2023 Eurovision Finals

Last night were the 2023 Eurovision finals and what a show!  I think that this was my favourite one so far.  This was the first year that there were no phone numbers for people to call and vote.  Everyone used the Eurovision app.  This was also the first worldwide voting.  Between the first and second semi-finals, plus the Big Five, there were 26 countries battling it out for the win.

Sweden placed 1st with 583 points and won the jury vote.  While Finland won the televote, the combined score was 526 points which was enough for 2nd place.  Israel placed 3rd with 362 points, followed by Italy, Norway, Ukraine, Belgium, Estonia, and Australia.  With 129 points, Czechland placed 10th, just 2 points ahead of Lithuania.

Loreen won with "Tattoo".  This was her second win after having won back in 2012.

©Eurovision Song Contest

Käärijä from Finland sang "Cha Cha Cha".

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Noa Karel from Israel sang "Unicorn".

©Eurovision Song Contest

This was the first time that Czechland competed as Czechia, and not Czech Republic.  Vesna sang "My Sister's Crown".  Still pretty cool that Czechland finished in the top 10.

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With only 18 points, Germany came in last.  Lord of the Lost performed "Blood & Glitter."  It's a good thing that Germany automatically qualifies to the finals due to being part of the Big Five, because otherwise I don't see how this song would have made it past the semi-final round at all.

©Eurovision Song Contest

Here's a short U.S. news clip explaining this year's Eurovision contest to Americans, prior to the final.  

©CBS

2023 Eurovision Semi-Final 2

Last night was the Eurovision second semi-final for this year.  It was good but I think the first semi-final was better.  There were 16 competitors plus Ukraine, last year's winner, and Spain and UK, who both automatically qualify as being part of the Big 5.

Australia came in first, followed by Austria and Poland.  The other countries that made it to the final are Lithuania, Slovenia, Armenia, Cyprus, Belgium, Albania, and Estonia.

The countries that failed to qualify for Saturday's final are Iceland, Georgia, Greece, Denmark, Romania, and San Marino. 

My favourites from tonight were Slovenia, who actually sang in Slovenian, Belgium, and UK.  Here are their performances that I found on YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

©Eurovision Song Contest

©Eurovision Song Contest

2023 Eurovision Semi-Final 1

It's Eurovision time!!  It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since Ukraine won last year.  Since Ukraine won last year they should host this year's competition but they can't due to Russia's invasion.  Therefore, the UK, last year's runner-up is hosting in Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine.

This is the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest and there are 37 countries competing this year.  Russia and Belarus are banned due to the invasion while Bulgaria, Montenegro, and North Macedonia opted not to participate due to cost reasons.

Last night, 15 countries participated in the first semi-final with 10 advancing to Saturday's final.  Finland came in first followed by Sweden and Israel.  

Czechland came in 4th place.  Way to go Vesna!!

©Eurovision Song Contest

Rounding out the top 10 were Moldova, Norway, Switzerland, Croatia, Portugal, and Serbia.  

Latvia, Ireland, Netherlands, Azerbaijan, and Malta failed to qualify and are out.

Aside from Czechland, my favourites last night were Sweden, Moldova, and Switzerland.  Plus France who automatically qualifies to the finals as one of the Big 5 countries.  Here are their performances from YouTube.  Let's see you makes it to the finals from tomorrow night's second semi-final.

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©Eurovision Song Contest

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2023 Czech Eurovision Entry

Česká televize recently decided on this year's entry for Eurovision.  From 2 November to 8 December 2022, artists could submit their entry for 2023.  There were 170 entries received and the field was narrowed down to five which were announced in January.

The rules were that solo artists had to have Czech citizenship.  For group entires, the maximum number of members was six and at least one of the lead vocalists had to have Czech citizenship.  This citizenship requirement was a Czech thing because there's no Eurovision rule that says a contestant must be a citizen of the country being represented.  For example, Céline Dion won in 1988 competing form Switzerland even though she is Canadian.

This is the first year that the country will compete at Eurovision as Czechia instead of as Czech Republic.  This is also the first time that Czech TV organised a live broadcast to determine who would be selected by audience vote.  The vote was weighted as 70% for international voting and 30% by local Czech voting.  

Here are the five entries that battled it out on TV.

Up first was Maella with her song Flood.  The daughter of a jazz musician, she grew up in Prague but has been living in London for several years where she studied songwriting.

©Česká televize

Up next was Pam Rabbit with her song Ghosting.  She is Czech with Armenian roots and she competed at the 2018 Eurovision contest as a backup singer for Mikolas Josef.

©Česká televize

Up third was Markéta Irglová with her song Happy.  She's from Valašské Meziříčí and has lived in Ireland, the USA, and now in Iceland.  She won an Academy Award in 2008 for Best Original Song, Falling Slowly, for the film Once.

©Česká televize

Vesna performed fourth with their song My Sister's Crown.  Three of the six members of the group are Czech, with a Bulgarian, a Slovak, and a Russian.  Their song is about empowerment and pan-Slavic sisterhood with the lyrics in English, Czech, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian.   

©Česká televize

The final performer was Rodan with his song Introvert Party Club.  In 2021 he was nominated for Discovery of the Year 2021 and the music magazine Headliner included him amongst the 50 hopefuls of Czech music.

©Česká televize

A few weeks ago the results were in and Vesna won by a landslide.  Here are the results:

1. Vesna - 10.584 points
2. Pam Rabbit - 4.217 points
3. Rodan - 1.995 points
4. Markéta Irglová - 1.009 points
5. Maella - 599 points

Czechland will compete in the first semi-final on 9 May.  Vesna will perform in the second half of the show.  Good luck Vesna!

Update May 2023: Vesna placed 10th at the finals.

2022 Eurovision Finals

Last night were the grand finals of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Italy.  This year's competition had 40 countries enter and compete in two semi-final rounds with 25 in the grand finale.  Again, Russia was not allowed to compete due to its invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

Kalush Orchestra, who won the first semi-final, won this year's contest.  They won with 631 points which is incredible.  Their song "Stefania" is the first song sung entirely in Ukrainian.  It's also the first song to ever win with hip-hop elements.  Here's their winning performance.

©Eurovision Song Contest

The UK came in second place.  Sam Ryder's song "Space Man" received 466 points.  This sets a record for the UK with 16 second place finishes.

©Eurovision Song Contest

The winner of the second semi-final, Sweden, finished in fourth place behind Spain.

Czechland didn't do so well.  We Are Domi earned just 38 points and ended up in 22nd place.  But at least we made the grand finale and beat Iceland, France, and Germany.

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If anyone's interested in watching the full grand finale then here's the complete 4,25 hour show that's available on YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

Well done Ukraine!  I hope that this isn't the only thing that they win this year.  Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

2022 Eurovision Semi-Final 2

Last night was the second semi-final round of the this year's Eurovision Song Contest.  The first semi-final on Tuesday was won by Ukraine.  Eighteen countries participated in last night's competition.

Sweden came in first place.  Cornelia Jakobs sang her song "Hold Me Closer" in English.  Here's the video of her performance from YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

Czechland placed fourth in the last night's competition so they qualified for Saturday night's final.  This year the Czech entry is the group We Are Domi which is a Czech-Norwegian electro pop group that started in the UK in 2016.  

Dominika Hašková is the lead vocalist.  She's actually Czech-American as she was born in the USA to Czech parents.  Her father is Dominik Hašek who used to play hockey for the Buffalo Sabres.  In 2010, she made the final of season one of Česko Slovensko má talent. 

Casper Hatlestad and Benjamin Rekstad are Norwegian musicians.  Since 2020, they are both music teachers at the International School of Music and Fine Arts in Prague.

Their song, "Lights Off" is sung in English.  Here's their performance from last night.  Let's see how they do in the finals.

©Eurovision Song Contest

2022 Eurovision Semi-Final 1

Last night was the first semi-final for this year's Eurovision Song Contest.  Seventeen countries took part in the first semi-final held in Italy.  Russia was originally supposed to compete in the first semi-final but they were excluded from this year's competition due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.   

Ukraine came in first place.  Kalush Orchestra actually performed their song "Stefania" (Стефанія) in Ukrainian.

Here's the video that I found out on YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

The Czech entry competes tomorrow night in the second semi-final.  The grand final is on Saturday night.

No Eurovision This Year

Eurovision was cancelled this year due to COVID-19.  The finals were supposed to held on 14 May.  Now we'll never know how Benny Cristo's song Kemama would have fared.

This year's event was supposed to be held in Rotterdam.  I don't know if the Netherlands will host in 2021.  Each country can choose if they will send this year's artists next year or choose a new entry.  However, this year's songs can not be reentered next year.

While there was no Eurovision this year at least there was Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.  The Netflix comedy is brilliant and the music sounded authentically Eurovision-ish.  While not the real Eurovision it is the next best thing.  The movie is even available on Netflix in Czech so I get to count watching it as language practice.

Here's the movie trailer I found on YouTube.  

©Netflix

2020 Czech Eurovision Entry

Eurovision 2020 is coming up in a few months and this year it will be in The Netherlands.   Last year, Lake Malawi came in 11th place which is the country's second best finish.  Mikolas Josef finished in 6th place in 2018 which is Czechland's best finish to date.

2020 will be Czechia's ninth shot at the Eurovision title.  Česká televize had received 152 submissions to be the country's official entry.  Interestingly, of the 152 entries, only 72 were from Czech musicians.  Somehow the 152 was whittled down to seven.  The selection process was made up of combination of an international jury panel of ten former Eurovision entrants and a public vote made on the official Eurovision Song Contest app.

Here are the results...

In 7th place is Pam Rabbit with "Get Up".  Pam Rabbit was born in Armenia and came in 4th place during last year's selection process.  In 2018 she was a backup vocalist for Mikolas Josef during the Eurovision finals.

©PamRabbit Official

In 6th place was Olga Lounová with "Dark Water".  She started acting in TV and movies in 1998 and she released her first album in 2011.

©Olga Lounova

In 5th place was Karelll with "At Least We've Tried".  Karelll isn't well known on the Czech music scene. However he was the first Czech to take part in the Los Angeles MUSEXPO.

©Karelll

In 4th place was We All Poop and their song "All the Blood (Positive Song Actually)".  The group formed specifically to compete in this year's competition.

©WeAllPoop

In 3rd place was Barbora Mochowa with "White & Black Holes".  She also came in 3rd place during last year's selection.

©Barbora Mochowa

In 2nd place was Elis Mraz & Čis T with "Wanna Be Like".  Eliška Mrázová reached the 2014 semifinals of Nova Hlas Česko Slovenska (The Czech-Slovak version of The Voice).  Čis T is a hip-hop artist from Bratislava who's released 13 studio albums.

©Elis Mraz

And 1st place went to Benny Cristo with his song "Kemama".  Benny Cristo is a Czech of Angolan descent and since 2013 he's had 11 top ten hits here in Czechia.  He's also a professional jiu-jitsu competitor and in 2009 he made the finals of SuperStar (the Czech-Slovak version of Pop Idol).

Here's the official Eurovision bio about him that I found out on YouTube.

©Eurovision

Here's Czech Republic's official entry for the 2020 song contest.  "Kemama" is short of "Ok mama" and the song is entirely in English.

©Ben Cristovao

Benny will perform in the second semi-final round on 14 May.  Fingers crossed! 🤞

Update:  Eurovision was cancelled this year due to COVID-19.

2019 Eurovision Final Results

Another Eurovision has come and gone.  The finals of the 64th edition were held last night in Israel.

Things were looking good after Tuesday's semi-final 1.  Of the 17 countries participating on Tuesday, Czechland came in second place with 242 points.

There were 26 countries in last night's finals.  Lake Malawi ended up in 11th place with 157 points.  Here's the Czech performance from the finals that I found out on YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

The 2019 winner was Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands.  His song Arcade won with 498 points.  Here's the winning performance.

©Eurovision Song Contest

Fair play to Czechland coming in 11th.  Not quite as good as last year's 6th place finish but still respectable.  I still say that Czechland would do better if Slovakia participated because they would always vote for each other. 

2019 Czech Eurovision Entry

Eurovision 2019 is coming up in a few months.  The Czechs starting competing again in Eurovision a few years ago and each year they continue to rank higher in the standings. Josef Mikolas placed 6th last year.

There were eight finalists this year all hoping to represent Czechland.

Andrea Holá - Give Me a Hint
Barbora Mochowa - True Colours
Hana Barbara - Poslední slova tobě (The Last Words to You)
Jakub Ondra - Space Sushi
Jara Vymer - On My Knees
Lake Malawi - Friend of a Friend
Tomáš Boček - Don't Know Why

I understand why, but it's still interesting to me that of the eight entries only one song is in Czech.  The other seven songs are all sung in English.  Here's a YouTube video with clips from each of the eight finalists.

©Eurovision

A few weeks ago Česká Televize announced that Lake Malawi will represent Czechland at this year's competition in Israel.

Lake Malawi is an indie pop band from Třinec that formed in 2013.  The band consists of Albert Černý, Jeroným Šubrt, and Antonín Hrabal.  They only sing in English and their studio album Surrounded by Light was released in 2017.

Here's the full version of this year's entry, Friend of a Friend.

©Eurovision

Update:  Lake Malawi came in 11th place.

2018 Eurovision Final Results

Last night were the 2018 Eurovision finals.  The top 26 countries from semi-final #1 and semi-final#2 competed.

Mikolas Josef performed great and, with 281 points, he finished in 6th place.  That's the highest the Czechland has ever placed.  Way to go!

Here's his performance from last night's grand final.

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Netta Barzilai and her song Toy placed first with 529 points.  So next year's contest will be in Israel.  Here's her winning performance from last night.

©Eurovision

2018 Eurovision Semi-Final Results

It's Eurovision time again and this year's contest is held in Lisbon, Portugal.  Tuesday night was the first semi-final and 19 countries competed with the top 10 moving on to Saturday night's grand final.

Mikolas Josef competed and he did Czechland proud!  He ended the night in third place with his song Lie to Me.  Not bad considering he injured his back last week during the first rehearsal.

Here's his performance from the first semi-final.  Hopefully he'll do well on Saturday night.  Hodně štěstí!

©Eurovision

Mikolas Josef

This year, the Czechs have picked 22 year old Mikolas Josef as their Eurovision entry for May.  More than 400 entires were submitted and the top six entires.  These six were put before a popular vote and a professional jury and Mikolas won 53% of the vote.

Mikolas Josef began as a fashion model for Diesel and Prada at 17.  After modelling he turned to singing and songwriting.  I've heard people refer to him as the Czech Justin Bieber.

His song "Lie To Me" is a catchy tune about not getter swallowed up by negativity during tough times.  Here's the video for his song.  Good luck to him!

©Eurovision

Update:  He placed 3rd in the first semi-final and finished in 6th place in the grand final.  That's the highest that Czechland has ever placed.

2017 Eurovision

It's Eurovision time again and the finals are tonight.  I'll miss them this year because I'm headed out to  a team building event about an hour from Brno.

This year's Czech entry is Martina Bárta and her song My Turn.  She is a jazz singer plays the French horn.  The song, sung in English, was pretty good but unfortunately she only placed 13th in the first round and failed to qualify for tonight's finals.  Better luck next year.

Here's her song and video from YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

Gabriela Gunčíková

Eurovision starts tonight and the Czechs are going for it again.  Gabriela Gunčíková will represent Czechland this week.



She is also known as Gabriela Gun.  2011 was a busy year for her as she came in second in Česko Slovensko SuperStar.  Then she placed seventh on Let's Dance which is the Slovak version of Dancing with the Stars.  (Strictly Come Dancing for all of my UK folks.)  She capped off 2011 by winning Best New Artist at Český slavík which are the Czech Grammys.

Last year the Czech Eurovision entry did not make it to the finals.  Let's hope for a place in the finals this year.  Her song for this year's competition is called I Stand and it is in English.  Here's the song which I found out on YouTube.

©Eurovision Song Contest

Update:  The Czechs finally make it to the finals!  Gabriela placed 9th in the first semi-finals with 161 points.  This Saturday she will compete in the grand final.

Update:  With 41 points, she placed 25th out of the 26 finalists.  At least Czechland finally made it to the grand final for the first time ever.  Let's see if they can make it again next year.

Vienna Gay Traffic Lights

During this year's Eurovision finals in Vienna the city installed some interesting new traffic lights to demonstrate tolerance and openness.  Specifically some same-sex traffic lights.

Instead of traditional single figure lights, the new lights show hearts and three different couples - a man and a woman, two men, and two women.

The lights were installed at 120 different crosswalks in the city.  The lights cost €63 000 (~$70,000) to install.  They were meant to only be temporary but it looks like they are here to stay. 

2015 Eurovision Finals

The Eurovision 2015 finals were yesterday and it was my first time watching the show.  This was the 60th anniversary competition and there were 27 contestants vying for the title.

The competition was interesting but with so many performers the final night of competition lasted about 5,5 hours.

Unfortunately the Czech duo of Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta didn't do so well.  They competed in semi-finals #2 but their song, Hope Never Dies, didn't make it to the finals.  Hopefully the Czechs will compete again next year.

Final 27 results

Sweden came in 1st place with 365 points.  Russia was second with 303 points and Italy came in third place with 292 points.  Since Sweden won it will host the 2016 competition.

The winner was Måns Zelmerlöw with his song Heroes.  Here's the winning performance from YouTube.

 

©Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision

It's getting to be Eurovision time and it's a very big deal over here in Euroland.  The annual Eurovision Song Contest is one of the longest-running TV programs in the world.  It's also one of the most watched non-sporting events with international viewers ranging from 100-600 million.  Next month is the 60th anniversary so here's how it works.

Each country submits an original song that is performed on live television.  The song may be in any language (but English and French tend to always win).  There are two semi-final rounds and the final.  After each night of performances callers vote for their favorite songs.  But here's the catch.  Voters in each country may not vote for their own song.  You have to vote for your favorite song from another country.

Countries give 12 points for the favorite song, then 10 points to the second favorite then 8points down to 1 point for the next eight best songs.  The song with the most points wins and the winning country gets to host the following year's competition.  Each country gets an equal number of points to distribute regardless of size.  So tiny Luxembourg has just as many points to give out as Russia does.

France, Germany, Spain, the UK, and Italy are known as the Big Five.  They automatically make it to the final event.  I believe it has something to do with these countries being the top financial contributors.  Just as in European sporting events Israel also competes.  And to commemorate the 60th anniversary next month Australia will compete as a guest entry, with an automatic berth to the finals.  I'm pretty sure that for Australia it's a one-time thing unless they happen to win.  

Winning Eurovision is a matter of national pride.  It does help the performers but it normally doesn't result in any performer making it big.  The two big notable exceptions are ABBA, who won in 1974 for Sweden, and Céline Dion, who won in 1988 for Switzerland.

Ireland holds the record for the most wins with seven.  Sweden, France, Luxembourg and the UK all have five wins.  The UK has the most 2nd place finishes coming in as runner up 15 times.

Czechoslovakia never competed in Eurovision.  While Slovakia entered in 1994 the Czechs didn't enter until 2007.  Czechland competed in 2007, 2008 and 2009, without ever making it to the finals.  This year the Czechs are back so maybe the fourth time will be the charm.

Here's the Czech entry for next month's contest.  The song, in English, is Hope Never Dies by Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta.

 ©Eurovision Song Contest

Baku, Azerbaijan

Baki (Baku in English) is the capital of Azerbaijan.  Not only is it the largest city on the Caspian Sea but it is the largest city in the Caucasus. 

Baku's Coat of Arms

At 28 meters (92 feet) below sea level, Baku is the largest city in the world below sea level.  It is home to 2.12 million people and the metro area contains about 25% of the country's population.  

 

İçǝri Şǝhǝr is Baku's old walled city.  The historical city center, along with the Shirvanshah's Palace and the Maiden Tower became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. 





Qiz Qalasi is the Maiden Tower.  It is 29.5 meters (97 feet) tall and it was built in the 12th century.  The legend goes that a king tried to force his daughter to marry a man she didn't love.  The princess agreed to marry the man only if her father first built her a tower.  As soon as the tower was completed she escaped having to marry him by jumping from the top to her death.

The Shirvanshah's Palace is in the center of old town.  Construction on the complex began in 1411 and it contains the main palace, burial vaults and a mosque.  In 1964 the state declared it a museum.

Baku's TV Tower was built in 1996.  It is 310 meters (1,017 feet) tall and is the tallest structure in Azerbaijan.  It is also the tallest reinforced concrete building in the Caucasus.

Fountains Square is still called by its old name, Parapet.  It is a popular gathering place in the city.



The Carpet Museum is in a building which resembles a rolled up carpet.  It is home to the world's largest collection of Azeri carpets.


National Flag Square was home to the world's tallest flagpole (162 meters / 531.5 feet).  It was the tallest until 2011 when the Dushanbe Flagpole in Tajikistan was built.



The Crystal Hall Arena was built in order to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012.

Martyrs' Lane used to be known as Kirov Park.  It is a cemetery and memorial to those killed in 1990 when Soviet forces invaded Baku, during Black January, when the Soviet Union was breaking up.  Later on it included soldiers killed in the war for Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1994.  Approximately 15,000 people are buried here.

There is also a memorial for 1,130 Turkish soldiers who were killed, in 1918, during the Battle of Baku against Bolshevik and Armenian troops.

The Heydǝr Əliyev Center is home to a gallery, a library and a performing arts venue.  Construction began in 2007 and was completed in 2012.  Below is an Extreme Engineering video I found on YouTube that gives more details about it.



The Flame Towers are by far the coolest buildings in Baku.  The three towers were completed in 2012 at a cost of around $350 million.



The facades are covered with LED screens which at night alternate between displaying a waving flag and flames.  Very cool!!

©Eurovision