3 April Eurovision 2019 news

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 Wednesday 3 April.

Hatari want fire and explosions

The men of Hatari triggered alarm bells with an April Fool’s Day prank claiming they’d been blocked from entering Israel. However, Iceland’s head of delegation Felix Bergsson promises that isn’t the case. Work is ongoing for the band’s Eurovision stage show — “everything will be bigger”. Currently they are costing various fire and explosive options. (Padraig)

Mahmood talks to The New York Times

On Monday, The New York Times print edition ran with the headline “Rap Tune Amplifies a Debate: What Does It Mean to Be Italian?”. The piece focused on the furore sparked by Mahmood’s Sanremo victory, including the now infamous tweet from Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The “Soldi” hitmaker reveals that the politician also sent him a text message: “Ciao, Matteo Salvini here, notwithstanding the musical tastes — I prefer the other guy — enjoy the success. Here’s my number”. Mahmood replied with “sure there wasn’t anything personal”. However, in hindsight, he acknowledges that “obviously there was something underneath it… [the tweet] provoked ignorant comments”. (Padraig)

George causes a rift between Cornald and Bilal

On Monday, France’s Bilal Hassani was “saddened” to announce his withdrawal from Saturday’s Eurovision in Concert. It soon emerged that the “Roi” singer was double booked. Instead of being in Amsterdam, he will now be in Lyon for the NRJ Music Tour. The line-up includes a host of French stars, as well as George Ezra. However, Dutch commentator and EiC host Cornald Maas wasn’t best pleased. “So, really @iambilalhassani”, he writes “this is more important to you than 4500 waiting fans attending @ESCinConcert ? Despite your commitment to come? #cancellation #boeh”. The Lyon concert will be broadcast across NRJ radio, which reaches more than five million listeners daily. (Padraig)

KEiiNO are Riga bound

Latvia’s take on the Eurovision preview party is typically small and cosy. So far, three acts have been announced for the Riga PreParty 2019, the latest being Norway’s KEiiNO. The “Spirit In The Sky” trio will join Lavia’s own Carousel and Supernova regular Edgars Kreilis. More details on the 12 April concert can be found here(Padraig)

Tom Hugo, Fred-René and Alexandra are coming to Riga! Band Keiino will represent Norway at this year’s Eurovision Song…

Posted by Eurovision PreParty Riga on Monday, April 1, 2019

The naked back challenge

On Sunday, Sergey Lazarev treated the world to a shot of his naked back taken from his hotel room bed in Athens. And, as happens on the internet, a bizarre craze was born — the naked back challenge. Popularised by comedians Evgeny Borodenko and Natalya Eprikyan, the craziness quickly took over Russian-language Instagram. Soon babies, cats and dogs were all posing with their backs to the camera. Sergey is all for it, commenting “Perfect challenge! Tell others” on Evgeny’s pic. (Padraig)

Sarah McTernan reveals backing singers

Her staging plans remain under wraps. But on Tuesday, Ireland’s Sarah McTernan revealed two of the people who will join her in Tel Aviv. Sharing some mid-rehearsal fun on her Instagram, she tagged two vocalists — Ciara O’Connor and Fiona Harte. (Padraig)

Nevena Bozovic films music video

Serbia’s Nevena Bozovic was in a Belgrade film studio earlier this week, recording the official music video for “Kruna”. Appropriately, the blonde songstress looks regal, sporting a bespoke crown and matching jewellery. (Padraig)

What’s in a name?

On April Fool’s day, Kobi Marimi called in on Galei Tzahal, Israel’s military radio station. But rather than discuss “Home”, the host joked about his last name — Marimi — which has a funny meaning in Hebrew (something like “pick it up”). Kobi was presented with some weird and funny situations to which he was asked to say whether her would “pick it up” or not. For example: (1) his fork is falling from the table during dinner with Eurovision delegations, (2) Dana International has another on-stage stumble or (3) his cell phone falls in the toilet. He promised to them all pick them all up. (Izhar)

Cocktails in Cyprus

Nicosia’s Hilton Park Hotel welcomed Cyprus’ finest on Tuesday for a glitzy cocktail party. The event acted as the official launch of Tamta’s Eurovision bid, and had originally been scheduled for March. The singer had to postpone due to health complications. However, in a chatshow appearance last week she confirmed that she was recovering from back issues. She can’t wear heels but her Eurovision performance will be adapted. (Padraig)

Lake Malawi on the catwalk

Sergey Lazarev isn’t the only Eurovision 2019 star who’s catwalk ready. It might not be quite up there with the Russian’s MadWalk gig, but yesterday Lake Malawi got to perform at Elite Prague’s open casting show. (Padraig)

Roko to join a Eurovision winner

As we reported, Roko started his week filming a music video. And it seems the good news just keeps on coming for the Croatian. Yesterday, he revealed that he will perform with Eurovision 2007 winner Marija Serifovic at her Zagreb concert this Saturday. (Padraig)

Cast mi je i zadovoljstvo najaviti gostovanje na koncertu jedne od najvecih umjetnica na ovim prostorima, jedne od mojih…

Posted by Roko Blaževi? on Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Additional contributions from Izhar.
What do you think of Hatari’s staging ideas? Which gig would you rather be at — Bilal and George Ezra, Roko and Marija Serifovic or Eurovision in Concert? Let us know in the comments. 

Follow all our Daily Digests for Eurovision 2019.

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Love love peace piece
Love love peace piece
4 years ago

Conan Osiris took part in a solidarity concert last night to help Mozambique fight a massive flood. Salvador Sobral was also in it.

Kirby
Kirby
4 years ago

Those are my men, yeeeeaaaah!!!

Alex
Alex
4 years ago

wow Sergey a father showing his ass to get the gay support. How cheap of him. What is mother Russia thinking?

Iceland will be a big surprise, massive staging explosiveee

David
David
4 years ago

There was already a dutch guy showing his ass…now, a russian. Who´s next? Anything counts.

Tom Ripley
Tom Ripley
4 years ago

Mahmood shows why he is clear winner… Sergey turn on the cool (hot) challenge… Roko will gives power performance again!
Btw, love daily digest column!!

Bossy
Bossy
4 years ago

I can’t wait for Mahmood in London… we will finally have some English interviews of him ??

BlackKava
BlackKava
4 years ago
Reply to  Bossy

This! I want interview with Mahmood in English so bad:))) lol

Bossy
Bossy
4 years ago
Reply to  BlackKava

Lol right there are a lot of interviews of him in italian that i wish i could understand… i’m just really interested in his personality and background <3

P!nk Forever
P!nk Forever
4 years ago

Can‘t the naked back challenge apply across Eurovision contestants? I wanna see more of Duncan‘s, Miki‘s or Mahmood‘s backsides. Thanks!

Swedena9
Swedena9
4 years ago
Reply to  P!nk Forever

If a man wrote this about a woman, people would be tearing him apart.. it’s just as creepy when you write it 🙂

Skiwalko
Skiwalko
4 years ago
Reply to  P!nk Forever

Well, we’ve already seen Duncan’s.

Roy Moreno
Roy Moreno
4 years ago
Reply to  P!nk Forever

We’ve also seen Mahmood’s in his music video, when he’s getting that tattoo

Bossy
Bossy
4 years ago

Sergey doing the most ugh.. like sit yo 36 y/o ass down sis ? Sarah looks like Khloe Kardashian in that pic lol… btw Srbuk celebrating her 25 birthday today ?

Lol
Lol
4 years ago
Reply to  Bossy

I’d like to see your naked back on Instagram when you turn 36.

Bossy
Bossy
4 years ago
Reply to  Lol

You can’t see my naked back at 22 rn

dutchie
dutchie
4 years ago
Reply to  Bossy

Yeah, 36 years is so incredibly old. Eeew, he should keep his body covered at all times.

Max
Max
4 years ago
Reply to  Bossy

Some men get hotter with age

Maya
Maya
4 years ago

Kobi did not say that he will pick up his phone from the toilet. He said that it depends on what there is in the toilet …

A passerby
A passerby
4 years ago

Wow! That New York Times article is pretty well written and touches so many different topics… Glad they even talked about Ghali, a singer I really wouldn’t mind representing Italy at Eurovision one day!
(And Al Bano should just retire… I never ever liked him, but he’s making a fool of himself now)

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  A passerby

I thought his Eurovision entry from 85 was tight, but his comments and his spinelessness are very annoying.

A passerby
A passerby
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

I strongly dislike the music he makes, even my grandma hates his songs lol, but that not the only point. He and his dysfunctional family spend their time on trash tv programs 24/7, we’re FULL of him and his bullsh*t, but then he goes around criticizing music made by people 60 years younger than him… Stahp.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  A passerby

So he’s like the Italian Ozzy Osbourne in that way?

xmynameis
xmynameis
4 years ago

Jurij from Lithuania is shooting his postcard, jumping from a plane and sh*t, but it’s not as important as totes Eurovision related Sergey’s back/ass challenge on Instagram, apparently. Choices.

Atari 2600
Atari 2600
4 years ago

I’m increasingly worried that Hatari will do something that could get them disqualified. Israel are already in talks of banning them and God knows what will happen next!

Frisian esc
4 years ago
Reply to  Atari 2600

Don’t think so, if they are going to do something, then I think they are smart enough to do it like somewhere at the end of their grand final performence where it’s too late to stop them and most people would be seeing it. My guess is that they’ll wave a palestinian flag at the end of their performance.

Miyaya
Miyaya
4 years ago
Reply to  Frisian esc

They wouldn’t be able to get a Palestinian flag through security

Miyaya
Miyaya
4 years ago
Reply to  Atari 2600

if they did get disqualified, the one who has to pay for it is RUV, not them. Matthías works for RUV and I’m sure he’d like to keep his job so I doubt they will do anything too extreme.

Frisian esc
4 years ago
Reply to  Miyaya

That boycott petition makes me doubt their intentions a lot actually…

Miyaya
Miyaya
4 years ago
Reply to  Miyaya

I think they are seriously political but what they do on stage is pretty tightly managed. If they pull anything, the cameras would just immediately cut away. I think if they were going to say anything on live TV, it would be during their winning speech. They said they have their speech planned out already but we all know they aren’t going to win so it’s pointless…

And there’s 0% chance that the Israeli broadcaster will let them be one of the acts interviewed in the greenroom. They’d be too afraid of what they might say.

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

In the event that they win while wanting to call attention to their cause, I think a smart speech for them to give would be short and sweet and something along the lines of “Hatari are not allowed to give the speech that we want. So instead, we would like to thank our families for supporting us.” 1. The cameras would not be able to shut off or cut away from them. They can’t be pulled off the stage or have their win revoked for this, because they never actually said anything or specified anything. 2. People are going to… Read more »

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

In the event that they win while wanting to call attention to their cause, I think a smart speech for them to give would be short and sweet and something along the lines of “We are not allowed to give the speech that we want. So instead, we would like to thank our families for supporting us.” 1. The cameras would not be able to shut off or cut away from them. They can’t be pulled off the stage or have their win revoked for this, because they never actually said anything or specified anything. 2. People are going to… Read more »

Robert
Robert
4 years ago

Bilal read the manual on how to let Eurovision fans down! A shame

ESCFan2009
ESCFan2009
4 years ago
Reply to  Robert

Y’all clearly don’t know how big that NRJ Music Tour is! Bilal will make his way 😀

Kuro Win
Kuro Win
4 years ago
Reply to  Robert

He’s not even the only one NOT going there but clearly that ESC hoster guy is just responding to him to start some kind of contoversy which apparently is working on you. Why nobody’s talking about the fact that Sweden or Russia were not there ? There were only 28 acts out of 41 there wake up guys

Jingo
Jingo
4 years ago

It’s hard to predict wether Germany or Israel will be in the bottom , tough choice!

WannaEatMySpaghetti
WannaEatMySpaghetti
4 years ago
Reply to  Jingo

Not so hard, Germany. Kobi has a great voice at least and will receive some points from jurys.

Baloonbleu
Baloonbleu
4 years ago

Hey wiwi, remember: you have to hide news about Mahmood, Duncan and Sergey not to be told to be biased 😛 We have a lot of fine statistician here 😛

Nicolas
Nicolas
4 years ago
Reply to  Baloonbleu

I was missing the Mahmood’s daily digest

Nikki
Nikki
4 years ago
Reply to  Nicolas

Well, as a known Italy stan, I don’t mind that much XP

Meow
Meow
4 years ago
Reply to  Baloonbleu

What is that on ur avatar who is he? 🙂

Ioa Ioa
Ioa Ioa
4 years ago

Sergey is the only one who can win apart from Duncan. He was robbed in 2016, now it’s payback time.

Aris
Aris
4 years ago

Tamta will slay on May

Loin dici
4 years ago

Seems Nevena’s Beovizija dress will be her trademark. What should we call it? I would say the “Kruna Realness” dress.

Nna
Nna
4 years ago
Reply to  Loin dici

I like her style, she reminds me of Daenerys.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
4 years ago
Reply to  Loin dici

I really hope not.
Don’t think there are many bigger fans of Nevena myself this year….but the dress I could do without.

Edit: Just realised I wrote I could do without Nevena’s dress…sometimes our mistakes say so much….