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Sunday in the Telanor arena saw the last of the individual rehearsals for each of the 39 delegations. From Monday afternoon we enter the dress rehearsal phase with the first full run-through of the first semi-final, which you can see on BBC 3 on Tuesday 25 May at 8.00pm.

Karen, Toni and myself spent most of the day in the press centre working on our preparations for the launch of the Eurovision Research Network, of which we are the executive members (and founders) – more of that later in the week. I did manage to see Ireland’s Niamh Kavanagh rehearse the strong ballad It’s For You, which she performs very well.  As a former winner back in 1993 she has proven Eurovision pedigree – beating the UK’s Sonia in what went down to the very last score. 

Josh continues his progress with a more confident performance – although as you will see from the footage in a later post, he was saving his voice.

At the end of the day it was time for the delegations and invited guests to walk the pink carpet (no really – black, silver and pink are the logo colours) to the opening reception which was held at Oslo City Hall.  We arrived too late for the festivities when in Moscow last year, so I think I made-up for it this year, as you will see from my pictures!

Me + Eurovision celebs + pink champage = …

 

Moments after arriving on the pink carpet I bumped into Swedish singer Anna – who is seen by some commentators as a good tip this year.  I’ve liked the song since the Melodifestivalen, so I wouldn’t mind a trip to Sweden next year…

The scene outside City Hall…

The building is stunning, and this is where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year…

As the Euovision anthem Te Deum was played to the invited guests, Karen and fellow Eurovision scholar Dr. Irving Wolther take their pledge of Eurovision allegiance…

The reason why we are all here – Alexander Rybak – reprises the winning song from last year…

And then I think my British reserve abandoned me!  The pink champagne was flowing freely, and what’s a boy to do if not to make the most of that opportunity.  Here are some of my new best friends.  The boys from Lithuania were great fun – and their trousers merit special mention – although my photo does nothing to tell you why…

For my friend and colleague Ruxandra, I just had to say hello to Romania…

Chanée & N’Evergreen  sing my favourite song of the Contest, and even though it is fifth in the betting odds, some pundits think that they will not survive the semi-finals.  They look rather like a married couple who are on this trip to save their relationship!  He looked very grumpy (and off his head), but she was lovely.  I gushed a lot about how much I loved the song, grabbed a photo opp and then moved on before I said something unkind about N’Evergren’s specs (about as stupid as his name I’d say?)

The French have sent a World Cup song as their entry this year.  Jessy Matador will sing Allez Ola Ole on Saturday night. Real men wear pink you know… 

Norway could very well do the double and become the hosts of Eurovision in 2010. It is one of the few songs this year that gives me what we called last year ‘a Euro-tingle’. The Norweigan crew have certainly pulled a blinder with how it is presented on television (as you will see from the footage in a later post)…

Hera Björk was lovely.  Although how many votes will the Icelandic singer receive.  That volcano wasn’t her fault!  Hera is the one on the left…

And finally it’s ‘our Josh’ with your Phil!  He is a *lovely* chap.  And I tell you something – his hair won’t move when they turn the wind machine on…

After all that excitement we left the party, heading out into a lovely night in Oslo…

 

 

 

The first night in Oslo – a beautiful city – was spent at the lavish launch party for the Georgian delegation. It was held at the impressive Opera House…

The interior reminded me of The Lowry at Salford Quays, for those of you who have visited that venue. The booze flowed and the canapés were delicious. This was a good thing as alcohol and food is causing a lot of distress for the assembled Euro-philes – it is incredibly expensive. For example, half a pint of beer will cost you seven quid. So, Karen, Toni and I filled our boots and loitered at the party for a couple of hours. The Georgian delegation coordinated an impressive event, and on leaving we were presented with a goodie bag that included what looks like a small beach towel, pen drive, CD (it is a song contest remember!) and other treats.

It might be worth having a quick look and listen to the entry from Georgia: Sofia Nizharadze sings Shine, and she does it very well…

The view of the city during the evening was beautiful as we made our way back to the apartment at the end of a hectic day…

How remarkable that as Karen and I arrived at the Telanor arena yesterday for the first time, Josh Dubovie – the UK’s entrant for ESC210 – was rehearsing the Pete Waterman penned That Sounds Good To Me. 

There are many people who think that the song doesn’t actually sound good at all.  But to be fair the track has been radically re-worked since the BBC’s selection programme Your Country Needs You aired a couple of months ago.  You will get used to my quite dodgy camera skills over the week, but here is what the stage looks like – with Josh working on what isn’t quite a fully polished performance just yet…

 Here’s Josh doing his thang on Saturday afternoon…

After the rehearsal I went to the first UK press conference, and Josh seems like a likeable and genuine guy. Pete Waterman and Graham Norton will be attending the press conference on Friday, so more on that later in the week.

Josh made a point of saying that when he performs in the final on Saturday 29 May it will be the most important three minutes of his life.  Let’s hope that’s it’s not time wasted.

It would appear that I am!

It’s really odd to think that after many months of preparation I find myself back at the heart of the Eurovision Song Contest.  For the third successive year I have been accredited to cover the event – thanks to Jamie McLoughlin and the BBC. Once again I’ll be offering you the view from the centre of all things ‘Eurovish’, and this year we are in Oslo, Norway.

I’m sure that those of you who have followed my exploits for the last two years will join me on the journey once again. If it’s your first time – welcome aboard… relax and enjoy the ride!

In addition this year I am here with Dr. Karen Fricker and Dr. Toni Sant to launch the Eurovision Research Network (ERN) which we hope will continue to develop the ongoing research into the Contest and highlight the dynamic and interdisciplinary nature of the work that is currently being undertaken by academics across the globe. No, really! More of that later in the week.

It was an early start today (Saturday) for myself and good friend (not to mention fellow Eurovision scholar) Dr. Karen Fricker. I had travelled down to London on Friday to make good use of my time (and terrible flight connections) only to be scuppered – not by volcanic ash – but by a bloody fog cloud!  A two-hour delay in the big scheme of things seems like a small price to pay for what must have been appalling circumstances for those trapped in the volcanic ash over the past few weeks. And we’re here now, so…

We left Gatwick at 0950hrs, and by 1620hrs Karen and I had arrived in Oslo, checked-in to our apartment in downtown Oslo (very nice, BTW), registered for our press accreditation at the Telanor Arena, and by 1620 we were in the arena for the first rehearsal of the ‘our Josh’ who is our entry this year. My excitement is palpable…

After a long day seeing this guy rehearse certainly perked us up…

Yes, that’s the UK singer for this year – ‘our Josh’, and more of him and rest of the developments so far in Oslo in the next post…

STARTING THIS WEEK!

ESC 2010 is already in the rehearsal stage in Oslo, Norway.

Once again Phil Jackson will be covering the ESC for the Trinity Mirror Group and Edge Hill University!

Be sure to stay in touch with all the developments as they happen and ‘share the moment’ with the rest of Europe…

 

So, how did your favourite song do on Saturday night?

 

I thought that it was a really entertaining evening, from the opening act of Cirque du Soleil, through all the songs to the stunning interval act.  I hear favourable things about how Graham Norton handled proceedings, which is good as it must have been a daunting prospect to replace Terry Wogan.

 

Row 5 seats were awesome – although it was irritating to be sitting with people who seemed obsessed with getting on the television!  Funny also that there was a guy who was obviously the ‘flag police’ for the front section of the stage.  Each time that anyone lifted a flag too high during a performance, or attempted to stand to take a photo – he pounced, and would shine a torch in the face of the offender.  It seemed to work!  As the floor manager says to the audience before the start of the broadcast, a lot of effort goes into perfecting the camera angles, vision mixing etc. – so to have the flag of Turkey blocking the shots (the main offender in our area) is disrespectful to all the efforts of the camera crew and the producers, but also to the artists.

 

Anyway, Iceland was stunning, and finished second – yay!  Jade played an absolute blinder to finish in fifth place – were all blown away – and I hope a star is born…

 

France did well to finish in the top 10.  Azerbaijan snagged a well deserved third place.  Sakis faded really, but still a top 10 finish isn’t bad in such a competitive field.  And poor Chiara – way off the pace in 21^st place.  Perhaps it just shows that third time isn’t exactly a charm.

 

And as for Alexander Rybak – the hot, hot, hot fave from Norway, it was a stunning victory by a huge margin.  Let’s face it – this song was always going to win, and it did so with great style.  I’m very pleased that we’re heading to Oslo next year for Norway’s third victory (following 1985 and 1995).  I’d better get saving once again, as a pint will set you back seven quid, apparently!

 

Must just say that at the press conference after his victory Alexander was charming and seem quite rightly chuffed with himself – any why not, he’s just won the Eurovision Song Contest.  No pretentious affectation for this young man.

 

I eventually got to bed at 5.15am, and had kinda forgotten that citytalk.fm were interviewing me at 10.50am!  I was dead to the world when they called – just as well that I heard the telephone.  We had a 15 minute interview and so that’s me up and about for the day. 

 

As we’re not travelling back until tomorrow afternoon I think the plan is to do brunch, then have a mooch, get some fresh air, and take it easy – we whooped and clapped out little hearts out last night… and I enjoyed every minute of it from start to finish. 

 

Apparently there were sightings of me again in the audience – I hope that Armani waistcoat was worth the money.  And for long-time readers of this blog you will notice that the winning singer was wearing a waistcoat – so they are obviously back, back, back!

 

So I’m going to sign-off now.  Thanks for once again for following my movements – and I really hope that I’ve added a little something extra to your Eurovision experience this year.  I hope to see you in Oslo next year?!

 

Since I first wrote this post (on Sunday) I travelled back to Heathrow yesterday evening (Monday), and I’ll be driving back to Merseyside today.  I had an interesting phone interview with BBC radio Lancashire before catching my flight – seems that the Contest has gone down well and there is national pride surrounding ‘our Jade’ – thank goodness for that.  I wonder who will represent us next year?  Far too early to be thinking about that!

 

So that’ll be Moscow then…

 

Today and the only trip to the press centre is to get a sense of the vibe a couple of hours before the broadcast. It was also an opportunity to share with you who we met today…

Can you believe that we were having a mooch around Moscow when we spooted the bus of the Greek delegation outside a hotel. Quite excited by the prospect of seeing Sakis we hung around in the lobby, but after a few mins we thought he wasn’t around. In the meantime we found a shop selling Russian dolls (thank goodness for that!).

On our way back we once again passed the hotel where members of the Greek delegation were boarding the bus. It was too much of a opportunity to miss, so we went back in the hotel – and within a minute there was the man himself! It’s a crazy old place in Eurovision World!

Afterwards, back in the apartment, Karen catches her boys in a state of over-excitement…

So, that’s it from me until after Europe has decided what is the best song in contest this year. Have a great night everyone – and Rachel Rolf – Eurovish is never quite the same without you. Do I look smart tonight…

😀

Well, friends – it’s time for us to turn our attention to who might just win this thing! 

I’ve been here for just under one week, and have shared a wonderful experience with some good friends and colleagues. Karen, Brian, Toni and Apostolos have offered laughter and friendship as we have navigated our way through what is, in all honesty, a balmy week.  Trust me – you wouldn’t miss it for the world if you were in my shoes right now – how many people can say that they are at the heart of the biggest media event and song festival in Europe. 

I’m very happy to have been supported on this trip by my boss Carol (to whom much love from Moscow) and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences – who realise the value of positioning a media lecturer in the mix at such an event.  This trip was also brought to you by the letter Y and the number 1…

So, let us turn our attention to the final line-up of songs – all 25 of them.  As I think I might have said last year on this blog, the semi-final phases have weeded out most of the poor and novelty songs. As a consequence we are left with 25 songs, most of which are good contemporary songs – if people can see beyond their prejudices about ESC and European music.  Let’s take a look at the class of 2009…

01 Lithuania “Love” performed by Sasha Son

02 Israel  “There Must Be Another Way” performed by Noa & Mira Awad

03 France  “Et S’il Fallait Le Faire” performed by Patricia Kaas

04 Sweden “La Voix” performed by Malena Ernman

05 Croatia “Lijepa Tena”  performed by Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea

06 Portugal “Todas As Ruas Do Amor” performed by  Flor-de-lis

07 Iceland “Is It True?” performd by Yohanna

08 Greece “This Is Our Night”  performed by Sakis Rouvas

09 Armenia “Jan Jan” performed byInga & Anush

10 Russia “Mamo” performed by Anastasia Prikhodko

11 Azerbaijan  “Always” performed by AySel & Arash

 12 Bosnia & Herzegovina “Bistra Voda” performed by Regina

13 Moldova “Hora Din Moldova” performed by Nelly Ciobanu

 

 14 Malta “What If We” performd by Chiara

15 Estonia “Rändajad” performed by Urban Symphony

16 Denmark “Believe Again” performed by Brinck

17 Germany “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” performed by Alex Swings Oscar Sings!

18 Turkey “Düm Tek Tek” performed by Hadise

19 Albania “Carry Me In Your Dreams” performed by Kejsi Tola

20 Norway “Fairytale” performed by Alexander Rybak

21 Ukraine “Be my Valentine! (Anti-crisis Girl)” performed by Svetlana Loboda

22 Romania “The Balkan Girls” performed by Elena

23 United Kingdom “It’s My Time” performed by Jade Ewen

24 Finland “Lose Control” performed by Waldo’s People

25 Spain “La Noche Es Para Mí” performed by Soraya

Pick a winner – go on, go on, go on…

😀

All together now…

“It’s my time, it’s my time, my moment…”

I promise I will try to avoid any more references to anyone’s time after this – as references to our song title are getting increasingly irritating – and that was just in the UK press conference this afternoon!  So, that’s given you a clue as to where I was following the first rehearsal of the final earlier today.

The worldwide press were in attendance to welcome the UK delegation, with Jade, Andrew and Graham joined by Dianne Warren…

 

Some good questions were put to the panel – although to be fair most interest was all things to do with… ‘the  Lord’.  He was asked why he was here – and he said that he had nothing to lose as the UK couldn’t do any worse than they did last year, finishing in last place.  Good answer Andrew! 

Jade was also asked if she was a little jaded (see what I did there) about not getting as much exposure as the Lord… she suggested that she was here to sing and that all the talking could be done by everyone else!  Nice one, Jade!

I asked the final question of the press conference – quizzing the BBC delegation as to why they are suddenly making an effort that everyone  – including Vladimir Putin –  is noticing.  They suggested that they had always taken it seriously – well, really?  Not so sure many of us would agree with that. 

What we can agree on is that this delegation are all behind Jade and the song.  As are we… and my mum and dad!

BTW: sorry Mum, no tickets for Oliver! – despite establishing eye contact with ‘the Lord’, that wasn’t enough!  If Jade wins I’ll send you and Helen to London for the wekeend to see it.  Blimey, I must think that the UK will win this year? 🙂

Thursday evening and a packed Olympic Arena here in Moscow.  I had mixed feelings about this group of songs – but many of them came through rather dodgy rehearsals with some good performances.  Some failed to impress and were sent home.  As for the ‘Napkin of Death’  I did OK – getting 8/10.  That means I got 16/2o in total.  As Ruxandra has comented in disbelief, I’m normally much worse at this prediction lark! 

Here are some pics of the proceedings last night – from my point of view.  Apparently Rachel was saying that I was seen on TV?  Good god – it must have been a wide shot! 😀   I’m still not bored of looking at this dynamic set design…

My view of the back of the arena…

The celebrations continued after the broadcast came off air…

Sakis continued to build support ahead of the final…

Gotta get me some white pants!

And spare a thought for poor Ireland.  I thought that they did a great job, and I was sure it would go through – but with three countries left to reveal it was clear that is was out of the running – with the hot faves still to come.  Here’s my last view of the arena last night – stunning lights or what.  Irish flags weren’t exactly waving, and Irish eyes certainly weren’t smiling.

 

scscs