One Night, Two Queens... No Wins.

Sometimes an idea comes along that's so fabulous that it merits being used more than once. Like, say, taking Mozart's Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute and building a contemporary pop choon around it. And entering it into a Eurovision national final. And doing it some really quite serious damage live on stage. And not winning.

Haakon Pedersen och Elisabeth Berg - Nattens Drottning. Didn't win.

Nikita - Kraljica Noci. Also didn't win.

Bloody Maltese!

As you are doubtlessly aware, we were planning a trip to the Maltese Final ( in order to actually explain it to people!!) -  and what have PBS gone and done? - Changed the bloody date!!

Dunno if we are going, but in the meantime - last evening NickD and I found some Global Kryner Classiques!! - Here's one of the best

This is just brilliant! - More please?!

Angela Fricking Wiedl

Europe's Loss is OnEurope's gain!!

You know what this place needs?

Panpipes and yodelling. That's what this place needs. You can't go wrong with panpipes and yodelling. More please!

Angela Wiedl and Dalila Cernatescu - Echos. A shocking THIRD. Dearie me.

More Şebnem, vicar?

So it's 1998 - no, it is - and over in Ankara and/or Istanbul, TRT have struck gold. 23 years of hurt never stopped them dreaming, and finally the delightful Şebnem Paker has shown them that a Top 3 placing is actually completely doable, and with an even better song and a fabulous draw position she might let them dare to dream of going all the way in Birmingham and bringing the trophy home. It makes the national final an absolute no-brainer, doesn't it?

Şebnem Paker - Çal. Won by a landsl... oh.

and back to Portugal...

If, like me, you understand this contest, this next song will make you question the very fabric of your being and go " what the f*** is that?!  Thankfully, this is the song that the FDC 1994 didn't have either!!

Blue Tonton - They really didn't..... 15th out of 20 in the semi's.  Thank the lord!

Euroland, land of Opportunity (Missed)

Some cynical economist types have recently been hypothesising that the Euro project was obviously doomed from the outset, if you only listened for a second to the kind of songs on the subject that were being submitted for consideration for a trip to Jerusalem in 1999. We at OnEurope are not so cynical, and believe that if the Euro project could survive these... it can survive anything!

Karine Trecy - Euroland. Unfavourable exchange rate.

Jacob Haugaard - 3 x Euro. Intolerable exchange rate.

Remind me why (live blog)

Watching the Swiss Italian regional final was a good idea???

Sarah green from going live has sung the first song, and what a divine choice that was !!!!!

Song 2, best worst thing ever. If you get to YouTube this later, you really must. It was hideous, Elsie hideous in fact but fab!!!

Song 3. Faux 80s rock. Best thing in it!!!

Song 4. Zzzzzz

Song 5. Entitled unbreakable, unbearable more like!!!

Unfortunately two terrible songs to finish with!!!!

Then they sing volare badly. Is it over??? Yes almost
More later

Oneurope will be tweeting about the Swiss Italian regional thingummy

...from about 2000 GMT (2100 CET)

They might be very anguised tweets indeed!

Follow us at @oneurope_esc

Now, we're not going to Baku but....

You are going to get an way trip for team OnEurope. We are off to Malta
In Late January to cover my first and Nicks manyth international national final!!!

Its not 17 days in Baku, granted, but it's the closest we'll all get this year.

I trust you'll want cheese and stuff?!?! And remember franko's memorable trip to Valletta in years past, what could possibly go wrong?!?!?!

Oh Portugal, land of delights

This song needs no words..... we'll be visiting FDC lots and lots if this is anything to go by!

Shocking close.... see below

I then checked the results after I decided to post this and to my utter shock and surprise, this only finished ELEVEN points behind Dulce Pontes, who went on to be a famous fado singer.... I wonder what happened to Blocco?!

Oportunidade perdido estiloee-Atlantico

I know what you're thinking - can there possibly be even sparklier gems in the RTP Festival da Canção than those which have progressed to the international final? Surely there can't. And indeed, there aren't.


There are some rather cute little bits of fluff that are worth a listen though, like this doo-dah from 1991. I don't think that Carla Sofia was in widescreen at the time, and it's made her look a bit chunkier than she's supposed to be. I hope.

Carla Sofia - Te Amo E Não Pensei. Nearer than you'd think...