December 2008 Archives

Happy Christmas Eve!

Boom Bang a Blog knows that one thought has been uppermost on your mind as you have queued outside Currys at 5am for the last Wii Fitness in the northern hemisphere, cursed Jamie Oliver for a lack of red cabbage in Britain's supermarkets and worried about how to fit all the roasties in the oven in one go.

And that thought is, obviously; have there ever been any Eurovision songs about Christmas?

Well, quite frankly. No.

But there are some which sound dead Christmassy.

Come now, follow in our Wenceslas-like footsteps, and we'll show you some.

As I type, the Eurovision Song Contest is 143 days away (I checked on an online calendar countdown thingy, please don't think I have such facts lingering conveniently about my brain) - and the Albanians aren't leaving anything to chance by choosing their entry for Moscow while a significant section of the Eurovision audience is pulling giblets out of frozen turkeys.

The final night of the Festivali i Kenges took place in Tirana on Sunday evening - and Boom Bang a Blog had the rare pre-Crimbo treat of watching the live webcast.

With six months to go before a single note is sung in Moscow, tabloids in various Eurovision member states are already chockful of gossip about who could be carrying the pride of a nation on their voicebox next May.

Over in Ireland, fans have been getting a tad anxious that no official news about their national heat has been released - usually, this sort of stuff is all sorted long before Christmas. But that delay could all be down to one man - Johnny Logan.

Here's 2008 X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke with her first release, a cover of the Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah.

And here's 1979 Eurovision Song Contest winners Milk & Honey with their victorious ditty, Hallelujah, winning on home turf for Israel.

Perhaps the latter was better suited to JLS...

Will our lives ever be the same?

During his Radio 2 breakfast show today (Friday), even Sir Tel himself was surprised at how much media coverage his departure from the Eurovision commentary box has received - especially when you consider there's economic climes and kidnap cases vying for the headlines.

But it is now official - Terry is toddling off (as he said more than once this morning: "Only the river runs forever") and his replacement is confirmed as another Irish ambassador - Graham Norton, who will also present the search for the 2009 UK entrant.

Although I am a die-hard fan of the Contest, unlike a lot of fans, I am genuinely sad to see Terry leave. For all his leg-pulling and whimsy on the big night, it was pretty obvious he cares a lot about the event and genuinely wants to see a good result for Britain when he thinks we deserve it. The idea of having someone who takes the show too seriously providing the BBC commentary just doesn't bear thinking about.

I know some chums of mine would prefer a more reverential tone to the UK feed, but it would drive about 98 per cent of the viewing public to either whatever's on ITV or the nearest (strongest) bottle of booze.

...the BBC begins its Saturday night search for the artist who will represent the UK at Eurovision 2009 in Moscow.

According to media reports, Andrew Lord Webber has already found the six acts he wants on the shortlist for the Your Country Needs You competition, with the winner going forward to represent GB in Russia.

It should all get going on Saturday, January 3 (unless the schedules change) - and the first episode is set to include a film about Lord Andy's trip to the Russian capital to meet Vladimir Putin himself.

Goodness blimey.