Eurovision 2010 - 25/27/29 May 2010 - Norway

Cyprus has picked Welshman Jon Lilygreen. Definitely their best chance at reaching the final in years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi3ivDk-0Ko

No - the semi-final that each of the Big Four must show and can vote in is chosen by a draw - not to avoid voting politics. (The BBC don't have to show both semi-finals - but they do thankfully)

Norway and Denmark also chose their entries on Saturday in the final of their Melodi Grand Prix(s).

Norway selected Didrki Solli-Tangen with "My Heart is Yours", which is co-written by Fredrik Kempe (who wrote or co-wrote the 2008 and 2009 entries for Sweden)

Denmark selected Chanée & (Tomas) N'evergreen with "In a moment", which is co-written by Thomas G:Son (a Eurovision legend who wrote or co-wrote the Swedish 2001 entry, the Swedish 2006 entry, and both the Spanish and Norwegian entries in 2007!)

So Norway and Denmark have chosen songs written or co-written by Swedes...

Lilygreen being chosen is bizarre in the extreme, just tracked his Facebook site down and to say the least it's crass and basic. He describes himself as a 'Proffesional student tax dodging bum', which won't prove popular. Some rapid editing I think is essential.

Norway copied the UK's 2007 song "I'll Leave My Heart"

Even though NRK is a 720p50 broadcaster they are using 1080/50i cameras. Does that mean the links to other people eg. the BBC will be 1080/50i too (they're not going to convert from 1080/50i to 720p50 then make the BBC have to convert back to 1080/50i are they?).

Also is it known if the BBC will broadcast all 3 programmes in HD this year - they didn't last year.

Around how many do you think they sell and how many do you think they'd need to sell of the Blu-ray to make a profit? Does it cost around £2250 to release a title on Blu-ray if they've never released a title before? Here's the pricing from a US site: http://www.pacificdisc.com/PricingBluRay.html (that site says you would need to pay a $3000 [which is £1926] AACS fee if you haven't released a title before).

The ESC has been 1080/50i (aka 1080i25) since it started being broadcast in HD in 2007 and I doubt it will be different this year. (Though SVT, NRK and ARD/ZDF are all 720/50p now)

If they are using relatively recent Sony HDC-1500s, the cameras themselves are 1080p models that can output 1080/50i or 720/50p down the fibre - and if they are running them in 1080/50i mode then that will be what the multilateral HD feed is. (Most, if not all, of the HD ESCs have been Sony I think - though Alfacam did one recently, and they're LDK Philips/Thomson/GrassValley) The LDKs are 4320line based, with line grouping to 1080i or 720p. (Not 1080i native)



I doubt it - the BBC Three in-vision stuff is very low-budget SD I think, and as the UK isn't in the semifinals it isn't seen as a major telly event.



I have no idea I'm afraid - but if the AACS licensing is £2k alone then I'd imagine the mastering fee is going to be a significant amount on top of that, and I don't know what the duplication costs are for BDs. There are loads of DVD production lines for low-cost duplication, but BD is still quite limited at the low-end I think.

Anyone have any ideas who the multi-camera director for this year's semi-finals/final is?

Interesting question. Sven has done it for a number of years - but maybe NRK will want someone from the Norwegian industry to do it? ISTR that Norway hosts a number of decent TV music concerts (including the Nobel concert - though that often has a British camera supervisor and vision mixer?)

.... and a British conductor this year in Nick Davies.

By the way, the annual SVT ban is now lifted, so please feel free to search Youtube for your favourite Mello songs. My favourite is Darin, and perhaps Peter's. Alcazar on an outside bet (though it sounds exactly like "It's My Life" from last year in some parts....) provided they make it to the final, that is!

Yep - now all songs have been performed all of them are available on the SVT website.

Was listening to Rix FM (I guess sort of the Swedish equivalent to Capital or Heart?) last night and "Keep on Walking" was the only MF track I heard... I can see that winning - but I wouldn't bet against "Hollow". Peter Jöback is incredibly popular in Sweden - he recorded a Benny/Bjorn track from Kristina that stayed in the charts for 2 years and 6 weeks ("Guld blevet till sand")

In Norway the iTunes chart predicted that Didrik would win MGP - be interesting to see which MF tracks get the most airplay and where they get in the iTunes charts (some are up in the UK store today)

Personally I'm glad Pernilla Wahlgren got to Andra Chansen with a slice of schlager this week - hopefully she'll go to the final along with Alcazar.

In fact - just signed into the iTunes Sweden store. Chart is currently :

1. This is my life - Anna Bergendahl (Finalist from Del 4)
2. You're out of my life - Darin (Finalist from Del 3)
3. Kom - Timoteij (Finalist from Del 3)
4. Hollow - Peter Jöback (Finalist from Del 4)
5. Manboy - Eric Saade (Finalist from Del 2)
6. Unstoppable - Ola (Finalist from Del 1)
7. Headlines - Alcazar (Andra Chansen from Del 2)
8. Human Frontier - Neo (Andra Chansen from Del 4)
9. Jag will om du vågar - Pernilla Wahlgren (Andra Chansen from Del 4)
10. We can work it out - Andreas Johnson (Finalist from Del 2)
11. Sucker for love - Pauline (Andra Chansen from Del 2)

14. Keep on walking - Salem al Fakir (Finalist from Del 1)

That's a top 10 (in fact top 11) entirely filled with Melodifestivalen entries (Can you EVER imagine a UK iTunes chart entirely filled with Song for Europe/Your Country Needs You entries?!) The first non-MF song is Alicia Keys at no. 12.

Interesting that Alcazar and Neo - both in Andra Chansen - are ahead of some of the other performers already in the final (Andreas Johnson and Salem al Fakir) - though I suspect the songs have only been up for a few hours? (EDIT - though this may be more to do with the fact that the top 7 only cost 9SEK whilst the next few cost 12SEK!)

Personally I'm also pleased that there are at least one Swedish language song in the final (Kom) - hopefully it will be joined by another one from Andra Chansen.

Salem was added to iTunes much later than the others for some reason which may explain why he's so much lower.

I think the top 2 will be Kom and This is my Life. I'd much prefer This is my Life to win though.

And I really hope Alcazar get through though it's clearly going to be a close one as chances are they'll be fighting against Neo.