Italy and Montenegro pick their artists for Tel Aviv on this huge Preselection Saturday. They will follow in the footsteps of United Kingdom and our very own Australia who picked their Eurovision songs earlier this weekend. Follow all the Saturday night shows in one liveblog below:
On this blog, we will follow all the shows that take place tonight. Preselection action from no less than 7 countries!
Liveblog for Saturday the 9th of February
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23:08 – Switch to San Remo
Italy’s final is the only show still going. So please, click HERE switch to Sadie Trent’s liveblog about San Remo 2019.
This blog is finished for tonight. Thanks for following us and we hope to see you again next week!
23:05 – All the results so far
Montenegro chooses band D-moll for Tel Aviv
Shock results in Sweden: Liamoo qualifies, but Margaret goes home
Kállay-Saunders was saved by televoters in Hungary
Iceland sends Hera Björk to final with big band ballad
Monika Marija reaches the final in Lithuania’s Eurovizijos
Tayanna-replacement qualifies for Ukranian final
22:59 – D-Moll represents Montenegro in Tel Aviv
The band won the superfinal with the song “Heaven”. More information here:
22:52 – Montenegro sends televoter on holiday
We are very close to the results in Montenegro. “But first they’re doing some lottery thing for a televoter to win a free holiday,” says ESCDaily’s correspondent Brandon McCann. Get on with it!
22:48 – Il Volo performed in San Remo
The big names have been on stage now: both Nek (who gave our correspondent Sadie Trent “Robbie Williams vibes”) and popera group Il Volo, who brought Italy a 3rd place in Eurovision 2015. Will they go to ESC again?
22:41 – No surprises in Lithuania’s Eurovizijos
Monika Marija is through to the next round. The same goes for Henry & Tommy Modric, Justina Budaitė-Junà and Jurgis Brūzga.
22:36 – Gangsta Renga
Francesco Renga just sang a song in San Remo that our correspondent Sadie Trent labeled “a dated gangsta entry”.
22:31 – “D-moll outdated”
Brandon McCann fears that Montenegro will choose D-moll with “Heaven” in its superfinal. “A very dated song. But there is still time for an upset by Ivana!”
22:29 – 12 jury points for Monika Marija
Her song “Light on” gets the maximum points from the jury. Televote scores still to come.
22:25 – Italy will go all night long
The Italian final of San Remo is famous for its long duration. We are now two hours in, with no signs of speeding up.
22:18 – Andrea Demirovic eliminated
22:15 – 3 shows still going on
We have exciting finals running in Italy and Montenegro, both countries select their Eurovision act tonight! Lithuania is also still going.
Results from Iceland, Hungary, Ukraine and Sweden’s Melodifestivalen are already out and can be found on the ESCDaily homepage!
22:12 – Performances finished in Lithuania
And we’ve heard the last song in Lithuania. Cheri had the honor to close the evening with her song “Again”, which was a very unspectacular end, according to our correspondent Robin Tas. Waiting for results now!
22:09 – Prerecorded?
The Montevizija final looks prerecorded, says Brandon McCann, who follows the show for ESCDaily. “All the artists just recorded a video from their own homes.” Meanwhile, Montenegro uses an international jury which features Ruslana and Ira Losco.
22:01 – Hera Björk through to Icelandic final
With her song “Eitt andartak”, she qualifies for the final of Söngvakeppnin.
21:55 – The big star in Lithuania: Monika Marija
“And there is Monika Marija with her ballad song “Light On”. It’s a pretty good song, she has solid vocals. She is on stage with backings and some sort of mirrors. The audience and jury seem enthusiastic,” says Robin Tas, Baltic expert for ESCDaily.
21:47 – Finally, results in Ukraine
Local time in Kiev is around 1AM… But now we know that MARUV and Brunettes Shoot Blondes and YUKO are through to the final of Vidbir.
21:39 – Time for Nek
Arguably one of the biggest names in tonight’s San Remo final in Italy. However, earlier in the week, the jury put Nek in the lower group… Can he recover tonight?
21:30 – Kállay-Saunders saved by televoting
The Hungarian televoters have given The Middletonz (with András Kállay-Saunders) the 4th and last ticket to the A Dal final.
21:24 – Margaret eliminated, Andreas Johnson to Andra Chansen
Big shock in Sweden: Hanna & Liamoo take the second ticket to the final, while Polish superstar Margaret is eliminated!
Malou Prytz and LIAMOO & Hanna Ferm go through to Melodifestivalen final
22:21 – Anna Tatangelo impresses in San Remo
Anna Tatangelo just performed. “I think she maybe a surprise later on in the night,” says Sadie Trent, who follows the San Remo final for ESCDaily. Tatangelo won San Remo twice, but always in subordinate categories.
21:19 – Preliminary votes in Lithuania
Meanwhile in Lithuania Emilija Gogolyté is still in a strong position (based on preliminary televotes) with her jazzy song. She is followed by Henry & Tommy Modric, who have only 650 votes.
21:14 – Malou Pritz surprises in Sweden
Not Andreas Johnson or Margaret, but Malou Prytz is the first qualifier in Melodifestivalen tonight. With his song “I do me” he is through to the final.
21:10 – Kállay-Saunders in danger
With his band The Middletonz and their song “Roses”, he scores mediocre with the jury. The app vote, however, puts him in first place with 9 points. This puts The Middletonz in 4th place over-all, not enough to qualify directly:
- Acoustic Planet – Nyári zápor 45pt
- Petruska – Help me out of here 42pt
- Bence Vavra – Szótlanság 42pt
- The Middletonz – Roses 41pt
- Konyha – Százszor visszajátszott 38pt
- The Sign – Ő 37pt
- Deniz – Ide várnak vissza 35pt
- yesyes – Incomplete 35pt
- USNK – Posztolj 34pt
Televoters can still save Kállay-Saunders (or someone else) in the extra voting round.
21:04 – Jan Malmsjö eliminated
The first two knocked out in Melodifestivalen tonight are Oscar Ernestad and Jan Malmsjö. The other 5 go into the second voting round, including Margaret and Andreas Johnson.
21:02 – And in Montenegro!
Follow the Montevizija final with live commentary by Brandon McCann HERE:
20:57 – Finally underway in Italy
Buona Finale di #Sanremo2019 a tutti! Seguitela con noi e fateci sapere per chi tifate! pic.twitter.com/3auJFJ8JYF
— Eurofestival Italia (@eurofestivalit) February 9, 2019
20:52 – Meanwhile in Lithuania…
…our correspondent Robin Tas is wondering how Edgaras Lubys made it this far. “From the first note in his performance, he is already off-key.” Monika Marija comes on stage later tonight.
20:48 – Hera Björk returns to Söngvakeppnin
Hera Björk, fan favorite in Eurovision 2010, will try to represent Iceland again. Her journey in Söngvakeppnin starts tonight!
20:45 – Margaret up next in Sweden
Melodifestivalen rushes through the performances. We are already at the last song: Margaret with “Tempo”.
Just the other minute, Liamoo (6th last year) was on stage together with Hanna. “Her voice is great and I felt LIAMOO was holding her back instead of holding her,” concludes Allie Lindo.
20:40 – Lithuania starts slow
We are 40 minutes in, and have only really seen two performances. Robin Tas follows the show closely for ESCDaily, and more updates can be expected soon.
20:36 – Petruska & Acoustic Planet raise the bar
In the first round, Petruska and Acoustic Planet were popular with the Hungarian jury only. But tonight, they manage to get a good app vote too and score even higher than in round 1.
Two songs left to go. The top 3 qualifies directly for the Grand Final:
- Acoustic Planet – Nyári zápor 45pt
- Petruska – Help me out of here 42pt
- Konyha – Százszor visszajátszott 38pt
- The Sign – Ő 37pt
- Deniz – Ide várnak vissza 35pt
- yesyes – Incomplete 35pt
- USNK – Posztolj 34pt
20:32 – Jan Malmsö surprises with his looks
“Jan Malmsjö surprised us with a haircut and shave. He looks totally different,” says Sweden expert Allie Lindo about the Melodifestivalen runner-up of 1969.
20:24 – Italy starts San Remo
Two big names in the Italian preselection this year: Nek and Il Volo (ESC2015), but both were struggling earlier this week. What can we expect from San Remo 2019 in tonight’s final? It starts in a few minutes!
20:18 – Andreas Johnson “a little flat”
Allie Lindo is not really excited about Andreas Johnson’s performance in Melodifestivalen, Sweden.
“This song definitely has a positive tone. But as Andreas whisper-sings into the microphone, I can’t help but think this is a little flat. I also can’t stop starting at the cowboy hats his backing singers and band are wearing. Decent opening, but I don’t see this going through to the final. But we shall see!”
Follow Allie’s full Sweden blog HERE:
Live: Margaret and Andreas Johnson compete in Melodifestivalen
20:09 – yesyes still no jury favorite in Hungary
The band of lead singer Ádám Szabó scores a low 34 jury points in tonight’s A Dal semi final. During the first round, yesyes only qualified through televoting.
- Konyha – Százszor visszajátszott 38pt
- The Sign – Ő 37pt
- yesyes – Incomplete 35pt
- USNK – Posztolj 34pt
19:55 – Soon: Margaret returns to Melodifestivalen
Polish superstar Margaret tried her luck in Sweden’s preselection last year, and reached a respectable 7th place in the final. This year she tries again and tonight she is up against i.a. Andreas Johnson and Liamoo, who was a finalist last year and finished 6th.
19:48 – Waiting for results in Ukraine
Vidbir always starts early due to Ukraines Eastern timezone. The performances are over, and now they take their usual one hour (!) break, while we wait for results.
Tayanna was supposed to perform in Vidbir tonight, but she withdrew last minute. Maruv performed in her place.
19:42 – Kállay-Saunders wants to reach another Hungarian final
The man who brought Hungary a 5th place in Copenhagen in 2014, is going for his 5th A Dal final tonight. He is up against Petruska and newcoming band Acoustic Planet, who both achieved great scores in the first round.
A Dal is, together with Vidbir in Ukraine, the only show that has already started.
19:28 – Schedule for tonight
18:00 CET – Ukraine Vidbir Semi-final 1
19:30 CET – Hungary A Dal – Semi-final 1
20:00 CET – Lithuania Eurovizija Semi-final 1
20:00 CET – Sweden Melodifestivalen Deltävling 2
20:30 CET – Italy Sanremo 2019
20:45 CET – Iceland Söngvakeppnin Semi-final 1
21:00 CET – Montenegro Montevizija 2019