Weekly Update

It’s time for another weekly Eurovision update! This week’s news spans a heartfelt farewell, a surprise comeback announcement, and national selection developments across Europe. A German hit-maker behind Eurovision classics has sadly passed away. France’s Patrick Fiori eyes a Eurovision return for Armenia. Countries like Czechia, Estonia, and Italy are gearing up their Eurovision 2026 plans. Here are this week’s top stories:

Germany: Eurovision Songwriter Bernd Meinunger Dies at 81

Legendary German lyricist Bernd Meinunger, who penned 19 songs for the Eurovision Song Contest, has passed away at age 81. He died on 17 October 2025 at his home in Grünwald, Bavaria, due to multiple organ failure. Meinunger was best known for his long-time collaboration with composer Ralph Siegel. Together they created iconic Eurovision entries that shaped Germany’s Eurovision history. He wrote the lyrics for Germany’s 1982 winner “Ein bisschen Frieden”, as well as other classics like “Dschinghis Khan” (1979) and “Theater” (1980). Meinunger’s Eurovision career spanned from 1979 to 2015 with a total of 19 entries. His first entry “Dschinghis Khan” placed 4th, and his crowning achievement was Nicole’s victory in 1982. His final Eurovision contribution came in 2015, writing San Marino’s entry “Chain of Lights”.

Outside Eurovision, Meinunger was extraordinarily prolific. He reportedly wrote over 5,500 songs in multiple languages. More than 200 of his songs reached the Top 100 charts internationally. Meinunger earned around 400 gold and platinum records over his career. His work extended far beyond Eurovision, but within the contest community he earned a reputation as “Germany’s Schlager poet” for his contributions to pop music.  source: promiflash.de

Meinunger receiving the Grand Prix of Eurovision 1982

🇦🇲 Armenia: Patrick Fiori Plans Eurovision Return in 2027

French singer Patrick Fiori, who achieved 4th place for France at Eurovision 1993, has revealed plans for a comeback. He would be representing Armenia this time. Appearing on France 2’s talk show Quelle époque! on 18 October, Fiori announced that he has “an agreement in principle” to represent Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2027. Fiori is of Corsican-Armenian descent (his father is Armenian). He expressed pride in his roots by stating, “I will represent Armenia in Eurovision.” Fiori even hinted at hoping to perform as a duet with an Armenian artist on the Eurovision stage. 

Patrick Fiori’s original Eurovision appearance was over three decades ago. He sang “Mama Corsica” for France in 1993, finishing a respectable 4th in Millstreet. As of now, Armenia’s broadcaster (AMPTV) has not officially confirmed Fiori’s 2027 participation or even their 2026 plans. It’s early days, but Fiori’s announcement has created excitement about a potential Franco-Armenian collaboration in a future Eurovision. source: Gala.fr

🇨🇿 Czechia: Eurovision 2026 Song Submissions Window Closes

In Czechia, the first phase of selecting a Eurovision 2026 entry has just concluded. Česká televize (Czech TV) closed its song submission window on 19 October, after a six-week period inviting artists and songwriters to send in their entries. The deadline was set at 23:59 CEST. All proposals submitted by then will now proceed to the review stage. Czechia’s Eurovision 2026 representative will be chosen through a combined process involving an expert jury and a public vote, similar to the method used for the 2025 selection.

Next, the Czech broadcaster will screen the entries and likely shortlist finalists for a national selection or an internal selection process. With the submissions closed, we can anticipate an announcement of the selected song and artist in the coming months. Czechia has been steadily improving its Eurovision approach. The 2026 selection aims to build on past success. The hope is that this mixed jury-public selection will pick an entry capable of achieving a strong result on home turf of the contest’s host country. source: Eurovoix.com

🇪🇪 Estonia: 171 Entries Submitted for Eesti Laul 2026

Estonia’s Eurovision season is off to a strong start with a high volume of entries for its national final. Broadcaster ERR announced that 171 songs were submitted for Eesti Laul 2026, the country’s selection contest for Eurovision. This figure is only slightly lower than last year’s submissions, indicating sustained enthusiasm from creators. Of the 171 entries, 77 are in Estonian and 94 in other languages. Ssongwriters from 20 different countries (including Brazil and Australia) have entered songs.

Despite the global interest, Eesti Laul producer Riin Vann noted that domestic Estonian artists still dominate the field, keeping a strong local flavor in the competition. Now that the submission window has closed (it ended on 20 October), a professional jury will review all entries blindly (without knowing the writers or performers) to pick the best ones. Only 12 songs will be chosen for the televised Eesti Laul 2026 final. The final is scheduled for 14 February 2026 in Tallinn. As in previous years, the winner will be decided over two rounds: a jury-and-televote round to pick superfinalists, followed by a televote to choose the ultimate winner. Estonia had a remarkable Eurovision result in 2025 (3rd place). source: eeter.err.et

🇮🇹 Italy: Sanremo 2026 Rules Published, Eurovision Participation Confirmed

Italy has officially kicked off its Eurovision 2026 preparations by releasing the rules for the upcoming Festival di Sanremo 2026. National broadcaster RAI published the Sanremo 2026 regulations on 16 October, confirming that the winner of Sanremo will again represent Italy at Eurovision 2026 in Vienna. With this announcement, Italy also formally confirmed its participation in the 70th Eurovision Song Contest. The Sanremo rules outline a festival with 26 artists in the Campioni category (established stars) and 4 artists in Nuove Proposte (newcomers). The two competitions will run separately as they did last year.

RAI also reiterated the usual Eurovision clause: if the Sanremo winner declines the Eurovision slot, the offer will pass to the runner-up (and further down if necessary) until an artist accepts the ticket to Vienna. The five-night Sanremo festival will maintain its traditional format, including special theme nights. For example, the fourth night will be a covers night where contestants perform classic hits (Italian or international) for fun, which won’t affect the competition results. The grand final of Sanremo will feature voting from multiple juries (press jury, radio jury, and televoting) with a weighted system to determine the winner. It will be followed by a final round sing-off among the top 5 acts. Italy’s 2025 Eurovision entrant (Lucio Corsi) finished 5th in the contest.

Each of these stories marks an important development on the road to Eurovision 2026. Stay tuned for more updates on EurovisionUniverse.com as the journey to Vienna continues!

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70 years of Eurovision: chaos

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. 1990 Eurovision was held in Zagreb. The hosting proved to be quite a challenge. When hosts Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahović discovered that a much younger duo was ready to replace them, they called it quits. It took the Yugoslav broadcaster considerable effort to get the two back. The Norwegian Ketil Stokkan participated for the second time. After 1986, he now sang about the “Brandenburger Tor”. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a striking number of songs were built around the theme of peace. The German entry was titled “Frei zu Leben” (Free to Live). Italy sang about the unification of Europe in “Insieme: 1992” (In Together: 1992). The Finnish group Beat sang “Fri?” (Free?), and the Austrian Simone sang “Keine Mauern mehr” (No More Walls). The latter did not even win the national final. The winning duo, Duett, was disqualified because it turned out that the song had already participated in a German national final.  The show started in a peculiar way. Spain was allowed to open, but after the intro, the ladies of the duo Azucar Moreno walked off angrily. The backing track had been started incorrectly. The ladies had to start over. The uptempo number by the Icelandic duo Stjórnin also stood out. It achieved a fourth place. Honking cars drove down the streets in Iceland as if the country had won. Joëlle Ursull represented France with a song by Serge Gainsbourg: “The White and Black Blues”. There was cheerful drumming on oil drums. Ursull came second, but had to share that place with the Irishman Liam Reilly. Seated at the piano, he sang “Somewhere in Europe”. And we do not want to leave Tajči unmentioned. She was a sort of Yugoslavian Marilyn Monroe, who managed to score quite nicely with the cheerful “Hajde da ludujemo”.  Toto Cutugno But Italy’s European song, “Insieme: 1992”, won. The singer, Toto Cutugno, was certainly no stranger. His biggest hit across Europe was “L’Italiano”. He finished high at the San Remo festival several times. In 1990 he did not win, but the numbers one and two were not interested in participating in Eurovision. When he won, all sorts of things happened. Champagne was poured over his head, causing the black dye to start dripping from his hair. That was very visible because he was wearing a white jacket. Someone in a black jacket quickly rushed over to solve this problem. Out of enthusiasm, Cutugno crawled into the audience during the encore, followed by a whole horde of journalists. For the public, the whole thing was not really safe. But Cutugno hadn’t noticed any of that, he said later. 1991 The entire 1991 Eurovision Song Contest can be summed up by one word: chaos. It started with the venue itself. The contest was supposed to be held in San Remo, but after the outbreak of the Gulf War, that proved not to be safe enough. It became Cinecittà, the studio in Rome where the spaghetti westerns were filmed. The set looked mostly like a collection of props that hadn’t been put away. The Italian broadcaster RAI decided to invite the two former winners, Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, as hosts. While Gigliola tried to keep things on track a little bit, Toto Cutugno was mainly an unguided missile. He didn’t listen, talked over jury chairmen, and started talking about something completely different at unexpected moments. At the end of the evening, scrutineer Frank Naef, usually an eloquent man, sat behind his table, turned red with annoyance. The songs Thomas Forstner returned for Austria. He had been successful in 1989, so he hoped to finish in the top 10 once again. It was quite disappointing: no one had points for him. The group Just4Fun from Norway included former Bobbysock Hanne Krogh and former Icy member Eirikur Hauksson from Iceland. Stefan Hilmarsson participated for Iceland itself; he was one half of the duo Beathoven. Malta was back! Not having participated since 1975, the duo Georgina & Paul Giordimaina was back. Surprisingly, their ballad “Could It Be” finished sixth. That was Malta’s best score ever up to that point. The Israeli Duo Datz also stood out, particularly with their typical Israeli dance. Sergio Dalma from Spain lived up to his reputation as a crooner with a fourth-place finish. And then there was Atlantis 2000 from Germany. They had bypassed the televoter and let a panel of a thousand people choose the song. Not a good idea, as it turned out. Singer and face of the group, Hermann Weindorff, sang so badly that his solos were distributed among the other group members to salvage what could still be salvaged. The group Clouseau, wildly popular in Belgium, also failed to do well, despite an Italian newspaper labeling them as the big favorites. The Belgians received no support from the Netherlands, where the group was also very popular. The Netherlands had to withdraw due to a remembrance day. And then there was Greece. Sophia Vossou’s song “I Anixi” featured a saxophone solo. Unfortunately, the young saxophonist from the orchestra was replaced at the last minute by an older gentleman. He couldn’t manage to get his fingers on the saxophone at the right moment. The sax solo went completely wrong. Carola At the end of the show, there were two winners. France and Sweden had the same number of points. The countries also received 12 points equally often, but Sweden received 10 more frequently. Sweden therefore won in the end. France had scored well with a singer from Tunisia. That was clearly audible. The song contained many Arabic influences. Singer Amina knew how to capitalize on her participation. Her song “Le dernier qui à parlé” became an international hit. But it was Carola, also

Read More »
April 12, 2026 No Comments
Uncategorized
Martijn

70 years of Eurovision: chaos

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. 1990 Eurovision was held in Zagreb. The hosting proved to be quite a challenge. When hosts Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahović discovered that a much younger duo was ready to replace them, they called it quits. It took the Yugoslav broadcaster considerable effort to get the two back. The Norwegian Ketil Stokkan participated for the second time. After 1986, he now sang about the “Brandenburger Tor”. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a striking number of songs were built around the theme of peace. The German entry was titled “Frei zu Leben” (Free to Live). Italy sang about the unification of Europe in “Insieme: 1992” (In Together: 1992). The Finnish group Beat sang “Fri?” (Free?), and the Austrian Simone sang “Keine Mauern mehr” (No More Walls). The latter did not even win the national final. The winning duo, Duett, was disqualified because it turned out that the song had already participated in a German national final.  The show started in a peculiar way. Spain was allowed to open, but after the intro, the ladies of the duo Azucar Moreno walked off angrily. The backing track had been started incorrectly. The ladies had to start over. The uptempo number by the Icelandic duo Stjórnin also stood out. It achieved a fourth place. Honking cars drove down the streets in Iceland as if the country had won. Joëlle Ursull represented France with a song by Serge Gainsbourg: “The White and Black Blues”. There was cheerful drumming on oil drums. Ursull came second, but had to share that place with the Irishman Liam Reilly. Seated at the piano, he sang “Somewhere in Europe”. And we do not want to leave Tajči unmentioned. She was a sort of Yugoslavian Marilyn Monroe, who managed to score quite nicely with the cheerful “Hajde da ludujemo”.  Toto Cutugno But Italy’s European song, “Insieme: 1992”, won. The singer, Toto Cutugno, was certainly no stranger. His biggest hit across Europe was “L’Italiano”. He finished high at the San Remo festival several times. In 1990 he did not win, but the numbers one and two were not interested in participating in Eurovision. When he won, all sorts of things happened. Champagne was poured over his head, causing the black dye to start dripping from his hair. That was very visible because he was wearing a white jacket. Someone in a black jacket quickly rushed over to solve this problem. Out of enthusiasm, Cutugno crawled into the audience during the encore, followed by a whole horde of journalists. For the public, the whole thing was not really safe. But Cutugno hadn’t noticed any of that, he said later. 1991 The entire 1991 Eurovision Song Contest can be summed up by one word: chaos. It started with the venue itself. The contest was supposed to be held in San Remo, but after the outbreak of the Gulf War, that proved not to be safe enough. It became Cinecittà, the studio in Rome where the spaghetti westerns were filmed. The set looked mostly like a collection of props that hadn’t been put away. The Italian broadcaster RAI decided to invite the two former winners, Gigliola Cinquetti and Toto Cutugno, as hosts. While Gigliola tried to keep things on track a little bit, Toto Cutugno was mainly an unguided missile. He didn’t listen, talked over jury chairmen, and started talking about something completely different at unexpected moments. At the end of the evening, scrutineer Frank Naef, usually an eloquent man, sat behind his table, turned red with annoyance. The songs Thomas Forstner returned for Austria. He had been successful in 1989, so he hoped to finish in the top 10 once again. It was quite disappointing: no one had points for him. The group Just4Fun from Norway included former Bobbysock Hanne Krogh and former Icy member Eirikur Hauksson from Iceland. Stefan Hilmarsson participated for Iceland itself; he was one half of the duo Beathoven. Malta was back! Not having participated since 1975, the duo Georgina & Paul Giordimaina was back. Surprisingly, their ballad “Could It Be” finished sixth. That was Malta’s best score ever up to that point. The Israeli Duo Datz also stood out, particularly with their typical Israeli dance. Sergio Dalma from Spain lived up to his reputation as a crooner with a fourth-place finish. And then there was Atlantis 2000 from Germany. They had bypassed the televoter and let a panel of a thousand people choose the song. Not a good idea, as it turned out. Singer and face of the group, Hermann Weindorff, sang so badly that his solos were distributed among the other group members to salvage what could still be salvaged. The group Clouseau, wildly popular in Belgium, also failed to do well, despite an Italian newspaper labeling them as the big favorites. The Belgians received no support from the Netherlands, where the group was also very popular. The Netherlands had to withdraw due to a remembrance day. And then there was Greece. Sophia Vossou’s song “I Anixi” featured a saxophone solo. Unfortunately, the young saxophonist from the orchestra was replaced at the last minute by an older gentleman. He couldn’t manage to get his fingers on the saxophone at the right moment. The sax solo went completely wrong. Carola At the end of the show, there were two winners. France and Sweden had the same number of points. The countries also received 12 points equally often, but Sweden received 10 more frequently. Sweden therefore won in the end. France had scored well with a singer from Tunisia. That was clearly audible. The song contained many Arabic influences. Singer Amina knew how to capitalize on her participation. Her song “Le dernier qui à parlé” became an international hit. But it was Carola, also

Read More »
April 12, 2026 No Comments
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