Every day between now and the grand final in May, the team from wiwibloggs will be rounding up the latest titbits from the world of Eurovision 2019. We’ve trawled through Instagram, Twitter and elsewhere so that y’all don’t have to. This is the Daily Digest for Thursday 11 April.
Too late for light?
Sweden normally copies and pastes its staging from Melodifestivalen to Eurovision with minimal changes. But according to an Israeli TV interview with John Lundvik, things will be shaken up a little this year. “We’re changing the number quite a bit”, he says. “In Sweden, we had a kind of dark number and we want to make it a little bit brighter. And we want to have a little bit more magic”. (Padraig)
Kate Miller-Heidke dances too much
Kate Miller-Heidke is returning to Australia after her successful appearance at Eurovision In Concert. But as she shared on Instagram, she’s done herself an injury. Kate revealed that she is suffering from a painful foot infection, caused by a blister “from too much dancing in pinchy heels down cobblestone streets”. This is a very Eurovision sort of injury. We wish Kate a speedy recovery! (Robyn)
Nevena goes acoustic
Following her powerful performance at Eurovision In Concert, Serbia’s Nevena Božović has stripped it back for an acoustic version of “Kruna”. The singer is accompanied by just a keyboard, guitar and cello, allowing her beautiful vocals to take centre stage and really shine. From the second verse onward, four backing vocalists also come in to provide some delicious harmonies. Eurovision fans may recognise one of the backing vocalists — Mladen Lukić represented Serbia at the contest last year in Lisbon as a part of Balkanika. (Jonathan)
Zala and Gašper on the radio
The loved-up duo has been laying relatively low since their EMA victory almost two months ago. But on Wednesday Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl popped by Val 202 radio studios for a live take on “Sebi”. The performance comes across as effortlessly simple, but the footage gives us a taste of the intricacies behind it. Gašper has to push a lot of buttons and twist a fair few knobs to get that chilled electronic beat, all while strumming the guitar. (Padraig)
Paenda signs up for Austria’s top awards show
America has the Grammys, the Brits have… erm… the Brits, and Austria has the Amadeus Awards. Named after the country’s biggest musical export of all time — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — the show honours the great and the good of Austria’s music scene. The year’s gala takes place on Thursday 25 April and will be compered by Eurovision 2014 winner and 2015 host Conchita Wurst. And it’s not all about awarding awards. There’ll be music on the side too, some of which comes courtesy of Paenda. The “Limits” songstress will join Cesár Sampson and others for a pop medley. (Padraig)
The roi unveils his Kingdom
We’ve known that Bilal Hassani’s debut album Kingdom is due to drop on 26 April. And yesterday, the “Roi” star whetted our appetite by unveiling the LP’s cover art. It sees him channel his inner Eurovision diva as his flowing blonde locks billow in the wind of a wind machine. (Padraig)
A Moldovan Eurovision medley
They finished fifth in Moldova’s national final, but Lemonique are just as excited about Eurovision 2019 as the rest of us. Over on their YouTube channel, they’ve uploaded a medley of their favourites from this year’s contest. They take on nine songs — Armenia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Malta, Romania, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. Despite losing out to her in March, the group have nothing but good wishes for Moldova’s representative Anna Odobescu. They even give her a special shout out at the very end. (Padraig)
Anna Odobescu TV tour
Speaking of Anna, she’s been hitting the promotional campaign at home and abroad. On Saturday she was in Amsterdam for Eurovision in Concert, and soon she’ll be visiting Madrid and Moscow too. In between, she’s been sofa-hopping between Moldovan chatshows. In recent days the “Stay” singer has shared snaps from the sets of Cine vine la noi and Matinalii. (Padraig)
Better late than never
A couple of weeks back Mahmood did a live concert for Italy’s RAI Radio 2. So while the Sanremo champ is sunning it up in Tel Aviv, y’all can still bask in his glow… for 90 minutes! The music starts at the 23 minute mark. If you’re just here for “Soldi”, skip to 1 hour and 13 minutes. (Padraig)
Lady in blue
Her song “Replay” discusses early morning rendezvouses after a night at the club and now we know how Tamta stays up all night long. Girl drinks Ciroc vodka! She’s partnered with Ciroc for their #CIROCYourWorld campaign. On Tuesday she shared snaps from the campaign, inspired by Ciroc’s partnership with Moschino through her Instagram page. And yesterday she appeared in a spread in Marie Claire Greece. Talking about her style, the Greek-Georgian star says she picks looks that “emit dynamism and character”. (Angus)
Additional contributions from Robyn, Angus and Jonathan.
Are you exciting for Sweden’s staging changes? Do you like the acoustic version of “Kruna”? Let us know in the comments.
This live of Mahmood is simply amazing… all the songs are so perfect and unique, he’s so intense when he sings, above all Dimentica and Asia Occidente in version voice and piano, then he’s a songwriter and in his songs he always tells about himself (his family, his troubled lovestories….). Somebody thinks he is a little bit “cold and shy” but as you can see he has a very good feeling with public, he’s nice and also funny… see at the end, hour 1: min 24 when he’s doing the bis of the song Il nilo nel naviglio and his… Read more »
Do you think the postcard shoots are billed to each delegation? I had always just assumed that they were covered in the overall production costs – they are not optional, so it would only be right that the producers/EBU cover the expense.
Nevenas acoustic version has Zeljkos handwriting all over. If I’m not mistaken even the video was shot in Zeljkos music studio.
Mahmood’s live is absolutely perfect! Too bad imho Soldi is the least strong amongst his songs when he performs it live… Can’t he change at the last minute to Il Nilo Nel Naviglio or Asia Occidente? >.> Impossible, mh?
MMMMMMM… MAHMOOD
Pizza, pasta, Mahmood
Sweden shouldn’t do that. Staging was perfect already
🙁
Who knows, this might turn out better. He seems confident in it. Besides, I doubt the change will be that noticeable. The core of the song is still the choir and they are there..
I meant to say the essence of the song is Johns charisma and energy, the Mamas, and the interaction between them.
Well ain’t the Mamas servin’ energy!?
Yes, as is John. He really is joyous. And that’s what people will take from the song, the joy and energy from all. The lightning is just a small detail no one will notice.
I hope Nevena takes Mladen to Eurovision
… and she will!!
All people in Nevena’s Eurovision team have previous Eurovision experience. Dusan Alagic was always part of Zeljko Joksimovic’s team and composed Serbian version of Tijana Bogicevic’s ‘In too deep’ named ‘Tvoja’. Mladen was on Eurovision stage last year as you mentioned. Ivana Vladovic was participating in Beovizija 2019, and was doing backing vocals for Montenegro in 2015 and 2018. And Olga was also part of Zeljko’s Eurovision team in 2012.
OMG Nevena! ? This is the next level… ?
wow, acoustic version of KRUNA of NEVENA BOZOVIC, just WOW
I-
Does anyone know when the official Serbian music video is out.
Interesting about Sweden! And I’m confident that they will bring what they have in mind. Go John!
Don’t know about the song, I’m not an expert, but I have goosebumps when I hear Nevena singing- power and fragility, joy and melancholia, pain and devotion- all that mixed feelings in her voice.
On a side note, I just hope her guy apreciatte what he has, otherwise, he would be an a*hole.
Ah…Lemonique. You were my favourites.
I think Sweden have approached it cleverly this year. They know they will get top-3 in juries so at least they have a song that could probably justify the votes unlike last year’s one which was totally unjustified In my opinion. What I don’t like however is that they try to probably be Austria last year in terms of the actual song. Also, I can’t see them winning as I think the votes Sweden normally gets from Northern countries (excluding last year lol) will go this year to Netherlands and Switzerland instead.
Again with comparing with Austria last year. That kind of statement only works if you assume people remember there was an Austrian gospel song last year. They don’t. People forget the songs the very next day..Swedes didn’t remember that when they voted for John Lundvik. Most people who watch ESC only once wont remember an entry from last year.
Well, I remember it and it was just my opinion. I see your point about the majority of the viewers in the night but myself like other people here I suppose follow ESC quite a lot so is natural to remember/ compare other songs. A bit like people saying Cyprus is like Fuego last year or Switzerland like Despacito.
Even if the general public don’t remember Austria last year, the people in Sweden making the decisions do. I think it’s fair to say that they may have been influenced.
Kate Miller Heidke can now be a mountain like Yulia Samoylova
That’s funny!
Get better soon KMH
Everyone competing in Eurovision is a worthy winner. All are putting their best effort. So I wish all of them the best . John e wrote the song himself and is a hard working musician. So of course he is as worthy as the others.
is it necessary to evaluate only the song ? I think you forget that the song doesn’t always win the competition
Nevena is beautiful and has a powerful voice but the song is too 90’s Eurovision.
True. It’s so Greece 2015.