An Austrian Summer of Song

It may only be June, but we have news now from across the continent that is building up to the big show next May.  When they arrive in Austria they will be greeted by the lovely Edgar, our Executive Producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, along with the rest of his appointed team.

Where exactly that will be is still unclear.  Vienna is the clear favourite, but former Olympic host city Innsbruck is also looking like a possibility.  The team from ORF have released their criteria for a host city which is similar to previous years.  Similar as well is that the dates have changed, going back one week giving us a preferred date for the Grand Final on Saturday 23rd May 2015.   

Who Has Started On Their To-Do List?

Some countries have already set out their plan of action for how to attack Eurovision 2015.  Switzerland will again have a multi-broadcaster process, with German language SRF confirming a return to the online uploading of songs once again this year. 

Eesti Laul will also be the process taking place in Estonia as their Executive Producer Heidi Purga confirms in an interview that it is in their strategy for next year.  Finland is also confirming the return of UMK to select their entry to Eurovision 2015,  but with a plan to remove some of the jury focus from the format.

Sadly despite bordering Austria, Slovakia has said "no" at this stage to returning to the Eurovision family.

Further Insights Into Our Complex Contest

The team at ESC Insight are still going strong despite being in off-season.  I am still working through the data from all of the jury scores and have just published the latest edition of Voting Insight.  This week I find out if the running order impact on the result, and how statistically significant it is on the final result.

Beyond the return to Ewan’s regular podcasts (which will be fortnightly over the summer) he has also gone all sentimental to tell us about how Eurovision is more than just one night in May.  I fully approve of his album choice by the way. 

The Children Are Our Future!

Eurovision Young Musicians took place over the weekend, with a second successive victory for Austria on the outdoor stage in Cologne.  You can watch the full show online via the Web TV, and the winner is here.  Classical music might not be accessible as 'cake to Bake', but pop the two hour show on via the YoungMusicians.tv website and see what you think!

Junior Eurovision is fast approaching in November on the beautiful island of Malta.  This Friday sees eight Swedish acts compete in front of Christer Björkman for the right to win Lilla Melodifestivalen and represent Sweden in the autumn.  The first acts from The Netherlands too have performed their songs to the jury in demo format. 

And If You Need To Listen To Something...

The songs that will compete for the prize of the winner of OGAE’s Second Chance Contest to decide the best National Final entry have been made public.  Shock horror, Sweden did not pick Ace Wilder. Listen here. 

You could even dare try the World Cup song from Bombo girl Adelén if you dare.  Just don’t expect anything too high-brow in the lyrics, even if you are a Bananaram fan.

I also love the 26 song final recap from piano genius J.H. @gjwns2002 which I have had on loop while writing this. 

Robertson’s Reflection

Ewan struck a chord with me with his piece outlining how he discovered and became a fan of MIAU through the process that was UMK.  Eurovision is of course a contest, and our Saturday night is a huge continental wide party, but the winner doesn’t take it all – in fact far from that.

It provides lifetime experiences for so many people along the way – the chance to grace the stage in Eurovision or even at their national final is likely to be the biggest event for many that they will ever take part in.  It is wonderful to be a part of that. 

I have the chance to witness that first-hand on Friday, when I’ll be backstage at Lilla Melodifestivalen once again.  I’m hoping to hear a few of the stories as to why the kids are here and what motivates them.  If anything like my last visit it will be a pleasure to listen to them talk to me. 

It all starts over again now.  Those deadlines in Finland and Switzerland are coming up in September, giving prospective songwriters just a three month window to get their entries up to scratch for competition.  As the sun shines here in Stockholm I can imagine G:Son and Kempe are retiring to their bunkers deep in the Swedish forest to compose the next schlager hit.

One person unlikely to do that is Waylon from The Common Linnets, who has left the group last week.   He appears to have surprised himself with the wonderful feelings and successes of May 2014, and got way more from the experience than many dared to dream one month ago. 

But Eurovision doesn’t last forever, and neither should any of us stick our heads in the sand until the national finals start to emerge again.  It’s the season to look around and try something new and try and find new music out there.  Take a listen to the songs in the Second Chance Contest, take your favourite, then search them on iTunes or Spotify or YouTube, and have a quiet drink in the sunshine listening to their other tracks.  Make Eurovision more than the 26 songs in the final; make it about the nearly 10,000 artists who had a go at the biggest songwriting competition in the world who were pleading for you to notice them.  Make that how you cure PED now we are really in the off-season.