The Norwegian selection for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest is already gaining ground following the large amount of submissions sent in with the hope of taking the country back to the finals after the disappointment endeared by fan favourite, Stella Mwangi and her track 'Haba Haba'. Each and every day for the past week, the broadcaster responsible for the participation in the annual musical event, NRK, has been publishing the names of the artists who have managed to get the ticket to take part in the Melodi Grand Prix. Some of them are also surprised on the spot when they are told that they have been invited to compete.

The first addition that was announced for the upcoming pre-selection is a duet between two of the most contemporary artists in Norway; and Monica Johansen also known as 'Minnie Oh' when they come into unison. According to the host of the Melodi Grand Prix, Per Sundnes who also plays a pivotal role in the selection of artists, he says that he has long in tried to convince the girls to make their appearance at their event because he believes that they have great expression and image that would ultimate spice up the showcase. Certain details about their participation are yet to become available but their past experience in the music scene including an a Grammy and X Factor competition as soloists.

Due to the fact that they did not announce an act on Monday, people were treated to two names yesterday and in fact, it is the band known as Plumbo wo are known for their hit song 'Møkkamann' which you are able to hear below. The song that they have submitted to the competition bears the name 'Ola Nordmann' and it speaks about a fellow Swede who just loves nature in all its forms. The idea of the group is to attract viewers of all ages. Apart from their hit single, they have also released a total of three albums and therefore it seems that renowned artists are entering the Melodi Grand Prix. More artists will surely be revealed in the coming days. Stay tuned for more information on ESCflashmalta.

Source: NRK

A couple of months ago, it was announced that Ireland will return to the competition in Baku, Azerbaijan following their best result since the millennium as Jedward reached eight (8th) place with their song '' which had come through a national selection. There has been a lot of speculation of the route that the broadcaster would be taking especially due to the fact that the nation once commandeered the event winning a stunning seven times, kicking off with Dana in 1970, then Johnny Logan on two occasions in 1980 and 1987, this was then followed by Linda Martin in 1992, Niamh Kavanagh in 1993, Charlie McGettigan & Paul Harrington in 1994 and finally Eimear Quinn in 1996. The national final that was used last year will return for another go hoping that success does not lie far once more.

Last years' representatives have been touted as the successors of themselves but an internal selection was ruled out this evening when during the evening news on RTÉ, it was announced that last years' mentor system will be used to select the acts that will compete. There will be five music industry professionals and thanks to our collaborator at All Kinds of Everything, Keith Mills, it has just been revealed that one of them is none other than former winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, Linda Martin who will be taking up the twins and will aid Louis Walsh in selecting the track that will most likely be the favourite to represent the country. More names will be announced in due time but rumours have it that the manager of the brothers would love to have a second act and rumours have it that former 'X Factor' Finalist;  is interested in doing the show with a huge ballad as she does best. More names and details will be released in due time therefore stay tuned for more information as soon as it becomes available.

Source: RTÉ

One of the premier artists in the local music scene; known for competing in a number of music competitions including the Malta Eurosong, Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza and the Malta Hit Song Contest amongst others has just launched her debut album bearing the name 'Eyes On Me' which is also one of the tracks which has been short-listed. The amount of tracks which have been decided on making the final cut were sixteen (16), and in three languages, with English, Maltese and Italian all present. Skimming through the tracks that have been added to the compilation, one would see a variety of styles ranging from pop to ethnic to represent the vocal capabilities of the artists.

The credits of the album are somewhat extremely impressive actually especially when one notes the fact that a number of foreigners have made the cut along with Maltese and this proves to be an international effort hence the support of one of the promising recording labels in Europe, Cap-Sounds which has been supporting the Maltese entries in the Eurovision Song Contest for quite a couple of years, with the main distribution over the Western sector of Europe through Universal Music Germany. In fact, overseeing this album was the Managing Director, Manfred Holz, also the manager of two time Eurovision Song Contest representative; Fabrizio Faniello whilst the mastering was done in Germany by Frank Motnik. The songwriters that have been included are as follows:

• Philip Vella
• Gerard James Borg
• Deo Grech
• Clinton Paul
• Rita Pace
• Paul Abela
• Figen Cakmak
• Fani Hodara
• Francesco Bonagura

Most of the album was recorded in Malta but there was were also recordings done abroad. The launch in itself was held at the Qawra Palace Hotel; and it was attended by the composers and authors, family and friends together with fans and members of the media including ESCflashmalta and Esctoday from the online press. The album in itself was launched by the Vice President of the World Association of Festival and Artists; Ms Figen Cakmak, who came for this occasion, she was joined by the Executive Producer of the album and also the President of the same association; Robert Cefai. The album is now for sale through two album platforms including; Itunes and Amazon whilst in local record stores, one can also find it in local stores through D'Amato's record shop only. For more information about the upcoming projects that Romina Mamo will be undertaking in the next couple of months, please visit her official website which was also launched on the same day.

Competition - When was the last time that Romina Mamo reached the finals of the Malta Eurosong? Send your answers by the 1st December 2011 to the Local Relations Officer; Elaine Camilleri through this email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Source: Press Release

In the past couple of hours, there has been a lot of talking going around about the Irish selection for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest and this is due to the fact that the broadcaster, RTÉ, winner of seven editions of the musical event announced that they will be sticking to the successful formula used earlier this year which saw the twins known as Jedward take to the stage and reach eight place with the song 'Lipstick', the best result for the nation since the millennium. The same aforementioned broadcaster thought it was best to make the necessary revelations now that certain details were publicly released during the evening news hours ago.

Five mentors with overwhelming experience in the music industry have been called upon to help in selecting the song for next years' musical event. Their role is crucial as they will be selecting the artists to compete in the selection, nurture them accordingly, find a song which suits the style of the chosen artist and ultimately present him to the general public and the regional juries. The mentors for the 2012 edition of The Late Late Show Eurosong are as follows:

In recent weeks, the participation of Switzerland in the upcoming edition of the Eurovision Song Contest set to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan has been gaining ground following the fact that the regional broadcasters have been busy hosting a number of pre-selections in order to select the artists who would take up their position in the finals which will be taking place next month, on the 10th December in the Kreuzlingen Arena. The interest has been high but it seems that the jury have made the final shots following the fact that the voting went as planned and attracted a lot of interest.

According to the regional broadcaster; RTS; the selection was based on 50% Jury and 50% Online-Voting in order to have a balanced and fair result so to speak but two of the participants are not too happy with the results noting that they were some of the ones who managed to fill in the requirements of having one album and a successful single. The acts that has been selected to compete in the national final which will select the successor of Anna Rossinelli whose 'In Love for a While' reached the final at the expense of Malta by just one points are as follows:

It is quite interesting to see that those which apparently dominated the voting procedure of the competition got left out because the South African group; Romanz and the Canadian duet between; Marie-Elaine Thibert and Etienne Drapeau who finished in the top two positions when it came to the public. In the long term, the genres are quite different and we are extremely happy that one of our collaborators and expert reviewers for the past Eurovision Song Contest; Katherine has finally made the cut.

Source: RTS

In recent weeks, the submission process of the 2012 edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest has been dominating the news items with a number of well known artists in the local music scene exclusively speaking to our web-portal that they have submitted material to the competition hoping to make it to the final phase of the competition which will ultimately receive a lot of exposure pertaining to the way that the Public Broadcasting Services organizes the show each and every year especially since that broadcaster took over the method of selection completely. The latest act to join the long list of submissions is none other than the young sixteen year old performer; Francesca Sciberras.

The young charismatic performer last made her mark on the local music scene after having won the ticket to represent our country in the 2009 edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest along with Mikaela and the song '' but a senior source close to the artist herself has told us that she has indeed submitted a song for the upcoming edition of the competition telling us that the singer 'turned sixteen (16) last August' but had to stop participating in 'local festivals last year due to exams'. It is yet unknown whom she is working with but Francesca is an extremely credible artist having even tried to go about representing her nation as a soloist back in 2008 with the song 'Fulfil My Dream', a ballad which finished in tenth place. Keep following ESCflashmalta for the latest news as soon as it becomes available.

The Eurovision Song Contest has been playing host to a number of Eastern European nations in recent years but one of the least successful when it comes to the actual music competition has surely been Bulgaria as they have only made the final once in their seven tries, reaching fifth place at the end of the evening with the song 'Water' performed by Elitsa & Stoyan. In the past two years, the selection process changed drastically with the broadcaster, BNT, coming up with the concept entitled 'The Academy' which has not proven to be successful following yet another two non-qualifications in 2010 with Miro and 'Angel Sin Ti' and earlier this year with Poli Genova and her track 'Na Inat'.

The showcase will be featuring for yet another time some of the best people in the local industry with the broadcaster publishing the names of those who will be part and parcel of this selection process. The committee which will have a 50% stake on the final result are as follows: Angel Zaberski, Haigashod Agasyan, Mihail Belchev, Dr. Jordan Eftimov, Georgi Enchev, Vasil Gjurov, Alexandar Petrov, Zhivko Kolev, professor Teodora Pavlovich, Tzvetan Tzvetkov, professor Mariya Georgieva Ganeva, Milka Miteva, Peter Salchev, Diana Ruseva, Yordan Lazarov Lazarov, Christian Boyadjiev, Dragomir Simeonov, Anna-Maria Tonkova, Vassil Dimitrov, Atanas Genov, Georgi Kostov, Mariana Brashnarova, Ilian Stoychev and led by the Chairman, Stefan Dimitrov.

These representatives include composers, lyricists, musicians, choreographers, music school professionals, and also disk jockeys from 'BG Music', 'Darik Radio', 'BTV Media Group' and 'Nova TV' amongst others. In the meantime, we have also learnt that one of the finalists of 'The Voice in Bulgaria', Todor Fadjalov has announced that he would like to take part in the preselection process and due to the fact that he was mentored by Miro, he surely heard about the event in a positiv light. He did confirm his intention to participate to the national media by saying 'I can say that I will participate'. The singer who is still a student at the Music Academy in the capital known as Sofia will take part with the song 'Still I Love You'

Each and every year, certain results start causing nations to re-consider their official status of competition when it comes to the Eurovision Song Contest and one of those countries which was speculating on whether they would be able to compete in Baku, Azerbaijan was Romania despite recently achieving the second runner-up finish courtesy of Paula Seling & Ovi with the song 'Playing With Fire'. The respective broadcaster which is responsible for the participation in the event, TVR, has been somewhat quiet about what take place but according to our friends at JanelaESC, preparations have begun and that means that the nation is set to compete for the tenth consecutive year, a decade during which the nation has always made it to the finals reaching either very good or mid-table results.

The fansite got through to the broadcaster through a phone call late during the day yesterday and got to speak to the Communications Director; Corina Cosma who went onto state 'we will participate every year'. The national selectionf or the 2012 edition of the musical event will probably take place either at the end of January or the beginning of February which is quite late when considered this years' entry was chosen during a show held on New Years' Eve which featured a number of celebrity performers. In the long run, it was Hotel FM and the song 'Change' which went to represent Romania achieving a competent seventeenth (17th) finish.

Source: JanelaESC

Male singers in recent times have become hard to find even on the local music scene but there has been one which has been really putting such a comment to shame having established himself as one of the leading entertainers. The artist in question is none other than Glen Vella, the man who took to representing Malta earlier this year at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'One Life' composed by Paul Giordimaina and penned by Fleur Balzan. He has been keeping busy though since then to prove that such an event does not define him completely and is thus premiering a brand new song.

In the past couple of weeks, Glen made a triumphant return to the local radio scene with a cover of the popular track 'Ain't Nobody' alongside DJ Armani which managed to creep into the local charts at Bay Radio. Apart from doing that, he has been to Germany once more for the OGAE convention where he was a guest and he has also been busy getting ready for another show with Animae early next year but we have recently learnt that he will be part and parcel of the line-up at the Malta Music Awards where he was nominated for the best male artist last year, hoping for another nomination this year.

He has been in touch with the editorial board at ESCflashmalta, exclusively revealed that he will be performing a brand new track entitled 'Lie' composed and penned by none other than Noy Alooshe and Saar Badhishi. This will surely be another dance ignited track which will set heads turning. We would like to wish Glen Vella the very best of luck following months of success which recently were awarded during the ONE Tribute Show when he was given the award for the best male artist with international success in the past couple of years.

Source: Clint Scerri Harkins (Photo)

The idea of a biography has always been intriguing and it has always clung onto their popularity according to their respective subjects but when the popular production company 'Where's Everybody' decided to initiate their very own weekly biographies on the national television station, they took a gamble, one which turned out to be a successful venture. At first, the people that were looked at were some of the most recognizable icons which have unfortunately passed away but in this years' edition, the team behind the show is looking at some of the most influential locations and personalities which are alive to this day.

Next weeks' show will surely be one for the people to watch because the person whose life will be put in the spotlight is none other than that of former Eurovision Song Contest representative Ira Losco whose song '7th Wonder' composed by Philip Vella and penned by Gerard James Borg just was twelve (12) points away from victory. The accolades of this singer continue to grow having recently been awarded like Glen Vella at the ONE Tribute Show for being the best artist in recent years with major international success. Below you can see a performance that she has recently done with the renowned Claudio Baglioni. Make sure to watch '' next Wednesday 9th November 2011 on Television Malta (TVM).

Source: Xarabank Online Youtube, Allen Venables (Image)