ESC goes Bollywood

It has been pretty busy a casa Posh since after the Globen weekend. I finally saw Melodifestivalen on TV four days ago. I even saw the voting again and loved Måns look when Petra Mede read the televotes. Classic tv. Alcazar's number looked very good but I was disappointed that you couldn't hear how everybody in the hall cheered and clapped the whole song through. In Caroline's number on the other hand the spontanious clapping was very much there and it gave me goosebumps. Again. Just a shame she got so taken that she forgot the lyrics in the end...

On Monday night Posh was reunited with old Becks and our pal Thomas for dinner and eurovision-gossip. We agreed on most songs in 2009 but as always my taste is the most exquisite! Wednesday I had a little marathon watching the preview videos of all Eurovision songs. I now own them on a dvd. Hurrah!

One of the songs that surprised me the most was Armenia. I didn't like it very much when I saw the performance from their final with shaky sound quality on youtube. This is why one should really wait for the previews and listen to all songs in good quality the first time instead. Most songs grew for me. Specially this one.


Armenia. Inga & Anush - "Nor Par"

Thanks to the success of Slumdog Millionaire I am sure that Armenia will score more than well. I wouldn't be surprised or particularly unhappy if the sisters gave the young Norwegian a run for his money. Start betting now!

Genius @ work

I have been very quiet on this front lately, right? No worries, I did not crash and burn after the national selection season, I have just been extremely busy working in Euroland, finding no energy to spend here.

Sorry, sorry, but I hope you will find my efforts rewarding anyway.

What I have done is to complete the background information for the Swedish Eurovision previews that will start airing on SVT and FST5 late April and that we shot Tuesday and Wednesday in Stockholm.

A panel consisting of Thomas Lundin, Thomas Järvheden, Babben Larsson, Shirley Clamp and Lena Philipsson will pass judgement on the 43 competing entries, handing out marks between 0 - 5 to every contender. Five means incredibly good and zero means, more or less, insulting.

Without giving too much away, I can safely guarantee enjoyable watching, with a panel consisting of very different tempers and approaches towards the entries, but who all go into their task with enthusiasm and intelligence.

Will they enrage the eurofans? Of course they will. A few of the fan favourites will get some serious bashing, but then some others will get plenty of votes all around. And what will this Swedish/Finnish panel make of the chances of Sweden and Finland?

Excitement is rising to fever pitch, and this is surely must-see television. And I am happily back in the world of blogs.

Previews for mortals

For all of us who are only ESC-mortals and don't have the previews on dvd all hope is not lost. We can at least watch the videos on www.eurovision.tv until Mr. Becks has made us all copies. ;-) So far I've just seen Spain and France but had to stop and tell you how fantastic the French song and preview clip is. Love it!

Preview day

Today is the day when Mr Becks reieves the official preview feed from the EBU, so I can study all the entries before we shoot the Swedish preview shows.

Ah, miss Posh, if you had still been here, we could eat something unhealthy and watch them all and cheer for the good and throw popcorn at the bad.

I am not really saying this make anyone jealous or so, just to assure you that there will be some sort of reaction coming your way soon. Some of the previews, that I already saw on YouTube, look really good. Croatia, Switzerland, Netherlands and Romania all made very good clips, that enhanced their entries further.

Way to go.

Beautiful scenery

Some countries never bother making a music video to promote their song internationally. Others put a lot of money and effort into a beautiful setting and a story that interact with the mood of the music and lyrics. To have a whole package is often an advantage when people see and hear the previews for the very first time. This is something the ex-Yugoslav countries are very good at. My absolute favourite preview video is "Nostalgija", Croatia's entry 1995. Unfortunately it is nowhere to be found on YouTube. Instead I have listed some other favourites of mine in no specific order. Watch them and vote for yourself in our poll!

Nina's Top 10 Eurovision Previews where sound and picture are in perfect harmony:



Maja Blagdan – “Sveta ljubav” (Croatia 1996)


Kasia Kowalska - "Chcę znać swój grzech” (Poland 1996)


Tanja Ribič – ”Zbudi se” (Slovenia 1997)


Danijela – “Neka mi ne svane” (Croatia 1998)


Natasha St Pier – “Je n’ai que mon âme” (France 2001)


Zeljko Joksimovic – “Lane Moje” (Serbia-Montenegro 2004)


Jonsì – “Heaven” (Iceland 2004)


Anna Vissi – “Everything” (Greece 2006)


Dima Koldun – “Work your magic” (Belarus 2007)


Magdi Rùzsa – “Unsubstantial Blues” (Hungary 2007)

Which preview video is YOUR favourite? Have your say in the poll! You can vote for as many videos as you like.

May the taste be with you! ;-)