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 Sunday 31 March.
Michael Rice goes prime time in Croatia
Last night, UK singer Michael Rice was in Croatia as a special guest on Zvijezde Pjevaju, the local version of the celebrity singing show Just The Two Of Us. There he sang his Eurovision song “Bigger Than Us”. He also got the chance to meet the Croatian Eurovision representative, Roko. They spent some time catching up and having a go at singing each other’s songs. (Antony)
Sergey takes us BTS, in more ways than one
On Saturday, Sergey Lazarev shared a brief behind-the-scenes clip from “The Scream” music video shoot. It shows the director examining a monitor, while Sergey belts it out on an artificial mound. This morning, he posted a BTS shot of a different nature. Direct from an Athens hotel room, a starkers Sergey writes “Good Morning, Beautiful World”. #HeWokeUpLikeThat (Padraig)
Bilal draws a crowd
If his public vote in Destination Eurovision wasn’t enough to convince you of Bilal Hassani’s massive following in France, these scenes should do the trick. Huge crowds showed up in Toulouse for the “Roi” singer’s appearance on NRJ radio. Bilal later thanked fans for their dedication, simply writing “Merci toulouse , vraiment merci !💕” (Padraig)
#VIDÉO >> @iambilalhassani est arrivé à @NRJ_TOULOUSE devant un public en folie ? pic.twitter.com/bPxJOezykZ
— Bilal Hassani TV (@BilalHassaniTV) March 30, 2019
Miki sings for the earth
Yesterday marked Earth Hour, the annual switch-off of non-essential lighting in order to raise environmental awareness. Miki participated in the Madrid leg of the initiative. Just before the lights went out, he delivered a spirited rendition of “La Venda”, his song for Eurovision 2019. (Padraig)
.@mikiot2018 también se suma a la #horadelplaneta al ritmo de ‘La Venda’. #IDo @Planeta_LOS40 pic.twitter.com/eqaL51To7k
— LOS40 (@Los40) March 30, 2019
Ice Ice Miki
Earlier in the day, Miki tackled some very difficult philosophical questions. One was why do some people eat the ice cubes in their glasses once their drink is over. He even tried it himself, but didn’t quite work out the reason for the strange habit. (Ron)
Yo lo intento pero es superior a mi pic.twitter.com/Bg0iFvA15r
— Miki (@mikiot2018) March 30, 2019
Mercy, Mercy
Back from her jaunt to Tel Aviv, Tamara Todevska was back doing what she does best this weekend — singing. The soon to be two-time Eurovision star tackled Duffy’s “Mercy” at a private event — not to be confused with France’s 2018 Madame Monsieur song of the same name. (Padraig)
Run to the studio
We’re still waiting for “Run With The Lions” to arrive on commercial platfroms, but Jurij Veklenko is already plotting his next move. Posting from the music studio, the Lithuanian singer writes “Studio is a place where time stops for me!! I could spend days in here ❤️ Hope to release some more music for yall! Soon!!”. (Padraig)
It’s 22 years since Ireland last hosted
Sarah McTernan filmed her postcard some weeks back, but she only got round to uploading her Israeli TV interview this week. In it she tells local media that it’s her dream to win Eurovision and that Kobi’s song is really good. The reporter also makes the singer aware of a little Eurovision curiosity — it’s been 22 years since Ireland last hosted Eurovision, and now they are sending an entry called “22”. If it was intentional, Sarah certainly wasn’t let in on the plan — “Gas, now that’s a coincidence”.(Padraig)
Walk, walk fashion baby
She’s the cover girl of this month’s Glow magazine, but Katerine Duska’s sartorial slayage doesn’t end there. Recently, she shared shots from yet another fashion shoot. Dressed in a red dress and cloak combo, she oozed old-school Hollywood chic. And she’s working with fashion’s finest — George Karapetis ,Vogue Greece’s fashion editor, did the styling. (Padraig)
Additional contributions from Ron and Antony.
What do you think of Michael’s Croatian debut? Can Sarah stop Ireland making it to 23 years without hosting? Let us know in the comments.
Michael Rice is lovely, but I just can’t bear to hear him struggle with that song. I really don’t know what to suggest, beyond the obvious deeper breaths and more vocal support during the first verse and chorus. Anyhow, I’m glad that Croatia’s HRT seemed to enjoy the performance. Some positives there.
On the Ireland statistic: 22 years ago indeed, now that does make me feel old. I can still remember that night!
Michael has to finish Top ten
Why is Sergey showing us his scoliosis?
I honestly just had to look that word up in the English Dictionary. 😀
For the very same reason Dunan does it in his video for Arcade for over 2 minutes?
The question is who took that pic of Sergey? His wife tours with him?
wife? you mean boyfriend? lol
Yikes ! So sorry
There was an article on here about his son or something , so I assumed he was married to a girl.
Philipp Kirkorov has 2 children and he is very open about surrogacy he used.
I guess it’s the same with Sergey.
Sergey has no wife since he is a gay. The picture was probably taken by his new lover Alex Malinovsky.
Timer. It was timer.
22 is just the points they will receive on the SF.
At least they won already 7 times. Other countries still struggle for one victory!
They did.
Is that the same version of Bigger Than Us that was performed at You Decide!?
Sergey realising that the dire song he’s entering isn’t going to get many votes so now has to strip off to get the votes…
Hey it worked for Duncan in his video for Arcade 😉 But if a Russian guy does it it’s suddenly offensive to people. Let’s not be hypocritical
Another ass from Sergey this time haha
Does Sergey write the songs he sings? He looks uptight to me…This year we have too many natural-born musicians…would be hard for him to win.
Katerine is a greek goddess!Such an elegant woman,lover her,lover her song!Better love!
Katerine and Ester stand out to me in terms of talent and fashion. Plus they have the Canadian link. I think it’s great.
To sing for the Earth in a concert that needs electricity more than light bulbs. Ironic.
Sergey must swim naked to reach The Netherlands. It’s funny how everybody pretends it’s not war.
Unless they’re not using incandescent lightbulbs, which waste more electricity in a short amount of time.
That Instapost really proves once more that Sergey is a self-loving bigheaded narcissist. I don‘t know how anyone can support someone with such a huge ego. His songs are not even that modern to begin with.
You are a little unfair. No. 1 in bookies is a guy that swims naked. A man’s got to do, what a man’s got to do.
Nah. You just wanna see his BEHIND the scenes.
Be nice! He’s catering to the gays!
The “I don’t want to copy myself” makes me cringe every time (he did say this more than once by now, ironic)
I celebrated Earth Hour as well, anyway, we need to talk about that Sergey picture
Tonight Mahmood will perform in Tunisi
I love that city, I’m happy for him 🙂