In semi-final one, the international jurors sensationally awarded nil points to up-and-coming songstress Florina. And now, ahead of the second show, France 2 has revealed the next batch of foreign experts for Destination Eurovision 2019. There are a number of familiar faces, most notably recent Eurovision alums Mikolas Josef and Zoë.
Mikolas represented Czech Republic at the 2018 contest with “Lie To Me”. While in Lisbon, he overcame a back injury to deliver the central European nation its best ever result — 6th in the grand final. Since then, he’s gone on to release the hugely popular “Me Gusta”.
Zoë is a known Francophile with several chansons to her name. In fact, her Eurovision 2016 entry “Loin D’ici” was the only entry to be performed entirely in the French language in Stockholm — even though she was representing German-speaking Austria. She’s become a national final regular, playing a prominent role in San Marino’s 2018 selection process.
Another standout name is Sweden’s Christer Björkman. He sang for Sweden in 1992 and has overseen the country’s Melodifestivalen since 2002. He featured on the international panel for all three rounds of Destination Eurovision in 2018. The jury is completed by Natia Mshvenieradze and Anushik Ter-Ghukasyan, the heads of delegation for Georgia and Armenia respectively.
The jury will provide 50% of the overall score with the remainder coming from the public televote. Four out of nine acts will progress to join the semi one qualifiers in the final. Meanwhile, the Francophone panel of Christophe Willem, André Manoukian and Vitaa will provide critique but will have no sway on the result.
Destination Eurovision semi-final two will be broadcast at 21.00 CET on Saturday 19 January.
What do you think of the panel? Are you excited for semi-final 2? Let us know in the comments.
1-person juries are a farce & not helping France whatsoever with their national selection. Also, it is a bad idea to have people who are so heavily involved in ESC world giving their judgement. It is all too incestuous and you are getting opinion purely from within the bubble. Bjorkman has no clue and will naturally gravitate towards a crappy, uptempo pop song that is closest to fitting the template of his narrow, MF-riddled mind.
“1 person juries”. Or you can simply call them jurors and the ones presented make up the overall international jury.
….and we thought the jury votes were bad in the first semi final! Brace yourselves…
Well, of course Bjorkman can’t miss another national final. This man is gross, just stick to your boring and predictible Sweden…
I agree, many of us do not want Björkman here either /from Sweden
Can’t wait to see another memorable Zoe face here
100% televoting is the way to go in any national final. There ain’t no bloc voting within your own country. Power to the people. For better, for worse.
Mostly agree, but we had that tragedy called Battista Aquaviva qualifying with the public in the spot number 3, so this could be applied for other NF, but not Destination Eurovision.
As I said, for better, for worse. Sometimes, televoting produces results I personally disagree with but I still think it’s the fairest method. Frankly, I’m surprised that not more people agree with me on this.
I’m from Romania and I agree with 100% televote….but this year my country will have international juries for first time. Must admit that I have hopes that international juries will like traditions and will ”kill” that teenage nightmare Laura Bretan that goes to Eurovision instead of school, just because her evangelist family needs yet another Ferrari.
no, no, no, my country will have international jury for the first time, and i’m happy because:
1. local artists are more or less popular, sometimes is not an objective vote from the citizens
2. traditional acts are more loved by foreigners. Romania never sent something traditional like Moldova did in 2009 (Nelly Ciobanu)
3. I hope international jury will kill the chances of that annoying teenager Laura Bretan, the daughter of some evangelists who just need another Ferrari.
I found this moment of friendship between Chimène and Emmanuel. It was in 2015. I hope they will meet in the final and they will have the opportunity to sing in duet. After, maybe neither of them will win (do not forget about Bilal and other serious competitors), but it will be a nice moment to watch.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx1Q25SJd2k[/youtube]
I just don’t get the point of international jurors when it comes to picking your national entry…
The oldest musical competition in Europe, Sanremo works very well for Italy, but the rest of us just want to do well in ESC, we just want to know how Europe would vote. LOL.
…and yet Italy is one of the most successful countries this decade? Another country that would never want foreign involvement in its choice, Hungary, has qualified every year since 2011, also. I don’t think calling a few ‘professionals’ from abroad will give a good indication of what Europe would vote for.
It works for some but not necessarily for others, especially with countries trying to find a consistent working formula for them. Italy’s Sanremo is its own thing and still doesn’t consider itself an actual Eurovision national qualifier so getting jurors from abroad is an unnecessary aspect for them to consider adding.
Portugal’s Festival da Canção is another matter though, but interesting still. They have mixed results in the main contest itself but they’re still hell-bent on sticking with local jurors as it thinks both ways as a song festival for Portuguese music and as a national ESC selection.
Because in Tel Aviv there will be international juries. So if some international jurors also vote in a national final, then it could likely be the case that the jury’s fave also does well in the final jury vote at ESC – and yes, even though the jurors are not the same persons, I know that 🙂 It’s just to see “Europe’s taste” before the contest…
For reasons mentioned above, I think it’s useful to hear their input. However, it’s not good to give them all the power in jury voting. French juries should have something to say.
and why do we have Armenie once again? That is strange.
Because they are two head of delegation in Armenia, so one for each semi 😉
Wtf? Why are there two heads of delegation? Does EBU even allow that?
Still. They should have just invited one juror from Armenia.
The UK had until last year two co-heads of delegation, Helen Ridell and Gary Freeman.
Erratum: It’s Guy Freeman, not Gary. lol hehe
Zoe thinks that because she is beautiful, she can get away with anything. She is gorgeous indeed, but she better vote honestly.
excuse me, what’s this hate on Zoë?
I don’t hate her, but she was last year in San Marino national selection, and that was shady.
Well, her mimics might have not been the best, ideed. But you can’t say that she is not voting honestly when she wasn’t even allowed to vote in 1in360. Also you have to keep in mind that she actually co-wrote a lot of the songs.
All right then, good luck for Austria in 2019, higher than 3rd place.
Thanks a lot, already so damn excited who our entry is going to be. Good luck also to Romania, some songs sound very promising!
Thank you, Austria has the right way to do it, to give freedom to the singer (Nathan, Cesar).
You leave Zoe out of this
Why Armenia again??? There already is one juror from Caucasian country anyway. They should invite someone from Baltics or Balkans. I don’t get it. ._.
They do. Sweden. Peace.
Tell me since when Sweden is located in the Baltics or Balkans
Sweden is no “Baltics”, sorry. This is defined as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania 😉
Why the hell are they inviting Björkman again to be a juror? He tried to sabotage France last year and he’ll do it again this year.
And why are they having Armenia be a juror again when they already were part of the jury in SF1? There are A LOT of other countries, you know?
My thoughts as well. He will vote in his own interest and not for the good of the French realm.
He was right last year though. Mercy did not do well in the final.
13th is hardly bad. Better than last, no? And it finished in the top half. Not to mention, 2018 was a STRONG year full of lots of different kinds of songs fighting for the televotes.
France is really gearing up for a top 10 finish
Not when they’re sending that dollar store version of Conchita
Why is everyone comparing Conchita and Bilal? Seriously, she was a bearded woman, he’s a gay man who likes to wear wigs and make-up.
Because they’re both LGBT people sending the same empowerment message, albeit in different tone and personality. Because Conchita had done it before with an incredibly high standard, fans see Bilal’s as something not as strong and also outdated.
What a nasty comment. I love it.
* That could be misleading. I love the nasty comment, not the act. The act is horrendously awful.
France is really gearing up for another 11-15th finish
At least we already know Zoe speaks French.
Fluently!
DUN DUN DUUUN! Guess who’s back.
Already guessing Christer & Zoe will give their 12 to Gabriella.
If I had to bet, I would say Björkman will give 12 points to Ugo.
I would give Ugo 12 points (unless his live vocals are terrible) tbh. I think it’s the best song in this selection (I repeat – unless his live vocals are terrible).
It’s not my favorite on this semi, but I kinda like his song too. He seems to be a charming guy, if his vocals are good, I guess he has good chances to make it to the final.
I’m gonna say Zoë will go for Seemone!
I think so too. A simple, gentle, all-French song is what I think Zoe will gravitate to. I’m also pretty sure Christer will give his 12 to Ugo seeing as how he has a thing for non-threatening, cute, young male singers (case in point: high scores in both the semi and final to Max Cinnamon last year), and Miki I’m sure will go for Tracy (her song has a similar vibe to “Lie to Me”)
I’d say that Miki is going to give his points to Tracy de Sà