EUROVISION 2020 🇳🇱
The first wave of ticket sales for the upcoming Eurovision 2020 event in Rotterdam, The Netherlands began at noon today, with Babet Verstappen, the PR manager of the competition, announcing that most of the tickets were purchased by Dutch and British. 23,000 tickets in 20 minutes. Ticket availability started at noon today, and within 20 minutes all tickets were sold, with the number reaching 23,000.
ISRAEL 🇮🇱
An announcement of the production of The Next Star indicates that this year will be the last year in which Israel selects the artist to represent the country at the Eurovision contest. After 7 years, the decision on how to choose a representative for the country will be taken by KAN’s public channel and that The Next Star (HaKokhav HaBa) will no longer be associated with the competition.
After 7 years the national selection to #Eurovision is moving back to KAN Israel's Public Broadcaster, the reality show "The Next Star to Eurovision" will no longer be Israel's national selection, the broadcaster announced that production companies can pitch new format for 2021.
— The Next Star 🌟 (@TNSTESC) December 12, 2019
ALBANIA 🇦🇱
Albania’s television broadcaster, RTSH, announced just three days ago the 20 artists and songs they will be participating in at the 58th FESTIVALI I KENGES, the annual festival that is perhaps the biggest musical event in our neighbouring country’s culture. The song “Me tana” with the famous Albanian artist Elvana Gjata is very popular not only in Albania but also in several European countries! Within just three days of the song’s release, it has reached 1.3 million views! While there are thousands of positive interactions! In Greece, “Me tana” is already in the # 20 spot in the upward trends, while it has been found in the Youtube videos in Switzerland (# 6), in Northern Macedonia (# 6), Germany (up to # 32) and elsewhere. “Me tana” thus became the most popular video on RTSH’s official Youtube channel, as it surpassed the video clip of Albania’s 2016 entry, “Fairytale” with Edita Tarifa, which was the first to air so far.
NORWAY 🇳🇴
Raylee who last participated in Melodi Grand Prix in 2015, looks set to be returning to the competition five years on. The singer was found over the past weekend to have created a Facebook group which translates as “Secret: Melodi Grand Prix 2020”, with Raylee as the admin.
CROATIA 🇭🇷
City of Opatija is ready to host DORA 2020 and HRT held a press conference today. There will be three days of DORA 2020. Organisers hope they get quality songs and the Opatija Mayor stressed the importance of the event. The new Head of Delegation for Croatia has been announced today by HRT. Uršula Tolj has taken on the role having been the Producer in charge of DORA when it returned to television screens last year.
SPAIN 🇪🇸
Speaking on Spanish radio today Blas Cantó has revealed that he has selected the song he wishes to perform at Eurovision 2020. The singer explained that he has not changed his mind on the song in the past two weeks, and is currently progressing with the song.
THE NETHERLANDS 🇳🇱
Speaking to Belgian fan site Sietse Bakker, Executive producer of Eurovision 2020 said that there are strong considerations to narrow the length often Grand Final which the past few years exceeds the 3.5 hours. Regarding Jon Ola Sands position Bakker says he is not invested or invited by the EBU.
GREECE 🇬🇷
ERT appointed the jury which will decide the internally selected artist and song for Rotterdam along with the general strategy for the contest this year. Goal of the Free broadcaster is for Greece to end up in the top ten of the Grand Final.
FRANCE 🇫🇷
Speaking to RTL, legendary singer Catherine Lara spoke about French results in Eurovision. First, she said that the country must stop sending bad songs to the contest and called Amir, Alma, Monsieur Madame and Bilal as voiceless singers. The only artist whom she praises from Eurovision recent history is the 201 Italian participant, Raphael Gualazzi.
