Every weekday, between now and the contest in May, the team from wiwibloggs will round up the latest titbits from the world of Eurovision 2021. We trawl through Instagram, Twitter and elsewhere so that y’all don’t have to. In today’s Daily Digest Destiny unveils her backing dancers, Hooverphonic get their own beer and Jendrik shares a fashion moment with Marge Simpson. But first…
Eurovision news: 15 April
VICTORIA’s features in Spain’s Rocío documentary
Gjon’s Tears was first. Then it was Barbara Pravi. And VICTORIA is next. “Growing Up Is Getting Old” has already been featured in promotional video for the popular Spanish documentary series Rocío, contar la verdad para seguir viva. This is exciting news for fans. If the story unfolds as previously, VICTORIA might be singing in Spain soon. The documentary makers fascination with using Eurovision tracks on their soundtrack has left many fascinated. Even VICTORIA herself requested more information on the show. (Jordi)
?? @victoriageorge_ de Bulgaria ha hecho acto de presencia en el documental de Rocío Carrasco. "Growing up is getting old" ha sonado hoy en #RocioVerdad5 pic.twitter.com/pWYKCJDon6
— ESCplus España ?? | Noticias de Eurovisión (@escplus_es) April 14, 2021
Destiny’s backing dancers revealed
It was previously announced that Destiny would be working with acclaimed Swedish stage director Sacha Jean-Baptiste for Eurovision 2021. And now, the four backing dancers that will accompany the Maltese star on stage have been revealed – Pauline Eddeborn, Milena Jacuniak, Kim Pastor and Jennifer Pacaanas. All four women are based in Stockholm, and between them, they have worked with artists such as Dotter, Danny Saucedo, Zara Larsson and Camilla Cabello. They have also all previously appeared at Melodifestivalen – Jennifer was a backing dancer for Vlad Resier in 2019; Kim performed alongside Klara Hammarström in 2020; meanwhile, Milena and Pauline were involved with Margaret’s performance of “Tempo” in 2019. (Jonathan)
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Tusse talks with Reuters
He fled the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo and lived in a refugee camp in Uganda for three years, before becoming a major star in Sweden at age 19. Now Tusse has shared his story with Reuters, one of the world’s biggest news agencies. He explains how Loreen’s Eurovision victory inspired him to experiment and “think outside the box”. He also became a fan of the contest in 2012 and nine years later, he’s preparing to fly his adoptive country’s flag in Rotterdam. (Luis)
Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and separated from his parents at the age of five, 19-year-old Tusse will represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest in the Netherlands in May https://t.co/GQ9lNBz4qU pic.twitter.com/l6yxRJbEhG
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 13, 2021
New wheels for Ana Sokić
She “greets the future with Amen”. And with a new car, apparently. Slovenia’s Ana Soklić has a new blue Volkswagen Tiguan with her name on it. Serving a white and brown look, Ana posed in front of the vehicle, promising to share “new adventures” with it. She named it Tigi… can anybody ask Vincent Bueno if his car has a name? (Luis)
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Portugal’s The Black Mamba will go live on Instagram
You have a date tonight with Portugal’s The Black Mamba. The Portuguese band is going live on the Eurovision Instagram from 21:30 CET to let fans know more about them and talk about Eurovision. However, that won’t be all. The Black Mamba has an exclusive performance for those who tune in. Make sure to drop by! (Jordi).
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Natalia Gordienko takes Romanian television by storm
Moldova’s Natalia Gordienko is currently on Romanian soil doing promo work for her Eurovision entry “Sugar”. As well as meeting with Romania’s Roxen, she also visited a large number of Romanian media. Among others, she visited Antenna TV’s XTRA Night Show. (Renske)
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Manizha models for Adidas Russia
Russia’s Manizha likes to be comfortable and therefore, she likes to wear tracksuits. In a new Instagram post, the 29-year-old shares the new collection from Adidas Russia. She writes: “Don’t be ashamed to be green. We have to be green.” (Renske)
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Did The Simpsons predict Jendrik’s stage outfit?
The Simpsons have been credited with “predicting” all sorts of things, most notably the presidency of Donald Trump. But could the long-running cartoon show have predicted, or at least inspired, Jendrik’s outfit for his Eurovision live-on-tape performance? Twitter user @NitroGnome shared a still from the classic The Simpsons episode “Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield”. It shows Marge wearing a pink Chanel top with black trimmings, which looks remarkably similar to the top which Jendrik sports. In response to the comparison, the German singer wrote: “if this doesnt scream high fashion I dont know what does”.
if this doesnt scream high fashion I dont know what does https://t.co/AwtZRFauLL
— Jendrik (@Jendrikkkk) April 15, 2021
Montaigne does comedy
We might know her as a singer, but Australia’s Montaigne will be showing audiences her comedic side at the Sydney Comedy Festival. She’ll form part of the ensemble cast for the show Dragon Friends & Friends. The promotional blurb reads: “It works like this. A bunch of comedians are stuck in a village. Two of them are secretly werewolves and are hunting at night. The village needs to find the werewolves before it’s too late. They are spectacularly bad at this. A huge guest roster of some of the funniest but least strategic comedy minds in Sydney come together for one night only to play the classic parlour game Werewolf”.
i’m doing dragon friends again ???????????? https://t.co/m02dcnYg7P
— Montaigne (@actualmontaigne) April 15, 2021
Rafał will perform “The Ride” live on Saturday…sings with Senhit
He released “The Ride” last month. But we have yet to see Rafał perform the track live. That’s set to change, as he’s booked to perform the track on the final of The Voice Kids Poland this Saturday. Meanwhile, he’s also recorded a set with San Marino’s Senhit for the show Jaka to Melodia. The programme is set to air performances of “The Ride”, “Waterloo” and “Adrenalina” in May.
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A beer for Hooverphonic
The Boelens brewery from the Belgian city of Sint-Niklaas has created a special Hooverphonic beer in celebration of their Eurovision participation. According to the official website, “The tasty sparkling Hooverphonic beer has a full malt flavour and is spicy seasoned with citrus hops”. The beverage’s full title is “9100 for Hooverphonic Eurovision 2021”, with 9100 referring to the city’s postal code. Sint-Niklaas is the home city of both Alex and Raymond.
Additional contributions from Renske, Jordi, Luis and Jonathan
Would you taste Hooverphonic beer? Are you looking forward to Rafal and Senhit’s performances? Let us know in the comments.
hoobeerphonic
Don’t bother my dear…they can’t appreciate your unique sense of everything…
I’ll admit it quite annoys me that pretty much the entire team behind the Maltese entry is Swedish, cause how would you represent your culture? Or at least showcase your country’s artists and give them a stage?
But Destiny is Maltese and ever since 2015 she really was destined (pun not intended) to go to the adults’ contest
She’s fantastic and I hope she does well, if not win the contest 🙂
Sacha JB is always reusing her dancers from melodi to Eurovision lol.
WOW For that Spanish show still using ESC songs, that’s a big promo for the contest itself, perhaps it’s time to have private broadcaster take over the Eurovision rights? They’re doing a much better job promoting Eurovision!
I hope Victoria’s song sees an increase in streams and iTunes sales from this promo!
And here I was thinking Spain was a guaranteed twelve points for Portugal in SF2. Guess we’ll have to settle for eight.
(But Spain’s televote usually votes for Bulgaria anyway so this’ll just expedite the process)
So how is it possible to have Senhit and Natalia travel between different countries in the midst of a pandemic? I am sure those promo activities can be cancelled or done via Zoom. Seriously…
They are just 2 persons, so there´s no risk. And Teams is better than Zoom.
Honestly, I don’t agree. If everyone would like ” it’s just me “, it would fuel the Covid-19 pandemic again.
I feel sorry for those countries that are not promoting their song in every country, because they are just following the rules right now…
you’ve likely made a lot of enemies on this site because of how toxic you are towards the likes of efendi.
What is your opinion about Finland 2021?
Toxic toxic toxic…golum golum golum
wow do you ever take a break
Every year same discussion!
No, OGAE isnt a prediction because you cant predict. What OGAE can be used for is an indication of which songs might do well, who the potential favourites are, where the buzz is. But again, might is the world here. Its just a bit of fun to keep things going until the actual result.
you really think so? stefania natalia elena efendi hurricane albina.
What about Stefania and Elena??
Hahaha…you’ve your great moments…
Malta could just compete under the swedish flag at this point as Sweden#2 or something.
what to do have against destiny. no matter what you think of the song her voice is amazing and she’s an icon. I see you hate on her under every post it’s repetitive
shes kinda like a eurovision icon, she won jr esc and everything. idk about you but many in the eurovision community have known about her for a long time
Please look up “icon” in the dictionnary!
and now she has to withdraw?? smh whether your joking or not
Of course you just had to mention it. I think Tusse means with himself and in life.
do you really have to defend sweden all the time just because it’s your country? accept that the general Eurovision viewer just doesn’t like it that much. Eric Saade would’ve done so good.
You see Eric as a Swede but Tusse not Eric has palestinian roots
The contest hasn’t been yet so how do you what the general viewer thinks? And if it is disliked then how come it’s doing well in OGAE voting? And how come it’s doing so well on YouTube and the comments there? Accept that ESC is much bigger than Wiiwbloggs and it’s comment section. It’s no way representative of general audience nor representative of the fandom even. So maybe accept that yes people find Sweden good..
you do realize that every song under the Eurovision youtube channel has mostly positive comments. If you go in the comment section of Portugal it will have mostly positive comments because people who dislike the song wouldn’t click on it. ogae doesn’t really indicate anything and there are many examples of song who did well there but didn’t even qualify. wiwibloggs even though it doesn’t represent everyone it is a very good indicator of which songs will do good because of the diverse community here.
LOL do you work for Wiwibloggs or something seeing how you praise them like nothing? Its not a indicator of anything, its a fan site who has its own narrow ideas of what counts as a good song and if their favourites doesnt win its not a good song at all. Basically they only want divas, gay anthems and europop songs to win.Thats not an indication. If you whant to know what general audience thinks then watch the actual show because the casual general audience is the majority there. This same site praised Saara Aalto in 2018 as amazing and… Read more »
you could easily just look at the international reception of every minute and you’d instantly see how much everyone loved it. also even the swedish experts said that if sweden only cared about doing good at Eurovision then they’d have sent Eric Saade. it truly could have won the whole thing.
Songwriters: from Sweden. Producers: from Sweden. Stage designer: from Sweden. Dancers: from Sweden. Country represented: … Malta.
Maltese broadcaster – how about showing respect towards your own people by engaging them in their Eurovision act instead of buying your way to success? Apart from Destiny, the representation of Malta this year is a true farce.
they just wanna win and it honestly feels more of a win for sweden but it is what it is, none of this would even matter if the song was bad and it’s not so personally for me it’s not that big of a deal! 🙂
Morals and ethics should be valued more than striving for success, also at Eurovision.
For example – If I cheated at an exam, I might get a better grade than if I wouldn’t. However, I shouldn’t do it because it doesn’t have a sustainable effect.
your really only complaining because its at the top of the odds. Many bigger countries do this every year not just malta which only has a population of 400k. ya it would be nice to see more maltese representation but its done
and also the odds dont even matter till rehearsals
Last Azeri songwriter: in 2019, Chingiz co-wrote Truth.
In 2017, Isa Melikov co-wrote Skeletons
Last Maltese songwriter: in 2018, Christabelle and Muxu co-wrote Taboo.
In 2017, Breathlessly was written by Maltese songwriters.
Last Cypriot songwriter: in 2016, Minus One co-wrote Alter Ego. In 2015, Giannis Karagiannis co-wrote One Thing I Should Have Done.
My bigger worry is that smaller countries who do not want to go this route will simply opt out (see Slovakia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Hungary (and possibly, as the excellent wiwi commenter Dawid posits, Poland 2022). I mean, there are certainly other reasons at play, but ultimately I think decision comes down to countries feeling that Eurovision is not a competition that they have a fair chance in and that their identity is appreciated in, and ultimately deciding that the resources required to participate are no longer justified. (Happily, Czech Rep came back, reborn with a new strategy.) If the… Read more »
I will counter this, though, by reminding that the past 3 winners were special songs produced by countries’ own musicians. Additionally, Italy – who definitely do their own thing and do not care that you don’t speak Italian – consistently does well with both juries and public. So I do think that fears about Eurovision ultimately becoming Melfest Part II are probably overblown. I definitely believe that the majority of Europeans value diversity in music and style (and thank goodness!).
I agree but this year two if the top songs Switzerland and Malta are not genuine. The same goes for Bulgaria. They are music industry products. And yes a song in French can also be a product. In the top the genuine ones are the French, Lithuanian, Icelandic, Italian and Swedish songs and artists. The Swedish one might surprise some of since you never like Sweden. But is genuine since it represent Swedish culture and music in every way. So I hope one of these will win!
Thats how the industry works. Unless you write yourself songs are products ready to be sold to whoever finds the most interest in it and who can make it work. And Destiny really makes it her own song so there is no complaint there..
They at least have a Maltese performer. I can’t say the same with Cyprus where the only Cypriot that viewers at home will hear will be that of their commentator.
Whoa, that’s a lotta likes (43rd like 😉 )
Natalia seems so happy not having a lurking figure behind her
LOL HE IS CRAZY
has natalia finally escaped kirkorov?!?
Yes , exactly my reaction after reading all of them , lol
No…not a chance!
Why ??? Let the lady live