Tonight: Five national selection shows take place
Things a warming up in the middle of winter, as a total of 5 national selection shows take place today. Moldova’s live auditions kick off today in seek for the country’s Eurovision 2020 act while later in the evening we will watch the 1st semi final of Melodifestivalen in Sweden, the 4th semi final of Norway’s MGP, the first semi final of Lithuania’s selection (Pabandom iš naujo) and the first semi final of The Next Star in Israel. Check out below each show’s details:
Moldova – Live Auditions
The live auditions of Moldova’s Eurovision 2020 candidates kick off today. The process begins at 14:00 CET and will be aired live on TRM2. In the show 36 candidates will be performing before a jury that will determine the next Eurovision represeetative.
The 36 act to perform in the national selection auditions are :
- Pelageya Stefoglo – Empathy
- Maria Ciolac – Our home
- Viorela Moraru – Remedy
- Dima Jelezoglo – Do it slow
- LANJERON – Hi Five
- Nicolae Untilă – Call me please
- Vovian – 10 minuni în Moldova
- Maxim Zavidia – Take control
- Valentin Uzun si Irina Kovalsky – Moldoviţa
- Diana Popa – Believe me
- Danny Cruise – My love
- Olea Roşu – Alive
- Catarina Sandu – Die for you
- Ray Barc – I’m shy
- Tudor Bumbac – Te-am vazut în vis pe tine
- Georgeta Burlacu – Răspunde!
- Sasha Bognibov – Big brother
- Katerina S – We are done
- Sasha Letty – Summer of love
- Live Beat – Love me now
- Valeria Paşa – It’s time
- Liusia Znamensky – Love no more
- Julia Ilienko ft. Mishel Dar – Tears
- Natalia Gordienko – Prison
- Petronela Donciu si Portărescu Andreea – We will be legend
- Carolina Rakoviţă – Dancing in the sunrise
- Angel Kiss – My Own Queen
- Angel Kiss – You are my dance
- Lavinia Rusu – Touch
- Irina Kit – Chain Reaction
- Alexandru Cibotaru – Cine te-a facut să plîngi
- Midone Denis – Like a champion
- Pasha Parfeny – My wine
- Lave – Wildfire
- Diana Brescan – Let’s go together
- Diana Rotaru – Dale dale
Among the candidates we see a few Eurovision past participants such as Natalia Gordienko (Loca – 2006 – 20th place) with Dimitris Kontopoulos and Philip Kirkorov behind her entry, Pasha Parfeny (Lăutar – 2012 – 11th place) and Geta Burlacu (Α century of love – 2008 – 12th in the semi final ). Also we will see Midone Denis who represented Moldova at Junior Eurovision 2012.
Behind the song Die For You by Catarina Sandu is the greekswedish composer Dimitris Stassos who had written the Greek ESC 2012 entry Aphrodisiac for Eleftheria Eleftheriou and the entry La noche es para mí for Soraya (Spain 2009). Nikos Sophis, composer at past national selection entries in several countries, is behind Maxim Zavidia’s entry , Take Control
The live auditions will begin at 14:00 CET and you can watch it HERE
Sweden – 1st Semi final
The Swedish national selection starts tonight as Melodifestivalen, kicks off with its first semi final. The show will take place at Saab Arena in Linköping, while host of the event will be Lina Hedlund, Linnea Henriksson and David Sundin. In this evening’s 1st semi final we will see 7 acts compete for the two spots that lead directy to the final and two more to the second chance round.
The seven entries that will take the stage tonight are:
- The mamas – Move
- Suzi P – Moves
- Robin Bengtsson – Take a chance
- Malou Prytz – Ballerina
- OVÖ – Inga problem
- Sonja Aldén – Sluta aldrig gå
- Felix Sandman – Boys with emotions
In this semi final we see the Swedish ESC 2017 representative Robin Bengtsson who represnted Sweden with his entry “I Can’t Go On” (5th place). In the same semi final we see Malou Prytz, Felix Sandman and Sonja Aldén, all past Melodifestivalen participants. Additionally, The mamas were the backing vocalists of last year’s participation.
The voting process incuded two rounds, both in which only the public votes. In the first round the five acts with the most votes qualify to a second round of public voting. The first two acts in this seconsd round qualify directy to the final while the 3rd and 4th will compete in the second chance round.
You can watch the Melodifestivalen semi final show at 20:00 CET HERE
Norway – 4th semi final show
The Norwegian national selection continues to unfold with the 4th semi final of the Melodi Grand Prix. The show will take place at H3 Arena in Fornebu and will be presented to us by Kåre Magnus Bergh, Ingrid Gjessing Linhave and Ronny Brede Aase.
While a professional jury of experts has already selected 5 acts that have already prequalified to the final, the rest 5 spots in the final will be filled in by the winners of the five semi final rounds. After the first three semi final rounds for MGP 2020, the selection moves on to the 4th semi final round in order to determine one more MGP 2020 finalist . On stage will appear one more prequalified finalist, Ulrikke to perform her entry Attention.
The 4 contestants of the 4th MGP semi final (Western Norway), are the following:
- Hege Bjerk – Pang
- Magnus Bokn – Over The Sea
- Nordic Tenors – In This Special Place
- Oda Loves You – Love Who We Love
Among the contestants we see Magnus Bokn and his entry Over The Sea composer of which is Alexander Rybak , winner of Eurovision 2019 with his song Fairytale and Norway’s representative in ESC 2018 with the song That’s how you write a song (15th place). Additionally Joakim With Steen aka JOWST represented Norway in 2017 with the song Grab the monent (10th place).
As in every semi final we will see the four acts compete in duels. The two winners from each duel will battle in a final Gold Duel, from which the winer will win the ticket for the MGP final. .
The 4th Melodi Grand Prix 2020, begins at 19:50 CET and you can watch it HERE
Lithuania – First semi final
The Lithuanian national selection after its qualifying round has reached its first semi final show of Pabandom iš naujo. Host of the night are Gabrielė Martirosian and Giedrius Masalskis, alongside with the country’s ESC 2018 representative, Ieva Zasimauskaitė.
The first set of 9 acts that had qualified from the qualifying rounds will compete in tonight’s semi final show:
- KaYra – Alligator
- Viktorija Miškūnaitė – The Ocean
- Baltos Varnos – Namų dvasia
- Rūta Loop – We Came from the Sun
- Gabrielius Vagelis – Tave čia randu
- THE ROOP – On Fire
- Kristina Jure – My Sound of Silence
- Alen Chicco – Somewhere Out There
- Aistė Pilvelytė – Unbreakable
From these nine only 4 will qualify to the final. The outcome will be determined by a jury (50%) made up by Darius Užkuraitis, Gerūta Griniūtė, Giedrė Kilčiauskienė, Vaidotas Stackevičius and Leon Somov, and by the publoc vote (50%) .
The first semi final show is set to start at 20:00 CET and you can watch it HERE
Israel – First Semi final
The first semi final show of The Next Star in Israel will take place tonight in order to determien the first two finalists of the show, through which the country will be selecting its Eurovision 2020 act.
In today’s semi final show we will see the following 4 compete for the two spots:
- Eden Alene
- Ella-Lee Lahav
- Lali Kolishkin
- Ohad Shragai
The results will be influenced by public voting and the jury votes by a jury consisted of Static & Ben-El Tavori, Keren Peles, Shiri Maimon (ESC Israel 2005) and Assaf Amdursky, while Harel Skaat (Israel 2010) was replace by Itay Levy.
The show begins at 20:15 CET and you can watch it live HERE
