NuVidz: Il Volo, Malú, Sia, Edurne!

Il Volo's new album is out today and the leading track is L'amore si muove. Thoughts? Meanwhile Malú also released Quiero today and will release her 10th studio album in November. It would be wonderful to see her represent Spain next year. During my time in Tenerife, I kept hearing Me Fui and now I love that song. Yesterday, the incredibly talented Sia presented Alive and the song has almost 1.5 million hits already. If Australia do continue to participate, SBS promised a big name.... and finally, Edurne's new single has an offcial video-clip. Basta.

SWEDEN WINS EUROVISION 2015!

Måns Zelmerlöw won the 60th Eurovision Song Contest last night with a very impressive 365 points. Russia and Italy came 2nd and 3rd respectively. Throughout the majority of the voting, Russia's Polina was leading. This blogger would've loved to have seen Polina win. Yeah, it would've caused problems but I just adored her and the song... Her performance was one that touched me. She did a beautiful job. I wouldn't say I disliked the Italian song but I didn't want them to win. However Il Volo did win the televote it seems but the juries only placed them 6th. Hmm.. No doubt this will raise the question - do we need juries?

The Makemakes and Ann Sophie both got the dreaded nil points. Underserved in both cases but especially for Germany.. That song deserved so much better! Don't even get me started on Edurne's placing! Jaja!! Her performance was flawless both visually and vocally but it could've been worse. Electro Velvet only managed 24th. The irony is that I'm rather chuffed with this. We did better than France, Germany and Austria.. even though we didn't really deserve to. What else can one say about last night's results? I'm delighted for Belgium and Latvia. Both countries who rarely do well in the contest but did last night as they sent daring and interesting entries. I think Serbia were a bit overrated. France and Romania a bit underrated. Georgia managed 11th place, which is more than respectable, however Nina has said that she's disappointed. Azerbaijan came 12th. Shocked. Maybe the dancers were too much? Maybe. And Elhaida was 17th. Could've been worse.. I'm proud of her. The Aussies did very well though, didn't they? Now let's wait to see if the EBU invites them back.. I wouldn't complain if they did. The full results can be found here:

As expected, Russia and Sweden won their semi finals. Latvia came 2nd in their semi final. Awesome stuff! Love Injected was brilliant!  Azerbaijan was 10th in the semi final and Malta was 11th. Poor Amber. Switzerland came last - how? Not the greatest song but Melanie deserved more than 4 points.. San Marino was 2nd to last. Czech Republic came 13th. And they would've qualified if it was 100% televote. Oh well. Maybe next year? In the first semi final, Albania just scrapped though and Moldova - yes, Moldova - came 11th. Eeeeek! I would've been so mad if Elhaida lost out to Moldova. Finland came last, but would've made the final with 100% televoting. Macedonia was last with the televote but did manage 15th overall. Sigh. How did Estonia come 10th with the juries in the semi? San Marino's jury even ranked them last. The juries from Montenegro and Macedonia "have been excluded after consultation of PwC, the contest's independent voting observer, and upon the decision of the Executive Supervisor and the Chairman of the Reference Group." Aka something dodgy is going on there....

Overall, it was a fantastic contest once again. Many awesome songs. There were some technical problems during the voting though.. Also correct me if I'm wrong, but is Russia's entry the only one to exceed 300 points and not win? Conchita's performances were excellent and my favourite moment of the contest was this... words cannot describe how beautiful it is! And people boo her?

See y'all in Sweden next year if my bank balance allows. What's another year....

Photos from Eurovision.tv

EUROVISION 2015 FINAL TONIGHT!

Andres Putting (EBU)

It's tonight! It's that time of year we've all been waiting for. The grand final of Eurovision 2015 will take place tonight live from Vienna, Austria. 27 participants are in the running to take the trophy. It's going to be a marathon of a show. 3 hours 45 minutes apparently although we're promised an epic show as it's the 60th contest.. The bookies are backing Sweden and Russia the most. I would rather see a Russian win but Sweden winning tonight wouldn't disappoint me. I hope Spain and Albania, my two favourties, manage to achieve top ten. The draw can be found below:

1. SLOVENIA

2. FRANCE

3. ISRAEL

4. ESTONIA

5. UNITED KINGDOM

6. ARMENIA

7. LITHUANIA

8. SERBIA

9. NORWAY

10. SWEDEN

11. CYPRUS

12.AUSTRALIA

13. BELGIUM

14. AUSTRIA

15. GREECE 

16. MONTENEGRO

17. GERMANY

18. POLAND

19. LATVIA

20. ROMANIA

21. SPAIN

22. HUNGARY

23. GEORGIA

24. AZERBAIJAN

25. RUSSIA

26. ALBANIA

27. ITALY

France's Lisa Angell has the dreaded #2 slot. Paris 2016 was never likely but now it's almost impossible. Will she be overlooked? Slovenia opening the show will be great. The UK performs 5th. Sigh. Electro Velvet apparently gave a very impressive performance last night during the jury final though so let's hope we won't be last. ESDM performed 5th in 2013 for Spain and look what happened... Even a result like 20th would be great. Is this really the best us Brits can hope for? I think Estonia's chances of winning are gone. They're performing 4th but let's hope they'll make the top five. I'd be more than happy to be proved wrong though.. Australia, who may or may not be back next year, perform 12th and in between Cyprus and Belgium. This should help Guy. Maybe. Although Belgium is now seen a dark horse.. However Georgia is my dark horse . Nina has an fantastic draw, an amazing stage presence, a great song.. and the president of Georgia has said the country are ready to host Eurovision! Tbilisi 2016? She's already won the battle of the Warriors. ;-)

Germany, UK and Poland are the favourties to come last. Or at least that's what I'm hearing. It's 2008 all over again! I personally think it'll be Poland who come last.. I already feel sorry for whoever ends up in 27th place. Other predictions are saying Hungary will be last although I think that's unlikely. Edurne performs 21st.. this is a brilliant draw! I'm really hyped to see her performance. The bookies and polls are saying Spain are unlikely to reach top ten. Wouldn't it be lovely to prove them all wrong? Azerbaijan and Russia, both big favourites, perform next to each towards the end of the show. I think we're going to Sochi or St Petersberg next year. Albania performs rather late too inbetween two major favourites.. is Elhaida going to flop? Jeez, I hope not! She's getting my vote for sure anyway. Italy's Il Volo will close. Would I be shocked to see them win from this position? Not really but I don't think they'll win. I think top five is very possible though. Actually, I do think they could win. I don't know. Here's my predictions and wishlist for tonight...

PREDICTED TOP FIVE

1st - Russia

2nd - Italy

3rd - Sweden 

4th - Australia 

5th - Azerbaijan 

MY TOP FIVE

1st - Albania 

2nd - Spain 

3rd - Estonia

4th - Russia

5th - Australia 

Valentina Monetta will read out San Marino's votes. Will the queen of San Marino return to the contest next year? Elsewhere we have Suzy for Portugal, Basim for Denmark, Tanja for Estonia, Krista for Finland, Tinkara for Slovenia, Andrea for Montenegro, Cleo for Poland, Teo for Belarus.. Many familiar faces indeed. And of course the UK has the lovely Nigella!! Enjoy the show tonight my friends and I'd just like to say - thank you for following this little blog throughout the year. :-)

Good luck to everyone!!!!

REVIEWING THE CLASS OF 2015: ITALY!

Il Volo are an operatic pop trio consisting of tenors Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto, and baritone Gianluca Ginoble. They're among the favourites to win Eurovision with both the bookies and the fans. But is it just hype? Will this type of music really appeal to the masses? Here are our thoughts...

Ana: I’ll start saying that these three boys have amazing voices but I don’t like “Popopera”, I don’t like the song, I don’t like their performance and I don’t like the fact that they're young boys singing old men songs. Maybe I’d like them if we were in 2005 and they were older but nowadays this is so dated! I’d be very disappointed if they won. 4/10

Ilkar: This is what Eurovision is all about: a country represented by a song that represents its musical culture and heritage and identifies as such with first seconds, sung in its own language and being a megahit in its own market. This should win in Vienna for these merits only and bring some sense back to this competitions where countries are represented by singers from one country, writers from another, producers from third and sung in a language other than people of the country speak. Don't the broadcasters have any national pride left?! Popopera genre is sung all over the world but no one does it better than Italians themselves (step back Il Divo, Il Volo is here now) and this song is perfection in its own genre. I fell in love with it with the first hearing. 10/10

Jack: Italy never disappoints. Since their grand return in 2011, they have continually sent awesome songs. Il Volo are great and I do think they're going to win. Even though Grande Amore isn't my personal favourtie, I do still really like it. They would be worthy winners for sure. Of course there's a chance it will fail on the night and do a France 2011 but I somehow don't think that'll happen with these guys. Rome 2016? 8.5/10

Jess: From the moment I heard Grande Amore I fell in love with it! Il Volo have such incredible voices and the song is just so amazing! 9/10

John: This I reckon will garner a lot of favour with worldwide audiences. A ballad that is much closer to popular than to "popera" , it consolidates Italy's reputation as a country to watch out for at Eurovision. It could well do the business in my view. 9/10

OUR VERDICT - 40.5/50

OVERALL SCORE - 8.1/10

Italy: Il Volo release 3 minute version of 'Grande Amore'

The final version of Italy's entry was revealed today. Some fans have been worried that the 3 minute version won't have the same impact as the original although it's still amazing. The introduction, Gianluca's part and the ending have been trimmed to comply with the EBU's rules - but it doesn't really make much difference if I'm honest. I can still see Italy winning - unless they really muck up the staging *cough France 2011* but hopefully that isn't going to be the case. The original version has clocked 20 million views.. Impressive indeed! Listen to the final version below:

Italy: Il Volo will sing 'Grande Amore' in Vienna!

As expected, Grande Amore has been confirmed as the Italian entry. Il Volo won Sanremo 2015 last weekend and therefore also the right to represent Italy in the contest. Will Italy be victorious? The song has had 6 million hits on YouTube in only a week and Italy are the current favourite to win with the bookmakers. Although we still have 27 entries to go, let's remember that :-)

Italy: Full statistics from #Sanremo2015 here!

The full results from this years edition of Sanremo are out. Il Volo won the super final with a pretty impressive 56.2% of the teleovtes - whilst 33.4% of Italians who voted opted to support runner up Nek. Malika came 3rd with 10.4% of the votes. However this opinion was not shared with the 'Expect Jury' - Malika 39,9%, Nek 37,5 and they put Il Volo third with 22,9%. Meanwhile, the 'Demoscopic Jury' also placed Nek first but Il Volo were not far behind them . Once again, the gorgeous Malika was placed third. The full results from the super final is; 39,05 for Il Volo, 35,38 for Nek and 25,57 for Malika. So overall, Nek was the juries favourite and Il Volo won because due to the public vote.

Onto some sadder news. Or at least some sadder news for this blogger. Lara Fabian and Anna Tatangelo both came last in their respective shows. This is slightly surprising - as I believed Anna's song was fabulous and would've made a very decent Italian entry.

IL VOLO TO REPRESENT ITALY!

As expected, Il Volo have won Sanremo 2015 and will therefore represent Italy in Vienna. Nek came a very respectable 2nd place and Malaki was 3rd. Here's the full results from tonight:

Nina Zilli came 9th - which is rather ironic as she also came 9th in Sanremo 2012 and Eurovision 2012. Even though Il Volo weren't my immediate favourites, I still really like the song but I'm not sure if they will work in Eurovision. Grande Amore isn't the Italian entry for sure yet though, that should be officially confirmed soon,

NuVidz: Il Volo, Ruth Lorenzo, Nek, Anna Tatangelo!

Il Volo are among the favourites, if not THE favourite, to win Sanremo tomorrow night and get the ticket to Vienna. Their song is fantastic and you can watch the official video-clip of Grande Amore here. Their song hasn't been on YouTube for even 48 hours yet and it already has over 200,00 hits. Sorprendente!! Moving away from Sanremo for the moment, Ruth Lorenzo has released the official music video for Renuncio. Once again, the lovely Ruth never fails to impress. Fatti avanti amore is another favourite to win Sanremo tomorrow - and my personal favourite too. Nek has been winning many polls and has actually overtaken Il Volo in the betting odds today. Sanremo continues tonight where all 20 'Big Artists' will sing their songs and four will be eliminated. Unfortunately, Anna Tatangelo is at risk of being eliminated with Libera..

If you're going to watch Sanremo tonight, use this hashtag on Twitter - #Sanremo2015

SANREMO 2015 - THE STORY SO FAR....

This blogger is loving Sanremo, I have always loved Sanremo although I am taking more interest in it this year. The third show will be held tonight, where the Big Artists will sing cover songs. and newcomers will also perform. Here's some thoughts about the 65th edition of Sanremo...

Nek and Anna Tatangelo are my favourites, although I also adored Nina Zilli, Annalisa and Chiara. Everyone is so good! Il Volo and Nek are the bookmakers favourites to win on Saturday. I loved both but have a slight preference for Nek. I would love to see him in Vienna. His song is the best and could easily be my favourite if selected for Eurovision. However it seems Il Volo are the ones to beat. They have openly said that Eurovision is something they'd love to do. Would be great however I feel it's too operatic for the contest. But still a bloody good song. Dear Jack also have potential and would appeal to an international audience.. maybe Dear Jack would be better suited to Eurovision than Il Volo?

Lara Fabian has said she doesn't want to return to Eurovision - but she's currently facing elimination from the final anyway and is therefore very unlikely to win...

I have already done it. In my career I don't want to repeat things
but go ahead for new things. I would turn it down,
I have done Eurovision already. It was a great experience and such fun!

Anna Tatangelo also faces elimination tomorrow, sadly, even though her song was stunning but Bastardo was better. Chiara wouldn't be a bad choice but I can't see her winning Sanremo. Nice song but nothing out of the ordinary or spectacular.. Sorry! Annalisa also offers a beautiful ballad that wouldn't look out of place at Eurovision. Plus she's one of the favourite to win Sanremo... along with Nek and Il Volo. Annalisa has previously said that she would love to represent Italy, I believe. Will RAI select her? Or will they send Nina Zilli again? Could Arisa finally get her wish? Will it be Nek? Or someone else? It's anyone's guess 

So moving away from the contestants and potential Eurovision entries, what else has been occurring? Conchita Wurst performed Heroes last night and Emma Marrone gave her some flowers. It was a beautiful moment! 

The contest will conclude on Saturday - or should that be the early hours of Sanremo. We should find out the Italian representative during the show.. Forse.