The Final

Welcome to the final of the Eurovision That Never Was 2011!

Below is the running order and the links to download the songs (again) (if you want).

01 Germany 1967 - Zigeunerjunge (Alexandra)
02 Spain 1998 - Empiezo A Recordate (Monica Naranjo)
03 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007 - Povedi Me (Armin Muzaferija)
04 The Netherlands 2010 - A Night Like This (Caro Emerald)
05 France 1971 - Avec Les Filles Je Ne Sais Pas (Philippe Laville)
06 Greece 1993 - Vgale To Kragion (Stefanos Korkolis)
07 Yugoslavia 1985 - Zapadna Evropa (Prava Kotka)
08 United Kingdom 1990 - Don't Worry (Kim Appleby)
09 Turkey 2002 - Fire (Zerrin Özer)
10 Greece 1999 - Na Haris (Notis Sfakianakis)
11 Lithuania 1966 - Vilniaus Stogai (Jonas Mašanauskas)
12 Sweden 2005 - Breathless (Tess)
13 Spain 1984 - Amante Bandido (Miguel Bose)
14 United Kingdom 1984 - I Should Have Known Better (Jim Diamond)
15 Greece 1977 - Anthropoi Monaxoi (Viki Mosxoliou)
16 Spain 1972 - Oh Oh July (Los Diablos)
17 United Kingdom 1966 - Colour My World (Petula Clark)
18 United Kingdom 1974 - Guilty (The Pearls)
19 Monaco 2006 - Aimer Jusqu'à L'impossible (Tina Arena)
20 Norway 2008 - If A Song Could Get Me You (Marit Larsen)
21 France 1973 - Un Peu Plus Haut, Un Peu Plus Loin (Ginette Reno)
22 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2008 - Da Si Me Srece Donijela (Sejo Boy)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QI00QLWB

Don't forget the rules for the final:
*Sponsors of entries in the final MUST vote
*Sponsors of non-qualifying entries from the semi-finals can vote but don't have to (although I'd love it if you all did!)
*Non-participants can also vote (these votes being amalgamated into one extra set of points)
*Voting is in Eurovision style (1-8, 10 & 12) and you can't vote for your own entry

Remember that you should still primarily be voting on how 'authentic' you think the entries are; taste is secondary ;-)

The email address to send your votes to is, as ever, etnw2011@gmail.com.

The deadline for voting is midnight CET next Thursday 3 February.

Have I missed anything? :D

Good luck to everyone in the final!

Semi 2: Revelation of qualifiers

Below you will find the link to the video revealing the 11 songs from Semi 2 that have made it through to the final. Congratulations to the qualifiers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snegEaXOITc

In reacting on the MB, please keep any spoilers to the body of your messages so as not to ruin the surprise for people viewing later on. Thanks!

Soon after the link goes live I'll add the full results (well, not the rankings of those who qualified) on here as well for people who can't access YouTube for whatever reason.

The final will go live in just a little while. Stay tuned!

The list of results is below.

Qualifiers (in alphabetical order):

Bosnia and Herzegovina 2008 - Da Si Me Srece Donijela (Sejo Boy)
France 1973 - Un Peu Plus Haut, Un Peu Plus Loin (Ginette Reno)
Greece 1993 - Vgale To Kragion (Stefanos Korkolis)
The Netherlands 2010 - A Night Like This (Caro Emerald)
Norway 2008 - If A Song Could Get Me You (Marit Larsen)
Spain 1984 - Amante Bandido (Miguel Bose)
Spain 1998 - Empiezo A Recordate (Monica Naranjo)
Sweden 2005 - Breathless (Tess)
Turkey 2002 - Fire (Zerrin Özer)
UK 1966 - Colour My World (Petula Clark)
UK 1990 - Don't Worry (Kim Appleby)

And those who didn't make it...

064 Germany 1977 - Alice In Wonderland (Lady Lilli) : [PL]
058 Ireland 1971 - Love Don't Roam (Neil Hannon) : Drew UK
052 Romania 1984 - Mileniul 3 (Angela Similea) : Scami
049 UK 2007 - Believe Again (Delta Goodrem) : Rob
040 Georgia 2010 - The Flood (Katie Melua) : Dylan UK
038 Cyprus 2006 - Aeriko (Pavlos Pavlidis) : Jahner
035 Serbia 1993 - Putuj Evropo (Đorđe Balašević) : Noah
031 Andorra 2003 - Mar Desconocido (Pink Martini) : David in Hull
019 Lithuania 1995 - Maybe Tenderness (Gintare Jautakaite) : Egle
DQ Sweden 1988 - Gabriellas Sång (Helen Sjöholm) : Luke
DQ Switzerland 2009 - Black Tears (Hands On Approach ft Ana Free) : Orestis

Congratulations to the qualifiers and commiserations to the rest!

The draw for the final has been completed and the running order (and link to download the final .rar if you want/need it) will be posted shortly. Voting will open immediately once it does. See the separate post for the details!

Semi 1: Revelation of qualifiers

Below you will find the link to the video revealing the 11 songs from Semi 1 that have made it through to the final. Congratulations to the qualifiers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avpH9UYP4a8

In reacting on the MB, please keep any spoilers to the body of your messages so as not to ruin the surprise for people viewing later on. Thanks!

Soon after the link goes live I'll add the full results (well, not the rankings of those who qualified) on here as well for people who can't access YouTube for whatever reason.

The qualifiers from Semi 2 will be revealed in about 15 minutes' time :)

The list of results is below.

Qualifiers (in alphabetical order):

Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007 - Povedi Me (Armin Muzaferija)
France 1971 - Avec Les Filles Je Ne Sais Pas (Philippe Laville)
Germany 1967 - Zigeunerjunge (Alexandra)
Greece 1977 - Anthropoi Monaxoi (Viki Mosxoliou)
Greece 1999 - Na Haris (Notis Sfakianakis)
Lithuania 1966 - Vilniaus Stogai (Jonas Mašanauskas)
Monaco 2006 - Aimer Jusqu'à L'impossible (Tina Arena)
Spain 1972 - Oh Oh July (Los Diablos)
UK 1974 - Guilty (The Pearls)
UK 1984 - I Should Have Known Better (Jim Diamond)
Yugoslavia 1985 - Zapadna Evropa (Prava Kotka)

And those who didn't make it...

074 Austria 2010 - I've Come To Life (Edita Abdieski) : Holger
065 Cyprus 1991 - I Diki Mou I Patrida (Giorgos Dalaras) : Costas
065 Sweden 2010 - King Of Anything (Sara Bareilles) : Richard CT
062 Germany 2008 - A Year Without Rain (Selena Gomez & The Scene) : Umut
061 Turkey 2003 - Dağları Deldim (Özlem Tekin) : Anthi
061 The Netherlands 2005 - Voorbij (Marco Borsato & Do) : Ben UK
059 Iceland 2010 - Honey, You're Gay! (Lára) : Geert
050 Norway 1997 - Fiolinan (Lars Bremnes Orchestra) : Arvid
035 Spain 1990 - Santiago/L'eclair (Uxía) : Steinar
018 Malta 2009 - Souvenir (Eve Ransom) : Made in Malta
010 Poland 1997 - Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) (Florence + The Machine) : Dimi

Congratulations to the qualifiers and commiserations to the rest of you!

Semi 2: Voting has closed!

Voting has closed in Semi 2 - indeed, it closed at midnight CET last night - and we have our 11 qualifiers! But to find out who they are you'll have to wait for the revelation 'show'... in about 15 minutes ;-)

Good luck to everyone in the running!

Semi 2: 24-hour warning!

Just a reminder to sponsors of entries in Semi 2 and anyone else still intending to vote that the deadline is tomorrow night, Thursday 27 January.

At this point almost three-quarters (!) of the sponsors who have to vote still need to, so I'm expecting a last-minute rush...

Remember to vote in Eurovision-style and send your votes to etnw2011@gmail.com!

Semi 1: Voting has closed!

Voting has closed in Semi 1 and we have our 11 qualifiers! But to find out who they are you'll have to wait for the revelation 'show' this Friday night... ;-)

In the meantime, keep listening to Semi 2. Voting closes this Thursday.

Good luck to everyone still in the running!

Semi 1: 24-hour warning!

Just a reminder to sponsors of entries in Semi 1 and anyone else still intending to vote that the deadline is tomorrow night, Monday 24 January.

At this point almost half of the sponsors who have to vote still need to, but that's par for the course ;-)

Remember to vote in Eurovision-style and send your votes to etnw2011@gmail.com!

ETNW Semi-Final #2

The 2011 edition of the Eurovision That Never Was continues! Below you will find the links to download the songs for the 2nd semi-final.

Remember that if your entry forms part of this semi-final you must vote. Other participants can also vote if they wish, as can non-participants, although their votes will be amalgamated. The deadline for voting is next Thursday 27 January.

The address to send your votes to, needless to say, is etnw2011@gmail.com.

Here is a list of the entries in Semi 2.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FPWHTMQ3
http://www.lashmana.be/ETNW_2011_SF2.rar (Thanks Paul!)
http://www.blogger.com/www.eurobosniamp3.com/etnw2011/ETNW-2011-SF2.rar (Thanks Noah!)

01 United Kingdom 1990 - Don't Worry (Kim Appleby)
02 Greece 1993 - Vgale To Kragion (Stefanos Korkolis)
03 Sweden 1988 - Gabriellas Sång (Helen Sjöholm)
04 The Netherlands 2010 - A Night Like This (Caro Emerald)
05 Germany 1977 - Alice In Wonderland (Lady Lilli)
06 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2008 - Da Si Me Srece Donijela (Sejo Boy)
07 Georgia 2010 - The Flood (Katie Melua)
08 Ireland 1971 - Love Don't Roam (Neil Hannon)
09 United Kingdom 1966 - Colour My World (Petula Clark)
10 Switzerland 2009 - Black Tears (Hands On Approach ft Ana Free)
11 Spain 1984 - Amante Bandido (Miguel Bose)
12 Turkey 2002 - Fire (Zerrin Özer)
13 Lithuania 1995 - Maybe Tenderness (Gintare Jautakaite)
14 Andorra 2003 - Mar Desconocido (Pink Martini)
15 France 1973 - Un Peu Plus Haut, Un Peu Plus Loin (Ginette Reno)
16 Norway 2008 - If A Song Could Get Me You (Marit Larsen)
17 United Kingdom 2007 - Believe Again (Delta Goodrem)
18 Spain 1998 - Empiezo A Recordate (Monica Naranjo)
19 Serbia 1993 - Putuj Evropo (Đorđe Balašević)
20 Sweden 2005 - Breathless (Tess)
21 Romania 1984 - Mileniul 3 (Angela Similea)
22 Cyprus 2006 - Aeriko (Pavlos Pavlidis)

If you have any reason to think that an entry breaks the rules, please let me know at the email address above. Feel free to discuss it on the MB as well, but unless I receive something 'official', I won't look into it. Good luck to everyone in Semi 2!

Reminder - How you should go about voting

I've been very remiss in assuming everyone knows what the voting is meant to be about in the Eurovision That Never Was, but better late than never! These aren't 'rules' per se, but you should try and follow them nonetheless.

Remember that you're not voting for your favourites. Your primary consideration should be how 'authentic' an entry feels in terms of the year and country it's allocated to.

For example, you might not like Luxembourg 1981 very much, but think it's a perfect fit for that country and year. At the same time, you might adore Slovenia 2005, but realise it's very unlikely that song or singer would have taken part for that country in that year.

In this case, Luxembourg 1981 should still get more points than Slovenia 2005 when you vote. This might seem like an odd idea, but it's what sets ETNW apart from other MB music contests: it's not just about which songs you like, but whether they 'fit'.

It all tends to work out OK in the end, but you should try and bear this in mind when voting.

Happy listening! :)

P.S. And yes, voting is Eurovision-style (1-8, 10 & 12). And no, you can't vote for your own entry ;-)

Semi 1: Disqualification... of sorts

It has emerged that entry #11 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007 - Povedi Me (Armin Muzaferija) in the 1st semi-final is a cover version of Tango to Evora by Loreena McKennit.

I did not state in the [condensed] rules for this year's contest that no cover versions were allowed, so I won't be disqualifying the entry per se. But they aren't allowed in Eurovision, so...

Therefore, as voters, it will be up to you to decide whether or not you feel you can vote for the entry.

If you have already submitted your votes and would like to change them in light of this revelation, simply submit your votes again by the deadline.

Condolences to the sponsor! Well, you could still win I suppose, if everyone to decides to overlook this bit of news, but still... ;-)

ETNW 2011 Semi-final #1

The 2011 edition of the Eurovision That Never Was is go! Below you will find the links to download the songs for the 1st semi-final.

Remember that if your entry forms part of this semi-final you must vote. Other participants can also vote if they wish, as can non-participants, although their votes will be amalgamated. The deadline for voting is next Monday 24 January. The address to send your votes to, needless to say, is etnw2011@gmail.com.

Here is a list of the entries in Semi 1.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KZGR8HKA
www.lashmana.be/ETNW_2011_SF1.rar*
www.eurobosniamp3.com/etnw2011/ETNW-2011-SF1.rar**

01 Poland 1997 - Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) (Florence + The Machine)
02 Yugoslavia 1985 - Zapadna Evropa (Prava Kotka)
03 Iceland 2010 - Honey, You're Gay! (Lára)
04 Austria 2010 - I've Come To Life (Edita Abdieski)
05 Spain 1990 - Santiago/L'eclair (Uxía)
06 Monaco 2006 - Aimer Jusqu'à L'impossible (Tina Arena)
07 Malta 2009 - Souvenir (Eve Ransom)
08 Germany 1967 - Zigeunerjunge (Alexandra)
09 Greece 1977 - Anthropoi Monaxoi (Viki Mosxoliou)
10 France 1971 - Avec Les Filles Je Ne Sais Pas (Philippe Laville)
11 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007 - Povedi Me (Armin Muzaferija)
12 The Netherlands 2005 - Voorbij (Marco Borsato & Do)
13 Lithuania 1966 - Vilniaus Stogai (Jonas Mašanauskas)
14 United Kingdom 1984 - I Should Have Known Better (Jim Diamond)
15 Germany 2008 - A Year Without Rain (Selena Gomez & The Scene)
16 Turkey 2003 - Dağları Deldim (Özlem Tekin)
17 Norway 1997 - Fiolinan (Lars Bremnes Orchestra)
18 Sweden 2010 - King Of Anything (Sara Bareilles)
19 Cyprus 1991 - I Diki Mou I Patrida (Giorgos Dalaras)
20 United Kingdom 1974 - Guilty (The Pearls)
21 Greece 1999 - Na Haris (Notis Sfakianakis)
22 Spain 1972 - Oh Oh July (Los Diablos)


If you have any reason to think that an entry breaks the rules, please let me know at the email address above. Feel free to discuss it on the MB as well, but unless I receive something 'official', I won't look into it.

Good luck to everyone in Semi 1!

*Many thanks to [PL]!
**Many thanks to Noah!

Finalised schedule

I've decided to go with two semis, so here is the finalised schedule of ETNW2011:

__________

Monday 17 January - Semi 1 launched and voting opens
Thursday 20 January - Semi 2 launched and voting opens
Monday 24 January - Voting in Semi 1 closes
Thursday 27 January - Voting in Semi 2 closes
Friday 28 January - Revelation of qualifiers + Final launched and voting opens*
Thursday 3 February - Voting in Final closes
Friday 4 February - Revelation of sponsors + Results of final

__________

I have plumped for a week-long voting window for each semi to give people extra time to vote, since many will be caught up in national finals during the weekend. The window for voting in the final is shorter for two reasons: 1) everyone voting will be familiar with at least half of the songs, if not all of them; and 2) to avoid qualifier revelations and results coinciding with the next weekend's national finals attention-diverting shenanigans ;-)

The first semi-final will go live later tonight, after I've done my own little draw for the running order, et cetera, et cetera. I won't be informing people which semi they're in, since if you're not in the first one, you'll obviously be in the second!

*After the Finnish semi-final, to avoid that clash!

44 entries received for ETNW 2011

Submissions have now closed and 44 entries have been received for the 2011 edition of the Eurovision That Never Was.

Pending final checks of last-minute entries, the first semi-final will be launched later tonight. The finalised schedule for the contest will, needless to say, be decided on and posted beforehand. Watch this space.

Thanks and good luck to everyone who has entered!

Submissions: 48-hour warning

Just a reminder to those still yet to do so that you only have a couple of days left to submit your entries. The last day for entries is this Sunday 16 January.

The nominal cut-off is midnight CET, although since I won't be checking until Monday morning, you've got a bit of leeway. But don't push your luck ;-)

Thanks to everyone who's submitted entries so far!

What you need to submit

This is just to remind you that when you submit your entry, please include the following in the body of your email to me:

1. Your MB nickname
2. The details of your entry

Include the name of your song and artist in combination with the year and country you've allocated it to.

For example: Sweden 1989 - The Look (Roxette)

3. An MP3 of your entry

Where possible and applicable, delete any extraneous information from the MP3 which could identify you as the sponsor.

Please also make sure that the MP3 is as high quality as possible. If it's not, some voters might simply skip it.

Everyone who submits an entry will receive email confirmation - either that everything's fine (most likely) or that something's up/needs to be changed/whatever (less likely).

It would also be useful if the subject line of your email when submitting your entry was e.g. "Arvid's ETNW 2011 entry". That way if I have to go back and search for things it just makes it a bit easier :) Thanks!

ETNW 2011 - Email address for submission of entries and queries

The email address to which you should submit your entries for the Eurovision That Never Was 2011 is:

etnw2011@gmail.com

Any questions can be sent to me at that address as well, although you can also ask me on Facebook if you like, or even better on the MB, so that everyone can see what you're asking and what my answer is. Please do not submit entries to me via Facebook, MSN, Hotmail or any other way.

And just a reminder: submissions open tomorrow, Monday 10 January. I will only be checking (which is to say replying to) emails in the evenings after work, so don't worry if you don't hear anything from me immediately.

If you're still stuck for ideas or how to approach the contest, check out the Opening Ceremony post below!

ETNW 2011 - Opening Ceremony

Welcome to the Eurovision That Never Was 2011!

Those of you who are familiar with the concept of this MB contest might want to skip the next few paragraphs, which are designed to remind newcomers what ETNW is all about. Unless you want to refresh your memories. In which case...

"In short, the contest is about picking a song you think could pass as a past entry in the contest - from any country that has ever taken part, from anywhere between 1956 and 2010. You might have some Portuguese song you've always loved (probably featuring a pine tree or field of corn or some such) which was released back in 1986 which you've always thought should have been the country's entry in 1987; or you know a Lithuanian song which you're convinced the Baltic state would have entered had it been around in 1965.

"The song you pick might seem so utterly Eurovisiony that it jumps out at you immediately, or it might take a while before you come round to it and realise: well yep, actually that would have fitted in really well for that contest and that country that year. Whatever you choose, the idea is to mix things up a bit - the whole point is that it's The Eurovision That Never Was. How you interpret that is up to you. Hopefully it will make for as fun a contest as ever, with a good variety of music."

The general idea with ETNW is to come up with an entry you feel is as authentic as possible for the year and country you allocate it to, and that's also how your voting should work. For example, if you have two songs, one which you like but which doesn't seem all that authentic, and the other which you don't like all that much but which seems completely authentic, the latter should get more points from you than the former. This is what sets ETNW apart from other MB contests. For more information and details about rules and voting, see the other (and older) posts below.

Just to remind you, the submissions period opens next Monday, 1o January, and will last a week. Until then, let's kick off this opening ceremony proper with a recap of last year's winner and some words of wisdom from its sponsor, Arvid...


SISSEL - SE ILDEN LYSE



A deserved inaugural winner :)

And now some tips from the man who won it for Norway...


*****

Are you struggling with finding a song or choosing one out of many, many suggestions? Despair not. Here's what I did last year. It worked then. I plan on doing the same this year, but it is not sure it will work as well. Especially not if you all do it, too.

The order of these suggestions are not to be taken as a strict procedure and it can be done in a different way, and they can be done in a different order. Or you can choose your entry by setting your itunes to "random" and choose whatever comes at #423. Or you can click "next" repeatedly on your itunes as long as you can hold your breath, and then choose whatever is on when the need to exhale becomes unbearable. Or you can just get drunk... maybe I should do that, to try something new? You'll just have to wait and see.

1. Find a song

If there's a song you've always thought of as a perfect Eurovision song, and you have been lying awake at night, twisting in despair because it was never submitted to the ESC, then that is a worthy candidate. That's what I did last year. The despair is still killing me. I'm noticing I'm using the word "despair" a lot now. Maybe it's because I promised phutty these tips two days ago. I digress.

So if there's a song you've just randomly thought "this would be good for the ESC" while hearing something on the radio, that might work, too. Or even something you've thought of as "too good for the ESC". Basically anything that screams "ESC" without being Eurovision-connected, or you could easily imagine on an ESC stage. Preferrably something with a strong chorus, short verses. Key changes, ethno-pop and screamy ladies should also be appreciated.

2. Find a country and year

When you've chosen a song, placing it can be quite a challenge. The point is not to find something identical to a certain country's entry in a given year, but more something that "feels" like a certain country's output at a certain time. This is what people are going to think about when voting. No-one is going to re-acquaint themselves with all of Portugal's back catalogue to see if you have mis-placed an entry or to give you the benefit of the doubt to see if it *might* fit.

My advice here is not to over-think it. A slightly ethnic ballad in Norwegian that was released in the mid-nineties goes as a Norwegian entry in the mid-nineties, for instance. Submitting a heavy rock song might work better for the Czech republic in the late nillies. You catch my drift. And for it to feel realistic, it is a good idea to take into account both the free language rule, when it was in effect and when it wasn't, as well as what countries participated (and existed) when. The rules are quite liberal here, but if you want to win it's a good idea to think about all of these things, because some voters might punish you if you don't (Hello Frank! :).

3. Have fun

If you haven't had fun picking your entry, I think you are something of a bore. Or it is likely you have been over-thinking.

Conclusion

To sum up: 1. Find a song. 2. Find a country and year. 3. Have fun. Otherwise: Over-thinking is bad, fun is fun and Eurovision is fun, too. And beer made these tips better.

Arvid - putting the "tips" in "tipsy".

*****

Some sage advice there - 'have fun' being the most important point! So get your thinking caps on if you still haven't, and remember that submissions open on Monday. Which is when I'll let you know what the new email address is... ;-)