Tag: eurovision

Thoughts on Graham Norton and the Eurovision Song Contest

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Right, I’m not sure how I feel on this one… this one being Graham Norton confirmed as the new commentator for the BBC’s coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest, replacing Terry Wogan. This isn’t the first time the commentator has changed – before Wogan the mighty Dave Lee Travis was the voice from the contest to the people of the UK – but after 35 years in the seat, Wogan was regarded as the man, much as Murray Walker was for Formula 1 coverage in the UK. And like Walker, perhaps people were a bit more forgiving of Wogan in

Terry Wogan As Your Christmas Number One?

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UK Chart sensation Aled Jones is to sing a duet with UK Eurovision Enfant Terrible Terry Wogan – ‘Britain’s best loved breakfast DJ on Radio 2’ (after, err, Aled Jones Sunday Breakfast Show) – of the Christmas classic “Little Drummer Boy.” Originally made famous by Bing Crosby and David Bowie in the 70’s, the reworked Yuletide number will be released on the 8th of December. Jones of course was made famous as the singer of “Walking In The Air” which reached number 5 in the charts; 16 places higher than Sir Terry’s attempt with “The Floral Dance” which peaked at

Turkey Pays for Eurovision, UK Still On The Hunt For Talented Amateur

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As well as the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, this weekend also saw the deadline for entries to the BBC’s “Your Country Needs You” talent show, which will choose the UK representative for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Moscow in 2009. At the same time, it’s also come to light that Turkish broadcaster TRT has paid 450,000 Turkish New Lira (about £180,000) to singer Hadise to represent Turkey in Moscow – although in previous years the payment to the artist was also used to fund the promotion of the act. So we have one country paying big

The Political Fix for Russian and the UK In Eurovision Is On!

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Remember all the noise made by certain parts of the UK media that the ESC 2008 result was a fix, that some countries voted for other countries for political reasons, arguably because they wanted to keep a significant ally (Russia) happy, so the oil and gas would continue to flow. Well, what goes around comes around. It sounds like Russia has just promised to vote for the UK, no matter what the song is, no matter who the performer is, no matter if it’s all right on the night or not. Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber visited Moscow and met with Russian

It’s Junior Eurovision This Weekend!

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Right then, it’s time for some fun this weekend… and the obscure fun that everyone the world over can join in with, for free. That’s right, it’s time for Eurovision! Actually that’s not strictly true. It’s now time for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008. The format is pretty much what you expect from it’s more grown up cousin (The Eurovision Song Contest) that goes out in May each year. You’ve got representatives from countries in the EBU. 15 countries are taking part, unfortunately the UK is not one of them (shame, I’m sure we’ve got enough precocious 15 year

Smash Hit’s “20 Eurovision Belters…”

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Back in October, UK music TV station Smash Hits ran one of their many themed portions, but this time with a Eurovision bent. Entitles “20 Eurovision Belters….” it was always going to be interesting to see what tracks they decided to play on a decidedly mainstream UK channel. Amazingly (for the UK) they were pretty good about the picks. There was UK bias in choosing some runners up from the BBC National Finals, and while the debate over Jemini’s inclusion should be obvious (it was a poor performance on the night, but the song itself is a a reasonably good