Eurovision 2019 news 30 March

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 Saturday 30 March.

Jonida Maliqi performs stripped back “Ktheju tokës”

This week’s Voice Kids Albania saw a special performance from Jonida Maliqi. The former coach, showed the children how to mix things up, by delivering a stripped back version of her Eurovision 2019 song “Ktheju tokës”. Accompanied by just a guitar, some light percussion and a little instrumentation, the FiK winner captivated the audience. (Padraig)

Oto Nemsadze films his music video

Yesterday, Oto’s “Sul tsin iare” finally got its digital release, becoming “Keep On Going” in the process — don’t worry, the song itself remains in Georgian. Next, we can expect a music video. On Friday, the two-time Idol winner was on location to film the visuals for his Eurovision entry. Although his Instagram doesn’t give much away.  In a post on his grid, we see the rocker standing in the middle of an abandoned bridge. Meanwhile, his Instagram story shows him on a rather bleak beach, wrapped up in a warm blanket post-shoot. (Padraig)

Tamta has yet to decide on her Eurovision outfit

She spent several days mastering her Eurovision 2019 choreography with Sacha Jean-Baptiste. But Tamta has yet to choose the outfit she’ll wear while doing those moves. Appearing on a Greek chat show, the “Replay” hitmaker said that she did, however, have an idea. Whatever about her Eurovision styling, we’re living for the massive platform shoes she wore on to the show. (Padraig)

John Lundvik opens up

The Swedish Eurovision star stopped by the popular Swedish-Norwegian talkshow Skavlan. There he chatted with host Fredrik Skavlan about his multicultural upbringing, his background in running, and the curious dilemma of having two songs in Eurovision 2019. He even sings a little bit of “Bigger Than Us”, Lundvik style. The interview is in Swedish, but English subtitles are available (select closed captions). (Robyn)

Meanwhile in the charts

John continues to slay the charts. On Friday, he topped the Sverigetoplistan for the fourth week running. And he still dominates Spotify, iTunes and radio airplay.  Fellow Melfest acts are also doing well, Hanna Ferm & Liamoo, Mohombi and Bishara are all inside the country’s top ten. A total of fourteen remain inside the overall top 100. (Padraig)

Mahmood relinquishes his grip on #1

After seven weeks, Mahmoood has been knocked off the top spot in Italy’s FIMI charts. But “Soldi” hasn’t gone far. It now sits at #3. Similar to Sweden, the Italian top 100 contains many songs familiar to Eurovision fans, with Sanremo entries sprinkled throughout. Mahmood is also packing a sartorial punch, appearing in the latest edition of the Italian men’s fashion mag L’Officiel Hommes Italia.(Padraig)

Duncan close to top ten breakthrough

For a second week, Duncan Laurence has just missed out on cracking the top ten of the Dutch Charts. The latest update sees him at #12. However, he did sneak in at #10 on the first week of release. The Top 100 is one of three official charts in the Netherlands, and includes physical sales, downloads and streaming.  In the Dutch Top 40, which includes radio airplay and social media trends, “Arcade” is at eight –its highest ranking to date. The track is at nine in the Mega Top 50  countdown (Spotify, downloads and airplay). (Padraig)

D Mol get prepared in Tel Aviv

D Mol, the Montenegrin vocal sextet, have shared the pic from Tel Aviv. The group are part of the long list of Eurovision 2019 acts who have been paying a visit to Israel to film their dance-themed postcards. We wonder if the pop groups will be busting out some ’90s pop group hand grabs. (Robyn)

View this post on Instagram

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A post shared by Group D-mol (@dmolgroup_official) on

Love comes first

According to PreParty ES organisers, Serbia was one of the first delegations to confirm for the 2019 event. However, they’ve since withdrawn as the dates are clashing with Nevena Bozovic’s wedding. Since Nevena’s been engaged for some time, we’re guessing the booking may have been made before her Beovizija victory. (Padraig)

S!sters go a cappella

German S!srers Laurita Spinelli and Carlotta Truman are deep in Eurovision rehearsals. On social media they’ve been giving fans behind-the-scenes glimpses of all the action, including matching S!ster hoodies and this a cappella clip. According to their apparel, Carlotta is “Sister 01” and Laurita is “Sister 02”.  (Padraig)

Additional contributions from Robyn.
What do you think of Albania stripped back? Does chart success mean Eurovision success for Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands? Let us know in the comments.

Follow all our Daily Digests for Eurovision 2019.

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Lily
Lily
5 years ago

Mahmood
My winner the best this year my opinion!

Nicky91
Nicky91
5 years ago

Duncan is the winner of this year, so predictable

amsterdam2020, here we come Ziggo dome our dutch artist then will be a random joke act like famke louise probably cause no country wants to win twice in a row

Denis
Denis
5 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

Please seek help! This is like your 5th spam post about your King Duncan! You will only turn people off!

Nicky91
Nicky91
5 years ago
Reply to  Denis

i won’t, cause everyone loves duncan, everyone must vote for duncan, they have no choice themselves, it’s duncan or no one

Alessio
Alessio
5 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

in your dreams baby

Nicky91
Nicky91
5 years ago

Duncan, the one who everyone loves, our dutch international superstar

Frisian esc
Frisian esc
5 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

Wat is jouw probleem….

Henry
Henry
5 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

Stop aub met deze beschamende uitspraken! wat wil je ermee bereiken??

Nicky91
Nicky91
5 years ago
Reply to  Henry

i love arcade so much, its so boppy, puts a smile on my face and duncan is a international superstar

mainstream generic bop of the year 2019 🙂

Frisian esc
Frisian esc
5 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

Yeah, try harder, you don’t even speak dutch….

Loin dici
Loin dici
5 years ago

If you’re talking about royal wedding, she sure is!

Alessio
Alessio
5 years ago

Queen Jonida

Nicky91
Nicky91
5 years ago
Reply to  Alessio

stands no chance against our worldclass duncan, nothing can go wrong for NL this year

Nicky91
Nicky91
5 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

yeah downmark me and all hail the almighty King Duncan, eurovision icon even better than Johnny Logan, Celine Dion internationally famous after his win with arcade, which got 800 pts

Alessio
Alessio
5 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

nothing is not impossible

Nicky91
Nicky91
5 years ago
Reply to  Alessio

us dutch having won eurovision this year with a swedish generic song arcade, LMAO

Nicky91
Nicky91
5 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

stop downmarking me please, i was wrong calling it generic, i didn’t know at first what arcade was about, but now i do ”its about duncan’s dead music school friend”

my apologies for my over the top behaviour, i’m not a troll, i tried to not go obsessed, i promised myself that but i did it again, like last year with Netta

Alex
Alex
5 years ago

Sister is growing on me but they need to nail the vocals and have an emotional staging like last year’s DE entry

poe-tay-toe chips
poe-tay-toe chips
5 years ago
Reply to  Alex

If only they were actual sisters…photos of then together as they grew up being shown would probably help them oit a lot

too bad they are fake sisters, huh?

James
James
5 years ago

Sisterhood goes beyond blood.

romanian
romanian
5 years ago

Germany had family photos last year, and this year Joci Papai will have photos with fathers like M.Schulte last year, and also Bilal will most likely have those photos and videos from his childhood that he had in Destination Eurovision, so S!sters didn’t needed childhood photos too. I think they are lucky they don’t need that kind of staging anyway.

Aris
Aris
5 years ago

Queen Tamta!
Replay THE SLAY

Ric
Ric
5 years ago

I would like to share a detail I have noticed in this news. I dont want to throw shades on the Netherlands (actually they are in my personal top ) but I am not very confident with them winning…I mean…I see Sweden Italy and other countries topping charts in their homeland and abroad while Duncan even struggles to get top 10 in his country…I don’t know…I just dont see this huge support outside the eurovision fandom.

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
5 years ago
Reply to  Ric

It doesn’t matter how you chart at home, you can’t vote for your own country anyway.

IdkYara
IdkYara
5 years ago
Reply to  Ric

Mahmood and John Lundvik were properly introduced to the public by National Finals which in each of its country is watched religiously by a big percentage of citizens. Duncan is just still unknown here in the Netherlands.. After Eurovision and maybe a possible win even, his song will top the Dutch charts

Henry
Henry
5 years ago
Reply to  Ric

Duncan entered at 29 in the Dutch Top 40, a week later he went to 11 and this week he’s at 8… That’s top 10 for me…..

Nicky91
Nicky91
5 years ago
Reply to  Ric

of course, there will be support for Duncan, everyone (bar me) drools over him

hi guys
hi guys
5 years ago

montenegro is gonna get top 10 and theres nothing u can do about it! haters

poe-tay-toe-chips
poe-tay-toe-chips
5 years ago
Reply to  hi guys

The only top 10 list they MIGHT land on is for the barbara dex maybe depending on what they wear

just being honest

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  hi guys

next year, maybe

xmynameis
xmynameis
5 years ago

Write about Zena’s from Belarus homophobic manager/producer.

Joe
Joe
5 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Yeah, wow, that was terrible. What an awful guy.

xmynameis
xmynameis
5 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Russian manager of ZENA and composer of Belarus entry Victor Drobysh (composed also Russian entries by Natalia Podolskaya, Buranovskiye Babushki and Belarus entry by IVAN) entry came up with homophobic post – it was now deleted from Instagram for violation of community guidelines, but remained in Facebook and VK. Praising Brunei for the newly implemented death penalty for gay sex, he writes: “Well, finally ??? Now I have a dream for an artist from BRUNEI to win the EUROVISION and then this contest will go to Brunei ? And that’s it !!! Showbiz will change. There will be new faces.… Read more »

Joe
Joe
5 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

I think the Babushkis’ strength lay in the lyrics anyway.

Colin
Colin
5 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

What a charmer. Now I don’t feel guilty for thinking his song is an absolute mess.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Drobish probably should not have entered songs to the ESC with that kind of attitude, to be honest. Even if the views are set for life, it doesn’t take much to keep one’s mouth closed about it. Fortunately the song’s performer this year is 16 and won’t hurt her wider European career over it.

Andrii
Andrii
5 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Write about scared Lazarev, who is definitely gay, but afraid with coming out, due to homeland politics
C’mon Wiwi you just adore Seriozha, why don’t you ask him about this

RussianDude
RussianDude
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrii

believe me , here is in Russia almost everybody knows he is closet gay,well at least his fans, but he cant be open officially, it would ruined his career in Russia for good, no need to embarrass Sergey to ask him such a questions, he is already paying his price…

Andrii
Andrii
5 years ago
Reply to  RussianDude

It’s so horrible when people can not be truly themselves and feel freedom of choice
In Ukraine the same situation, don’t believe anybody, who says that we are better than Russia in supporting LGBT, majority of Ukrainians hate gays and its painful, also it is even weird, but here in Ukraine anybody will openly show their hate to lesbians, on the other hand everybody will try to kill gay boys…

RussianDude
RussianDude
5 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Victor Drobysh is pretty famous Russian music producer ,he always been homophobic jerk, well as major of Russian pop/musical management , and why is anyone surprised by that? We’re homophobic country with homophobic laws at the head with homophobic bloody dictator…being openly homophobic its totally normal thing here, i been beaten up for looking ‘too gay’ many times on the streets and police never wanted to help me and never took my reports, poor Sergey , as much as i love him and want him win i don’t want my country hosting anytime soon , Putin will use it to… Read more »

La Signora
La Signora
5 years ago
Reply to  RussianDude

I feel so sorry for you my dear, and for Russians as well. If there’s something I can do to help you let me know

RussianDude
RussianDude
5 years ago
Reply to  La Signora

thank you very much for your kind words, well not much you can help me or others lgbt in Russia, we’re trying to fight suppressors but we’re marginal minority here, major of people dont care if we been killed or torture or we would just disappear for good… i just wish our bloody regime would gone and we could be free and stop being afraid all the time… sadly but tv brainwashing propaganda works perfectly well in Russia… not much hope it will end anytime soon …
PEACE to all good people out there !

Alaska
Alaska
5 years ago
Reply to  RussianDude

All my support to you and all the LGBTQ+ community in Russia. Keep fighting! And know that you have allies.

Joe
Joe
5 years ago
Reply to  Alaska

Likewise. Screw systemic homophobia. We’re all here for you guys.

Veta
Veta
5 years ago
Reply to  RussianDude

OMG finally someone who shares my opinion about Russia (my country) hosting Eurovision! “i don’t want my country hosting anytime soon , Putin will use it to his own bloody agenda…. as he used stupid World Cup championship last summer …” Damn exactly! I stan every word! That’s why I don’t want my country to win too! Bcs it all will be transformed in a circus and lots and lots of public money will be either lost on nonsence things either stolen. I once tried to explain this point of view at a facebook group of Eurovision fans, and ppl… Read more »

DerKai
DerKai
5 years ago

Sisters are so good und underrated. Wait until rehearsals begin!

Andrii
Andrii
5 years ago
Reply to  DerKai

Ja, genau

alex_two
alex_two
5 years ago

Tamta also said that she has a back injury and cant even wear heels at the moment . Lets hope she will get better soon

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
5 years ago

Nevana’s getting married? Congratulations to her!

sem
sem
5 years ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

Yes, she had to cancel Spain pre-party because wedding is at the same date. Meanwhile, she confirmed that she’s going to Amsterdam and Moscow pre-party.

Frisian esc
Frisian esc
5 years ago

I see S!sters as a real dark horse for the top 10 this year.

Joe
Joe
5 years ago
Reply to  Frisian esc

I wouldn’t sleep on them or the UK

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
5 years ago
Reply to  Joe

I plan to sleep….during both of them.

NickC
NickC
5 years ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

Haha….comment of the week!

Joshua
Joshua
5 years ago
Reply to  Frisian esc

Maybe not the top 10, but they surely deserve a respectable place. I’d say it could sit mid-chart, but the fans didn’t show much support unfortunately.

poe-tay-toe-chips
poe-tay-toe-chips
5 years ago
Reply to  Frisian esc

Both could end up in the teens maybe, so long as their staging doesn’t suck

Andrii
Andrii
5 years ago
Reply to  Frisian esc

I think Albania will be a real surprise)) Potential winner of jury voting

Joe
Joe
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrii

I am genuinely stumped as to who besides Moldova and Croatia won’t qualify from SF2. Those are the only two entries I can think of that don’t already feel final-worthy and six more are gonna go home anyway.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  Joe

I think Austria, North Macedonia and Denmark are out too.
Latvia and Ireland are strong contenders to go home earlier as well.

NickC
NickC
5 years ago
Reply to  Jo.

Denmark will qualify. Tons of us like it and it is so different it stands out. Austria is out, me thinks. Latvia, I love it , but you are probably out. Ireland can go both ways

Frisian esc
Frisian esc
5 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Yess, semi final 2 is a blood bath, will be very tight , for fun I created the “perfect” running order and tried to guess who would qualify from which semies. My guesses are: Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands And Russia (the four obvious ones) + Malta, Norway, romania and armenia. The last two places were the hardest to decide but i think Austria based on jury preferences and I think it will connect very well in a live performance. The last place is between albania, azerbaijan and north macedonia. Could be anyone’s game.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
5 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Ireland, Latvia and Austria aren’t really final-worthy based on what we know either. I would throw Denmark in there but I think juries will like them.
But yeah, after that, a couple of decent songs are probably going home.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  Frisian esc

I struggle to see that.

Frisian esc
Frisian esc
5 years ago
Reply to  Jo.

Well you never know 🙂 I just feel like paenda has that common linnets factor and she’s been going quite under the radar up till now.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  Frisian esc

Musically, Limits should qualify for its artistic value and composition, but it isn’t strong enough to impress the public, unfortunately. She’s great tho, I wish she had something more impactful.

Loin dici
Loin dici
5 years ago
Reply to  Frisian esc

I can see some possibilities. If performed right, it can be a dark horse under a radar just like Common Linnets or Amar Pelos Dois. I guess only a few even saw Portugal qualifying in 2017.