FINLAND 🇫🇮 / UNITED KINGDOM 🇬🇧
On the morning of the Pride in London march, The Independent has published a list of the UK’s top 100 most-celebrated LGBT+ figures. Alongside the likes of Sir Ian McKellen and Clare Balding OBE is Eurovision’s very own Saara Aalto! Despite hailing from Finland, the star has been embraced in the UK for the past few years following her success in X Factor UK.
UNITED KINGDOM 🇬🇧
In a recent interview with Bang Showbiz, Steps member Claire Richards have mentioned that the group could potentially participate at the Eurovision Song Contest in the future.
EUROVISION 2018 🇵🇹
Tel Aviv 2019 may have only just wrapped up a couple of months ago, but it was only last year that Portugal hosted contest for the first time. RTP, the Portuguese broadcaster, has been awarded with a prestigious award for their creativity behind the visuals. They had previously won RTP wins an Eyes and Ears of Europe Award in November last year.
ITALY 🇮🇹
On the basis of what Canale 5 has announced in Italy of the Game Without Borders, six countries will participate, while discussions with other TV stations in Europe are also being discussed. The Italian presenters, Ilary Blasi and Alvin, were also announced. The six countries that have already agreed and will take part in Games Without Borders: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Switzerland.
NORTH MACEDONIA 🇲🇰
Troules and criticism for Tamara. At the celebration of the American Independence and the reception that the US Embassy in Skopje presented for this purpose. Tamara was called upon to interpret her country’s national anthem, among other things, omitting the turn to the country’s national heroes, Goce Delcev, Pitu Guli, Dame Gruev, and Sandanski, all the fighters for independence. What commented after Tamara’s omission was that this was done deliberately, as Bulgaria claimed the above-mentioned persons, claiming historical allegations of their origin. Many opposition parties did not hesitate to go one step further, considering it to be an act motivated by the US Embassy dictating foreign policy in Skopje and trying to rewrite the history of the country by resolving any differences with neighboring states.
GERMANY 🇩🇪
The German singer Costa Cordalis, who was born in Greece, died on Tuesday, July 2, in Majorca, Spain, and revealed the singer’s family to one of Germany’s leading newspapers. Without revealing the causes of the death of the 75-year-old singer, the singer’s son just stressed “being very sad at the disappearance of my father, a wonderful person.” Costa Cordalis’ career began in 1965, and its greatest success came in 1976 with the release of “Anita”. The theme, which was to be recorded in Portuguese by Marco Paulo, led sales in Germany and Switzerland. In 1980, the singer entered the German national final with “Pan”, finishing in 2nd place with 4634 points, minus 194 than Katja Ebstein and “Theater”, the winners of the competition. In 1983 returned to enter the contest, finishing in 4th place with “Ich mag Dich”.
NORWAY 🇳🇴
The 12th season of Allsang på Grensen 2019 premiered last week, with several artists taking part in the broadcast. The program, inspired by the Swedish program Allsang pa Skansen, was presented by Katrine Moholt and Morten Hegseth at the Fredriskten Fortress in Halden. Sandra Kim, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1986, was one of the musical guests, having performed “J’aime La Vie”. Also Benjamin Ingrosso, Swedish representative in Lisbon, participated in the event, having interpreted “All Night Long” and “I’ll be fine somehow”. On the other hand, his mother, Pernilla Wahlgren, played “Jeg vill om du vågar”, theme that led to Melodifestivalen 2010, also participating in a medley that brought together representatives from Sweden and Norway at the Eurovision Festival.
PORTUGAL 🇵🇹
Salvador Sobral, the winner of the Eurovision 2017, debuted last night in Finland at the Savoy-Teatteri in Helsinki. As has been customary in concerts abroad, the Portuguese singer gave voice to “Satumaa”, song in Finnish launched in 1955, taking to the red one the hundreds of people who exhausted the enclosure.
