For the sixth year running, the team at wiwibloggs is organising our “Wednesday Wishlists”. As the title suggests, it’s our yearly round-up of the artists we think would do a fantastic job representing their nation in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Over the five Wednesday Wishlist editions we have done, our wishes were granted a total of eleven times, with a total of twelve entries sent to the grand Eurovision stage. Will any more be granted in 2020?
And as this is all fantasy, we’ll also be taking a look at absentee countries, both long and short term. Because in our ideal contest everyone comes to the party.
To make sure that no one gets left out, we’ll be going through countries in alphabetical order, so this week we’re starting with Moldova and working through to Russia.
Eurovision 2020 Wishlist (Part Four)
Moldova: Alternosfera
Barnabas: Lately, Moldova is always the country responsible for the fun entries at Eurovision. And acts like DoReDos or SunStroke Project didn’t disappoint on that front. But maybe it’s time to change things with Alternosfera, an alternative rock group that’s been around since 1998. Their atmospheric sound together with the synths is a unique blend that could earn many jury points for its originality. And Marcel Bostan’s voice guarantees that the televoters won’t be indifferent either.
Past wishes: Ionel Istrati, Nicoleta Nuca, Irina Rimes, Carla’s Dreams and Dan Balan
Monaco: Olivia Dorato
Pablo: Despite being a micronation, if you look deep down Monaco’s affluent streets, you can find locals that deserve to be celebrated at Eurovision. Enter Olivia Dorato, exuding 100% Monegasque groove and smooth retro rock. From balladry to catchy easy listening, she could serve some Francesca Michielin or Soluna Samay if so needed. We are pretty sure that if Monaco ever has a change of heart, her soft voice and laidback tunes would be more than welcome on the big stage, this time with a more endemic brand of music.
Past wishes: Vlad Scala, Josh Stanley, Beyoncé, Brod’ Earth and Shirley Bassey
Montenegro: Deni Bonestaj
Jonathan: Montenegro has tried rock, rap, Balkan ballads and more at Eurovision. But, surprisingly, one genre it has yet to send is the pop-folk that consistently appears in the Balkan charts. This is where Deni Bonestaj steps in. The Podgorica-born star initially broke through onto the Balkan music scene in 2007 with the mega-hit “Crno Mece”. His career continued to grow with songs such as “Morfijum” and “Volim te na kvadrat”, and he’s received numerous awards over the past 13 years. Capitalising on this success and experience, Deni could bring his pop-folk sound to Eurovision and once again give us the Balkan party we’ve been missing (and very much craving) in recent years.
Past wishes: Dado Polumenta, Anita Popovic, Jovana Mustur, Milena Vucic and Šako Polumenta
Morocco: Echbiy
Oliver: Morocco may have only once participated in Eurovision back in 1980, but its still an important member of the family, just like everyone else. Adil Echbiy — a runner up on X Factor Arabia 2015 as a part of boy-band The5. After the group’s separation in early 2019, Adil began working on his solo career, wasting no time in establishing his colourful artistic identity.
His most recent number “Sem3i” is a grand example of what he does best: infusing Morocco’s rich ethnic heritage with the modern sounds of today.
Past wishes: French Montana, Saad Lamjarred, Oum, Samia Tawil and Bouchra
Netherlands: Danny Vera
Esma: Danny Vera has a long career to date. He writes all of his music by himself, and his genre can be best described as Americana. For his latest album, Danny collaborated with the former guitarist of none other than The King — Elvis Presley. A few years ago, Danny Vera released the song “Loving Her Alone” with Eurovision 2016’s Douwe Bob. This was a great success, but not as big as his last single ‘’Rollercoaster’’ with which Danny received — to his own surprise — a gold record. Not only is Danny known for his unique musical style, but he was also named best-dressed man in the Netherlands in 2014. After all, we all love a handsome artist on the Eurovision stage, don’t we?
Past wishes: Lisa Lois, Dotan, OG3NE (wish granted), Jody Bernal and Maan
Norway: Honningbarna
Ari: Hard rock hallelujah! I might be biased, but Norway is probably my favourite metal country, and it’s been 14 years since its submitted anything metal. It’s about time. Norway’s fared rather well with the televoters in recent years, and oh my, Honningbarna would definitely continue that streak. Highly reminiscent of Hatari, this anti-Palestinian protest punk/metal group will definitely be more liked by the televoters than the juries. And they sure know how to pull off a live performance! With three electric guitarists and one cello player, they have a very unusual set of instruments, which is an… interesting gimmick. It might work. All they need is a good song, some unexpected Euro-bubble hype, and a Hatari-esque live performance. Let’s light up Rotterdam!
Past wishes: Astrid Smeplass, Alejandro Fuentes, Julie Bergan, Sigrid and Ylvis
Poland: Golec uOrkiestra
Tom: Folk is not dead! Tulia, of course, didn’t quite make the grand final but I think Poland were still on to something and should go again and folk it up, only this time, crank it up this time with Golec uOkierstra. Golec is a Polish folk-rock group, founded in 1998 in the southern Polish village of Milówka near Żywiec by twin brothers Paweł and Łukasz Golec, after whom it is named. In March 1999, the first album was recorded in studio in Bielsko-Biala. In the following years, Golec uOrkiestra recorded several more platinum albums, becoming one of the most popular folk-rock bands in the country. This year, they partnered up with 2018 Eurovision alum and composer of this year’s Junior Eurovision anthem Gromee, on “Górą Ty” (Up You) which has already gained over 22 million hits on YouTube. If folky pop is going to work for Poland, it just might with Golec.
Past wishes: Sylwia Grzeszczak, Sarsa, Brodka, Dawid Podsiadlo and Natalia Nykiel
Portugal: Dino D’Santiago
Felicia: A star in the making. Dino D’Santiago is the face and voice of the new Lisbon. A multicultural and diverse Lisbon that is reflected in his work. Dino navigates the wonders of electronic music and combines it with his Cape Verde roots influences. From funána to kizomba to afro-house the Portuguese star was also part of Eurovision 2018 interval act.
Past wishes: Kika, Amor Electro, Diogo Piçarra, Carolina Deslandes and David Carreira
Romania: Mario Fresh
Over the past two years, Romania has suffered some of its worst-ever results at Eurovision. TVR need to find a fresh new talent to bring it not only back to the grand final, but back to the top ten where it belongs. There would be no better, or fresher, man for the job than up-and-coming singer and popular vlogger Mario Fresh. His latest single “Saraca Inima Mea” (My Poor Heart), released just over a week ago, has already racked up almost 2,000,000 views on YouTube and hit the top three of the country’s Spotify trending list. His R&B style, with a touch of Latin flare, is one that would be new to Eurovision, but could certainly capture the attention of many young viewers across the continent. Sending a male solo artist to Eurovision is relatively uncharted territory for Romania, with its last one being 2013’s infamous vampire Cesar Ouatu. But with someone as talented, innovative and as easy on the eye as Mario, it would be the perfect route to take!
Past wishes: Antonia, Alina Eremia, Delia, Mihai Chitu and Moonlight Breakfast
Russia: LITTLE BIG
Mikhail: Many of you have already heard of this extraordinary band, LITTLE BIG. They and their ridiculously contagious songs have captured a lot of attention. They are pop punk rave band that makes fun of everything. They are widely popular in Russia. The whole country is dancing to “Skibidi” and laughing at their other hits. There are millions of views on their videos. They have already mentioned that they would like to perform at Eurovision, they even submitted a song for the 2019 edition. Choosing them would not be safe by any means, but there is no doubt that LITTLE BIG would make a performance for everyone to talk about.
Past wishes: Natasha Koroleva, Sergey Lazarev (wish granted twice), Egor Kreed, MakSim and Pelageya
What do you think of our choices? Who would you choose? Let us know in the comments.
CHECK OUT OUR PREVIOUS WEDNESDAY WISHLISTS.
I think that Poland has so many great artists and the chosen one is actually would not be the right choice. Wiwiblogs, should we prepare some ranking of polish artists for you? :p
Danny Vera (Netherlands) as a wished artist? He himself expressed that he will never go to Eurovision as he despises it. I would have expected the name of Floor Jansen here, she’s the (Dutch) lead vocalist of (the Finnish band) Nightwish .
Norway has way better… you guys really suck at finding good examples of good music.
Sigrid, AURORA, Astrid S, Dagny, Emilie Nicolas
Alan Walker, Kygo, Seeb, Royksopp, Angelina Jordan
These are miles better.
I want Eva Simons to represent Netherlands in Eurovision 2020
I like Dino Santiago; he is a great artist and supporter of young talent. But I don’t see his sound in Eurovision. Maybe Sara Tavares could make a return, which does music with a similar african sound, but could have more charisma on stage. Or even better Mayra Andrade.
I’d love to see Edyta Górniak or Justyna Steczkowska for Poland again. In any case, I hope they’ll stick to sending an entry in Polish!
Yeah, the worst thing they do is picking song in polish and then trying hard to make some english lyrics. It sounds just bad, always. Don’t change language after selection, that’s all I could ask for.
Diogo Piccara was in selection in 2018 and he wildraw and Carreira is french also so maybe he can try France
For Russia I would like to see Peter Nalitch return with a song like Sugar Lies or Guitar.
Danny Vera will not represent the Netherlands. When asked whether he wanted to on Dutch TV, he immediately – and rudely- told the presenter to f#ck off. He said he does not believe in ranking music in lists.
Screw that. If you don’t wanna do it, don’t do it, but don’t be a jerk about it.
Exactly!
Man, props to whoever actually found an artist from Monaco to talk about! I have had a helluva time trying to find artists actually from there and it’s damn near impossible. It’s easier to find singers born and raised in San Marino lol. Also: I know it’s a former Wish List suggestion, but seeing Diogo Picarra’s name here reminds me how sad it was that he had to pull out of FdC 2018. I was very pleased with “O Jardim,” of course, and I’d call it one of the best (and most underrated) songs that year, but he would’ve kept… Read more »
Why you do Poland so dirty?
Golec uOrkiestra is the best
Who has all these “dream” artists? Some of them are hilarious, for example: Romania. Mario Fresh is a no-name artist with no live singing skills, he would never dare to compete :))))))
I want LAUD for Ukraine
The Hardkiss
Jeej they are also very good…I want to see them on eurovision too
too much testosterone in this article
Just like a MelFest final
Yes yes Sweden , Sweden bla bla bla in every article here.
So gender is more important than whether someone likes someone’s music or not now? Pretty sexist if you ask me…
Your wish for the Netherlands is actually one I never would of thought of, but very original.
Netherlands-Kensington
Russia-A.Panayotov
Iceland-Helgi Bjornsson
Croatia-Manntra
Germany-Andreas Bourani
Sweden-Magnus Carlsson
+I forgot, Hungary-Leander Kills.
I’m very basic with this but i hope davina michelle will represent us in rotterdam since she has a broad appeal to people in the Netherlands. Either her or kensington
didn’t she say she isn’t interested? i’d love her to go with a song like better now
So my wishes: Poland: Margaret or any young pop star(which Poland has plenty of), they could do it since ESC is quite big in Poland, and with recent success in JESC they could get someone famous. Norway: Sigrid and only Sigrid hahha, but Norway has plenty of artists that are great. the Netherlands: Davina Michelle Romania&Moldova: I hate that these two countries have such strong music scenes, but neither of them are sending quality acts(due to unpopularity of the contest), Mark Stam and INNA come to my mind at first, but again such strong scenes in which a lot of… Read more »
Basically, my wish for Russia is that they just completely stop repeating themselves, artist-wise and song-wise. Maybe even songwriter-wise, most definitely when it comes to their regulars. Russia is so big, they MUST have more and MUCH better to offer.
Manizha would be great!
Public national finals would be great. Let people decide.
Most of the times Russia had a national final, it was a disaster competitor-wise, and with two exceptions, Eurovision results-wise
Of course it’s a disaster when you let 20-30 songs compete in one night at a national final. There needs to be a selection before the selection.
I loled hard at Golec uOrkiestra xd Let us qualify for once, ffs xd
legend natalia szroeder is waiting for her turn to WIN
Golec brothers would be perfect in the first half of 2000s – fresh, energetic, related to the culture of the country. What Moldova was doing with Zdob si Zdub or Nelly Ciobanu. As it is now they are way past their prime, only association with Gromee keeping them afloat.
I guess that they simply picked someone who worked with Gromee, but even then, even Edyta Górniak would be better.
Danny Vera would make sense, since it is an even year and that means country for the Netherlands.