Today might be widely known as Blue Monday, or ‘the worst day of the year’, but for this year the day signals the oncoming rush of entries, shows and excitement of the 2016 Eurovision selection season. It’s been quite a stuttering start of the season and we’re still awaiting 40 more entries, but luckily there’s a few more events to sink your teeth in to this week. Let’s take a look…
20th – Spain reveals its choices for Stockholm
National finals seem to be very in for the Big 5 this year, and Spain is one of the countries joining the selection fun! We already know who’s in the running – Maria Isabel, Electric Nana, Salvador Beltran, Xuso Jones, Barei and Maverick – but this week we get to hear what they’re putting forward for their country, ready for the final on February 13th! Tune in at 17:00 CET on Wednesday where TVE is set to premiere the entries on their website – www.rtve.es. Does Spain finally have a winner? We might know this week!
22nd – Belarus picks for Stockholm
After a series of auditions, screening processes and eliminations we’re down to 10 finalists for Eurosong in Belarus. For the lucky ten finalists there isn’t long to hone their performances as Belarus will be deciding on Friday! Unlike in previous years it will be televoting alone that will decide the country’s representative in Sweden in May, so who will it be? Tune in on Friday to find out…
22nd and 23rd – Malta will pick its hopeful
Belarus won’t be the only entry we’ll get this week, as Malta will also conclude its selection with a two night extravaganza! The semi-final on Friday will whittle down the monster selection to 14 songs vying for that one golden ticket to Sweden! Watch out for Ira Losco, Daniel Testa, Jessika and other familiar faces – will Losco make her comeback or is it the year of one of the latter? The final of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2016 concludes on Saturday 23rd January.
23rd – Hungary’s A Dal is back!
One of the newest and yet most popular national selections returns this weekend, as the first heat of Hungary’s A Dal kicks off proceedings on Saturday 23rd. Benji, ByTheWay, Egy Másik Zenekar, Fatima Mohamed, Freddie, Jázmin Török, Mushu, Odett, Pétra Veres-Kovács and Reni Tolvai fight for six spots in the semi-finals, which will begin in three weeks! Will your favourite make it through?
23rd – Lithuania continues its search
Lengthy in name (“Eurovizijos” dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka) and lengthy in nature. Lithuania’s selection show may be criticised by some on our forum for its lack of brevity but nevertheless the Baltic nation continues its search for a Eurovision star this weekend. This weekend’s show will see the first batch of artists who applied without a song – five will qualify for the next round with songs they have been matched with by LRT. Who will make it? Find out on Saturday!
23rd – Latvia’s Supernova looks to continue the good work
Supernova was a breath of fresh air for a struggling nation in 2015 and brought Latvia not only to the final, but to a high position on the scoreboard. This week, the show will kick off its second year hoping to replicate the success of Aminata in Vienna. The introductory show for Supernova 2016 will cap off our first busy weekend of 2016!
As always, ESC United will be bringing you all of the action from across Europe during the week, so make sure you stay tuned for updates! What will you be watching this week?
Featured image by James Losey.
