EUROVISION 2018

EUROVISION 2018 – DNA PEDIGREE

Being a fan of Eurovision since the 70s, love of the contest for many was based on songs from a country representing that country, so written by and usually sung by people from that country.

Personally, I could live with the fact that the songs from Monaco or Luxembourg were assisted by neighbour countries, as they were so tiny…. And what was important to me was hearing the different languages and realising that there were different cultures out there that I wanted to explore.

I could also live with the fact that an Australian represented my country ( UK ) in 1974 or an American in 1997, as both were popular here and Australia and the US did not take part anyway, plus we speak the same language.

In recent years, there has become a trend for countries to reach out to the World for a song to represent them. That to me (and this just is my opinion) doesn’t fit with originality or national identity. Each country has its own talent, its own traditions, its own culture, its own beat, its own talent-pool, its own language or languages .. and this is what drew me to Eurovision in the first place.

For example, where is the pride in a song from country ABCland being performed by an artist from Country DEFland, for Country DEFland? That does not make it a song from Country DEFland, so how can national pride and ownership come from that?

I’m deliberately not pointing fingers, but that would be very easy to do….

So, this year (2018) we have decided to run a check on the pedigree of each of the selected songs and artists. Do the artists and song writers hail from the nation they are representing? Is the Albanian song a full-pedigree Albanian masterpiece, for example… in this case, yes it is!

Some may say that this may be out of touch with this bright new world and understanding that the World is a smaller place now and that internationalism is prevalent in all walks of life, surely we only want to raise a flag from the place we were born, or in the case of Eurovision fans, for a song that we love…? It can of course be forgiven, if an artist is well-known in the country they are representing. If all songs start to sound the same though, what’s the point?

The 2017 and 2016 winners have shown that home-grown talent and even a song in a language that is not English (or entirely in English), can grab the attention and votes of Europe – this has been great to witness and kudos to Jamala and Salvador Sobral for that…

So, coming soon is the growing ‘Pedigree’ list for the Eurovision songs of 2018, with 100% pedigree highlighted… This is based on known details, with some gaps. Corrections and additions are welcome of course.

Where an individual’s nationality (of birth) is unknown, the result is pending, so without conclusion yet.

Corrections will be welcomed of course (to sechukweb@aol.com)

Gary Speirs, 2018

This list is developing….

COUNTRY	ARTIST/S	WRITER 1	WRITER 2	WRITER 3	WRITER 4	WRITER 5	%age
ALBANIA	Eugent Bushpepa ALBANIAN	Eugent Bushpepa ALBANIAN	-	-	-	-	100% ALBANIAN
ARMENIA	Sevak Khanagyan ARMENIAN	Anna Danielyan ????	Viktorya Maloyan ????				TBA
AUSTRALIA	Jessica Mauboy	Anothuy Egizii	David Musumeci	Jessica Mauboy			TBA
AUSTRIA	Cesar Sampson	Cesar Sampson	Sebaastian Arman	Joacim Persson	Borislav Milanovc	Johan Alkenas	TBA
AZERBAIJAN	Aisael AZERI	Dimitris Kontopoulos GREEK	Sandra Bjurman SWEDISH				33% AZERI
BELARUS	Alekseev UKRAINIAN	Krylo Pavlov ????	Yevhen Matyushenko ????
BELGIUM	Laura Groeseneken	Laura Groeseneken	Alex Callier	Maxime Tribeche			TBA
BULGARIA	Equinox	Borislav Milanov	Trey Campbell	Joakim Persson	Dag Lundberg		TBA
CROATIA	Franka Batelic CROATIAN	Branimir Mihaljevic ????	Franka Batelic CROATIAN				TBA
CYPRUS	Eleni Foureira ALBANIAN	Alex P GREEK/SWEDISH					0% CYPRIOT
CZECH REPUBLIC	Mikolas Josef CZECH	Mikolas Josef CZECH					100% CZECH
DENMARK	Rasmussen DANISH	Niklas Arn SWEDISH	Karl Euren SWEDISH				33% DANISH
ESTONIA	Elina Netsayeva ESTONIAN	Timo Vendt	Mihkel Mattisen	Elina Netsayeva	Ksenia Kuchokova		TBA
FINLAND	Saara Aalto FINNISH	Joy Deb	Linnea Deb	Ki Fitzgerald			TBA
FRANCE	Madame Monsieur Both FRENCH	Emilie Satt FRENCH	Jean-Karl Lucas FRENCH	-	-	-	100% FRENCH
GERMANY	Michael Schulte GERMAN	Thomas Stengaard DANISH	Nisse Inwersen GERMAN	Nina Muller GERMAN			75% GERMAN
GREECE	Yianna Terzi GREEK	Yianna Terzis GREEK	Aris Kalimeris GREEK	Dimitris Stamatiou GREEK	Mihalis Papathansiou GREEK		100% GREEK
HUNGARY	AWS (5 members) ALL HUNGARIAN	Daniel Kokenyes HUNGARIAN	Bence Brucker HUNGARIAN	Aron Veress HUNGARIAN	Soma Schiszler	Ors Siklosi HUNGARIAN
ICELAND	Ari Olafson ICELANDIC	Dorunn Erna Clausen ICELANDIC					100% ICELANDIC
IRELAND	Ryan O’Shaughnessy IRISH	Ryan O’Shaughnessy IRISH	Mark Caplice ????	Laura Elizabeth Hughes ????			TBA
ISRAEL	Netta Barzilai ISRAELI	Doron Medalie	Stav Begar	Netta Barzilai ISRAELI	Avshalom Ariel		TBA
ITALY	Ermal Meta ALBANIAN Fabrizio Moro ITALIAN	Ermal Meta ALBANIAN	Fabrizio Moro ITALIAN	Andrea Febo ITALIAN			60% ITALIAN
LATVIA	Laura Rizzotto BRAZILIAN/ LATVIAN	Laura Rizzotto BRAZILIAN/ LATVIAN					50% LATVIAN
LITHUANIA	Ieva Zasimauskaite LITHUANIAN	Vytautas Bikus LITHUANIAN					100% LITHUANIAN
MACEDONIA	Eye Cue (3 members) ????	Bojan Trajkovski ????					TBA
MALTA	Christabelle MALTESE	Johnny Sanchez SWEDISH	Thomas G:sson SWEDISH	Christabelle Borg MALTESE	Muxu MALTESE		60% MALTESE
MOLDOVA	DoReDos (3 members) ALL MOLDOVAN	Phillip Kirkorov RUSSIAN	John Ballard BRITISH				60% MOLDOVAN
MONTENEGRO	Vanja Radovanovic SERBIAN	Vanja Radovanovic SERBIAN					0% MONTENEGRIN noting that Serbia and Montenegro were (fairly recently) one country
NETHERLANDS	Waylon DUTCH	Waylon DUTCH					100% DUTCH
NORWAY	Alexander Rybak NORWEGIAN	Alexander Rybak NORWEGIAN					100% NORWEGIAN
PORTUGAL	Claudia Pascoal PORTUGUESE	Isaura ????					TBA
ROMANIA	The Humans (6 members) ALL ROMANIAN	Matei Mihai ROMANIAN	Alin Neagoe ROMANIAN	Cristina Caramarcu ROMANIAN			100% ROMANIAN
RUSSIA	Julia Samoylova RUSSIAN	Netta Nimrodi ????	Leoinid Gutkin ????	Arie Burshtein ????			TBA
SAN MARINO	Jessika & Jenifer MALTESE & GERMAN	Mattias Strasser TBA	Christof Straub AUSTRIAN	Zoe Straub AUSTRIAN	Lorenzo Salvatori	Stefan Moessle	TBA
SERBIA	Sanja Ilic & Balkanika (6 members) ALL SERBIAN	Aleksandar Sanja Ilic	Tatjana Karajanoc Ilic	Danica Krstajic			TBA
SLOVENIA	Lea Sirk SLOVENIAN	Lea Sirk SLOVENIAN	Tomy DeClerque ????				TBA
SPAIN	Alfred & Amaia Both SPANISH	Raul Gomez SPANISH	Sylvia Santoro SPANISH	-	-	-	100% SPANISH
SWEDEN	Benjamin Ingrosso	Benjamin Ingrosso	MAG	Louis Schoorl	K Nita		TBA
SWITZERLAND	ZIBBZ Both SWISS	Corinne Gfeller SWISS	Stee Gfeller SWISS	Lauren Barker CANADIAN			80% SWISS
UKRAINE	Melovin UKRAINIAN	Melovin UKRAINIAN	Anton Karskiy	Mike Ryals			TBA
UNITED KINGDOM	SuRie BRITISH	Nicole Blair AUSTRALIAN	Gil Lewis BRITISH	Sean Hargreaves BRITISH			75% BRITISH