Preselections: The weekend in review

It was another big & busy Eurovision weekend, with preselections in many different countries. From Ireland on Friday till Azerbaijan on Sunday, and with Melodifestivalen in between… Difficult to keep up! But not at ESC Daily. We give you a chance to look back at all the action.

Ireland
Since 2011 Ireland has been using the mentor system to select its Eurovision entry. Five well known names are chosen to select acts and songs and the winner is decided on the world’s longest-running chat show, The Late Late Show, which has a long history with Ireland’s participation in the contest (and you can read about it in my live blog from Saturday night.).

Favourite with the bookies Kasey Smith won the right to represent her country with the song Heartbeat. Kasey Smith came third in Ireland’s final last year. However, it was not the winning song that made headlines (national and international) after the show. A fight between jury members caught all the headlines.

Among the panellists on Saturday night’s show were Louis Walsh and Linda Martin. Louis Walsh has a long history in the music industry. He was even involved in Johnny Logan’s victories in the contest. Aslan star Billy McGuinness, mentor of song number 5, objected to the presence of Louis Walsh on the panel. In recent times Louis Walsh mentored contestant Song 2’s singer Eoghan Quigg on The X Factor and he once cast Song 3’s singer Kasey Smith in girl band Wonderland. Billy McGuinness claimed the competition on Saturday night was “not a level playing field”. Host Ryan Tubridy closed the argument – what should have been only Billy McGuinness introducing the entry he was mentoring – for the song to be performed.

Once the song was performed, members of the panel gave their opinions of the song. When it came to Linda Martin (1992 winner and mentor of Jedward in the 2012 competition), she defended Louis Walsh and spoke to Billy McGuinness again calling him “an odious little man”. He replied by saying she should not be on the panel either as she was on Louis Walsh’s payroll, involved when Louis Walsh was selecting his boyband and Eoghan Quigg came in the final ten! At this point Linda Martin stood up and walked towards the audience where Billy McGuinness and the other mentors were sitting. Linda Martin returned to her seat calling Billy McGuinness a gobshite, and Irish word for someone who talks too much rubbish. Billy McGuinness finally questioned One Direction’s Niall Horan’s Tweet encouraging everyone to vote Eoghan Quigg.

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You can watch the arguing in two parts below.

This made by far the most dramatic Irish final ever seen. The final thing to happen to make things even more dramatic was a mistake at the end with the voting graphics, which made it look like Songs 2 and 3 were involved in a tie.

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[LIVE with RESULTS] Ireland’s 2014 Eurosong

Romania
Paula & Ovi became the sixteenth Romanian representative after winning the 2014 Selecţia Naţională with their song Miracle. They came second in the jury vote but won the televote. Will they better their result in 2010 (and their country’s joined personal best with 2005) of third place in Copenhagen?
Live: Selecția Națională for Romania
Romania: Paula Seling & Ovi win with ‘Miracle’
Romania: Jury results revealed!

Estonia
After two semi-finals we met at Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn on Saturday night to see which of the ten finalists would go to Copenhagen. Famous names in the jury included Maarja-Liis Ilus, Ott Lepland and Getter Jaani. Favourite Sandra Nurmsalu never featured in the voting while Super Hot Cosmos Blues Band won the jury vote with Tanja following closely. In the end the two were announced as superfinalists and the lines were opened for another ten minutes. Tanja with Amazing was chosen as the outright winner.
Estonia: Tanja wins Eesti Laul 2014
Live: Estonia Final of Eesti Laul 2014

Lithuania
Lithuania held no less than twelve shows with twenty candidates to find their entrant for the 59th edition of our beloved contest. Since Show 11 last weekend we knew the song would be Attention, but we did not know which one of the three performers would bring it to Copenhagen. On Saturday night it was decided that Vilija Matačiūnaitė would fly their flag, with the song she wrote herself.
Lithuania: Vilija and “Attention” to Copenhagen
Live: Lithuania Eurovizijos Final

Sweden
Helena Paparizou and Linus Svenning did not qualify automatically for the final when they appeared in the first heat in Malmö however they did manage to secure a place at Andra Chansen. The second chance round was held in Lidköping on Saturday night, and Paparizou and Svenning won the remaining two places to the final. The line up for next Saturday night’s final is Stockholm is as follows:
1. Anton Ewald – “Natural”
2. Ellen Benediktson – “Songbird”
3. Alcazar – “Blame It On The Disco”
4. Oscar Zia – “Yes We Can”
5. Linus Svenning – “Bröder”
6. Helena Paparizou – Survivor”
7. YOHIO – “To the End”
8. Sanna Nielsen – “Undo”
9.Panetoz – “Efter solsken”
10. Ace Wilder – “Busy Doin’ Nothin’”

Greece
It has been rumoured for some time that the date of the Greek selection was moved to March 11. There was no official announcement to confirm this but TV listings sent to the press include an entry for the Greek national final on Tuesday at 20:00 CET (21:00 local time.)

The answers to Master Eurovision Mind (and the mistakes!)
a. 1956 b. 0 c. More than 400 years d. Seán Sherrard e. Joe Dolan f. Opera g. 1996 h. Norway i. Now j. Brian Kennedy k. 1965 l. Twice m. First n. White o. Barry McGuigan p. Ireland q. United Kingdom r. Seven s. Lordi t. Love u. Six v. United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, Italy w. Blue
f. Opera contained many more words than the one in its title.
j. Every Song Is A Cry For Love was in fact the 1000th song to be performed at Eurovision, not the 1000th performer. With the long list of performers to return to the contest, the 1000th performer would have come some time later. If you take the time to find the 1000th performer and show your calculations on our Facebook page, and are the first to do so, I will send you a 2014 programme from Copenhagen!
k. Shay was told his answer of 1965 was incorrect and the correct answer was 1964.