This will be another fun packed weekend for Eurovision fans, with no less than thirteen shows airing over the next three days. Highlights will be on Austria, Denmark and Switzerland as they hold their national finals to choose who will represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, with Sanremo also coming to an end.
Let’s take a look at all the shows day-by-day to see what’s going on in the Eurovision world this weekend!
Friday 12 February 2016
There will be two shows held on Friday including the seventh country to pick the representative that they will send to Stockholm, Sweden on May 10th, 12th and 14th.
Austria
Austria’s national final is called Wer singt für Österreich. There are ten participants from last year’s host nation, fighting for the ticket to Stockholm. They will be hoping not to repeat the disappointing nil points that the MakeMakes received in Vienna. Wer singt für Österreich can be watched online via Eurovision.tv and starts at 20:15 CET.
The songs can currently be found on the ORF.at official Wer singt für Österreich site.
Prior to watching, you can enjoy the last five year’s highlights from Austria. There should be some content that you haven’t seen before.
Italy
Sanremo 2016 and it’s fourth evening continues on Friday. We will have the final of Giovanni category and all 20 participants will sing their songs again when four of them will be eliminated before Saturday’s Grand Final. The live streaming is available on RAI TV official website and starts at 20:30 CET.
Below is “i migliori ricordi di Italie ‘ultimi cinque anni” – Bellisimo – featuring exclusive performances since Italy’s return after a fourteen year’s absence in 2011.
Saturday 13 February 2016
On Saturday night there will be plenty of shows to watch. Denmark and Switzerland will be holding their Grand Finals, so we will find out who is heading to Stockholm for both of them.
Denmark
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2016 is the Danish national final. The concept is still the same – 10 songs fighting for a chance to represent Denmark in Stockholm. The winner won’t have far to travel from Copenhagen. The show will be aired live from 20:00 CET. More information can be found on DR’s Eurovision page.
Below you can enjoy highlights from the last eight years of Denmark’s participation, including unseen clips of the last winner from when the contest was held in Sweden, Emmelie De Forest. Hope it brings back some happy memories.
Switzerland
The Swiss national final, Die Entscheidungsshow starts ten minutes later than the Danish one at 20:10 CET and will be aired live on Switzerland’s SRF Channel. There will be six contestants taking part. As previously reported the contestants will sing their entry as well as a particular favourite song from another artist. The winner will be chosen by televoting.
Conchita Wurst will be performing Rise Like A Phoenix as the interval act, along with Flavio Rizzello, the winner of Switzerland’s Got Talent.
Below enjoy highlights from Switzerland’s previous entries, many clips unseen before.
Ukraine
Ukraine’s national final started last Saturday, when Jamala, The Hardkiss and Brunettes Shoot Blondes qualified for the final on 21 February 2016. On this second semi-final evening, the other half of the participants will be fighting for the last three tickets to the grand final. As Ukraine is an eastern country, the show starts at 18:00 CET and will be streamed on STB website and also live on YouTube. After all the participants have performed, there will be a small voting break and later in the evening they will air the results show on the same channels.
Our Ukrainian highlight video includes clips from one of Eurovision’s most successful nations. Watch and judge for yourself, if the tradition will continue this year.
Hungary
Hungarian show A Dal 2016 will be hosting their first semi final. Nine contestants will sing their heart out for a place in the Grand Final, including previous Hungarian entrant Kallay Saunders, only this time he will be accompanied by his band. There will be two rounds of voting. A jury and tele-voting will decide the top three contestants, who will proceed to the final. A second round of tele-voting will choose a fourth candidate. The show can be seen from 19:40 CET on Hungarian.hu TV.
Below enjoy highlights from the last five years of Hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest, including the aforementioned Kallay Saunders.
Sweden
Melodifestivalen 2016 started last week and it will continue with its second semifinal at 20:00 CET. As usual, it will be aired on SVT’s official website. We will see seven songs competing for two spots in the final and two places in the Second Chance round called Andra Chansen. Former Melfest contestants, David Lindgren, Molly Pettersson Hammar and Isa will compete against Tommy Nilsson who represented Sweden in 1989 with En Dag and Finland’s favourite Ding Dong Krista Siegfrids.
Below, enjoy the highlights from Sweden’s very successful last six years at Eurovision – Anna may not have qualified for the final, but admit it, you know she should have.
Finland
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu is the national selection in Finland. Three semifinals and a Grand final is planned. Last week, the first semifinal was aired with three contestants proceeding onwards. This Saturday, it’s time for the second semifinal. Fan favourite Mikael Saari, who was the runner-up in 2013 will be competing. Will he make it to the final again? He will have another five competitors in his semifinal so it won’t be an easy fight. UMK 2016 semifinal two will be aired live at YLE.fi online stream, the show starts at 20:00 CET.
Competition time – who’s highlight video is coming below. Top of the class if you said Finland. Enjoy the highlights including Melodifestivalen contestant and UMK host – so versatile – the lovely Krista.
Lithuania
Lithuania’s national final is the longest national final in Eurovision 2016 and perhaps the longest in all history. The remaining first division entrants, remember that’s those who came with their own song will be whittled down to five. The show was prerecorded last Tuesday and an expert jury, international jury and televoting will decide the contestant’s fates. Eurovizijos starts at 20:00 CET and will be streamed on LRT.lt official website.
If Lithuania never ends we will run out of footage to show you. However their entries are always a mixed bag, that no matter how many times you see them, you surely can find something you missed before.
Estonia
Hooray! Eesti Laul 2016, the Estonian national final, will start with the first semifinal at 20:35 CET. You can watch the show live on Estonian broadcaster Eesti Televisioon (ETV) official website. In the first week ten competitors will compete for five places in the final to be held on March 5. The following week the same will happen. The winners will be decided by half expert jury and half tele-voting.
Now you can watch seven years of highlights from the past Estonian entries. There is quite a mix here again but hopefully you will see a song you’d forgotten about and of course exclusive content.
Italy
Sanremo 2016 will end the week of shows in Italy. Starting at 20:45 CET and aired live on Web TV on Eurovision.tv. The 16 finalists will be competing to win the festival and the winner will have the opportunity to represent Italy on Eurovision 2016 if he or she is interested.
Enjoy, perhaps for the last time in a while, last years “Grande Vincitori” of San Remo 2015.
Iceland
Icelandic national selection Söngvakeppnin is celebrating Iceland’s 30th participation at Eurovision. This Saturday we will have the opportunity to see the semifinal No.2 with six songs, but only three of them can qualify for the final. They will join Gréta Salóme, Karlotta Sigurðardóttir and Erna Hrönn & Hjörtur Traustason who qualified last week from the first semifinal. Watch it live on the Icelandic website of RÚV at 21:00 CET.
No way we’re going to leave Saturday without the highlights from Iceland of the last eight years. Seven of these songs managed to qualify to the final, and soon we’ll know who Iceland hopes will take them there this year.
Sunday 14 February 2016
After all this excitement it’s left to plucky little Latvia to feed our Eurovision addiction on Sunday.
Latvia
Latvia is presenting their new format Supernova for the second year in a row. The first heat was held last Sunday where four contestants qualified for next week’s semi final. Tonight on Latvia’s official website of Supernova, four more contestants will be selected from ten. Two expert jury chosen favourites, will join the two that the public tele-voters will choose. The show starts at 20:25 CET and will no doubt feature the infamous Riga beaver.
Finally enjoy highlights from the past five years of Latvian entries.
And if you haven’t had enough? Don’t be sad, on Monday 15 February 2016 at 21:00 CET, Georgia will choose it’s entry from five songs chosen for their representatives Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz…
Extra bonus – if you’re still hungry for more highlights, here’s a special video of Georgia’s last six years.
