Things are starting to pick up pace. After two consecutive Saturdays focused on selections in Norway and Lithuania, Moldova and Spain enter the fray. And, before the day is out, we’ll know what entries the latter two countries are sending to Turin next May.
Here are all the details you need for 2022’s fourth Saturday of national selections.
You can follow all the results on wiwibloggs (and via our Twitter: @wiwibloggs and Instagram: wiwibloggs) throughout the day. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s happening, when it’s on and how to watch.
Saturday 29 January: Eurovision 2022 Selection Shows
Moldova’s Selecţia Naţională 2022
Live Auditions
Time: 13:00 CET to 16:00 CET
After a year off, Moldova’s infamous live auditions are back for Eurovision 2022. And, unlike previous occasions when the auditions were used to select the national finalists, this time the tryouts will determine who goes on to represent Moldova in Turin. There will not be a standalone national final. A total of 29 entries will be performed over the course of the three hour period. Zdob și Zdub are easily the biggest names on the longlist. They represented the country in both 2005 and 2011, finishing sixth and 12th respectively. The winner is set to be unveiled during the evening news.
Click to Watch Moldova’s Live Auditions for Eurovision 2022
Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix 2022
Semi-Final Three
Time: 19:50 CET to 21:05 CET
This evening’s third semi will start with performances from four artists across two duels. They are Mari Bølla, Oda Gondrosen, Sturla and Vilde. The first two duel winners will face off against each other, resulting in one finalist. NorthKid — one of the automatic qualifiers — will also showcase their entry tonight.
Click to Watch Melodi Grand Prix 2022 Semi-Final Three
Lithuania’s Pabandom is naujo! 2022
Semi-final one
Time: 20:00 CET to 21:40 CET
The heats are over, but the heat is getting higher in Lithuania. That’s because we’ve reached the semi-final stage of Pabandom iš naujo! 2022. Nine acts will perform in this first semi, including Erica Jennings, Gebrasy and Lolita Zero. Four will qualify for the final.
Click to Watch Pabandom is naujo! 2022 semi-final one
You can also watch on the official LRT Lituanica livesteam.
Spain’s Benidorm Fest 2022
Grand Final — 29 January 2022
Time: 22:15 CET to 23:45 CET
We started the week with thirteen acts. And now, after two spectacular semi-finals, we’re down to just eight performers for the grand final of Spain’s Benidorm Fest 2022. The newly revived festival has completely eclipsed the country’s most recent national selection efforts. By the end of what’s sure to be a magnificent night of both music and drama, we’ll have one more track to add to our Eurovision 2022 playlists. All eyes will be on semi-final winners Chanel and Rigoberta Bandini, but it really is anyone’s game. A host of musical guests will also perform, including Pastora Soler and Blas Cantó.
Click to Watch Benidorm Fest 2022 Grand Final livestream
Which show will you watch? Let us know below.
What is taking Spain so long with their final? When are they going to choose?
I didn’t have time to watch Benidorm Fest after MVP finished and now I checked to find the results and I can’t see anything. In what phase is the contest?
Juste Kraujelyte
Lolita Zero
Gebrasy
Queens of Roses
Are through
happy for lolita!!
Juste, Lolita Zero, Gebrasy and Queens of Roses qualified in Lithuania. In this order.
She is brilliant.
Right now, in Spain’s youtube, the most trending songs are ay mamá, terra, slomo, a collaboration between tanxugueiras and rayden (all of them in top 4), raffaela at number 9, secreto de agua 10th (with azucar moreno and unique also making the top 30). This can be indicative of public vote, as ay mamá and terra are almost in a draw
I hope Gintare qualifies in PIN, because nobody else is doing a bigger effort to sell their entry. She’s so fun to watch!
By the way Gebrasy helped to create “Fantasy eyes” song.
I love him to bits, but vocally unfortunately nots strong enough.. again..
Totally. I saw many singers to be not perfect in national selections, but improve during eurovision. His song, emotion is amazing though.
NorthKid have a pretty pleasant song. The staging seemed a bit disorganised though. Perhaps the fact that they had to perform a week earlier than planned was the reason though. It certainly has potential. It makes me compare them with last year’s Stavangerkameratene. Though Who I am is better imo (and the norwegian version even better), Someone is pretty good as well.
Someone is low-key aww. I wouldn’t pick it ahead of Elsie or Subwoolfer, but if it came-up as someone’s internal pick, I’d be happy with it.
The song is nice (nothing much more than that, but nice). The staging was awful.
Well, we’ve already seen 15 from the 21 MGP entries. I’m still backing “Death of Us”.
I am backing Death of Us as well (in my top 3 of all songs released so far), even if there are about 10 choices that would still place Norway fairly high on my ranking. I feel like the packages mostly work for what they are going.
The weird thing about MGP’s lineup is that there are a lot of things I would gladly listen to from time to time, but very few of them seem to be build for a stage performance.
Interesting. For me, I feel like MGP’s staging is usually quite good.
Sofie or Maria next week, please. I hope at least one of them become the dark horse this MGP is desperately needing.
I don’t think MGP *needs* a dark horse, as I like every finalist thus far. However, I do believe that Sofie, and especially Maria would be right there on top for me. Fly is amazing!
I don’t like when national finals get between just 2 acts because it starts looking like a political election and suddenly all the other acts are forgotten. That’s why I’m hoping for a third force to join the party. For example, last year it was KEiiNO x TIX, but we had also IMERIKA, Raylee, Jorn…
Oh, boy. They got the ugliest curtains in the world for Northkid’s performance and they tried to sabotage the whole thing.
And there was also a mess when they were removing them xD. I hope they improve all that
The worst thing is that the curtains are there for just 10 seconds of non-impressive projections and to hide the rest of the band we knew right away would come from behind them.
Yes. The whole performance is a bit messy. Hope they improve because the song is good and can do good!
Well, it was probably messy because they were pushed up a week to perform since Subwoolfer had to be pushed back due to their covid diagnosis, so NorthKid probably didn’t have enough time to fine tune things.
I think Oda has this in the bag. Both songs are pleasant but I don’t think MGP’s winner is in this heat.
So, it’s DC vs Marvel for today’s Guld duel. This time I’m team Marvel. 😉
Took a peek in Lithuania and Erica Jennings got rid of the distractive dancers, but the performance was weird, like there wasn’t a plan B for it. Even her vocals weren’t as good as in the 1st semi.
Could that actually put her at risk for being eliminated?
Sorry, I haven’t seen it before and you already have the answer by now. But yeah, it wasn’t good at all. Even the televote abandoned her.
I liked both Skar i hjerte and Titans approximately the same. He had a stronger vocal performance, and it would be nice to have a song in Norwegian in the gold duel. Titans’ hook is a bit more immediate, though. Once you get into them, both are nice.
I agree that he should win. But I don’t trust he will 🙁
“Miami Vice tribute suit” 😀
I agree with almost everything, but I would be shocked if Oda doesn’t get the ticket to the final.
Edit: oh, I would pick Oda, by the way.
I think they made the right choices so far, but… the level is so so. So a more appealing staging (Oda) or vocals (all the semi winners so far, and I’m already counting Oda as one) are being enough to do the trick. Low-key songs like Sturla will struggle without a jury.
Agree completely! But I think that we are on the minority regarding this xD
Yup we are in the minority indeed 🙁
Sturla was actually pretty solid. Charming and pleasant song. It doesn’t stand a great chance to qualify but it’s good.
“The Hammer of Thor” had the best staging in MGP so far. And Oda also did a great job performing it.
Voted for Oda. Sorry Mari, you and your song are both likable, but Oda is as epic as that hammer!
Everything you said applies to me. Watching first MGP, then Benidorm Fest. Lithuania has one job – Gebrasy in the finals. Yep, all of this! 🙂
Lithuania’s semis are so unbalanced. 🙁 And the best semi is on the day it will be impossible to watch it.
My only problem with Oda’s song is the AAAA part. I can’t stand that part. The staging and some ideas behind the production of this track are good but the abovementioned part ruins it for me a bit.
And now there are four. Personal ranking so far:
1. Albania
2. Czech Republic
3. Moldova
4. Bulgaria
We all have different tastes.
Will Benidorm Fest be available also on YouTube?
You can watch it here live
https://youtube.com/c/ESCEuropeLive
Comments of Lithuanian Jurors will be available on this page: pabandomisnaujo. lt/lithuania-semi-final-1/
it is painful because Kirkorov was doing anything he wanted in 2018 and 2020/2021. Countries like Moldova can be manipulated easily by wealthy corrypted people like Kirkorov. He was taking photos with the president back in 2020 days before the national final when Kirkorov’s act won.
Also, do they ask the participants to cover all their expenses if they travel to the Eurovision host city?>
so clear that everyone is watching Benidorm tonight, one of the best national Eurovision shows this year but i guess the Norwegian heat show is earlier so fans will also watch it.
“Everyone”
All awful so I won’t be tuning in, but good news is that Azerbaijan reveals something soon! Source by turkish fan on instagram. I bet it’s better than anything we have heard yet.
If Zdob ?i Zdub & Fra?ii Advahov represent Moldova—we are really entering Valentina Monetta territory for a country that has 76x the population of San Marino.
they will be selected because Moldovan jury will select based on money and not wuality
guys what should i watch today irdk
PiN?
MGP?
or Benidorm?
You can watch Benidorm either way. It starts after Norway/Lithuania. And as Tilde and Oda sing today, better watch Norway 🙂
I had not thought of that ty! Well I can enjoy mgp and Benidorm and maybe a bit. Of PiN
im the same person replying
You can watch MGP and still have time for the PiN voting and All of Benidorm
So by the end of today we will have two new Eurovision 2022 entries. Moldova and Spain. Really hoping that Rayden or Blanca can win in Spain. I haven’t heard the Moldovan entries nor do I think I will have the time to do so today. Any standouts there?
Zdob si zdub are the best from moldova
I’m scared that Rigoberta will win in Spain. But there are better songs in my opinion. TERRA is outstanding.
Maybe, but they spoiled it by giving Tanxu the start number 2. But I could live with “Ay Mama”. Just don’t want Chanel to win. The performance is great, but her voice is too weak.
Being second with just 8 songs does not impact the chances much.
Performing 2nd in a small final is not a problem. Besides, Tanxu have a big televoting support either way.
Chanel’s voice is okay, if she goes to Turin, there will loads of rehearsals and vocal assistance. I mean Foureira pulled it through so Chanel can do it. It’s not like Netta’s vocals were excellent in Lisbon lol.
I don’t really get the argument about Chanel’s vocals being too weak, she’s doing very intense choreography, it’s to be expected. This isn’t throwing shade to Eleni as she also did a great job with a choreography heavy performance but her vocals weren’t the strongest either but it was irrelevant because clearly the vocals wasn’t the thing that they tried to focus on, it was putting on a show and doing choreography. I think they both did a decent job vocally considering how energetic the performances required them to be.
I don’t get why i’m being down voted, obviously dancing will hamper you somewhat vocally, doesn’t make the performance bad.
Terra is great but awful in live performance.
Rigoberta looks like a joke entry but Spain loves her song (it’s the biggest hit at the moment) so easily they will vote for her. Expect eurodrama if Chanel or Tanxu win.