Adrian Kavanagh's Blog

First posted by Adrian Kavanagh on 3rd January 2017, with subsequent updates between January 2017 and March 2017

At the start of 2017, it was confirmed that 43 countries will take part in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in Kyiv in early May – the Final will take place on Saturday 13th May, with the two semi-finals to take place on Tuesday 9th May and Thursday 11th May. The line up of countries is very similar to that for the 2016 contest, which involved 42 countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina, after a brief return to the contest in 2016, have to withdraw from the contest again in 2017 due to financial difficulties, but Portugal will return to the contest after a one-year absence. Romania were controversially disqualified from the 2016 Eurovision only a few weeks before the contest was held in Stockholm due to debts owed to the EBU by Romanian TV, but these issues have now been resolved and Romania will return to the contest this year.

We now know all of the acts and songs that will be representing all of the forty three countries competing in Eurovision 2017.

Seventeen (39.5% of the) Eurovision 2017 acts were selected “internally”, although there was a contest to select the song for the Greek act, Demy.   Most of the acts that were selected before the end of 2016 were internal selections, including the acts for Belgium, The Netherlands, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus, Montenegro, Austria and Azerbaijan, as well as Ireland (Bredan Murray). (All these are listed below.) However, there was a selection contest in Armenia, with Artsvik winning through this Depi Evratesil contest on 24th December 2016, after a number of weeks of selection shows. The song that she will perform in Kyiv has not yet been announced/performed.

Lindita will represent Albania in Kyiv with Botë (Radio Televizioni Shqiptar, 2016)

Lindita Halimi won the Albanian selection (Festivali i Këngës) on 23rd December 2016 with Botë, which is the only song that we have heard to date, although it was expected that Botë would be reworked over the coming weeks/months (and might also be performed in the English language). That indeed transpired. On 13th March a new, English-language, version of the song, entitled World, was presented.

While we know that Slavko Kalezic will represent Montenegro with Space, this song has yet to be performed.

A number of selection contests took place in January 2017, including those for Finland, the United Kingdom, Belarus and Georgia. Tako Gachechiladze won the Georgian selection on 20th January with Keep The Faith. The Navi Band won the national selection in Belarus on that same night with Historyja majho žyccia. On Friday 27th January Lucie Jones won Eurovision You Decide and will represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest Final with Never Give Up On You.

Lucie Jones will represent The United Kingdom at Eurovision (BBC, 2017).

On the following night Norma Jean’s Blackbird won the Finnish Eurovision selection contest, Uuden Musikin Kilpailu.

Updates: On Friday 13th January it was announced that Demy would represent Greece at Eurovision in Kyiv, as reported on the Wiwibloggs website. At a selection show on 6th March, it was decided that she would perform This Is Love in Kyiv.

On 5th February Timebelle won the Die Entscheidungsshow selection contest in Switzerland with Apollo.

Timebelle will represent Switzerland in Kyiv (SRF. 2017)

On 9th February it was announced, as reported on the official Eurovision website, that Alma would represent France at the Eurovision Song Contest with Requiem. On that night, Germany held its Unser Song 2017 selection contest, at which Levina, with Perfect Life, was selected to be the Germac act at the Eurovision contest. Both Alma and Levina will perform in the Final as France and Germany, as members of the “Big 5”, qualify directly for the Final.

Despite the fact that Mirela’s Contigo won the public vote at Spain’s Ojetivo Eurovision selection on Saturday 11th February, a win in the jury vote saw Manel Navarro’s Do It For Your Lover go forward to win the contest to represent Spain at this year’s Eurovision. As reported by the ESCXtra website (14 February 2017), the results of this vote has resulted in a high level of controversy in Spain, which has even involved intervention from some politicians in that state. The ESC Bubble website (15 February 2017) reports that Navarro’s Eurovision participation “is in question”, with questions now being raised by the Congress of Deputies and a number of political parties.

On the same night, Francesco Gabbani won the 2017 San Remo Song Contest with Occidentali’s Karma and it was subsequently confirmed that this would be the song to represent Italy at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv.

Franceso Gabbani won San Remo 2017 and will be representing Italy at Eurovision (Gabbani, 201&

On February 13th, Imri Ziv won “The Next Star for Eurovision 2017” selection contest in Israel. It was later announced that his song would be I Feel Alive and this was released to the public on 9th March 2017.

On February 15th, as reported on the Wiwibloggs website (15 February 2017), it was reported that the Czech Republic would be represented by Martina Barta at Kyiv. her song for Kyiv, My Turn, was released on 7th March.

On 17th February, it was announced that Croatia’s Eurovision act would be Jacques Houdek, as reported on the Wiwibloggs website (17 February 2017). It was subsequently revealed that his song would be My Friend, with the ESCBubble website noting that this would be premiered on 2nd March.

Three national selection finals were held on the night of 18th February. Kasia Moś won the Polish Eliminacje Krajowe Eurowizja selection contest with Flashlight, as reported on the official Eurovision website. Claudia Faniello won the Maltese MESC 2017 national selection contest with Breathlessly, as reported on the official Eurovision website. Joci Pápai, with Origo, won the Hungarian A Dal national selection contest, as reported on the official Eurovision website.

Anja Nissen represents Denmake at Eurovision 2017 (DR/Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, 2017)

On 25th February 2017 Omar Naber won the Slovenian EMA national selection contest and will represent Slovenia at Eurovision 2017 with On My Way.  On the following night O.Torvald won the national selection final in Ukraine with Time while SunStroke Project won the national selection final in Moldova with Hey Mama. On the same night, Anja Nissen won the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2017 selection contest and will go on to represent Denmark in Kyiv. On 26th February Triana Park won the Latvian Supernova 2017 national selection contest and will represent Latvia in Kyiv.

On 27th February it was confirmed that Tijana Bogicevic will represent Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest. On 6th Match, it was confirmed that her song would be titled In Too Deep, as reported on the ESC Bubble website (6th March). This was released on Friday 10th March.

The Dutch entry for Eurovision 2017 – Lights and Shadows by OG3NE – was presented for the first time on 3rd March.

Koit Toome and Laura’s Verona won the Estonian Eesti Laul national selection final on 4th March. On Sunday 5th March Illinca feat. Alex Florea won the Romanian national selection contest with Yodel It! On the same night, Salvador Sobral won the Portugese national selection with Amar Pelois Dois.

On 7th March it was announced that Isaiah Firebrace, the winner of X Factor Australia 2016, would be representing Australia at Eurovision with Don’t Come Easy. On 8th March the entry from Belgium – City Lights by Blanche, who had been announced as Belgium’s act on 22nd November 2016 – was presented for the first time. On 9th March it was announced that Artsivik’s entry for Armenia would be called Fly With Me. The song was presented for the first time on 18th March. On 10th March it was announced that Ireland’s act, Brendan Murray, would be performing Dying To Try in Kyiv and the song was released on that day. The entry for Montenegro – Space by Slavko Kalezić – was also released on that same day, as was Jana Burceska’s entry – Dance Alone – for FYR Macedonia.

On 11th March four national selection finals were held in Lithuania, Sweden, Iceland and Norway. Robin Bengtsson won the Swedish Melodifestivalen with I Can’t Go On. JOWST won the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix with Grab The Moment. It was also revealed on 11th March that Dihaj’s entry for Azerbaijan would be Skeleton. Svala won the Iceland Songvakeppnin selection with Paper. Fusedmarc won the final of the Lithuanian national selection contest with Rain Of Revolution. On the same day, Azerbaijan revealed their Eurovision entry for Kyiv – Dihaj’s Skeletons.

On 12th March it was revealed that San Marino would be represented at the 2017 Eurovision with Spirit of the Night, which will be performed by Valentina Monetta – who had previously represented San Marino in 2012, 2013 and 2014 – and Jimmie Wilson. Despite reports that Russia were going to with draw from Eurovision 2017, on 12th March it was announced that Russia would be represented in Kyiv by Julia Samoilova and Flame is Burning.

On the morning of 13th March the Bulgarian delegation confirmed that Kristian Kostov would be representing Bulgaria in Kyiv with Beautiful Mess, with the song being scheduled to be released later on that day.

The list of artists/songs confirmed to date are listed in the table below:

Details on which semi-finals the 37 countries, who do not directly qualify for the Final, will be taking part in have now been added to this list, as well as details on whether they will be performing in the first or second half of this semi final, as you will note. As of now, “The Big 5” countries and the Hosts, Ukraine, have all selected their acts and their songs, meaning that we now know six of the acts/songs that will be performing in the Final. We know all eighteen of the acts that will be performing in Semi Final 1 and seventeen of the songs that will be performed in this have already been released/published. We know nineteen of the nineteen acts that will be performing in Semi Final 2 and eighteen of the songs that will be performed in this have already been released/published.

Tags: 2017, Eurovision

This entry was posted on January 3, 2017 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Eurovision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.