Eurovision 2019 news 2 April

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 Tuesday 2 April.

Mahmood is Switzerland’s golden boy

First he went double platinum in his native Italy. Now Switzerland has fallen for Mahmood too. On Monday evening, Universal Music Switzerland revealed via its Instagram story that “Soldi” had attained gold status in the alpine nation. That amounts to combined sales of 25,000 units (or 7,500 for French/Italian-language songs). Italy’s Eurovision 2019 star has spent seven weeks inside the Swiss charts, peaking at #25. He is currently at #65, just one spot behind Switzerland’s own Luca Hänni with “She Got Me”.

Preview party update

From conquering the Swiss to gigs in Tunisia and Belgium, Mahmood is truly becoming international. Next on his list is the UK. He’ll pop by for the London Eurovision Party later this month. However, across the channel in Amsterdam, they’re down another act. One week after Malta’s Michela pulled out, Eurovision in Concert must also make do without France’s Bilal Hassani. Writing on Twitter, the “Roi” singer said:

Hi guys , i am extremely saddened to announce that i won’t be able to attend the @ESCinConcert in Amsterdam (for reasons that are not out my will or control) i hope to see you all in London very soon, i was really excited for this moment with u all…

Ok Oto

Oto Nemsadze graces the cover of the latest edition of OK! Magazine Georgia. Sporting a cheeky grin, the “Keep On Going” singer is pictured painting a giant Georgian flag. However, we do have to question the rocker’s painting technique. Why is he balancing on one foot? Is this how they do it in the Caucuses?

Ester Peony begins rehearsals

The “On A Sunday” songstress has shared a snap from her Eurovision rehearsals. She’s joined by her co-writer Alexandru Șerbu and pianist A.N.T.O.N.I.A., both of whom were part of her Selecția Națională team.She also appears to have acquired two dancers in the form of Mircea Vlad and Cristian Chis Bruce. Both were part of Bella Santiago’s “Army Of Love” dance troupe. If Instagram is anything to go by, the former has a fondness for training in nothing but skimpy pink pineapple-pattern shorts.

View this post on Instagram

Rehearsals! ?? #OnaSunday #Eurovision

A post shared by Ester Peony (@ester.peony) on

Roko shoots a music video

Fresh from welcoming Michael Rice to Zagreb on Saturday, Roko spent Monday working on the official music video for “The Dream”. Aesthetically, it looks very similar to his Dora performance. The angel wings, however, are noticeably absent. But who knows what will appear on the gigantic greens screen.

Official music video in progress.."The dream" ??? Roko Blaževi?, Moj HRT, Eurovision Song Contest

Posted by Eurosong HRT on Monday, April 1, 2019

Happy birthday Sergey!

Thirty six years ago yesterday, Sergey Lazarev arrived into the world. So, while the rest of us were deciphering real news from April Fool’s jokes, the Russian was making the most of his birthday festivities. After filming his postcard in Israel, Sergey has been taking some much need R&R in Greece. His hosts marked the special day with an extravagant four-tier cake.

Scream at MadWalk

But it wasn’t all play and no work for Sergey. Later in the evening he made his way to the annual MadWalk fashion show. Not only did he walk the red carpet, he also performed his Eurovision entry “Scream”. The official footage won’t be available until after the TV broadcast, so for now you’ll have to make do with the snippets in his Instagram story and elsewhere. We’re certain that the starry audience — we spied Ivi Adamou, Kalomira, Eleni Foureira, Sakis Rouvas and Demy — were thoroughly entertained.

Anna Odobescu checks-in

We haven’t heard much from Moldova’s Anna Odobescu since her music video dropped last month. But we’re happy to report that she hasn’t disappeared. Yesterday, she took the opportunity to post a video confirming her identity and  urging fans to vote for “Stay”.

Victor Crone gets social

Estonia’s Victor Crone is another Eurovision star who’s been conspicuously quiet since his national final victory. That’s about to change. Yesterday the “Storm” singer signed with Socialminds, the social media agency which is perhaps best known for its work on Melfest Live.

“Arcade” on the keyboard

Duncan Laurence’s radio tour of the Netherlands continues. His latest stop was Radio Veronica. There he delivered a delicate version of “Arcade”, with just a keyboard for accompaniment.

And “Sister” too

Carlotta Truman — one half of Germany’s S!sters — was also tinkling keys. She shared a brief snippet of what “Sister” sounds like when played on a grand piano.

Jurij sings Salvador

Judging from his Instagram stories, Jurijus Veklenko’s week is off to a busy start. The Lithuanian rep is in Tel Aviv filming his postcard. After a hectic day, he sought solace in his hotel room. Uploading a cover of Salvador Sobral’s Eurovision 2017 winning song, he wrote “What’s my all time Eurovision winner!? #salvadorsobral !! This song just stuck with me from the moment i heard it! It would be a dream come true to sing with him one day”.

What do you think of Mahmood’s international success? Are you excited for Roko’s music video? Let us know in the comments.

Follow all our Daily Digests for Eurovision 2019.

Total
30
Shares
71 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Francesco Italy
Francesco Italy
4 years ago

Hello Europe ! I think this year Romania will win Eurovision 2019 because their song On a Sunday is so unique and powerfull and if we choose right i hope next year Eurovision 2020 will be in Bucharest. Please Europe vote Romania 2020 and have fun with On a Sunday with Ester Peony the most sexxy girl in Eurovision !

12 Points from Europe to Romania 2020 ! Forzza Bucharest 2020 we loves Dracula country and Transilvania mythology ?

ESCFan2009
ESCFan2009
4 years ago

My 4th place respectively <3

Zuzu
Zuzu
4 years ago

The girls gymnastics team that performed with Sergey on stage is called “Wolves”, won the gold medal in Gym for Life in 2017. The girls are from my city!!! So proud!!! ? Here’s their performance and win: https://youtu.be/p3Q443QPZhs

Nikki
Nikki
4 years ago

Kinda love how Oto seems to have two looks- Cormoran Strike and CBBC host. He looks good on both. And yay, Mahmood is coming to London

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago

Carlotta on piano yaaas! Gotta see her finish the song now. 🙂

EuroMani
EuroMani
4 years ago

Guys is there any possibility for arcade to be sung only with piano at Eurovision?? Because he hasn’t performed the song with the studio backing track yet!!!! I think if this happens the Netherlands won’t win…. please don’t change thiss

Tom
Tom
4 years ago
Reply to  EuroMani

He is visiting a lot of radio stations and in Belgium and the Netherlands it is a habit to play acoustic live versions there.

Henry
Henry
4 years ago
Reply to  EuroMani

Don’t worry, he will perform the Studio version in Tel-Aviv and not the versions you heard in the Radio studio’s.

Crystal
Crystal
4 years ago

Hi guys, I gladly wasted my time to check astrology signs of contestants, so if you are into astrology, take a look: 😛
Aries- Sergey, Duncan, Srbuk, Jonida
Taurus- no one
Gemini- Nevena, Tamara, Oto
Cancer- Alexandra (Keiino), Darude, Jurij Veklenko
Leo- no one
Virgo- Mahmood, Bilal, Zena, Joci
Libra- Luca, Kobi, Leonora
Scorpio- Katerine, Tom (Keiino), Kate Miller-Heidke, Michael Rice, Serhat
Sagittarius- Anna Odobescu
Capricorn- Miki, Tamta, Conan, Eliot, Sebastian Rejman
Aquarius- Michela, Paenda, John Lundvik, Fred (Keiino), Victor Crone
Pisces- Chingiz, Sarah, Roko.
Couldn’t find data for H atari, Tulia, Lake Malawi, Ester Peoni, S!sters, Zala&Gasper, D-moll.

Nguyet Huynh
Nguyet Huynh
4 years ago
Reply to  Crystal

I am a scorpio like Katerine <3 Yasss

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago
Reply to  Nguyet Huynh

same

A passerby
A passerby
4 years ago
Reply to  Crystal

Zero taurus 🙁
anyway, my boyfriend was born the same exact year, month and day as Mahmood, at about 30 km of distance. I usually don’t rely too much in astrology, but I can see so many common traits in their personalities, it’s almost scary o.o

ESCFan2009
ESCFan2009
4 years ago
Reply to  Crystal

I thought Duncan and Chingiz were Aquarius as well 😀 😀 😀
(Sorry, I had to make that joke XD)

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago
Reply to  Crystal

No Leo’s this year? What, are we all sleeping or what? 😛
Okay there is actual thunder and lightning outside now. (For real; that’s not a metaphor. But it might be a sign.)

A passerby
A passerby
4 years ago

I’m coming out: Heroj is my esc19 guilty pleasure, it’s so bad that somehow it sounds good. Here, I said it. And honestly, Roko looks like a really cool guy. I can’t wait to see the music video (and I hope he keeps it in croatian!)

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  A passerby

You mustn’t be mean to people for liking different songs than you. It’s not appreciated.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
4 years ago

gold in switzerland is 7,500 copies for italian n french songs not 25,000

pastel de nata
pastel de nata
4 years ago

Looking good for Italy, Soldi would be one of the best winners ever!

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago
Reply to  pastel de nata

how, Soldi is one of the weakest songs of this year

poe-tay-toe-chips
poe-tay-toe-chips
4 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

Nicky you’re super-super wrong but I agree it’s not personally a winner. Italy’s sent better songs than Soldi in recent years.

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago

my opinion is flawed, i have no rights of my own opinion, no rights either of my own favourites

i am a loser and you guys are all great

dutchie
dutchie
4 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

Nicky, honest question: are you really 28 years old!? You behave like a petulant child on here.

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago
Reply to  dutchie

27, i become 28 in november

i have stress problems, also extreme opinion issues

i am not a devoted arcade fan, i swear

dutchie
dutchie
4 years ago
Reply to  pastel de nata

Soldi is the most ‘current’ song in the competition, whether that also means that it is timeless remains to be seen. The fact that it is gold in a partly Italian-speaking country doesn’t really say much about its winning chances though.

Max_
Max_
4 years ago
Reply to  dutchie

I cannot imagine that Mahmood is only successful for the Italian canton Ticino . Somebody here from Switzerland?

dutchie
dutchie
4 years ago
Reply to  Max_

I’m sure Francesco Gabbani was gold there as well. Every San Remo winner is huge in the Italian speaking world.

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago

Arcade is gonna win, Soldi is a joke compared to that mainstream generic masterpiece what is arcade, with worldclass duncan laurence

Baloonbleu
Baloonbleu
4 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

Soldi got a poignant lyrics and a modern-urban production. I agree that Arcade is a little masterpiece, but this kind of comparison is meaningless: I can say that “the lyrics of Arcade is nothing compared to Siegfried by Frank Ocean” – then? Does it mean that Arcade is garbage? Nah, still a masterpiece.

stommie
stommie
4 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

Do you even realise how hurtful your behaviour is are you really that thick.

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago
Reply to  stommie

i do realize it now, but i can no longer redeem myself anyway on here

poe-tay-toe-chips
poe-tay-toe-chips
4 years ago
Reply to  Nicky91

I don’t think you can really call him “world class” when people in his own home country haven’t even heard of him prior to the announcement, just saying

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago

yes lol, and actually i wanted someone well known this year for my country, Caro Emerald would’ve been a great artist for us this year

Pina Colada
Pina Colada
4 years ago

Sister no. 01 = Carlotta = the blonde one
Sister no. 02 = Laurita = the brunette one (and I guess she’s the older one)
It will be almost as hard to know who’s who, as it was to know about OG3NE.

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago
Reply to  Pina Colada

why bother to care about the Obvious predictable last place of this year LMAO

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago
Reply to  Pina Colada

Carlotta is the blonde one yeah, she has toured with alex christensen, a famous dj, with that haddaway what is love cover, she provided vocals for that 🙂

Pina Colada
Pina Colada
4 years ago

Wow, Sergey is really hot for his age…lol…as if he is 70 y/o. He is just 36, but probably you are a teenager and you think everybody above 25 is old.

poe-tay-toe-chips
poe-tay-toe-chips
4 years ago
Reply to  Pina Colada

you only gotta be 18 to do that in most places… 18 isn’t that old

Sergey looks about his age, maybe only slightly younger. He looks in his 30s. He’s not that old….

Yes, he obviously takes care of himself tho, which helps keep him conventionally attractive.

Anti bad eurofans
Anti bad eurofans
4 years ago
Reply to  Pina Colada

Vanilla Mean saying somebody is irrelevant Looooool the joke of the year!!!

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago

I did some research, to see how bias Wiwibloggs are. I’ve counted all the published articles for each country to see how much exposure each contestant gets. For it to be fair, i’ve only counted the articles published after the moment each contestant won their national selection or was announced as a participant. To be included, articles had to mention the contestant in some shape or form. Daily digest, polls, odds etc. were also included. Albania – 8 Armenia – 9 Australia – 6 Austria – 6 Azerbaijan – 8 Belarus – 5 Belgium – 8 Croatia – 10 Cyprus… Read more »

James
James
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

You can always go to another website that reports other news if you think Wiwibloggs is biased. It’s not like this is the only one of its kind.

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago
Reply to  James

It’s the biggest website out there. I obviously don’t expect every country to have exact same exposure, but they could at least try to be impartial. Because they obviously have some influence.

James
James
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

They can only do so much with the available information they can get from official sources, some of them being from fellow ESC news sites as well, and others being non-English media, are much harder to obtain and report without the assurance that translated reports, at least for involved artists, are accurate. And of course, not everyone who contribute here are full-time.

If one can volunteer to be a writer or contributor for Wiwibloggs, that certainly would be most welcome, especially if they have access to non-English sources.

Nguyet Huynh
Nguyet Huynh
4 years ago
Reply to  James

agree

Carola
Carola
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

I’d love to have your free time <3

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago
Reply to  Carola

Took me 30min. It’s not that time consuming.

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

I don’t think it was a waste of time at all. Multitasking is also a thing. It’s not like i’ve had anything better to do while i was listening to music.

Carola
Carola
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

So, you are telling us you went through more than three months of articles in 30 minutes. Such a talented individual. And by the looks of it you didn’t even do your counting right.

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago
Reply to  Carola

Yes i did. You sort the news by country and count. It’s not that difficult. I might have missed an article here and there, but for the most part it’s pretty accurate. I excluded all the articles that had nothing to do with 2019 contestants. like for example “Team Wiwi’s Top NF Songs of ESC 2019” etc.

Panos
Panos
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Most of the songs that are most talked about a it’s also because they were some of the firstly chosen songs like Italy Albania and Spain

Nna
Nna
4 years ago
Reply to  Panos

And your point is what? I can see from your list that they made effort to represent everyone, more or less, and it normal that biggest favourites get more attention.

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago
Reply to  Nna

Nothing, just an observation, how biased Wiwibloggs are. Also tell that to Czech Republic, Moldova or Latvia.

Nna
Nna
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

I see, but how can they report about someone if they don’t do anything, what to write? That’s why I think that daily digest form is great idea to cover everything in short form.

tatij
tatij
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Czech Republik is one of my favourites, so I should be sad that… wait, no. Im actually not. To get attention, you need to do something – and as JUST THIS ARTICLE states there wasnt much to talk about from Moldova, for example. Same with czechia. Some delegations invest more in media, some less. Czechia has always been one with less social media work.

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago
Reply to  tatij

For others they write about the meaning behind the lyrics, 10 facts about an artist etc… I’m sure they could think of something. Russia gets covered even when he takes a sh*t.

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

I disagree.

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Y’all pressed that it’s your faves that get preferential treatment, but if it was the other way around y’all would be the first ones complaining how Wiwi’s are unfair.

Andrei
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Obvious Russia was getting preference

Baloonbleu
Baloonbleu
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Hey wiwi: you should invent news out of the blue not to be bias, apparently

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago
Reply to  Baloonbleu

You mean like they do for Russia or Italy? For sure.

Baloonbleu
Baloonbleu
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Mahmood is a hologram and Sergey has been made up by Illuminati to conquer the World.

Nguyet Huynh
Nguyet Huynh
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

To me, it doesn’t matter much how much “preferential treatment” an entry get. I’m grateful that members of Wiwiloggs actually invest their time on collecting the news, translating them and posting articles so all of us may know what each country is doing (and some clearly don’t have much to report recently like Moldova). That saves me a lot of time scrolling through the instagram. This is not like a presidential election . Don’ take it too SERIOUSLY. The performance in Tel Aviv is what’s gonna decide how high an entry will finish. And when some countries receive a better… Read more »

Roxy
Roxy
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

Well, for some of the acts there are basically not enough sources to draw news from, but some other acts are all over the place. This fact aside, wiwibloggs declares on the banner they have an “attitude”, so you can always go for other sources to get different news.
As for “the preferential treatment”, I think it’s possible. I don’t know if you remember but they heavily covered Saara Aalto and everything about her last year but at the end it didn’t make a difference for her.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago
Reply to  xmynameis

You are free to write articles for Wiwibloggs yourself. They are always on the look out for good writers, and for people who have lots of free time. 🙂

Otto
Otto
4 years ago

Funny to see the difference between the (for the moment) 2 favourites Duncan and Sergey. While Duncan is focussing on his music, Sergey is racing around Europe like a madman focussing on marketing.

Pina Colada
Pina Colada
4 years ago
Reply to  Otto

Sergey is on N-Tour, he sings everywhere. The fact that Sergey is more open about his personal life, I guess it’s a cultural thing.

Nna
Nna
4 years ago
Reply to  Pina Colada

Lol, if you follow him before, you would know that Sergey is always proactive and energetic like that, I would say workaholic a bit, it’s not connected with marketing towards Eurovison, though it’s advantage in this case.

A random russian guy
A random russian guy
4 years ago
Reply to  Nna

In fact, Sergey is way more passive with tours and various activities than usually 🙂

dutchie
dutchie
4 years ago
Reply to  Pina Colada

Sergey is open about his personal life? Not that I care, but I do know that Duncan is bisexual, and has a boyfriend. About Sergey we can only guess…

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago
Reply to  Otto

the almighty Duncan, he’s above us, we cannot find a better winner than him in future eurovision contests tbh

Iejdhcr
Iejdhcr
4 years ago
Reply to  Otto

Xenophopia towards eartern european countries in unbelievable on this site. And the amount of nonsense , hate, and stupid comments that go along with it. Sergey is on tour right now, like every singer he promotes his music as much as he can. Every artist does that, especially to promote their tours or albums. What’s strange or negative about it? If you don’t like Sergey or his song that’s fine, but please don’t come up with moronic accusations like that

Otto
Otto
4 years ago
Reply to  Iejdhcr

wow…that’s one way to interpret my comment. Seems you are are the one accusing, not me. I was just making a comment about a different approach, I didn’t use the words strange or negative, nor did I accuse anyone.

But if you want to hear my personal taste (as that what this gossip site and its comments are for anyway). I don’t like Sergeys song, it’s overproduced and commercial in a way I don’t like. Duncan’s song feels genuine which I do like.
I didn’t know that preferring a song made someone a Xenophobe.