🇮🇱 🇲🇹 National final season started already

France has already decided for a song and Czechia is about to do so. But two more countries have started their national selections. An update:

Israel

It is not a big surprise, the Israel-Hamas war influenced their national selection. The show was postponed, in the first show segments of the Israeli Defence Force were shown and the second show was postponed again due to a press conference about the hostages. However, two shows of HaKokhav Haba were shown so far. HaKokhav Haba (Rising Star) is the national final, as it was between 2015-2020. Every auditioning artist has to get 70% of the votes in order to get through to the next round.

22 November

  • Shay Tamino, 85%
  • Lian Biran, 97%
  • Eliya Sharabi, 56%
  • Eden Golan, 100%

2 December:

  • Moriya Angel, 96%
  • Jonathan Bitton, 86%
  • Malka, 45%
  • Arik Sinai, 90%

 

  • Arik Sinai participated before. He earned a 4th place….. back in 1985!! 

Malta

Malta has had four semifinals in October and November:

27 October

  1. Kurt Calleja, “Misunderstood”
  2. Sarah Bonnici, “Loop”
  3. Gail Attard, “Wild card”
  4. Mark Anthony Bartolo, “Condition or Fiction”
  5. Eliana Gomez Blanco, “There’s Only Flowers”
  6. Oxygyn, “Cloudmaker”
  7. Nathan, “Ghost”
  8. Lyndsay Pace, “Fire proof”
  9. Dominic Cini, “Bewsa”


Kurt Calleja became 3rd in 2011, won in 2012 and represented Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest with “This is the night”.
Sarah Bonnici took part in X-Factor Malta 2019 and became 12th in 2022.
Gail Attard also took part in X-Factor Malta 2019.
Mark Anthony Bartolo also took part in X-Factor Malta 2019, became 11th in 2022 and reached the semifinal in 2023.
Eliana Gomez Blanco was 9th in 2023.
Nathan was 11th in 2022.
Lyndsay Pace took part in the 2015 semifinal and, of course, in X-Factor Malta 2019.
Dominic Cini was involved in the 2009 semifinal.

 

3 November

  1. Marie-Claire, “Fading”
  2. Franklin Calleja, “Puppet”
  3. Desirei Grech, “Watch Me”
  4. Sopranique, “Empire”
  5. Janvil, “Man”
  6. Haley Azzopardi, “Tell Me That It’s Over”
  7. Denise Mercieca, “Mara”
  8. Mark Portelli, “Just be”
  9. Maria Christina, “Moving On”

 

Marie-Claire took part in the 2023 semifinal.
Franklin Calleja took part in 2013 (semifinal), 2014 (7th) and X-Factor Malta 2019 (10th).
Janvil or J. Anvil took part in 2005 (3rd), 2006 (4th), 2009 (10th), 2010 (semifinal), 2011 (10th) and 2012 (14th).
Denise Mercieca was involved in the auditions of X-Factor Malta 2019 and in 2022 (5th). Also Mark Portelli and Maria Christina took part in the auditions of X-Factor Malta 2019.

10 november

  1. Jessica Micallef, “Tagħna Tnejn”
  2. Cosette Baldacchino, “Free fall”
  3. Michela Galea, “Let’s talk about love”
  4. Thea Aqulina, “Blood stream”
  5. Miguel Bonello, “Better off alone”
  6. Moira Stafrace, “Feather flight”
  7. Dan, “Baraxx”
  8. Stefan Galea, “Numb”
  9. Karin Duff, “Breaking bad”

 

Jessica Micallef auditioned for X-Factor Malta 2020. Michela Galea did the same in 2019. Miguel Bonello did an attempt in both years.
Moira Stafrace took part in 1992 (2nd), 1993 (final), 1994 (winner in duet with Christopher Scicluna). Chris and Moira represented Malta in 1994 with “More than love) .
Dan auditioned for X-Factor Malta 2020 and took part in 2023 (12th).
Stefan Galea was involved in 2016 (semifinal), X-Factor Malta 2019 (auditions) and in 2023 (16th).

 

17 November

  1. Erba’, “Sirena”
  2. Miriana Conte, “Venom”
  3. Christian Arding, “Bellus”
  4. Lisa Gauci, “Breath”
  5. Matt Blxck, “Banana”
  6. Martina Cutajar, “Miles away”
  7. Greta Tude, “Topic (bla bla)”
  8. Ryan Hill, “Karma”
  9. Kyle George, “Arrows”

 

Miriana Conte took part in 2017 (16th), 2018 (12th), in the X-Factor Malta 2019 and 2020, 2022 (6th), 
Already in 2006, Christian Arding took part (5th), and in 2009 (semifinal) and 2023 (10th).
Matt Blxck took part in X-Factor Malta 2019 (auditions),  2020 (auditions), 2022 (7th) and 2023 (4th).
Greta Tude reached the semifinal in 2023.

The names in bold letters go through to the final in January.

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Martijn

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History
Martijn

70 years of Eurovision, slipping into the sixties

The Eurovision Song Contest is celebrating its 70th anniversary. That is a wonderful milestone. We at Eurovision Universe love diving into the history of the contest. That is why we are taking a closer look at the contests of the past 70 years. 1959 France chose to organize the contest in Cannes. Eleven countries came together. No Luxembourg this year, but the United Kingdom was back. Monaco made its debut. The presentation was in the hands of Jacqueline Joubert, who would go on to do so more often. The big favorite was Domenico Modugno. After the success of “Volare,” he entered for Italy again. He did not show up for the first rehearsal. He did not consider it important. The French broadcaster thought different and scheduled a rehearsal for him anyway. He did not win by a long shot. His “Piove” finished in sixth place only. Also noteworthy were the participants from Germany: the recently deceased Kessler Sisters, who sang their song entirely in sync. But France did not want to grant Italy the victory. The same applied the other way around. And where two dogs fight over a bone, the third one runs off with it. And that was the Dutch Teddy Scholten. With the artfully rhymed “Een beetje,” she took first place, much to her own surprise. When someone from the production team urged her to go to the stage because she had won, she didn’t believe a word of it. And yet it was true: the Netherlands had won for the second time in four years. 1960 It became a bit too much for the Dutch broadcaster to organize the contest yet again. Therefore, the British BBC took over. The contest moved to London, and for the first time, but certainly not the last, Cathy Boyle hosted the event. Thirteen countries participated. Luxembourg was back, and Norway made its debut.Big stars participated. Siw Malmkvist represented Sweden. Camillo Felgen competed for Luxembourg (in Luxembourgish!). Rudi Carell, who would later become a big star in Germany, competed for the Netherlands. None of them finished high. The winner was 19-year-old Jacqueline Boyer. Conductor Franck Pourcel was displeased that she had to perform last. After all, she had to go to bed early, the conductor said. At Pourcel’s request, the entire rehearsal schedule was rearranged. And Jacqueline won! “Tom Pillibi”, a song about a pathological liar, became a huge success and an international hit. 1961 The Eurovision Song Contest returned to Cannes, France. Jacqueline Joubert hosted it for the second time. By then, the number of participating countries had grown to sixteen. Spain, Yugoslavia, and Finland made their debut. Lale Andersen participated for Germany. She had gained fame during World War II with the song “Lili Marleen”. A Greek also took to the stage, which was the first time. Although Greece itself was not yet participating, singer Jimmy Makoulis represented Austria. The final unintentionally became very exciting between Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. Unintentionally, because for a long time, too many points were accidentally recorded for the British on the scoreboard. The British duo, The Allisons, did have the big Eurovision hit of that year with “Are You Sure?”. Frenchman Jean-Claude Pascal won for Luxembourg. In “Nous, les amoureux,” he sang of a love that was disapproved of by others. Only much later Pascal admitted that this song was about the love between two men. In this, Pascal was far, very far ahead of his time.

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