well what a year its been!!! Who would have thought at the start of 2007 that Serbia was going to win in Helsinki? Who would have thought that this year would also see probably the most controversial Eurovision ever with most of the pre contest favourites being eliminated for what were in my opinion a lot of sub standard songs. For me personally Eurovision 2007 will always be special as even though I have been a massive fan since 1981, this was my first live contest and I would yet again like to thank Finland for putting on a fantastic show. Heres hoping that Serbia will be just as good. 2007 saw new countries taking part for the first time (Georgia, Montenegro and Serbia) and old timers leaving again (Austria and Monaco). 2007 saw the first winning song being sung in the national language since Israel in 1998. 2008 sees 2 new countries competing (Azerbaijan and San Marino) and yet again Austria take...

and it is Elvir Lakovic Laka who will be singing a song with the title "Pokusaj" which is translated in English as "Try". Laka who is a well known singer in the Balkan republics has written the lyrics and the music. The song was chosen from 31 which were shortlisted and the announcement was made on 27 December 2007. Here is one of his songs/videos. What do you think?

With Austria out and Azerbaijan and San Marino taking part for the first time in Belgrade it means there are 43 countries taking part in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. With no Italy or Luxembourg returning in 2008 and Austria withdrawing again what does this mean for Eurovision? In my opinion nothing at all countries have withdrawn in the past for long periods of time and then have come back and been around for ages. I still personally think that Italy will see what the response is to the San Marino entry in 2008 before deciding what to do in 2009 and with Luxembourg the fans tried hard this year to get them back and maybe will have to try harder in 2008. Good Luck to the 43 that are entering..............I wonder who it will be that wins in Belgrade????

Ani Lorak will be representing Ukraine in Belgrade in May. The announcement was made earlier this week that the 29 year old singer who has entered the Ukrainian National Finals twice before has been offered the job on a plate and has accepted. Will Ukraine go one step further than 2007 with Ani.........we shall see!!!!

A regular occurrance now, Albania have again held their national selection early and have the honour of being the first country to have their singer and song chosen from a national final (others known have been via internal selection.) Last weekend saw the whole selection done and dusted. Out of this weekend, Olta Boka will be representing Albania with her song Zemren e lame peng. I would describe the song as a slow tempo ethnic song (sorry, but I can't say boring! - Oops, sorry it slipped out!!!), which unless it is jazzed up a lot, will find it hard to be remembered in the large selection of songs that will be in Belgrade next year. Having said that, it is always good to have a broad selection of songs and Olta's song certainly will add variety to Belgrade's event! Below is a video of the song from the national selection......

Another British pop star has got in on the Eurovision act for 2008 with Duncan James formerly of the pop group "Blue" has co-written a song for Esther Sels which is called "Game Over". Don't be fooled though.....even with an English title the song will be the only one in the Belgian selection sung entirely in Dutch.

but, unfortunately only as a writer/composer and has stated that Take That will not be performing the song. The British tabloid newspaper "The Daily Mirror" released the story with Gary quoted as saying "It's a great show and maybe there's a chance we could pull it off, but think of the stick we would get!" Personally I think that a song by Gary Barlow would be fantastic. He is a brilliant songwriter and a song written by him with the right singer/s would be a formidable force should it be the UK entry in Belgrade.

A bit off topic, but....... If you thought that the voting in Eurovision was bad, tonight it has been surpassed by probably one of the most idiotic voting in the history of televoting!!!! Tonight saw the final of the British X-Factor. Going into the final were three acts...... Act 1 - Leon. A very nervous singer who always sang as if he couldn't wait to get off the stage. Act 2 - Same Difference. A brother-sister duo who just had loads of fun on stage and this fun just filled the screen and was infectious. Act 3 - Rhydian. A classically trained singer who has probably one of the best voices I've ever heard and talent just overflowing at the seems. After stage one, Same Difference were eliminated, leaving Leon and Rhydian to battle it out. Now considering the song that was to be sung by the winner, which would have totally been wrong for Same Difference I can't help but think that this result was staged. However, no one was expecting what happened next! Leon sang the s...

Another country has now announced their singers for Belgrade and it is Turkey. TRT made the announcement at the beginning of the week. The group representing them at Eurovision in 2008 will be "mor ve otesi" an alternative rock band hailing from Istanbul who were formed in 1995. No song has been announced yet and TRT the national Broadcaster of Turkey have made it perfectly clear over recent months that they would like their next entry to be sung in Turkish, whether this will happen is not known as the group have said that the choice of language will be decided by them. It will be interesting to see what the reaction will be to this genre of music in Eurovision.

and what a decision..........Gisela has now been confirmed as the Andorran representative in Belgrade next May and will sing "Casanova" which according to local newspaper Diari D'Andorra her song will be sung in English with Catalan phrases. Gisela became famous in 2002 when she starred in Operacion Triunfo and finished 8th behind Rosa who went on to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tallinn. Gisela was at that time invited to be part of Rosas backing singers and accepted. More information on the song will be released in the New Year. So with just over 5 months to go 5 countries have announced their singers - Israel, Armenia, Netherlands, Switzerland and now Andorra.unless any other country decides internally before Christmas then the next to decide will be Albania. Hers a taster for you:-

Well Monaco anyway!! It has been announced by TMC the Monaguesque TV Company that Monaco will not be represented at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Belgrade, Serbia. According to sources at the TV company they do not feel that the 2 semi final format will make any difference to a non qualification to the ESC Final on 24th May 2008. I personally think it's a jolly big shame (god that the Famous Five coming out isn't it....by jove), especially as Monaco were a regular until 1979, following a 25 year absence they came back to the Eurovision fold in 2004 but unfortunately never quite made the final for the following 3 years until once again they withdrew. Well with Austria and now Monaco not participating that leaves 2 free spaces at the next Eurovision. Will Italy and Luxembourg fill those last 2 spots.............we shall see in the next month or so. So you dont forget here is Monaco in action with their winning song from 1971.

and how exciting is it getting already. 7 Bulgarian Semi Finals, 9 Icelandic Semi Finals, Swiss Song chosen, Israel, Netherlands and Armenia have singers ready and the Albanian selection this month. With announcements due soon regarding the Swedish Melodifestivalen Performers and also the EBU confirmation of the participating countries Eurovision Season is well and truly upon us. What can we expect over the next few months is anyones guess............ At least by the end of January we will start to have a good idea of the quality of the songs and I'm sure the fans favourite will already be chosen.

With the last French win being in 1977 when Marie Myriam sang the classic L'Oiseau et L'Enfant, their luck has been a mixed bag of recent years. The last time they came really close was in 1991 when they were pipped at the post by Carola and "Fangad av en Stormvind" on a countback!! With the arrival of the 2000's France started very poorly finishing 23rd in Stockholm, but that was followed by Natasha St Pier with what is probably the best French song of the decade "Je N'ai Que Mon Âme" which finished in 4th place and then they followed that with a 5th place in Tallinn. What seemed like a renaissance for the French in those 2 years was brought to a sudden halt in 2002 when they finished 18th. 2007 should have been the year that turned around French fortunes but unfortunately 23rd was the highest they could manage. Has being one of the "Big 4" dampened their chances of winning again? I don't think so!!! They have over the past few y...