Again, three matches in UEFA 2020. To start with Finland against Russia. Where have we seen this battle before? Well, remember the 2006 contest. Lordi from Finland won with a landslide. Their song “Hard rock hallelujah” broke all the records. It was hard for Dima Bilan from Russia to get there with his song “I never ever let you go”. But you don’t have to feel sorry for him: two years later Dima got the prize!
Turkey and Wales meet today as well. In 2004, the contest was held in Turkey. For the host country the group Athena participated with the song “For real”. One of the other contestants that year was Welshman James Fox. He represented the United Kingdom with the song “Hold onto our love”.
Italy will meet Switzerland in the arena today. In both countries, Italian is one of the main languages. So that might be an easy connection. But in fact, we found another one. Both countries once sent a song in a minority language. In 1991, host country Italy sent Peppino di Capri who sang “Comme e’ ddoce o’ mare”, sung in the Neapolitan language. Switzerland, also host country but in 1989, decided to sing a song in Romansh: “Viver senza tei”, song by the group Furbaz.
