Tag: eurovision

It’s Eurovision Week – in a junior sort of way

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It’s time for the annual shot of methadone for addicts of the Eurovision Song Contest… yes it’s time for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest! Set roughly between the grown-ups version, Junior Eurovision (JESC) sees children between the ages of 12 and 15 representing their country by performing songs they have written themselves to an international audience.   Knowing the UK readers of this blog, I’m sure it won’t be long before someone pops up and mentions Minipops, but I’ll point to Hollie Steel if we get into an argument… deal? All the trappings of Eurovision are here, there’s national pride

Eurovision Long Player: Lordi (Finland)

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Over on Boom Bang a Blog, the Eurovision Outpost on Trinity Mirror’s Merseyblogs, I’m continuing to look at the discography and music of Eurovision entrants before and after they’ve appeared on the world’s biggest television show. This week, it’s the most recognisable Eurovision act in many a year… Lordi monstered over the 2006 contest before they even won the Finnish National Final. From a country that had consistently sent folk songs and traditional music that never troubled the upper reaches of the scoring table, the latex mask, theatrical performance and unrestrained power chord charged energy that Lordi brought to the

Eurovision is bigger than cancer… fact

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During Blogworld Expo every introduction and talk started with “and please use the tag #beatcancer so we can get a World Record” or something similar. Which frankly sounds really positive, but is it any different than hiring a click squad in china to work an advertising campaign or YouTube promotion? So the news that the tag #beatcancer was used 209,771 times, and set the world record for the most widespread social message in twenty four hours (a) does not come as a big surprise and (b) feels incredibly false to me. Of course it made a record, because you made

Eurovision: The Long Playing Records on Boom Bang a Blog

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If you haven’t worked it out yet, I like Eurovision. So when Jamie McLoughlin asked if I would like to do some guest posts over on Boom Bang A Blog I was more than happy to say yes – and would you mind getting back to me after the Edinburgh Fringe is over. So it’s taken a little bit longer than we expected, but my series of posts about the albums and music of performers at Eurovision will be featured on the site over the next few weeks. First up though is a little interview with me: …I know it’s

To Lose Two Eurovision Commentators Would Be… An Opportunity

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Picked this one up from Boom Bang a Blog (go on, guess the subject matter) and ESC Today: You may have read this week that Graham Norton could be set to leave the BBC for his old stomping ground of Channel 4 after his last show, Totally Saturday, proved totally unwatchable. This does raise one question – will this mean Graham won’t be back in the commentary box for Eurovision in Norway next year? Norton a No-Show in Oslo? The BBC are widely reported to be concerned that they do not have enough shows for Norton, who is one of

Just Call Me the Renegade Eurovision Host

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Thanks to Lisa Devaney for a quote that, if I were looking for an advertising strap-line, would be right up there on the top of the poster. This Renegade Eurovision Host was interviewed by Devaney last month about my adventures at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, and my use of Web 2.0 technologies. Specifically the live coverage of the contest on Twitter and my audio commentary podcast. Twitter got noisy surrounding Eurovision, as it sparked hundreds of amusing tweets about the song contest, and gave rise to an alternative tweeting voice when journalist Ewan Spence used Twitter to cover the