OGAE Second Chance Contest 2014: Helena Paparizou wins!

The OGAE Second Chance Contest is a competition organised by OGAE to select the best song which failed to make Eurovision. This is held every year and this years winner was Helena Paparizou. As you all remember, she tried to represent Sweden with Survivor. She received a whopping 259 points. Brequette came a very respectable 2nd place and the lovely Catarina Pereira from Portugal managed to achieve 3rd. The full results:

01. Sweden: Helena Paparizou - Survivor (259 points)

02. Spain: Brequette - Más (Run) (253 points)

03. Portugal: Catarina Pereira - Mea Culpa (197 points)

04. Israel: Mei Finegold - Be Proud (149 points)

05. Denmark: Michael Rune feat. Natascha Bessez - Wanna Be Loved (136 points)

06. Norway: Linnea Dale - High Hopes (122 points)

07. Finland: Mikko Pohjola - Sängyn Reunalla (79 points)

08. France: Joanna Lagrave - Ma Liberté (63 points)

09. Greece: Krystallia - Petalouda Stin Athina (62 points)

10. Albania: Klodian Kacani - Me Ty (58 points)

11. Germany: MarieMarie - Cotton Candy Hurricane (57 points)

12. Belarus: Daria - Starlight (45 points)

13. Ireland: Eoghan Quigg - The Movie Song (41 points)

14. Romania: Anca Florescu - Hearts Collide (38 points)

15. Hungary: Bogi - We All (32 points)

16. Iceland: Ásdís María - Amor (31 points)

17. Lithuania: Mia - Take A Look At Me Now (23 points)

18. Slovenia: Muff - Let Me Be Myself (20 points)

19. Belgium: 2 Fabiola feat. Loredana - She's After My Piano (16 points)

20. Malta: De Bee - Pin The Middle (1 point)

Poor Malta. Many of these songs did feature on my Wishlist series :-)

NuVidz: Mei Finegold, Nabiha, Hanna Sky, Claudia Faniello!

Mei Finegold has recorded Sweet Harmony - which was originally made famous in 1993 by The Beloved’s. The song is Evita’s Pride Anthem and Mei recorded it along with Shlomi Levi and Shai Rokach. Great stuff! I have only recently discovered Nabiha and her songs are awesome! I absolutely love Ask Yourself! Meanwhile, Hanna Sky has released Softer Rain. She's said: "You can be inspired by so many things, but the most powerful source of inspiration should be you yourself. Whatever it is you want to do or be, remember this." One Fine Day is Claudia Faniello's latest single. This song has a lovely summer vibe.. and Claudia has such a lovely voice! Hope to see her represent Malta next year!

Copenhagen 2014: Semi final TWO review!

Last night's semi final was really tough to call! I was mostly satisfied with the results,though. Israel should have qualified instead of Belarus - but apart from that, I'm pleased with last night's results ! I'm delighted Poland made it, and it's also great Austria's bearded lady got through! It was no surprise Norway and Malta qualified, both were great on stage and I think Malta are ones to watch tomorrow evening. The rapper guy from Greece messed up his words, but that didn't matter as it was a very strong and solid performance. Switzerland also made it, for the first time since 2011 - and so did Tinkara from Slovenia! Which is marvelous. Here are last night's qualifiers:

• Malta
• Norway
• Poland
• Austria
• Finland
• Belarus
• Switzerland
• Greece
• Slovenia
• Romania

The biggest shock was Israel not qualifying. Mei was flawless and I really hope Israel won't withdraw.. Ireland wasn't great on stage. Kasey she looked beautiful - but the performance itself wasn't strong enough. Lithuania and Georgia were both a bit too weird, and I won't miss them in the final. FYR Macedonia was good but the stupid dancer ruined it. I'm looking forward to tomorrow - it's a very open contest this year.

Copenhagen 2014: Semi final TWO tonight!

Another awesome show awaits us tonight. The 2nd semi-final will take place, with 15 countries battling for those 10 precious spaces in the final. I cannot wait. I'm so excited! Tuesday's show was fantastic. Isn't it a brilliant year? The final for the running order will be decided after tonight's semi.. Jessica Mauboy will perform two songs as the interval act!

1. Malta - Firelight with Coming Home
2. Israel - Mei Finegold with Same Heart
3. Norway - Carl Espen with Silent Storm
4. Georgia - The Shin and Mariko with Three Minutes to Earth
5. Poland - Donatan & Cleo with My Slowianie - We Are Slavic
6. Austria - Conchita Wurst with Rise Like a Phoenix
7. Lithuania - Vilija Mataaianaita with Attention
8. Finland - Softengine with Something Better
9. Ireland - Can-Linn (featuring Kasey Smith) Heartbeat
10. Belarus - Teo with Cheesecake
11. F.Y.R. Macedonia - Tijana with To the Sky
12. Switzerland - Sebalter with Hunter of Stars
13. Greece - Freaky Fortune feat. RiskyKidd with Rise Up
14. Slovenia - Tinkara Kovac with Round and round
15. Romania - Paula Seling & OVI with Miracle

Who do I *think* will qualify? Romania, Greece, Norway, Georgia, Malta, Ireland, Lithuania, Austria, Belarus and Israel.

Who do I *want* to see qualify? Israel, F.Y.R Macedonia, Norway, Switzerland, Poland, Slovenia, Ireland, Austria, Malta and Greece!

Introducing 2014: Israel!

Back in January, Mei Finegold was internally selected to fly the Israeli flag in Copenhagen - and what an amazing choice! The song she'll represent Israel with is Same Heart. Defiantly one of my favourites this year. I love the switch between English and Hebrew. However, she hasn't performed this live yet so we have no way of knowing what the stage presentation will be like. The song itself was chosen through a mini-national final, which consisted of three songs. The other songs were Be Proud and Nish'eret iti. But I think the best song was selected!

Mei Finegold is a 31 year-old singer, who placed third on Kokhav Nolad 7, the Israeli version of Pop Idol. I think her voice is amazing and I really want to see Israel in the final this year... the last time they qualified was in 2010 and I believe Mei will qualify. This song deserves to be in the final, without a doubt.

Israel: "Same Heart" chosen for Copenhagen!

Wahoo! "Same Heart" has been selected as the Israeli entry for Copenhagen. Unfortunately, Mei didn't give live performances tonight so instead the video-clips were played. It was my favourite song so I'm satisfied. LISTEN HERE.

Israel: Listen to Mei Finegold's songs!

Mei Finegold has presented her three possible Eurovision songs tonight. I like them all but "Same Heart" is my immediate favourite, although that could always change after hearing them some more times. Listen to them here!! I'll hopefully get round to doing a review at some point. Mei's selection show will take place on 5th March - and I think Israel be be one of my favourites this year.

Israel: National final set for 5th March - song titles revealed!

The song Mei Finegold takes to Copenhagen will be chosen on 5th March! However there will be a press conference before that, where three songs will be presented with a separate video-clips. This is due to take place on 27th February!

A whopping 87 songs were initially sent into the Israeli broadcaster, IBA, and they selected two songs for the national final - the other song was submitted by Mei herself. The song titles are:

• Same heart 
• Nish’eret iti (Staying with me)
• Be proud 

Israel: Mei Finegold selected!

Yay. It's official!!! Mei Finegold has been officially chosen to represent Israel this year! I'm delighted. I think that IBA have made a fantastic choice here.

This blogger has been listening to her stunning rendition of Hallelujah all day long... The 31 year old rose to fame in 2009 - when she came 3rd on Israel's version of Pop Idol. I am seriously expecting great things from Israel now. Her song will be chosen in March, through a televised national final, where she will perform three or four songs, and one will be chosen for Eurovision. I hope she will take a rock song to Copenhagen! Listen to her cover of Creep. And here's an original song entitled Pictures.

Israel: Mei Finegold internally selected?

One of Israel's biggest newspapers, Israel HaYom, has reported that Mei Finegold will represent Israel in Copenhagen!

Mei took part in ‘Kokhav Nolad 7′ (Israel's version of American Idol) a few years ago, where she finished a very respectable 3rd. It is not official and hopefully IBA will announce their 2014 representative soon. I do like the sound of her - she has a very good voice and would make a decent choice. Maybe we could be hearing some rock from Israel this year.

If she is chosen to fly the Israeli flag, her Eurovision song would be selected through a national final in March. Enjoy one of her finest covers here!

Update - it appears that IBA have selected her for Eurovision, although she needs consent from her record label first and therefore it is not official, yet...