Eurovision Weekly-Blog 1

Eurovision Weekly-Blog 1

It’s been an exciting few weeks for Eurovision. National Final season is in full swing, and some countries have made some interesting choices this year. We have more National Finals than ever before with some countries bringing them back after a decade of internal selection. I’ll be going over what’s new this week and last for Turin 2022. so, let’s dive right in.

Spain

Spain’s national final Benidorm Festival wrapped up last Saturday and it was truly a sight to behold. After years in the bottom three at Eurovision, the renewed Benidorm Festival looks to turn their stroke of bad luck around. After a close battle, Chanel and her song “SloMo” have won and will represent Spain in Turin. Spain received wide praise for their new final and the quality of the songs. Chanel and “SloMo” even débuted on the Spotify Global Charts at 3rd (Two other contestants made the chart as well). Despite what seemed to be universal praise from outside Spain for the winner, Chanel revealed that online harassment from Spanish viewers has led to her deleting Twitter. Global supporters came to her aid with the hashtag #ChanelTeQueremos which trended in multiple countries across Europe

Italy

The famous Sanremo Fest has begun this week, with the final scheduled for the 5th. Fan favorite and Eurovision alumni Mahmood has teamed up with popular Italian artist BLANCO for his entry. Switching it up from his 2nd place finishing song “Soldi”, Mahmood has gone for a moving ballad which propelled them to first place during Night 1 of Sanremo. This year saw many returning artists such as Irama, who did not perform live last year due to Covid. Italy shares it’s Final date with Israel, who will make their selection between the 4 remaining artists in Israeli X factor.

Ireland and North Macedonia

February 4th promises to be an action-packed night with both Ireland and North Macedonia selection their artist via national final. Ireland is attempting to redeem themselves after coming dead last in their semifinal last year. The fan favorite so far seems to be Brooke Scullion with “That’s Rich”. Brooke closes the night with her high energy pop song that is sure to be a showstopper. North Macedonia has impressed many people around the world by delivering a quality national final. North Macedonia failed to qualify for the final last year and only beat out Ireland by 3 points for last place. North Macedonia seems to be emulating some of the other popular semifinals this year such as the Czech Republic and Finland by limiting their final to 6 songs.

Moldova

The Suprise of the century! after revealing their songs for their own National Final, having the fan favorite drop out, and of course hearing that the dreaded Kirkorov may be entering himself, Moldova released their entry via Internal selection with no prior notice. Many people were surprised, both by the sudden change of selection, and by the song. Moldova is sending 2-time Eurovision alumni Zdub & Fratii Advahov. their song “Trenuletul” is certainly a lot to take in. it incorporates many ethnic sounds into a song about…a new train route connecting Moldova and Romania? As weird as the concept sounds, the song has gotten plenty of praise from Moldova and surrounding counties for its use of traditional instruments and sounds.

Looking Forward

Next week plans to be even more exciting than this week. 4 countries will hold their national final on the same day (Saturday), and arguably the most popular national final Melodifest will kick off with a semifinal every Saturday. Thats all for this week in Eurovision. Come back next week for even more Eurovision, Turin 2022. Ciao!

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