Two shows down, two to go. Your Country Needs You is halfway through and so far, it’s all positive. The show looks fresher than the UK selection show of previous years, there’s a new frontman (hurrah!) in Graham Norton and, more importantly, there is genuine optimism about the end result.
For the past couple of years now the Norsk Melodi Grand Prix has been my favourite national final. The widely varying songs and the real enthusiasm of the Norwegian people never cease to impress me. That’s partly why I was so happy to see Maria Haukaas Storeng do so well in Belgrade last year.
This year Melodifestivalen will undergo many changes. An international jury and head to head matches in the semi finals are just two of them. Will this have any effect on the artists? And if so, how?
The Danish line-up reveals a contest where the song is in focus. Most of the songs have successfull songwriters behind them. Andrew Lloyd Webber is writing for the UK and it appears that Denmark also is ready for letting the Eurovision Song Contest be a songwriter competition. It is back to the roots.
With Andrew Lloyd Webber writing the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest entry for the United Kingdom, System of a Down rumoured for Armenia and Johnny Logan for Ireland next year’s Contest can be flooded by so-called “big” names – in that case I would suggest DR to go for Metallica.
I always get excited at the prospect of the forthcoming Eurovision at about this time every year. I usually try to suppress it, but it never works! It's hard not to get excited when you hear that Diane Warren will pen the UK entry.
The last couple of weeks before the holidays, Swedish broadcaster SVT announced the names for Melodifestivalen 2009. For us Swedes, there are quite a few well known names. Stars like Alcazar, Marie Serneholt, Shirley Clamp and Måns Zelmerlöw are going to participate this year.
