All the internal selections are in, all the national finals are complete, and we don’t think there’ll be any more countries withdrawing – which means we now have the 41 songs that will compete in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest!

The (extended) last weekend of the national final season began with Belarus on Thursday night, although their final was really little more than a televised internal selection, since it was only voted on by a seven-person jury. That jury was more than generous with their votes, never venturing below 7/10 for any song, and – in a move almost designed to remove all drama from the occasion – their votes were revealed after each song. With the very second song receiving 69 out of a possible 70 points, it seemed near impossible that it would be caught, and so it proved. Belarus will therefore be represented in Tel Aviv by “Like It” performed by Zena, or even ZENA. She co-hosted last year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest and was born – brace yourselves – on 17 September 2002. Ouch.

As is so often the case, the national final season came to a close with Melodifestivalen in Sweden. Like most years, we were in Stockholm for the festivities – though we’ve fallen out of the habit of actually attending the show ever since it moved to Friends Arena. Not necessarily out of any loyalty to Globen, but let’s be honest, it’s not quite the same, is it…? One thing remains unchanged with every Stockholm trip, though, and that’s the schlager mood you encounter right from your arrival at the airport:

Well, I think we've arrived in Sweden. #melfest #mello2019 pic.twitter.com/afKf4CD5U5

— escgo! (@escgo) March 7, 2019

After six weeks with a few shocks and surprises (and the glorious reappearance of legends like Arja Saijonmaa and Ann-Louise Hanson), it’s a shame in a way that the final ended up being such a foregone conclusion. Not so much for the Swedes themselves, who have a strong entry in John Lundvik‘s “Too Late For Love”, a song that ought to continue the country’s record of success in the contest this decade. But for the new voting system, designed to eliminate the problems with the “flat” televoting in recent years that essentially meant the international juries decided the winner because the differences between the televoting scores were so small.

The new idea of dividing the televote into jury-style scores based on age categories did indeed have the desired effect of spreading out the televoting totals – from 85 at the top to 8 at the bottom. But that was rendered moot by the fact that John Lundvik received every single jury 12 and won the public vote quite comfortably too. We’re looking forward to seeing how the system works in a properly competitive year, because it seems like a step in the right direction.

As if that wasn’t enough, the period from Thursday to Sunday gave us presentations of internal selections from (deep breath) Switzerland, the Netherlands, San Marino, Ireland, Austria, Poland, Azerbaijan, North Macedonia, Russia, Malta, Armenia and Israel. Good grief! It’ll take a while to unpack everything we’ve encountered so late in this national final season, but at least all these late announcements mean we shouldn’t be thoroughly bored of all the songs by mid-April, and that’s probably to be applauded overall.

So what’s next for escgo! and the ESC on-season?

• The SongHunt continues! Now in Heat 6, please do click and give us YOUR votes to help us find the best non-winning song of the 2019 national final season.
• April will see the 14th annual edition of the ChatVote, in which our #esc chatters decide which song is their favourite from the forthcoming contest – accompanied by preview nights and semi-finals.
• We’ll also soon be launching our line-up check series, in which our team of Shi, Felix and Martin forensically pick their way through all 41 entries. Your opinion may vary – ours often does too.

And of course, our legendary #esc chat will be there throughout for you to join us and talk about all things Eurovision and beyond. See you there!

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We made it! The last Super Saturday of the 2019 national final season passed without too much stream-juggling stress, and we’re now in the home straight as far as the ESC 2019 selection process is concerned.

Saturday night began with Finland, where DJ Darude and vocalist Sebastian Rejman offered up three songs. The combined jury and televote opted overwhelmingly for “Look Away”, which is co-written by the two performers.

Iceland was one of the most eagerly anticipated shows of the week, as fans waited to see if the usual superfinal of two songs would lead to anti-voting against controversial band Hatari. While their opponent in that head-to-head duel, Friðrik Ómar, did make up a lot of ground compared with his showing in the first round, it wasn’t enough to overcome the might of “Hatrið mun sigra” (“Hate Will Prevail”), which promises to be the kind of thing to feature on Eurovision clip shows for decades to come.

Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix kicked off with a slight delay as local hero Jakob Ingebrigtsen was in action in the European Athletics Indoor Championships. He won the 3,000 metres as expected, and the Norwegian final was no less of a procession, as bookmakers’ favourites KEiiNO scored a comfortable televoting victory in each of the superfinal rounds – the only obstacle coming when the international juries appeared to be less keen. Once they were out of the way, though, there was no stopping “Spirit In The Sky”.

The final in Moldova ticked away in the background with a useful YouTube stream helping those of us who were trying to juggle all the shows. Despite being comprehensively beaten in the televote, jury support means that Anna Odobescu will fly the Moldovan flag in Tel Aviv with the dramatic “Stay”.

And as always, Portugal brought up the rear, keeping us entertained into the small hours of the morning with the 2019 edition of Festival da Canção. It was another triumph for the pre-favourite, as Conan Osíris won over the juries this time having failed to do so in the semi-final. Together with a televote victory, that was easily enough to give “Telemóveis” (“Mobile Phones”) the ticket to represent last year’s host nation.

Georgia gave us a pleasant surprise on Sunday evening when it transpired that the final of Georgian Idol would also include the songs in contention to be the Eurovision entry. Oto Nemsadze will seek to return the Caucasian nation to the ESC grand final for the first time since 2016 with his version of “Sul tsin tare” (“Go Ahead”).

And Serbia completed another busy weekend with the final of Beovizija 2019. Although Nevena Božović only placed third with the public vote, she had already built up a sufficient lead with the juries that her “Kruna” (“Crown”) could no longer be caught. Having narrowly failed to reach the ESC grand final in 2013 as a member of Moje 3, Božović will be hoping her luck is considerably better in Tel Aviv this May.

Alongside the raft of internal selection reveals still awaiting us, there are just two national finals left this year: the jury-only show in Belarus on Thursday night and, of course, the final of Melodifestivalen on Saturday. Stay tuned to our social media where we’ll be sharing a few highlights from the Stockholm experience – and don’t forget to join us in the #esc chat to enjoy the shows together and vote on the songs!

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“Super” Saturday, you say? There were only six streams to juggle this week – child’s play compared with last Saturday night! Nevertheless, it was a busy few hours in the Eurovision world and in our #esc chat.

Of course, the weekend technically began on Friday already with the final in Germany; you can read our news article here and Felix’s personal take on the unexpectedly vociferous reaction to S!sters’ victory here.

First up on Saturday was Ukraine. First up in terms of start time, at least – no other broadcaster is so capable of stretching a six-song final into nearly four hours of television. It wouldn’t be a Ukrainian final without a healthy dose of drama, and this time it was the jurors’ veiled (and not-so-veiled) attacks on the participants with a Russian background or a career in Russia. ESC 2016 winner Jamala was particularly pointed in her questioning of eventual winner Maruv, to the extent that it still isn’t clear whether “Siren Song” will actually be the Ukrainian entry in Tel Aviv despite taking victory last night thanks to first place with the televote (and second place with the jury, despite their criticisms). Rumours and counter-rumours abound, but it seems like Maruv is being asked to abandon her upcoming tour and promotional activities in Russia if she wants the Ukrainian ticket to ESC. Which begs the question: Why invite artists to take part in your national final if you know they have a Russian career that might render them ineligible? Unless you’re trying to score some cheap points on national television – but that would be a terribly cynical interpretation of the situation.

After several weeks of heats and semi-finals, A Dal 2019 came to an end with the usual jury-determined superfinal of four entries that went forward to the public vote. After representing Hungary in Kyiv two years ago, Joci Pápai finds himself making a quick return to the competition this year with “Az én apám” (“My Father”). No violinists or folk dancers though – yet.

It’s rare for our #esc chat to have the same taste as a country’s public and jury vote, but we weren’t far off when it came to Denmark. Our favourites were “League Of Light” by Julie & Nina (essentially S!sters’ Greenlandic cousin) and “Love Is Forever” by Leonora (essentially the offspring of Zoë’s “Quel filou” and “Loin d’ici“). Those two also ended up topping the Danish poll – the only difference being that Leonora took a narrow victory in the end, whereas we would rather have seen Julie & Nina in Tel Aviv – but a chat score of 6.50 for “Love Is Forever” makes it one of our higher-ranked winners of the 2019 season. Quite how they intend to transport her giant chair all the way from Denmark to Israel is another matter.

It’s unfortunate for Lithuania that they tend to get lost in the mix a little on busy Super Saturday nights, but at least their final continued after the others so we could all tune in for the results. Having withdrawn one of her two finalists to give the other one a better chance, poor Monika Marija landed in second place behind the jury and televote favourite on the night, “Run With The Lions” by Jurijus. Co-songwriter Ashley Hicklin has a Eurovision pedigree encompassing both Tom Dice and Axel Hirsoux, so quite what that means for Lithuania’s chances on the Tel Aviv scoreboard is anyone’s guess!

And with that, dear Eurovision friends, another busy weekend of national final action comes to an end. No Sunday night show for us all to recover with this week, so instead we have a few days to recharge our batteries before the Serbian semi-finals on Wednesday and Thursday. Don’t forget to join us in the #esc chat for them and all of next weekend’s shows!

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There’s no such thing as a quiet Saturday during the Eurovision national final season, but there’s always one week when things get particularly hectic – and in 2019, that was last night. While six countries held semi-finals on the way to deciding their entry for this year’s contest, there were no fewer than four finals for fans to choose between. Like everyone in the online ESC fan community, we set up shop in our #esc chat all night long, juggling the various webstreams and voting on as many of the songs as possible along the way. It was a lot of fun, but it’s easy to lose sight of what actually happened. So who’s heading to Tel Aviv in May?

Thanks to timezones and scheduling, the first part of the Eesti Laul final in Estonia was free from clashes with other finals. Our favourite in the chat was the old-school charm of “Soovide puu” by Sandra Nurmsalu, which failed to reach the superfinal (that never happens to a chat fave). Instead, the superfinal was an all-male affair. Stefan (“Without You”) and Uku Suviste (“Pretty Little Liar”) put up a decent fight, but despite the jury’s best efforts to prevent him from making the final three in the first place, the televote fell head over heels in love with Swedish import Victor Crone and his song “Storm”.

With two finals beginning at 20 CET, there was a decision to make, and most of our chatters went with Croatia and the return of the legendary national final format Dora. (We’re nostalgic like that.) A lot of the fansphere seemed indifferent to it, but we really enjoyed the Croatian final, sending no fewer than six (!) songs from it into the next heat of our SongHunt. Our chat favourite, “Indigo” by Domenica, was largely ignored by the juries and televoters alike – but despite the cheesy performance involving a huge pair of wings (songwriter Jacques Houdek not being known for understatement), we were quite fond of the eventual winner too. “The Dream”, performed by teenager Roko Blažević, will be hoping to make it three qualifications out of four for Croatia since the country’s return to ESC in 2016.

Poor Raiven. She keeps getting so close to representing Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest, and the ticket keeps getting snatched away from her at the last minute. Following a painfully close second place in 2016 and a slightly more distant third in 2017, this year broadcaster RTV Slovenija tried to make things as easy as possible by sending her song “Kaos” – also our chat’s favourite, albeit on a countback – into a televote-only head-to-head with “Sebi” (“Oneself”) by Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl, an incredibly introverted piece of electropop that felt more like a losing Portuguese semi-finalist than something that would come from Slovenia. So of course the Slovenian public duly gave Zala and Gašper a landslide victory. Raiven, if you’re interested, we hear the San Marino entry can be yours for the right price…

The fourth final of the night, Latvia, fell through the gaps in our chat somewhat because of the schedule clash. That’s a shame, because the first years of the Supernova format were a real favourite of ours, particularly when the heats took place on a quiet Sunday night after a heavy weekend of national final action (and with the now-legendary Rīgas Bebrs interludes). In keeping with doing things on the quiet this year, Latvia went and made an interesting choice for ESC 2019, the calm and unassuming “That Night” by Carousel – which feels like the kind of song that could land just about anywhere on the scoreboard.

Speaking of Sunday shows after a busy Super Saturday, the weekend concluded with the national final in Romania. Having been preceded by two semi-finals, there was a wide assumption that this would be a head-to-head duel between Laura Bretan and Bella Santiago, with the former in pole position – though with a system where each of the six jurors had the same weighting as the entire televote (!), anything was possible. And so it proved, as Laura and Bella had to give way to Ester Peony and “On A Sunday”, a song all about the day when Romania holds its national finals. Despite finishing just 8th in the televote, Ester had the jurors firmly on her side, so she is the person tasked with returning Romania to the ESC grand final following their first ever non-qualification last year.

And now we get to breathe for a few days, go on a crash diet to recover from all the wine and crisps we consume every single Super Saturday, and reconvene on Friday for the national final in Germany – always a very watchable bit of television. Why not join us in the #esc chat and share the moment with us?

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On a busy weekend of action in the world of Eurovision, we have three new additions to the ESC 2019 line-up – and a Sanremo winner that, as usual, may or may not represent Italy.

The United Kingdom held a national final with a new format – read more about it here. After being whittled down by the jury, the three remaining candidates went into battle for the public’s affections. Only the winner was announced: 21-year-old Michael Rice and the big ballad with the even bigger key change, “Bigger Than Us”. The fans in attendance may have had their EU flags confiscated on their way in to Friday night’s venue, but as one of the “big five”, the UK flag will definitely be flying on the grand final scoreboard in Tel Aviv.

On the other side of the world, Australia held a national final for the first time to select its fifth ESC entry. There were generally felt to be three clear favourites: indie-pop band Sheppard, Kate Miller-Heidke with her alternative operatic vocal stylings, and electro-poppers Electric Fields. Those three were indeed the favourites of the professional jury and the public vote alike – and there was no doubt about the winner, as “Zero Gravity” by Kate Miller-Heidke took the crown with both demographics. Now all they have to do is raise the funds to transport her dress to Israel.

Having got up early in the morning for Australia, viewers in Europe recharged their batteries in time for the five-song final in Montenegro – which was won by the only English-language song in the line-up, “Heaven” by D-mol (or D-Moll, or whichever variation of their name will eventually be settled on).

And finally on Saturday night, we saw the traditional late finish to Italy‘s Sanremo Festival, which sometimes – but by no means always – provides their ESC entry. Despite the audience all but rioting when Loredana Bertè failed to reach the top three, the show was eventually allowed to continue. In the end, this year’s winner was “Soldi” (“Money”) by Mahmood, and despite initial claims that he had accepted, at time of writing it remains to be seen if he will take the song to Tel Aviv as the Italian entry – or, indeed, whether he will accept the job of Italian representative at all.

Now we look forward to next weekend and possibly the busiest Super Saturday of them all, with finals in Slovenia, Croatia, Estonia and Latvia as well as semi-finals in six (!) other countries. As always, you’re very welcome to join us in the #esc chat to watch and rate the songs and juggle all the webstreams with us!

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