Many of our Austria readers may recognize the name Christof Straub, who is from the duo Papermoon, who have released over nine albums and hit singles such as “Night After Night,” “Tell Me A Poem” and “Lucy’s Eyes.” Alongside running his website www.global-rockstar.com (a world wide online song contest), Christof is also a songwriter for one of the entries for Dziesma 2013, …

From Zack: ESC United has been fortunate enough to have made connections with many songwriters over the years.  Most of this is thanks to OGAE REST OF THE WORLD president  ROY.  We present a postfrom DANNE ATTLERUD, co-composer of the runner-up in this year’s Maltese National Selection, “Needing You,” by KEVIN BORG. ———————————————– From a composers view a National Selection …

Dreams can come true.  That is no exception with Janis Polis, who went from digital advertising professional to songwriter for one of the 24 semi-finalists for the Latvian National Selection, Dziesma 2013.  His song “Never Let Me Go” will be performed by Olafs Bergmanis & The Random People.  We are fortunate enough to have caught up with him for some …

Malta has chosen their 2013 representative for the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo. It was a rather tight race between Kevin Borg and Gianluca Bezzina but in the end the latter won the race. Congratulations to Gianluca, we wish you the best of luck!   [vsw id=”PJ65p8N-2yE” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

  Congratulations to Eyþór  who is going to represent Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmo, Sweden.   [vsw id=”riTHVd9-iCE” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

  The third and Final Semi Final took place and three more songs qualified for the big Final show. They will join the 6 songs qualified from the previous Semi Finals, in addition one wild card will be added bringing the number of  Finalists to 10. Here are tonight’s Qualifiers   Gaute Ormåsen – Awake [vsw id=”kMsX6kwNuqg” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”] …

So as I watch A Dal 2013 and Melodifestivalen 2013, I can tell the budgets are a bit disparate between the two.  Still, I think tonight’s show did a great job.  It’s a bit more hands-on in the sense that the jurors provide feedback for the artists.  But at the same time, it makes it come off as a bit …

I’m excited to say that this is the first time I have ever watched the renowned Melodifestivalen and I am stoked! Live from Karlskrona, we start with a fantastic introduction that walks viewers through the last year.  We get clips of the performers and then watch Loreen’s win.  Then we go to Baku and watch Loreen once again achieve victory. …

As we are doing with LATVIA, we at ESC UNITED are featuring another OGAE REST OF THE WORLD country in our ROAD TO MALMO series: HUNGARY! To start things off, we are reviewing the ten songs of Heat 1 in A Dal 2013, the Hungarian National Selection.  Six songs will progress to the semi-finals: three via televoting and three via …

As previously announced by the Slovenian broadcaster RTVSLO, Slovenia would not hold a National Final due to major financial cuts and today they announced that Hannah Mancini will be flying the flag for Slovenia in Malmo. She may not be an unknown face to some ESC fans, in 2011 she took part in the National Final for her country as …