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 Monday 1 April.
Darude turned down Eurovision in the past
This year wasn’t the first time the artist born as Ville Virtanen was approached to represent Finland at Eurovision. However, previously, Darude was too busy to squeeze the song contest into his schedule. Talking to News Now Finland, the “Look Away” DJ explains:
“My schedule is done for the year. It’s not all Eurovision, but up until May, yes […] I was able to schedule a release where I wanted to, and I was able to push some stuff I was supposed to this spring a little later, so time-wise it fit really well as well”.
He also confirms that he and Sebastian Rejman will keep the Tel Aviv staging consistent with their UMK performance. However, they may still switch up their wardrobe choices. (Padraig)
Jurij Veklenko will keep his national final staging
The Finns aren’t the only ones taking their national final performance to Israel. Speaking to LRT, Lithuania’s Head of Delegation Audrius Giržadas says there will be no dancers or lions on stage: “Everything will be as nationally selected, but more impressive. If everything succeeds as we plan it, the possibilities of the stage will be used to the maximum”. (Padraig)
A Michael Rice and Roko mash-up
On Saturday, Michael Rice made his prime time debut on Croatian TV. Off-stage, he hung out with Croatia’s own Eurovision star Roko. The pair seemed to really hit it off, and even created an impromptu mash-up of their entries “Bigger Than Us” and “The Dream”. (Padraig)
Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl announce Ljubljana send-off
The pair have been inundating their Instagram followers with loved-up holiday snaps recently. But vacation is over, and now Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl have their sights set on Tel Aviv. Before they depart for off to the contest, the “Sebi” duo are holding a send-off concert in Ljubljana’s Klub K4. Interested fans can get tickets for the intimate 18 April gig here. (Padraig)
Mahmood lands in Tunis
The stars of Sanremo Giovani 2018, the little sister of Sanremo proper, are on tour. And amongst them is Mahmood, who, of course, secured his spot in the main contest by winning the second Giovani night. Other names include Einar, Deschema and and La Rua. While the tour will be hitting five continents, Mahmood will only join for the first and last dates in Tunis and Brussels respectively. That Tunisian date took place on Sunday night. The Belgian leg is scheduled for 16 April. Tickets are free and can be ordered here. (Padraig)
Luca Hänni celebrates a milestone
Luca Hänni has recently spent some time in Paris and Berlin, but he also had some news to share with his fans. The music video for “She Got Me” has now reached over 2 million views, making it one of the most popular videos on the official Eurovision YouTube channel. (Robyn)
Oto’s Rocky Horror throwback
His Instagram story shows that Georgia’s Oto Nemsadze was performing at a low-key gig in Tiblisi last night. But looking at his grid, fans might be fooled into thinking that he is in the US. He shared a throwback from a visit to New York’s Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. We see him having fun and posing like a wax figure. Presumably his performance in Tel Aviv will less silly. (Luis)
Additional contributions from Robyn and Luis.
What do you think of Lithuania and Finland’s staging plans? Will you go see Zala and Gaspar live? Let us know in the comments.
2M views mark isn’t really a big deal, Srbuk got it half an hour 😉
I think I’ve seen somewhere an info that Jurij were planning a revamp of his song. Did he turn down that idea?
Darude is a one-hit wonder right? Or did any of his other songs got any success outside of Finland?
Darude asked to do Eurovision when??
They should add some elements from the other 2 performances in the national final.
Lithuania keeping it simple in the NF was good, I hope they make some tweaks though. But Finland should try something different. As it is now I can easily see them bottom placing in its SF. The song is weak and the staging a non-sense. Finland was wrong choosing Darude.
Total bs. Finland will be around places 7-13 in the semi 1.
The staging on youtube was just their first live performance. It was bad TV-quality too. They will be a lot better in Israel. Song is better than most others this year.
(So happy that Maruv got banned btw. It was weak and too sexual for ESC)
i believe Finland will fall. Its to basic to qualify i feel.
I actually want Romania to keep their national final staging.
That would be great
I really hope Romania DONT take final place of NorthMacedonia in the final. It seems like a battle in the odds with Romania vs NorthMacedonia
Roko & Michael… golden boys
I really do hope Michael does well, he deserves and should get a top ten resul
Was there even a staging in the Lithuanian NF ??
The lighting, the camera work, the epilepsy-causing flashes…
Ok it’s clearly Mahmoodbloggs here, as it was Gabbanibloggs, something is unfair and weird too….what the thing with Italy ? is it the only one country in Esc ? Sorry but I’m already tired of Mahmood, an overdose is never good.
I can’t keep up with you conspiracy theorists. Last week it was too much Sergey, the week before it was too much Duncan and earlier it was Tamta… You don’t think, perhaps, that wiwibloggs – a Eurovision site – is just overdosing on Eurovision in general? Or would such a concept scandalise you too much?
The theory conspiracies are only in your head, I just report some facts, Italy is everywhere here, in all daily digests in all comment sections of all articles and soon in all articles as for Gabbani, Il volo…..I have never seen too much of duncan sergey or lucas but Mahmood Mahmood everywhere! OVERDOSE and no it’s not an overdose of eurovision but of Italy in wiwi, each years it’s the same I can’t say the same of Greece Belgium Israel but they have good entries too each years and others too for example, then it’s weird and unfair, you have… Read more »
In fact, thanks to this mythical overdose, Italy has always won Eurofestival: thank you wiwibloggs !
Not the topic here try again…
Never seen too much Duncan, lol, okay. I think you’re just biased. All the artists are doing stuff, and wiwi’s just reporting said stuff. The end.
Anyway, don’t worry, Italy is not winning this year either so drink a nice chamomile tea and sweet dreams.
Seriously? My impression is that we’ve been through a pretty heavy Duncandose, instead. This is just Daily Digest, you can scroll if you don’t care about a certain artist (like everyone else does, I guess)
Last week was full of Katerine Duska – “OMMMMGG II’TS UNFAIRR!!11!” (yelling – complaining) – with a long interview and a lot of stories. And it was good, because she’s very very smart and funny. It’s not the UN General Assembly: take it easy.
So what? As Mahmoodoholic im totally ok with it lol
Btw anyone knows is Alessandro made up with his boyfriend or they broke up after the big drama they had on public?
Please keep your italy hate on your twitter timeline dolu <3
You seem really scared Italy might win. Am I wrong? Please take this contest, and yourself, less seriously.
The Italian boot kicked your a$$ really hard, ain’t it? LoL
Cuz you post a hate comment on Italy every day…
i still don’t understand what went wrong in lithuania in order for them to choose that lame dated snoozefest over some better options they had
I guess you have to ask that question to the rest of Europe as well..
They probably liked it better than the rest, and he didn’t have to submit two songs in the process.
justice for monika marija
guess they wanted to have their own Esamiba.