Hervé has drawn France for me. Hervé has mapped France a l'Hexagone.
![France, by Hervé](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3194/2392005967_cd35a18942.jpg)
I ask people to draw maps...
· Draw the World
· Draw Europe's nations
· Crowdsourced Continent maps
I make map cards:
· See map cards
And other things I write about:
· Little moments from travel
· London art & museums
· Football with foreign fans
· London shop geography
Labels: Discovery
Labels: Discovery, eurovision, london, music / mp3, Serbia
Labels: Discovery, environment, Japan, Moldova
Labels: internet
Labels: France, geography, london, Norway, photography
I'm going to the Eurovision Dancing Contest tomorrow. What fun.
Er, that's it really.
Labels: eurovision
Labels: live music, Sweden, The Sounds
I'm in a blogging quandary. Part of me wants to just stop. A bigger part of me wants to go on, boldly going forth and exclaiming, "ace!" I'm not sure what a blog is for any more, as everyone blogs now, in one way or another, thanks to Facebook.
Acediscovery will change - it was always to be somewhere I'd write about things I've found that I think are cool. This became hijacked with Eurovision and pop music, and that's great... I just miss the other stuff, that's all. (Thanks, Robyn.)
So.
These two articles about Ireland are very interesting.
Labels: celebrity, television, UK
Labels: live music, london, pop music, popstars, Sweden
The new Girls Aloud single: Sexy! No No No.
OMFG.
Amazing.
It makes me want to be a teenager again.
Hurrah for Girls Aloud. They bring sunshine into even the wettest of summer days.
Here it is, via youtube and some random dance video:Labels: Girls Aloud, pop music
Carola's gone all leather-clad biker queen. Glad to see she's still doing the arms aloft waving.
With thanks to the Schlagerboys.
London Pride was something of a washout. It was wet. Still, at least the float blaring out "It's Raining Men!" made sense.
I didn't even get a shot of a buff man bouncing around wearing a mankini. Forshame.
It turned out that there was a Eurovision connection.
Amnesty International used the idea of Eurovision voting to highlight the poor experiences of gays in Eastern Europe where a lot of Pride marches are banned. Thus, nul points for Moldova, Poland, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and others.
Read all about it here.
And to make it even better, the Amnesty float was blasting out I Love You, Mi Vida. Oh, if only buff Ony (Antonio to his mum) from D'Nash had turned up with his lovely arms and chest...
Lots of great photographs of the day here.
Labels: eurovision, gay, london, spain
I went to see wistful Swedish poppets Raymond & Maria last night. They're playing a whistlestop tour of gigs in London and Glasgow this week, and I highly recommend.
Reasons why Raymond & Maria are great:
The English version can be heard on Raymond och Maria's myspace, and download the Swedish version here:
Download Raymond och Maria: Ingen vill veta var du köpt din tröja mp3
Labels: live music, pop music, Sweden
Labels: Czech Republic, eurovision, live music, pop music
I'm not sure what to write now. With no eurovision to distract me, I'm practically lost.
My new job is keeping me very busy, so I don't find the time to keep up with the cool pop blogs and haven't listened to new music in yonks (suggestions on a blog comment, please!).
What I have been doing is wandering around strange parts of London taking photos. London: The Way We See It is a cool site that picks a London street at random each week and the masses go out to photograph it in their own unique style. Below is Change Alley, in the City.
I thought Change Alley would be one of London's delightful hidden alleys. Instead it's a dumping ground.Following an odd cross-shaped path, it wasn't particularly winding, medieval or mysterious. It turned out to be where restaurants kept their wheelie bins, where the rubbish was and where the pipes where hidden. Running between two 'main' streets and arteries, it was where the stuff that couldn't be out front was deposited. This photograph is the stuff deposited between two surfaces.
Labels: london, photography
I've been to see Girls Aloud play their Greatest Hits tour in Wembley. In a word, it was amazing. I love their songs, their attitude, their style. The audience was a hugely diverse mixture - young kids, gays a plenty, indie boys, Essex girls, trendy girls, New-Rave "youth of today" and many more besides. Girls Aloud seem to succeed by mixing quite complex, layered and referential pop music and lowest common denominator styling, and somehow pull this off with ace personality.
More pictures on Flickr, if you are interested.
Labels: celebrity, Girls Aloud, live music, london, popstars, UK
Labels: New York City, photography, USA
Now that Eurovision is done and dusted, I'm off to New York tomorrow.
But there's still time to celebrate this year.
Serbia was a fantastic, deserving winner. I loved the militaristic, powerful performance and Molitva is a storming stomper of a song.
I'm really glad a ballad has won again, and it's the first fully non-English song for yonks.
My votes on the night were a tight affair: 3 joint winners: Serbia, Ukraine and Slovenia. I had the top 2 at least.
Patriotically, I'm a bit disappointed Ireland didn't do better, but not surprised - it was joint 20th in my line-up. We gave big cheers when Scooch got their 12 points from Malta, and huge groans when Ireland's points for the UK and Lithuania voted themselves into last position.
Also: a word to Sweden, who really didn't do well. SEND SCHLAGER EVERY YEAR: YOU'RE GUARANTEED A JOINT 6TH POSITION.
And that is all. Now, hands in fists, arms aloft: MO---LIT---VA!!!!!!!
Labels: eurovision, Serbia, Sweden
Eurovision semi-final came and went yesterday, and wasn't it a whole lot of fun? As has been covered en masse elsewhere, all the qualifying countries (bar Turkey) are Eastern European. I don't really care about this, but I'm disappointed that Netherlands, Malta and others didn't qualify.
If anything, I think the EBU need to come up with a format that tempers this disappointment, and highlights the fact that the show is a celebration of music and song!
Here are my Best Bits!
I loved lots of other things too. Roll on Saturday!
Labels: eurovision
For your download pleasure, here are I Dag & I Morgan from Melodifestivalen 2006, and the very ace Varför är kärleken röd? which came in 2nd place in 1983's Melodifestivalen.
Kikki Danielsson - I dag & I Morgan mp3 (right click - save as)
Kikki Danielsson - Varför är kärleken röd? mp3 (right click - save as)
Labels: eurovision, Kikki Danielsson, music / mp3, schlager, Sweden
Antti Tuisku came third in the first series of Finnish Idols, which was won by this year's Finnish Eurovision entrant Hanna Pakarinen. Antti, 23, subsequently released two albums on the same day - Rovaniemi and New York. They topped the chart at numbers 1 and 2 in their first week.
Rovaniemi mixes pop sounds and hints of trip hop and downbeat ethereal techno to surprising effect. New York is much more racy, vampy and sexy. Taking a Timberlake styling, the album took influence from Antti's idol Madonna, mixing dancebeats and electrosynth hooks, creating an modern sound complimented by assonant Finnish lyrics.
Sekaisin, loosely translates as 'Confused', reached number 2 in the Finnish charts last year. I love the 'ooour' sound in the chorus, based on the sound of the Finnish language.
Tulevaisuus, which means Future, builds from synth hooks and echoey vocals to a huge chorus.
Annti Tuiksu - Sekaisin mp3 (right click-save as)
Annti Tuiksu - Tulevaisuus mp3 (right click-save as)
Labels: Antti Tuiksu, Finland, music / mp3, pop music, popstars
Humppa is a bonkers Finnish musical style that seems to be a hilarious thrown-together mix of lots of instruments, wild on stage energy and exuberant performances. It's a sort of mash of ska and polka and folk and rock. It's brilliant.
Eläkeläiset (Finnish for "pensioners") are a humppa band, who've been around since the early 1990s. Eläkeläiset mainly play cover versions of famous pop and rock hits in a fast humppa style with Finnish lyrics. They've covered lots of classics: The Cardigans' My Favourite Game, Madonna's Like A Virgin and a particular stand-out track The Pet Shop Boys' Domino Dancing.
Here for download is one we all know and love given a bit of humppa treatment.
Eläkeläiset - Kulumaton Humppa mp3
Labels: Eläkeläiset, Finland, humppa, music / mp3, pop music
Labels: Finland, music / mp3, pop music, popstars
Over the next four days, in the run up to Eurovision, I'm going to feature some funky Finnish music. I'm starting today with two acts that need no introduction: Arja Saijonmaa and Katri Helena.
Arja Saijonmaa is a fab Finnish singer, well known for her Melodifestivalen entries, having entered twice and twice in the Finnish Eurovision preselections. She was cruelly robbed in 1987 by one point into second place with the amazing schlager classic Högt över Havet. Even more amazing was Arja's shoulder-padded wrap-around electric blue number and strut to the front of the stage to begin the song.
Arja has starred in three Finnish movies, written a book about Finnish sauna culture and is a United Nations’s Goodwill Ambassador. She has released 14 albums in Finnish, 11 in Swedish and has recorded also in Norwegian, Greek, Spanish, Italian, French and German.
Arja worked with Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis to create Finnish versions of his Greek political songs. This can be heard in Jokainen Arkiaamu, a pleasant folksy song with hints of Greek folk and tango influences. Arja's vocals are as distinctive as ever.
Arja Saijonmaa - Jokainen Arkiaamu mp3 (right click - save as)
Arja was catapulted back into the spotlight by appearing in Sweden's Let's Dance, having an affair with her dance partner, posing naked with him and generally vamping it up big style. Fabulous! Arja came back to Melodifestivalen in 2005, but, er, came last in her semi-final after a dreadful vocal performance. Best not to dwell on that one. Here instead is her demo recording of another 2005 MF song, Om Natten. Jessica Folcker sang the final version, but I much prefer Arja - she rasps her way through the song with drama and passion.
Arja Saijonmaa - Om Natten mp3 (right click - save as)
Katri Helena is another Finnish instituion, having performed at Eurovision twice. In 1979 she performed Katson Sineen Taivaan, and in 1993 came to Millstreet with the excellent Tule Luo. Whereas Arja is vampy and sexy, Katri is classy and sweet. Tule Luo is a brilliant melodic pop song with accordions. Katson Sineen Taivaan is a dramatic, rousing balladic pop song with swooping strings and a soaring chorus. Both songs are fabulous examples of the under-rated Finnish entries to Eurovision.
Katri Helena - Katson Sineen Taivaan mp3 (right click - save as)
One of the things that astounds me about Katri Helena is her unwavering ability to wear blue. It just suits her so much. Away from Eurovision, Katri Helena is a much loved Finnish star. She is the first singer in Finland to have sold more than one million albums, and this list of her albums is huge, reaching back to the 1960s. Here to download is Maailman pihamaat, a 60s sounding song in Finnish with hints of tango (they do love the tango in Finland!)
Labels: Finland, melodifestivalen, music / mp3, pop music, popstars, schlager
One week to Eurovision. I'm all kinds of excited, but yet not clicking all the amazing blogs bringing the rehearsal gossip. I want the show to be a wonderful, sparkly surprising explosion of fun.
If you're eagle-eyed, you'll know that I've written song previews for londonist.com. We've tried to popularise the songs... I've focused on all the songs, even the ones I don't like and not raved about those I love. So, having watched all the videos at the wonderful Retro Bar Douze Points bash, these are my Eurovision highlights:
Semi-final
Bulgaria: Amazing. Loving the mix and going-over-a-cattle-grate vocals and this will be ace if they can reproduce their crazy drumming on stage. I'm also hoping Elitsa will wear her wings. I predict the Lordi effect for this year will be wings + fireworks.
Cyprus: Love Evridiki's power-fringing and electropop styling. But, why oh why, is she bringing musicians on stage? She needs hunky dancers! Musicians are so Comme Ci, Comme Ca.
Belarus: Dmitry Koldun's got a big, big sound, is big in the Baltics (-ish), he's probably big in his pants, but will he Work His Magik to be big in the hall?
Iceland. Erikur, bless him, with his over-the-top melodrama and big blonde hairdo, he's this year's Anna Vissi.
Georgia: Sopho's Visionary Dream is Bjork meets Madonna meets Kate Bush meets Karen Carpenter meets post-Soviet chic. This song is nothing short of amazing.
Natalia from Moldova really better bring the hunky boys in shirts and ties on stage and get them to stage-fight. Very 'graphic' (or something).Netherlands! Edsilia! Wonderful! But! What! is she doing in the video?! Standing?! Finger-clicking?! That's all wrong. She needs to be strutting. Preferably On Top of The World, like a big globe, or something.
Denmark's DQ has the best going-into-a-chorus moment in the whole contest this year. The high, high key change reminds me of moments in the Simpsons when they're being strangled and their tongues wiggle. Amazing.
Serbia: oh how I love a big thumping ballad. I just hope they don't have a daft stage show going on in the background. It's all about Marija and her couldn't-be-bother'd-to-glam-it-up image.
Norway! Ven A Bailar Conmigo, hurrah! Loving the costume change, and that Guri Schanke looks old enough to know better, but is having the time of her life. Guri's a game old bird!
Malta. I've loved Vertigo since, oh, January. Olivia Lewis' crazy frantic running in the video is ace, and gives whole new lyrics for the chorus: "and I run, and I run, and I run, and I run". Hilarious, brilliant melodramatic ethnopop.
Estonia: Gerli will strut on stage for sure, and Estonia can always be counted on to bring hunky dancers.Slovenia's fabulously bizarre ethno-opera-anthem is as odd as a box of frogs and just as amazing, and Alenka is all kinds of fierce with arms aloft (thanks to Geoff).
Turkey. Mr Kenan Dogulu, with his lots of candy indeed, looks like the kind of man you'd meet in a bath-house and would follow down a darkened alley to shake up his shekerim.
I'm duty bound to love Austria's song for boyfriend reasons, and I do like it. I'm loving that it'll be all sparkly and crystalline.
Final Spain! D'NASH, or G:Nash as I prefer to call them, need to work clothes removal into their performance. That, or songwriter Rebeca needs to strut across the stage for no apparent reason in heels and big hair... AND! She should rip the t-shirts off the two hot ones. That'll work.
Ireland: bless us, we're going for the twee vote. I much prefer the harsher vocals by Dervish lady as it's more authentically Irish, more Dolores O'Riordan than Andrea Corr, if you will.Finland: Hanna Pakarinen better be in a big flowing frock, with a wind machine and big rock-chick angry swoops from her mikestand. She can rock the Caustic Carola look. Her kicking the table over in her video is the Anna-Vissi-kicking-the-car moment of 2007.
Greece: Sarbel does loves his tight little t-shirts that show his arms off. It's not a patch on Paparizou's Gigolo, but a nice bit of shakey-shimmying fun.
Sweden: I didn't rate it to begin with, but I'm now a huge fan of The Ark's The Worrying Kind (needs to be renamed Not The Marrying Kind). I'm very excited to read they're bringing Therese's revolving CD stand to Helsinki.
Russia's teen mail-order bride anthem promises us so much strutting action, but what's with the dopey dance breakdown in the middle? Just get to the key change, ladies!Ukraine is just bonkers and great fun. I don't want this to win, but I do want baco-foil clad dancers on my TV screens. Verka Serduchka, don't live to dance, dance to live. I love you.
UK: Scooch are going to be delightfully entertaining and flying the flag for camp nonsense.
And there's so many others too, as well as all the ace Finnish-ness of it all. Arja Saijonmaa might even pop up, and the lovely Katri Helena too! We can only hope for a CatCat revival. It's all so exciting. Not paying attention to the rehearsals will be super difficult, so to divert, over the next week, I'm going to feature some funky Finnish music. Check back over the next few days to find out more.
Labels: eurovision, Finland
Here's my more official, less giddy and excitable preview from Londonist.
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Semi-final
Bulgaria send an ethnic rave song with vocals that are mere sound effects built into the heavily drummed mix. It's quite amazing.
Israel's controversial entry sounds like 5 songs in one. Sounding like a bargain bin Gogol Bordello, Push The Button by Teapacks mixes rap, rock, drum and bass, jaunty pop, klezmer with social messages about nuclear annihilation.
The entry from Cyprus is sung by Evridiki who's been taking lessons from Madonna and Anna Vissi. Comme Ci, Comme Ca is a electropop song with vocals in French and full of synths and electric guitar. Has a false-ending middle eight, and should be performed well.
The Belarus entry is a Bond theme tune that never was. Fantastic strings and chorus make this a catchy number, and one that should be in with a good chance.
Iceland's performer is Eurovision veteran who sings a melodramatic rock ballad called Valentine Lost. The fans will love him, but will all that melodrama be too much for him?
Debut nation Georgia send a performer called Sopho with a song Bjork would be proud of. Visionary Dream mixes an ethnic tune with thumping dance beats, and floaty string sections all accompanied by shrieky Kate Bush vocals. In the national final, she performed the song wearing a massive floating blob pink dress. Amazing.
Montenegro send a dull, uninspired electric rock song with very little to redeem it.
Switzerland send the improbably named DJ Bobo performing the reminiscent-of-Aqua dance-pop songVampires Are Alive. The stage show for this should be ace, so watch out for the Bobo.
Moldova's entry, Fight, soars and grinds, with angry guitars that remind us of goth-poppers Evanescence with added synthy lightning strikes and high female vocals. Wind machine, ahoy!
The Netherlands send the potential Eurovision classic, On Top of The World. It hits all the right cliches: starts off slow and acoustic, kicks into a soaring chorus, an odd middle 8 and a huge key change accompanied by squiggly sounds. To top it off, Edsilia, the performer, is a past Eurovision entrant and knows how to work the stage. Brilliant.
Hear My Plea cry the Albanians with a slow ethnic ballad, the title of which in Albanian is Stone Ballad. That's about as exciting as it gets.
Denmark send a fabulous drag queen singing Drama Queen, a fabulously dancey pop song about how fabulous her dramatic life is.
Croatia's entry is a fairly dull mid-tempo rock number, sung by a man who will be the oldest entrant in the contest ever.
Poland's Jet Set tell us that it's time to party, time to party, time to party in their Black Eyed Peas-esque bouncy, rappy hip-pop song.
Serbia's Marija is eye catching as she looks somewhat K D Lang. Her song Molitva translates as Prayer and is a big, big ballad with ethnic drums and flutes. We see this one doing very well.
The debut performers from the Czech Republic are growling, hoary rockers performing a fairly standard rock number.
Portugal's latino dancing song is nowhere near as good as Norway's, which is odd, you'd think.
Macedonia's Karolina (that's her there in Eurovision 2002) brings us the best instance of "ni-ninny-na-ni-na-na-na-ninny-ni-na" nonsense lyrics this year with her classily performed sort-of nationalistic pop song.
Norway send a fun Latino-flavoured dancing song Ven a Bailar Conmigo sung by a woman who's not Spanish and old enough to know better but seems to be having the time of her life, especially during her fabulous eye-catching costume change.
Malta throw the kitchen sink into their entry, Vertigo. It has a big Mediterranean ethno-pop sound, evoking Greek, Spanish and Turkish music. Performer Olivia Lewis is a trooper, and vocally powerful and the song's swooshing sound makes this one of our favourites for this year. Malta would love to win, let's hope they have the chance.
Andorra's entry are Busted-meets-Blink182 boys Anonymous, and they are some guys singing about saving the world in Catalan. It's a fresh, interesting approach from a country that usually are ignored at Eurovision.
Rusza Magadi sings Hungary's entry, Unsubstantial Blues. It's what it says: a blues number about being dumped. With her repeated shrieks of "why did you leave me", we can think of at a few reasons.
The brother of Estonia's Gerli Padar won Eurovision 5 years ago, but her pleasant, uptempo guitar-led number probably won't follow suit. Nice strutting, though.
Belgium's late 70s disco-funk number is an ace track full of positivity and love and happiness.
Slovenia continue their tradition of sending ace, but unusual, songs to Eurovision. The song, Cvet z Juga, is an ethno-opera-dance song with a high, high note at the end: odd, yet strangely alluring.
Turkey's got the hunk of the contest. Kenan Dogulu performs the very Turkish sounding electro-ish Timberlake-esque pop song Shake It Up Shekerim.
Austria bring an uptempo, uplifting guitar rock-pop song sounding a little like Bon Jovi who tells us to "get a life, a better life". Their performance is going to feature lots of crystals and ribbons. Wonderful.
Latvia have 6 men singing Italian opera stylings, very G4 like and the kind of thing your mum is supposed to love.
Final
Bosnia & Herzegovina send a song very like their entry from last year, an ethnic ballad with traditional instrumentation and harmonies. It's pleasant, but that's as far as it goes.
Spain send D'NASH, a buff boyband that stick to the boyband rule of having two hawt members. We can't help but picture them. They're singing I Love You, Mi Vida, a straight-forward uptempo, latin pop song.
Ireland's act Dervish bring a traditional Irish music tune about how all of Europe is now free and friendly, sung with traditionally Irish lamenting vocals. It's very Irish, take that how you will.
The host nation Finland are sending their massively popular winner of Finnish Idols who was once a forklift driver. Hanna Pakarinen will sing Leave Me Alone, a rock anthem about broken love which veers just to the right side of depressing.
The Lithuanian entry is a slow, classy jazz tune with Spanish guitar and an affecting lovelorn sentiment.
Sarbel, the Greek entrant is actually a London boy. He's singing an uptempo laika-tinged pop song about a fabulous cheeky girl called Maria. It reminds greatly of Helena Paparizou, the singer who won for Greece 2 years ago.
Sweden have a jaunty glam-rock song performed by The Ark, one of Sweden's biggest bands, and led by the sexually ambiguous Ola Salo.
France, having upped their effort considerably this year, send a jaunty guitar pop song called L'Amour a la Francaise. The song sung partly in French and English plays with cliches and ideas about love, the French way. It's cute and we hope it does well.
Russia send Serebro, a funky girl band, singing a grindy electro-ish catchy pop song much like something Britney should be singing. It's one of the few proper pop songs in the Contest this year and, last year, Russia came second - Moscow 2008, anyone?
The German entrant this year is the rather dishy Roger Cicero, singing a swing jazz number praising how women rule the world.
Ukraine send Verka Seduchka, a lumpy drag queen singing a nonsensical drinking song over a tinny ethno-dance beat.
UK - Scooch are camp, frothy, tinny and flying the UK flag
Romania's entrant are Todomondo, 6 blokes singing about love in 6 different languages. It's ridiculously catchy and quite charming, and goes a bit bonkers when the police siren kicks in before the key change. Wahey.
Armenia send a mid-tempo love ballad, with the air of a faint late 80s easy-listening sound. Not one to be reckoned with.
Labels: eurovision
Today, I met Scooch! (Thanks to karinski) It was wildly uneventful, but Things I Learned are:
Labels: celebrity, eurovision, UK
There's something fishy going on in Helsinki with the Eurovision stage. There's a catwalk, but no performers will be using it. Apologies to the 42 people that signed the "They Must Strut!" petition. I might get around to presenting it to YLE this week.
Labels: eurovision, Finland
It's not often that a Eurovision perfomer pops up in London, so I hot-footed it to the salubrious surroundings of Haringey yesterday to see the Cypriot wonder-diva Evridiki.
Labels: Cyprus, eurovision, Evridiki, live music
I totally haven't forgotten this blog, I'm just hyper busy changing jobs and finishing a PhD. I'll be back super soon. I took time out yesterday to see the amazing Bodies Without Organs at Popjustice Live. It was blog-tastic: I spotted / met: Jessica, Trixie, gaypop, this dude and Mr Lowculture. Wows.
Labels: eurovision, live music, pop music, popstars, schlager, Sweden
Remember that American presenter, Maria Menounos, from last year's Eurovision from Greece? Her that looked like Grace from Will & Grace, and declared that everything was 'amazing', like, a million times...
I know you're now asking yourself, "whatever happened to her?". Well, here she is, having an awkward moment with that lovely Ugly Betty during the Emmy Awards. Amazing.
Labels: celebrity, eurovision, television, USA
I'm still demanding a strut! On the CatCatWalk - Well Done to the Melodimen for that piece of Eurovizh wordplay.
Yes, The Catwalk Campaign continues apace (ie. I've not done anything since last week and don't intend to so it 'continues' 'apace').
39 intelligent, sound-of-mind and right-thinking people have signed the campaign so far. I'll print them all out, pop them in a jiffy bag and send it off to YLE. Soon. But what do the petitionees have to say:
Andy Brook notes: Scooch needs an aisle to demonstrate their safety procedures!
And to show us where the emergency exits are!
None other than Vicki Leandros (!) says: Oooh, imagine what Ola Salo (the Ark) could do with a catwalk.
Vicki knows her stuff (or, at least, imagines her stuff)
Neil Durham offers a voice of sanity and a well-reasoned argument in this sea of bonkers-ness by saying: Use of the catwalk by the acts would make the contest far more exciting and increase the interaction between artists and audience.
You know it. Please sign the petition: if not for Scooch, for Edsilia, for Evridiki, for Guri, for Everybody (that's all of us, not the ropey Estonian winner).
Labels: campaign, eurovision
Some pictures have emerged about the Eurovision stage for Helsinki. This is one of those pictures, thank you oikotimes who took it from YLE / EBU.
It's quite minimal in a Finnish chic way, and this is good.
There is a catwalk, and this is good.
The catwalk is only to be used for the opening and interval acts, and camera-people. Not the performers. And this is bad.
Guri Schanke needs to strut! Scooch need to have the aisle light up in the case of an emergency landing! Edsilia = strutting! Evridiki = strutting! Serebro = coordinated girl band strutting! DQ = strutting! We need the strutting space.
YLE! Rectify this! The Catwalk Campaign starts here. Sign the petition and Save Our Strutting!
Labels: campaign, Denmark, eurovision, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, UK
So The Ark are going forward for Sweden to Eurovision. I can't help wonder whether the great Swedish viewing public got a little confused between their beloved Carola and The Ark's Ola. They have the same hair, after all.
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Labels: carola, eurovision, melodifestivalen, Sweden, The Ark