Every morning 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. Whether you’re having brunch, hitting the shops or still tucked under the covers, this is the Daily Digest for Saturday 23 March.
Next stop Vogue for Katerine Duska?
Strike a pose! Katerine Duska is the covergirl for the April edition of Greece’s Glow magazine. The princess pink of her music video has made way for elegant white. The Canadian-born songstress looks effortlessly stunning in a frock designed by Luisa World for Givency. (Jacintha)
Czech Republic spills the tea about Tel Aviv
The Czech Head of Delegation published a vlog about the annual HoD meeting in Tel Aviv last week. Listen out for when he reveals that the presentation of results will to be shaken up this year. What do you think is going to happen? (Katie)
Roko duets with Jacques Houdek
Croatia’s Roko performed his Eurovision song during this week’s Večernjakova Ruža. He was joined by his mentor and “The Dream” co-writer Jacques Houdek. They then sang Houdek’s 2017 entry “My Friend”. Held in the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, the show is an award ceremony celebrating Croatian television, radio and music. (Antony)
Sergey Lazarev becomes Ginger Spice
Well, not literally. But Sergey Lazarev will fill the role of Geri Horner (nee Halliwell) when the Russian edition of All Together Now debuts tonight. The British original gave us Michael Rice, while the Danish edition keeps Emmelie de Forest and Rasmussen busy. You can catch the launch show at 20:45 local time. (Padraig)
Miki and his backing vocalists sound on point
Spanish broadcaster RTVE shared a short rehearsal video of Miki and his three male supporting singers for Tel Aviv. Guided by OT’s vocal coach Mamen Márquez, the harmonies are already sounding top notch. (Jacintha)
.@mikiot2018 sigue ensayando para su actuación de Tel Aviv 2019, ¡así suenan los coros de La Venda! vía @mamenmarquezvoz pic.twitter.com/xEmwWC8P3u
— eurovision_rtve (@eurovision_tve) March 22, 2019
Tulia take on the Hit Challenge
The four ladies of Tulia dropped by ESKA radio to take on the Hit Challenge. As the name suggests, Poland’s 2019 representatives were required to perform a selection of hits. From the Cranberries to Roxette, Lady Gaga to Disney, they spanned genres and decades. They even tackle Roksana Wegiel’s “Anyone I Want To Be”, the song which brought Poland Junior Eurovision victory. Will “Pali się” do the same at the adult contest? (Padraig)
Dana International helps Kobi Marimi overcome his insecurities
He may be Israel’s Next Star, but Kobi Marimi remains human. In a touching Instagram post, the “Home” singer shared his feelings of self-doubt, particularly around the Purim festival — “I was always afraid that my costume would be too exaggerated or too simple and then I would feel irrelevant. And just thinking of sitting at a party on the side when I was dressed like a unicorn or a penguin, I preferred to give up”. But after some inspirational words from the Eurovision 1998 winner Dana International, he has changed his outlook, “I realised that until I was complete with myself, I would never feel comfortable in any disguise. So that’s it, I’ve started thinking about the next Purim costume”. (Padraig)
When Jurij met Samanta Tina
Lithuania’s representative paired with the Latvian diva in what appears to be, judging from Samanta’s gown at least, a very glamorous event in the outskirts of Vilnius. The artist formerly known as Jurijus (now Jurij Veklenko) and the multi-time Supernova entrant rehearsed Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow” in an Instagram story uploaded by Jurij. (Luis)
Darude is flipping out
Finland’s Darude shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse from the music studio and he is flipping out… but luckily in a good way. Rocking a mad scientist hairdo (his words), it’s unclear what exactly he’s celebrating. But the #CollaborationRulezOk hashtag, along with EDM blaring from the sound system, suggests that perhaps new music is imminent. (Jacintha)
I’m flipping out a bit, in a good way. #dontmindme #nothingtoseehere #goodhairday 😉 @JamieLeeWilson_ @audioventura ????????????? pic.twitter.com/FWO5UMmYb6
— Darude (@Darudevil) March 21, 2019
Nevena is made up
Katerine Duska isn’t the only one who can strike a pose and vogue. So too can Serbia’s Nevena Bozovic. She recently did an advert for Oriflame’s lipstick, and now she has uploaded a “making of” video from the photo shoot. Who knows? She may be on her way to the Miss Universe ‘kruna’! (Luis)
Additional contributions from Jacintha, Luis, Katy and Antony.
Are you excited for the changes to the results presentation? Will you watch Sergey’s TV show? Let us know in the comments.
Wow, this part, when polish girls sing “Zombie” is just amazing! I’m waiting for a cover! They all are so cute!
Jacques is so hooked on ESC, I won’t be surprised if he sings backing vocals for Roko and then attempts to steal the show in Tel Aviv.
Nevena Bozovic from Serbia is the most beautiful of all the girls in eurovision this year, isn’t she?
Not really
Straight girl here, so, not an expert ?, but I’d personally say Leonora. While in men, I’d go hands down for Chingiz.
Well, thanks for sharing it. I’m not sure about men this year.
She’s pretty, but there are prettier girls than she.
Zala from Slovenia is more beautiful
Kobi Marimi must be the most inept and insecure person to ever ‘grace’ the Eurovision sphere. Instead of focusing on how to polish his act, he’s constantly absorbed with a silly inferiority complex, vulnerability and self pity. It’s as if he chooses to be in treatment on his followers’ collective couch. He’s constantly overwhelmed by what’s happening around him as if he’s not worthy of any of it and that’s getting really tiresome. Either he changes his mindset or doomed to turn into a Mr. Nobody. He’d better start working on his social skills and ability to communicate with the… Read more »
You’re a little mean.
Lol, I don’t if it’s true for Kobi, but I admire this analysis on point, ’cause I know few persons who has this kind of personality :p
sksksksksk Croatia fell on the betting odds XD
Can you please explain what ”sksksksksk” means? I’ve never seen a form like that before 2019 or outside Wiwibloggs, and now I see many commentators using it (or a similar form). I genuinely don’t know the meaning.
From urbandictionary.com: “a phrase people use when they don’t know what to say, a form of showing enjoyment or laughter, or when they are shooketh”. sksksk, am I right?
many people (including me) type random letters in the keyboard called random instead of writing hahaha or something means laughing
Actually, Jacques and Roko sound very good together + Roko didn’t wear that silly wings. I still they he’ll try way to hard to impress in Tel Aviv and end-up with less than satisfying result.
Fun fact: the Polish voice of Pocahontas, who Tulia we’re singing along with in the clip, is the one and only Edyta Gorniak, who represented Poland just a year before.
That clip was fun. Does any song make more sense for them to cover than Zombie? I’m surprised they hadn’t covered it already.
Th big news today are the accusations of large amounts of money being offered by officials for favourable YouTube reviews. One channel alleged that he was offered two to three times his annual teachers salary in the US by one delegation. This video has been removed but you can see from Twitter that this has been passed to the EBU.
I don’t say its right. But is it illegal?
and do we really trust the guy that said that?
So we know it isn’t San Marino. They don’t have that kind of money to burn.
LOL some delegations take it ways TOO serious… 99,9% of people who watch eurovision just sit down in front of TV on Saturday evening and when they see that it’s eurovision that night, they give it a watch, some of them even watch the whole show since it’s promoted for weeks before the final in comercial breaks across Europe. That’s it. ESC is nothing more. + there is a few thousand hardcore eurovision fans who read wiwibloggs daily and listen to the songs before the show. For example, if country would want to win televote in small country like Slovenia,… Read more »
Because his concerns have been forwarded. To the proper channels. The point of the video was to ask the community what steps to take.
So you’re writing entire posts about past eurovision artists’ latest releases but you’re not talking about Bilal Hassani’s new songs… okay
They posted a separate article about it. Why are you so in a rush?
no one wants to hear about them
Katerine is stunning! Great things coming for the stage of the Eurovision you will see!!!!
agree, a perfect example of beauty and brains and Talent wow
i am jealous at that person who has to design the dress for Katerine’s performance 🙂
however next year i hope for a good greek language fun bop again, i am a huge fan of greek language myself
Remember last year when Greece said it was going to be “stunning” and even with an extra rehearsel. I believe when i see it. Greeks like to hype. We have learnt it.
^ I second that.
No no I speak with facts! Last year Greece didn’t have lots of money to spend for the stage, this year Greece gave to Katerine 327.000€ I think that they are good! Also last year none said that it is gonna be amazing we were just saying not confirmed things this year the team has changed and you are gonna be amazed if what Greece is gonna do and we are talking with facts and confirmed facts not only from Katerine, but also from ERT! GREECE IS BACK YOU WILL SEE!!!!!!
Go figure… “The dream” sounds better with some harmonies
Are we going to have to wait until the final to find out what they have on mind with the “dramatic change”, I wonder.
Tulia is the best
Beautiful women
Nice singing
Good luck
so 1955
Actually it is folk and folk is neither 1855 nor 1955 nor 2055. It is forever.
Plot twist: there’s an Andra Chansen round in the semis LOL
WTF ??
It won’t happen this year due to scheduling, but it’s an interesting idea. Top 8 passing into the finals, spots 9-12 going into AC round. Out of 8 AC acts, 4 pass into the finals. Could work and add another layer of suspense.
That would be cool to test for a year, seriously! Jan Ola, are you reading this?
No, please. The shows are already overcrowded with 5 repetitions of recaps. Why care so much about “borderline qualifiers” who are going to take say 20th place at the grand final. Instead, I would like to see more countries. For example, Kazakhstan has higher viewing ratings than Australia and they border with a European country. Why not have them as a new participant? Also, it would be great if the number of jury members was increased to 10 and the power of jury vote was decreased down to 40%.
they’ll probably introduce an app voting that’ll make up for half of the televotes or sumthin, i really hope this ain’t the case bc it’s easy to vote for your own country with an app, it just takes a vpn. just keep it telephone/sms only.
If I had to change what they’re doing at all, I’d switch between televote and jury results as the ones each country is announcing. So, Germany reveals the results of their televote, Belarus reveals their jury vote, etc, and the scores added on are just what’s left. Then you really wouldn’t know who’s doing well and who isnt.
That’d be too confusing for the viewers so that won’t happen. However, they should have a combined jury score revealed at the start and then each country reveals their televote in the jury format. Also I want them to re-introduce the announcing of 8, 10 and 12 again. It feels too rushed otherwise.
Voting takes an hour already, don’t even think about making it longer.
when croatia is in the title, u can tell nothing interesting happened today
That made me laugh – so true!
Hahahaha , Well Croatia is out already so ….it will be scandal if Roko will make it …Franka was ,200 times better than him 🙁 sorry
200 times is a bit less, isn’t it? I’d say a million times, because Franka’s overall act was the best since their return, imo.
How will they make announcing the results more dramatic, than what it has been since 2016?
Hope they will not be announcing the jury points the same way as they do for the televote.
i hope they make the juries say 8-10-12, any other change that isn’t eliminating the jury would be tragic
That would make the show longer tho
the jury vote is a mess, they vote based on their taste n ignore objective criteria. either give them sheets with scores to give from 0 to 10 for vocal performance, stage performance n song content, n base their vote on this (n publish such scores they gave for transparency), or just scrap it. there’s no way in 2016 11 juries gave top votes to jamala n 18 gave her zero.
no the televote is a mess. Remember that televoters had benjamin ingrosso super low and not Dami Im in top 3. No thanks for 100% televoters
benjamin bottom 4 n dami number 4 both sound right.
Maybe we have like we have in MGP Norway in last few years , that speakpersson tell us only juries 12 points, and latter host presenter will read points from 26 to 1 place, like they do with televote result from 2016.
My Friend sounds like a masterpiece compared to The Dream…
Czechs to get dq’d by EBU for leaking some new results info 😉
They haven’t leaked anything. We don’t know what the ebu will change yet.
But maybe they shouldn’t have said anything.