One of the key elements behind the presentation of every entry at the Eurovision Song Contest is surely the postcard that appears prior to the performance which despite at times being attributed to the broadcaster, seemingly seemed to be a tourist attraction for the host nation. This time round, the host broadcaster being SVT, would like to change the perception and as a matter of fact, a director, photographer and a technical coordinator will visiting each of the participating countries and shooting a video of each artist in a short movie format. The idea has been endorsed by the participating broadcasters for the reason that whilst it promotes all of the thirty-nine (39) acts in their natural environment, it is also innovate and never been done before.

The very first postcard shot was that of Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson who will be representing Iceland in the second semi-final with the track Ég á líf. The team of professionals will be heading to France on Thuesday in order to shoot Amandine Bourgeois and then Italy for the postcard of Marco Mengoni. Sven Stojanovic, the Creative Director and co-producer of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö would like to see the people connect with each respective artist and get a glimpse into their personal lives. SVT is showing true signs of professionalism working with some of the leading companies in entertainment including Camp David and Broken Doll who will be taking care of the video recordings, and the graphics such as the scoreboards for example. Such renowned companies serve as a backdrop to what should prove to be a successful edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news.

Source: SVT, Eurovision.tv

Natalia Kelly, the youngest candidate in Austria’s National Selection has won the competition and she will know represent her country in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest scheduled on the 14th May. She’s a singer who knows how to communicate with the cameras with her natural style and her confident way of performing. Even though she’s only 18, she already has ten years of stage.

acquaintance. She is strong-minded, motivated, and enthusiastic to be part of the Eurovision machine. She’ll give her best to be a worthy and booming Austrian representative. Natalia Kelly has appeared on Austria’s ‘The Voice’ and a voice she certainly has. The song itself Shine reminds us of Delta Goodrem the Australian singer-songwriter, pianist and television actress. The word ‘shine’ is repeated quite often in the pleasant song but it works, just like the word ‘Euphoria’ did last year.

The Austrian show incorporated 5 entries from 5 singers covering a vast array of different musical genres including soft rock, electro pop and folksy soul. All in all, it was a well-balanced national selection from Austria and ORF may have reduced the quantity of songs by half but have undoubtedly ‘upped’ the quality in the process.

The national final was presented by Andi Knoll and Miriam Weichselbraun. Austria has appeared frequently at the Eurovision Song Contest. The country has won once, in 1966, with the song "Merci Chérie". In recent years, Austria's entries have tended towards the humorous, in contrast with the dance-pop achieving success. 2003 saw comedian Alf Poier perform "Weil Der Mensch Zählt", a song about farm animals. 2005 saw a performance by folk band Global Kryner singing the Latin-inspired "Y así". Best wishes to Natalia Kelly anf let’s hope her song ‘Shines’ bright in May.

Source: ORF

SVT, the broadcaster responsible for the Swedish participation and this years’ edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is looking to downsize on recent editions of the international showcase whilst still keeping the element of innovation and success in tact. For the very first time since 1995, following in the footsteps of Mary Kennedy, there will be only one host and she will be female. There has been a number of rumours going round about who was to be tipped for the role considering that there were a number of possible candidates but ultimately, it was decided that Petra Mede was the one, and following contact between the renowned comedian and the broadcaster, it was unanimously agreed that she takes on the role. 

Petra Mede is definitely an intriguing choice, having achieved the limelight thanks to her stand-up comedy, first exhibited during the Bungy Comedy Competition held in March of 2005. Following her initial exposure, she was subsequently invited to appear in a number of television programmes and spearheaded into the limelight when SVT, had asked her to host the 2009 edition of the Melodifestivalen showcase which is the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, and which spans on for a total of six weeks, including four semi-finals, a second chance and a final. In recent years, she has hosted her own television programme known as the Petra Mede Show on TV3 and has been invited to host a number of special occasions. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news.

Source: SVT, Eurovision.tv

With the dawn of a new year come the preparations of another edition of the Eurovision Song Contest and one of the main events that will be taking place in the lead up to the competition is the allocation draw which will see thirty three (33) countries being drawn up in one of the two semi-finals that will be taking place in Malmö, Sweden. The remaining six countries; Italy, France, Spain Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom will be told in which semi-final they will have voting rights and thus making up the full list of thirty nine (39) countries in this years' edition of the Eurovision Song Contest following the return of Armenia and the withdrawal of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Portugal, Turkey and Slovakia respectively.

The allocation draw is set to take place in the Old City Hall of Malmö at 14:00 CET on the 17th January 2013 and will also see the Mayor of Baku exchanging the symbolic key of the competition to the Mayor of Malmö in what has been coined as the Host City Insignia Ceremony, It is expected that the theme art as well as the branding of the showcase will also be revealed on this special day making it one to be noted. The European Broadcasting Union made it a point to remind fans and broadcasters alike that there will not be a running order of the show done in the traditional manner noting that the producers will ultimately select the slot of performance as per the genre of the track. In 2012, Malta was drawn in semi-final two and qualified with This Is The Night finishing in twenty-second place in the final. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news as soon as it becomes available.

Source: Eurovision.tv

The European Broadcasting Union has been pretty adamant about putting off rumours of a mass withdrawal from the upcoming edition of the Eurovision Song Contest and therefore succumbed to releasing the list of participating nations quite early due to the international media coverage which might have had a negative impact on the competition especially noting that Malmö is making several adjustments in order to accommodate a different type of show than what many have seen in recent years. The financial situation around the continent has not been a help and three of the four withdrawals; Bosnia & Herzegovina, Portugal and Slovakia have singled out this decision as the factor behind their pulling out with Turkey on the other hand believing that the recent amendments of the regulations at the event have somewhat put them in a disadvantaged position hence their disappointing results.

The Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest at the European Broadcasting Union, Jon Ola Sand is quite upbeat about the number of participating countries believing that despite the economic situation, public broadcasters are very much committed to the traditional element that the contest has created over time. In fact, since the semi-final system was introduced back in 2004, there have always been between 36 and 43 participating nations and the 39 that will take part in 2013 are similar to the amount that took part in 2010 when the competition was also held in a Scandinavian nation with Oslo, the capital city of Norway playing the role of host. Losing three countries to economic reasons was quite disappointing but nevertheless, Sand is quite 'surprised' by the decision of Turkey noting that they 'never formally objected' the rules as regulations which were brought in back in 2009, a year in which Turkey finished in fourth place.

• Albania (RTSH)
• Austria (ORF)
• Armenia (AMPTV)
• Belarus (Ictimai TV)
• Belarus (BTRC)
• Belgium (RTBF)
• Bulgaria (BNT)
• Croatia (HRT)
• Cyprus (CyBC)
• Denmark (DR)
• Estonia (ERR)
• Finland (YLE)
• France (France 3)
• Georgia (GPB)
• Germany (NDR)
• Greece (ERT)
• Hungary (MTV)
• Iceland (RÚV)
• Ireland (RTÉ)
• Israel (IBA)
• Italy (RAI)
• Latvia (LTV)
• Lithuania (LRT)
• FYR Macedonia (MKRTV)
• Malta (PBS)
• Moldova (TRM)
• Montenegro (RTCG)
• The Netherlands (TROS)
• Norway (NRK)
• Romania (TVR)
• Russia (C1R)
• San Marino (SMTV)
• Serbia (RTS)
• Slovenia (RTV SLO)
• Spain (TVE)
• Sweden (SVT)
• Switzerland (SRG SSR)
• Ukraine (NTU)
• United Kingdom (BBC)

As you can see, the leading European broadcasters including the Big Five featuring; the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy return for yet another competition noting that their results are improving especially with regards to three in particular. Some countries have already revealed their entries noting that national finals have already taken place in Belarus, Switzerland, Belgium and Lithuania whilst artists have been chosen for The Netherlands, Spain and Montenegro. Despite less countries than last year, the song quality thus far looks to be quite intriguing and this could be a strong edition for the Eurovision Song Contest with Sweden surely organising it to the best ability and letting it known that whoever did not want to participate would have missed out on a great opportunity. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news as soon as it becomes available.

Source: Eurovision.tv

Quality has become one of the increasing factors in the Eurovision Song Contest and it has to be noted that those who eventually succeed are being picked up or rather promoted by major recording labels and one of the nations who has been improving is surely Lithuania and during the evening, it was well noted that their song selection was even better than last year with a number of possible representatives. This proves to be an endearing quality as the country would be moving into a positive direction and considering the fact that they qualified for the past two editions of the international showcase, they have high hopes heading to Sweden. At the end of the evening, the eventual winner was none other than Andrius Pojavis with the track Something.

Andrius is not an absolute newcomer to music having been a part of the rock scene a couple of years back fronting a number of local bands but nevertheless, he decided to take up a solo career and one which seems to be getting a lot of positive acclaim especially considering that he has managed to overcome some of the most notable favourites of the evening to emerge as the winner. There are a number of doubts especially in the awkward performance this evening noting that this song either needs to be shown with a band or other alone as he had done within the semi-final stage of the preselection process. On the other hand, there is a lot of resemblance in the chorus to the Swiss entry from 2009 entitled The Highest Heights by Lovebugs which did not manage to make it through to the final. The other acts in the super-final were Girmantė Vaitkutė with Time to Shine and Gerai Gerai & Miss Sheep with War in the Warderobe. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for the latest news about the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.

Source: LRT

The city of Malmö in Sweden will be hosting the 2013 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest following the victory of Loreen with the track Euphoria co-written by Thomas G:Son and Peter Bostrom but thus far, it has been somewhat under a cloud of uncertainty in terms of participation with foreign media very skeptical about those who will eventually manage to participate especially following the official withdrawals of Poland and Portugal back in November. In recent weeks, there has been a lot of speculation of whether certain countries such as Greece and Cyprus will continue taking part due to the fact that they have been economically weakened in recent months. Whilst Greece are yet to fully announce their intentions, Cyprus have now officially confirmed their participation with CyBC making their intentions clear late during the day yesterday. More details about their internal selection will be revealed in due course.

Cyprus is one of the countries that has not managed to win the Eurovision Song Contest with their best result being a fifth position achieved on three occasions; the first time being in 1982 with the track Mono I Agapi performed by Anna Vissi, the second time round coming at the fate of Hara and Andreas Constatinou with the song Mana Mou and the last time thus far came thanks to Lisa Andreas with the ballad Stronger Every Minute. Since the introduction of the semi-final format, the results have not been that positive with only three qualifications but one of them came this year thanks to Ivi Adamou and her entry La La Love which was a commercial success all over Scandinavia. As a matter of fact, for the very first time in years, Cyprus managed to outperform Greece by finishing in sixteenth place. Indications originally shown months ago that Giorgos Papadopoulos will be doing the honours are seemingly true and this would be quite the coup having written tracks for Anna Vissi, Helena Paparizou and Constantinos Christoforou. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news as soon as it becomes available.

On Friday, the semi-finalists for the upcoming edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest were revealed during the popular programme Xarabank, produced by Where's Everybody and hosted by Peppi Azzopardi and now the preparations continue as the official recording of the videos will be taking place this coming weekend, most notably on a Saturday as expected due to the younger generation of artists which are competing in the competition. The announcement was made by none other than firm favourite; Kevin Borg who will be presenting the song Needing You in the 2013 edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest semi-final stage on Friday, 1st February, hoping to be amongst those sixteen that will be in the final on Saturday, 2nd February 2013.

In recent days, Kevin Borg has been at the centre of media attention when it comes to entertainment due to the fact that his entry Needing You was not played like the others on the show Xarabank due to the fact that the show was over-running according to the production team. Nevertheless, the Public Broadcasting Services would like to release the preview clips for all of the entries as soon as possible and therefore, the recording will be taking place during the weekend. Through his Official Facebook Page, Kevin Borg stated 'I will be flying to Malta over the weekend', adding that it will be a 'very short trip' in which he will 'record the video for the song Needing You' with the public perception of the track still mysterious due to the fact that there are no clips with of it. It is quite unfortunately that his team 'cancelled three concerts' but this is a competition and he feels that he owes it to the Maltese to come down to record the clip. It is expected that the videos will be made public in just a matter of days following the actual recording. You could view this years' Malta Eurovision Song Contest recap of the preview clips below. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news.

Source: Kevin Borg Official Facebook Page

Good Evening! Welcome to the 2012 edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest which is being hosted in Amsterdam, the capital city of The Netherlands. This is actually the second time that the nation is hosting the event having even taken up the responsibility back in 2007 when the group Cute had represented Malta with the track Music. The competition has changed quite a while since then though noting that from seventeen participants, the European Broadcasting Union has managed to lure a total of twelve (12) ultimately keeping the dream for several young artists alive. The quality of the songs is quite good from what the editorial team has heard based on the studio versions but the dynamic will surely change this evening during the live performances of each of the respective nations.

The Public Broadcasting Services, the only member in the European Broadcasting Union had the rights to compete in the event but ultimately withdrew following our participation in 2010 in order to ensure that there was more financial support towards the senior edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Nevertheless, our coverage continues and we have with us this evening, the last individual who flew the flag for Malta, that being Nicole Azzopardi whose song Knock Knock .. Boom Boom! remains a significant part of the local heritage. This evenings' show which you could follow on the official website, is being hosted by Ewout Genemans and Kim-Lian van der Meij within the Heineken Music Hall and it seems that the host broadcaster; AVRO will be putting on a spectacular showcase. 

LIVE

Intriguing opening for this years' Junior Eurovision Song Contest as the European Broadcasting Union is giving the people what it means to prepare for the big day whilst keeping to showing the people in the hall and their enthusiasm. This does indeed seem like the most organised  showcase for young children in recent years. In the meantime, just a couple of minutes left before we actually commence. Compliments to the host broadcaster on astonishing graphics and a brilliant theme song for this years' edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The opening act has just begun and it seems to feature several teenagers playing the drums. Once more, spectacular lighting as the children break out into an electronic dance creating a visual spectacle and well, as expected, the winning entry of the last Eurovision Song Contest, Euphoria is being played.

http://www.junioreurovision.tv/page/videos?id=69863

Each nation is introduced by virtue of a Good Evening in their respective language. Suddenly, someone is performing Euphoria and it seems to be none other than Rachel, last years' runner-up of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Despite the fact that she did not win, The Netherlands ended up winning the bid to host. The hosts come onto the stage from beneath and receive a huge reaction from the present audience in the hall which is ecstatic. Kim-Liam is wearing a sparkling block of ice, or so it seems whilst Ewout is wearing a black shirt and a silver jacket complimenting her perfectly. The tele-voting process is being explained and it is noted that Kids Rights will benefit of each call and therefore, people will support a great cause this evening. We are also going to post the preview videos as received by the European Broadcasting Union earlier this year.

Belarus

Marc: Egor is wearing a white outfit and he is joined on stage by four dancers, a male and three females and it is to be noted that the first note is extremely off key but nevertheless the music is quite interesting featuring elements of pop, dance, and jazz at times. The visuals for this track are featuring water and bubbles but you manage to keep an eye on the staging for the simple reason that the choreography is really catchy. Not a bad start, but definitely not the best entry to come from Belarus!

Nicole: I must say that it was indeed a very spectacular show and i really enjoyed watching and listening to the track even though I believe there were things which needed to be improved.

Sweden

Marc: The first ballad of this evening is on and Lova looks absolutely stunning this evening, seemingly representing what is left of Scandinavia in this competition. She is wearing a pink, silver outfit and is joined on stage by two female backing vocalists. The female performer has a very beautiful vocal and they are managing to capture all the essence of the track through the camera shots. The song unfortunately is slightly boring if I am being honest and does not really go anywhere. It needed that oomph and unfortunately, it just never came about.

Nicole: Lova Sonnebro has a very beautiful voice actually and this is a track with a lovely beginning. The vocals continue in a mellow manner making this somewhat stand out from the first.

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest was a flagship production of the European Broadcasting Union back in 2003 with the hope of creating a competition similar to the adult showcase produced each year for the younger generation and it seemed like things had succeeded before broadcasters started noting that the costs were slightly too high with the rating going down year on year. The buzz around the junior event was not the same and this is surely noted by the amount of journalists that tend to cover the event. Nevertheless, the team of Radio International based in The Netherlands will be covering this years' event taking place in the Heineken Music Hall within Amsterdam, the capital of the aforementioned nation. In fact, the focus of the programme tomorrow will be the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and the twelve participating nations. Unfortunately for the second year running, Malta has decided not to take part in the event with the funds previous used to compete, being put into the participation within the senior edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.

The official website of Radio International will as always be transmitting the show between 20:00 and 23:00 CET tomorrow evening unless you live in The Netherlands where you could listen in on 106.4 FM or Digital Cable 41. The competing nations in this years' edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest which will be staged on Saturday are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Georgia, Israel, Moldova, The Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine respectively. These have been presented in alphabetical order. Members of the Team of Radio International will be present at the event and conduct interviews with the young artists which you can hear during the shows around the day of the competition itself. Listeners during the show could also request their respective favourite entries from the past editions of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest during this weeks' edition of Radio International. Nevertheless, there is going to be a number of features tomorrow evening including the spotlight on Sweden due to the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest and of course, the weekly quiz with the chance to win some fantastic prizes. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news with regards to the Eurovision Song Contest and the local music scene as soon as it becomes available.

Source: Team of Radio International