For sure 'Army of Lovers' are back- for Melodifestivalen 2013

                             Prepare the dressing room, bin those ole glitter balls- prepare to shoot that Laserbeam- As they are on the way....

 Yes,  it's confirmed Army of Lovers will make their very first international comeback with a song competing in Melodifestivalen- this one I am so looking forward to.

Check out perhapes their most famous UK hit Cruified video, they were a glimmer of dance glamour during the serious Dance scene of the early 90's...Le originale line up is- Alexander Bard, Jean Perrie Barda & Camilla Henemark- the three have comeback together for the song 'Rockin The Ride'

it's Nicole & Hugo from Belguim- Yes, the one's with those purple 70's jumpsuits!

It's not only UK's ole Brotherhood of Man from 1976 who are still doing the cabaret circuits even today. We were surpised to find non-other than Beguim's Nicole and Hugo

It was their performance from way back in 1973 when Nicole & Hugo sung 'Baby baby'  that created Eurovis History.Who can forget those purple jumpsuites and that dance routine - they made such an impact! However back in the years B.a. - before Abba
 this song actually finished up in last place! Nicole & Hugo were just ahead of their time.
However due to poor Nicole falling ill for Eurovision back in Dubin in 1971 Another Belguim duo called Lily & Jacques (!!)  stole all Le Nicole & Hugo' glory at Eurovision 71 singing Nicole & Hugo's own hit
  'Goeiemorgen, morgen' (check out 71 rehearsal)

This tune was a great success in Belgium so Nicole & Hugo choose this for their own 2012 comeback- I just had to go straight to i-tunes to buy this classic.
 We must say Nicole & Hugo are still doing those -baby, baby dance-steps in the vid and looking and sounding just    'fantastive'

Eurovision's Song 2 or even Song 3 - Is it really the kiss of death?

 

 The debate is running 'hot' should Eurovision Song Contest's Grand Final running order be choosen or not? Or a random draw as has been the case according to the rule-book recently. Just how important is it?
For a long time it has been asumned that if your country sings early on in the massive Grand Final proceedings you have not a chance of winning- or even getting a respectable Top 3 placing particularly for song 2 or even Song 3.
     Most certainly early on you would perhapes want to make the best and the greatest memorable impression- but surely that is a minor draw-back?

  So we consulted the -Eurovision History book To find out how many songs if any have found success on the scoreboard from singing early on...

We have a couple of Song 1 winner's famously UK's Brotherhood of Man in 1976 'Save all your kisses for me' and Sweden The Herreys in 1984 with 'Diggi lou, Diggi lay'

 Of course the first song 1- does stay in our memory-bank better we know this- but historically Song 3 in fact has given us a few more winners than lucky Song 1- The three winners were-

1958- France: Andre Claveau "Dors, Mon Amour

1971- Monaco: Severine "Un Banc Un Arbre Une Rue"

1994- Ireland:  Paul Harrington Charlie McGettigan "Rock n Roll Kids"


So what of the Song 2 stigma - that is talked about so much- is it really true?

Well being the Song 2 has still actually brought two 3rd places-

1997 Turkey: Sebnem Paker "Dinle"

and two 4th places.

1974 United Kingdom: Olivia Newton- John 'Long live love'

1977 Monaco: Michele Torr 'Une Petite Francaise'

Most recent being in 2002 -
UK's Jessica Garlick - 'Come back' -

She was a unlucky Song 2 that scored 111 points and finished in 3rd place. Since then in 2002- UK entries have not improved on this result! that was all born from a Song 2 running place at Eurovision final. Then in Dusseldorf Eurovision 2010 -Bosnia & Herzegovina's Dino Merlin sang the Song 2 'Love in Rewind' going on to
score a big 125 points and a 6th placing. It was certainly one of that years highlights and successes.

So what if 2009's Alexander Rybak was a Song 2 with 'Fairytale' would the history books been very different? I think not, perhapes Norway may not have clocked up massive 387 points. But you cannot change a good song- and mostly a massively popular song wins regardless, I think. The few exceptions above we found out- are actually rather great old songs still remembered fondly in Eurovision-dome.

So for Malmo and Eurovision Final 2013- pick carefully EBU/Svt  that song 2. It may turn out to be a huge success after all...

All now Making plans for Malmo 2013

           

  As the plans are taking shape for Eurovision 2012 over at SVT / EBU some interesting format changes came to light recently for next year.
               One of the most interesting was for the competition to return to the single host format as Eurovision scales back- on the annual bigger and better annual progress- normally resulting in more
special effects and larger sports venues. Finally they realized this is a song contest  and not a sport. So for Malmo it will be back to basics certainly no LCD screens on stage and an element of  smaller eurovision contests of the past. With only one contest host this news was a surprise annouchment I think seeing as Melodifestivalen contest normally offers two or more hosts that format seem to entertain rather well for the home national audience. So Sweden has a whole army of possible presenters for a Tv host at Eurovision 2013 it will be a hard one for SVT to pick the best one? It will have to be someone who can Sing Dance and be multi lingual?

But wait there is more changes for Malmo- we know how SVT love to change things around and next year will be no different. Yet this time they plan to get rid of the random song running order selection for Eurovision grand final. This has created quiet some reaction in Eurovisdome and on the web myself I think it will not made too much difference and this rule has always been a double edged sword. As in the past one of the best songs of the year can be lost in the early song placing as well as a bad song taking a prime place in the running order. A smooth running order made by the show producers would nt be too bad - as long as only the songs that prove their worth in the semi final voting get prime Grand Final places. It would be outrageous to give a top 3 semi final song as Song 2 or 4 in the final running I like this new rule and think it fits in well with the back to basic contest format. Til then it will cause some debates as did the 50/50 jury voting change.