While the on-season for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest began with several national finals taking place as early as November 2014, things have been slower to get going this year.
The first entry for ESC 2016 was selected by Albania in their traditional Festivali i Këngës event held around the Christmas period, to which regular FiK viewers can only say: “Gëzuar festat!” The Adriatic nation will be represented in Stockholm by Eneda Tarifa and her song “Përrallë”, which means “Fairytale”. As usual for Albanian entries, it will need to be trimmed slightly to meet the three-minute limit, and it seems a likely candidate to be sung in English at ESC.
Following years of criticism of its national final format, seven-time ESC winner Ireland has selected internally for the first time, getting a relatively big name on board in the shape of former Westlife singer Nicky Byrne. Although not exactly known for taking the lead in many of the boyband’s songs, his entry “Sunlight” at least feels like an attempt by the Irish broadcaster to try something actively contemporary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Pbnb7Y6AU
And finally, last night Belgium selected 19-year-old Laura Tesoro and the song “What’s The Pressure?” to represent them in Stockholm in May. After a multi-week selection process, the international juries and the televoters in Flanders and beyond agreed that Laura should get the ticket to Sweden, where she will be looking to improve on broadcaster VRT’s recent track record following poor results in 2012 and 2014.
The next events on the Eurovision calendar are the Belarusian final and the Maltese semi-final this Friday night (January 22nd) – why not join us in our chat and watch them with us?
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