ESC armchair
Everyone else goes to Eurovision... so we don't have to...
Thursday, 26 January 2023
BELGIUM 2023
Thursday, 12 January 2023
ALBANIA 2023
Saturday, 7 January 2023
UKRAINE 2023
Andrii Hutsulyak and Geoffrey Kenny have been working as the group Tvorchi - sometimes stylised as TVORCHI - since they met as students at university. Their first song was released in 2017. Since then they have participated in song competitions and have 4 albums to date. In 2020 they participated in Vidbir with the song "Bonfire" and in 2021 they won three YUNA awards
This entry makes for an interesting addition to the final. The visual identity of the song - incorporating the visuals, lighting and outfits - is good but could be made even stronger. The use of projections, in particular with the dancers, is very clever and could easily be scaled up for the Eurovision final. In fact I feel like they broke the magic of this trick far too early and could be extended to add even more optical illusions. I also suspect they many need to tone down or change some of their more pointed symbolism such as the children in gas masks.
SONG - Heart Of Steel
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Andreas Stone Johansson, Sebastian Schub, Thomas Stengaard, Anderz Wrethov
Wednesday, 7 December 2022
FARTY OR PARTY - a jESC review!
Well we let the boy name the podcast... we'll never do that again!
Here's me (Ann) the husband (Andy) and the boy (Marcus) in his podcast debut looking at the Junior Eurovision songs of 2022. For those of you 'new' to this in the UK , the contest will be live on Sunday 11th December on BBC1 and CBBC. Remember that you can vote online via https://junioreurovision.tv/ from Friday the 9th - and you can vote for ANY of the entries EVEN YOUR OWN !!!!!
EPISODE 1 - Ireland, Malta, Kazakhstan, Italy and United Kingdom!
https://archive.org/details/fop-2201
EPISODE 2 - France, Albania, Spain, Poland and Georgia!
https://archive.org/details/fop-2202
EPISODE 3 - Portugal, Netherlands, Armenia, Serbia, North Macedonia and Ukraine!
https://archive.org/details/fop-2203a
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Friday, 13 May 2022
Eurovision 2022 Finals Ranking
We have our 25 finalists!
Needless to say the semi finals ended up being rather divisive and we ended up with some rather *ahem* skewed results... but maybe that's a topic for another day ! Although I made a top 40 ranking, now that we have seen all the songs on the actual stage and seen how they look and sing, my views and feelings have changed just a little.
As this is a list of my faves, one thing NOT taking into account in this list is the running order. If I did I would probably rank everything ever so slightly different. I think Czechia have a memorable spot opening the show but Portugal have been planted in a bit of a blind spot. The run of slower songs near the end (Sweden, Australia, UK, Poland) could say this has given them a boost; others may say being next to each other will ultimately benefit whoever does the better job OR even cancel the whole lot out. The lack of up-tempo songs, especially in the second half, may well benefit those songs with earworms that get in your head or memorable staging.
Soon we will know who is the best
In the Eurovision Song Contest !
Monday, 9 May 2022
ESC armchair at BBC Radio Bristol
On 8th May, Ann once again visited the studios on Whiteladies Road to have a chin wag about Eurovision with Steve Yabsley. During the discussion we touched on subjects such as the history of the EBU, our changing television habits, the Catch-22 of some Russian participants and this year's contest as well as a in-depth discussion about my role in school over the pandemic.
Hope you enjoy !
https://archive.org/details/esc-armchair-with-steve-yabsley
Follow us on twitter at https://www.twitter.com/ESCarmchair
or like our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ESCarmchair to find get the latest information about blogposts and podcasts or even have a look back at our old ones :o)
Sunday, 1 May 2022
Eurovision 2022 ranking
With rehearsals underway I thought it was about time that I started ranking this year's 40 Eurovision entries... And as every good well-informed fan should, I used Mr Gerbear's wonderful sorting mechanism to help me do so! If you would like to to work out your own ranking you can do so here - https://esc.gerbear.com/sorter2022.htm
As I have stated on our own Eurovision podcasts, as well as other media I have shared my views on, I have found judging and comparing this year's contest really tricky. With an almost equal amount of female solo, male solo and groups; twinned with possibly the widest range of styles and genres we've had in a while, this makes choosing which is 'best' almost impossible.
To put a last caveat to this post I think that the standard of this year's entries is really good and have a great batch of performers too.. Therefore, I feel a bit sorry for those songs in the bottom half of my rankings because I quite like almost all of this year's songs. It's pretty much down to some countries just not being quite my style although I very much appreciate their talent and story.
Thursday, 14 April 2022
Shite Or Alright 2022
Thursday, 24 March 2022
AZERBAIJAN 2022
The Azeri song was revealed on March 21st. On February 16th, İctimai Television revealed that Nadir Rustamli had been internally selected as their singer. His song is called "Fade to black"