The rehearsals for the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest are in full swing but the winner is still to be discovered. Many fans are saying that Sweden will take the trophy back home and others (including me) are saying that Italy is preparing for a fresh new victory this year (plus, they didn't refuse to organize JESC next year for nothing).

Also, this year, we will see how voters will react to Finland's Down Syndrome band or the Polish wheelchair. I don't having anything against these countries but I strongly hope that people will vote for the best song and not for empathy. 

For now, all the countries did at least one rehearsal on the Eurovision stage. Some of my favorite rehearsals are:  Malta, Germany, Armenia (I hate the song though), Norway, Estonia, Sweden, Belgium, Greece (wow) and countries that didn't do so well: Albania (uninspired performance), Macedonia (everything would have been perfect without those black singers), Ireland (static performance), Hungary (beyond boringness) and Netherlands (slutty dresses, weak vocals).

Get ready for your Eurovision party and print out Florinesc's scorecards for the semi-finals! We have prepared these handy voting sheets for you. You can print them out and start judging the entries while watching the shows. Give points under each criterion and count the points – who is your winner? Keep an eye on this page right after the second semi-final when the scorecard for Grand Final is published!

• Download Semifinal 1 Scorecard 
• Download Semifinal 2 Scorecard
• Download Grand Final Scorecard (available on 22 May 2015)

Enjoy!
Posted by Florin's Blog on Saturday, May 16, 2015

Florinesc.com will traditionally release special scorecards for this year's Eurovision Song Contest just like in every year. The scorecards will be revamped to a whole new version and you can download them as soon as possible. Stay tuned!

Later edit: Download your scorecards HERE.

At the beginning of this Eurovision season I was actually very excited (like always) but it seems that I've lost my interest on the 'misery road'. I refused to write about this year's Romanian National Final since everything was filled with corruption and stupidity. We all know what happened in Moldova...well in Romania things weren't so different after all. 

Even when the submission period ended for Selectia Nationala, the Romanian Head of Delegation, Mrs. Liana Stanciu, expressed a convincing support for Voltaj. I don't know what these incapable people are doing here but I can assure you that they don't know a damn thing about the Eurovision Song Contest, and yes, I am fully prepared to see my country fail for the first time ever.

For some reason, Mrs Liana Stanciu, formed this 'special' jury of five people, one of them was Ovi (thumbs down for what he did) and an amateur that clearly doesn't know a damn thing about the music industry and was selected just because he's writing articles on a random eurovision website. 

This year, for the first time ever, someone (I guess Mrs, Liana Stanciu) decided that the jury points should be kept secret for some reason. Fans are speculating that Ovi gave Luminita Anghel only 4 points due to the fact that they had some serious conflicts in the past and that's the main reason why all the points are kept secret even now. I don't know if that's true or not but if it is, then Ovi should be ashamed for what he did. 

Also. the entire show was miserably organized, many mistakes were made but sadly no one cared anyway. I'm not blaming Voltaj for anything, I'm blaming Liana Stanciu for the incredibly poor organization this year and she still has the guts to be the head of the Romanian delegation in Vienna. I just hope that this year's result will be a wake up call for Romania and all those useless people that are in charge of organizing the National Final in our country. 

These are my thoughts regarding this year's Romanian National Final. I'll be back soon with Eurovision 2015 reviews and scorecards. 

Florin

RTVE, the Spanish national broadcaster, revealed earlier today that "Amanecer", the song which Edurne will sing at Eurovision 2015 will be presented on March 1st this year. 

"Amanecer" is described to be as a unique genre/style which Spain did not enter in Eurovision before in Eurovision. More details about the Spanish song can be found here. 

Source: RTVE 

Today during a press conference, TVR, the Romanian Broadcaster officially revealed the candidates of Selectia Nationala 2015. A total of 12 songs will compete for the honor to represent Romania at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. A total of 94 songs were submitted for Selectia Nationala 2015 and only 79 of them were eligible to enter the competition. Listen to all the songs below:

1. A million stars - Luminiţa Anghel
2. Chica latina - Aurelian Temişan feat. Alexa 
3. De la capăt – Voltaj
4. Dragoste în lanţuri – Băieţii
5. Love won’t run away - Blue Noise
6. Nowhere - Cristina Vasiu
7. My light - Rodica Aculova
8. Save us - Tudor Turcu
9. Superman - Lara Lee
10. We were in love – CEJ
11. Still alive - Ovidiu Anton
12. Secret place – Supertrooper

Source: TVR

It's that wonderful time of the year again! I want to wish everyone from the Eurovision Family, a Merry Christmas full of joy, happiness and fulfillment. Let's enjoy this amazing National Finals Season and hopefully we will have a great winner this year! 

1. It's Trijntje Oosterhuis for the Netherlands! 

That's right! Trijntje was internally selected to represent the Netherlands at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. Trijntje will perform the song entitled "Walk Along" - which was written by the one and only Anouk. Mostly everyone seems to enjoy the song while other fans claim the fact that it's way to repetitive and it can't be compared with last year's song. 

In my opinion, the song is interesting but it has that lame intro which kind of ruins it. The live performance was great, Trijntje can actually sing! Check the song below: 

2. Uzari and Maimuna will fly the Belorussian flag in Vienna!  

Yesterday, the Eurofest National Final took place in Belarus and Uzari & Maimuna were selected to represent the country next year in Vienna with the song called "Time". The national final had many typical songs but the most favorite to win was the song written by Alexander Rybak and performed by the group called MILKI. It seems that the jury didn't enjoy so much Alexander's song while the public gave it 10 points. Alexander expressed his disappointment on his official Facebook page saying that he intends to take a break from it all.  

Personally, I think that Uzari & Maimuna have a very weak song that will most likely not qualify. I actually prefer Israel's 2012 song over this and it's currently placed last in my top 4. Anyway, good luck Belarus! 

3. A total of 39 countries will participate in next year's Eurovision!

EBU finally released the official list of the 2015 participants. A total of 39 countries will entertain the Eurovision fans in Vienna next year! Only 33 countries will compete in the 2 semifinals scheduled to be held on 19 and 21 May (16 countries in Semifinal 1 and 17 countries in Semifinal 2 ). A total of 26 countries will compete in the grand final on 23 May. The Big 5 (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy) + host country Austria are automatically qualified to compete in the grand final, hence 20/33 countries will proceed from the semifinals to grand final and join Austria and the BIG 5 nations.

Don't miss the allocation draw which will take place on 26 January 2015 at the Wiener Rathaus (Vienna City Hall).

See you soon with more news regarding this year's Eurovision Song Contest!

Today, the participants of the third and fourth MF Semifinal were revealed by the Swedish national broadcaster, SVT. Among the names, we recognize Ellen Benediktson, who took part in  Melodifestivalen 2014 with her song entitled "Songbird". 

Melodifestivalen 2015 begins with the first semi-final in Gothenburg on February 7. The semi-final stage of the competition will run throughout February, with a second chance round on March 7 and the grand final taking place on March 14.

Third semi-final  is scheduled to be held on 21st of February in Östersund

1. Andreas Weise - Bring Out the Fire 
2. Isa - Don’t Stop 
3. Kalle Johansson - För din skull 
4. Kristin Amparo - I See You 
5. Ellen Benediktson - Insomnia 
6. Jon Henrik Fjällgren - Jag är fri 
7. Andreas Johnson - Living To Die 

Fourth semi-final  is scheduled to be held on 28th of February in Örebro

1. Caroline Wennergren - Black Swan 
2. JTR - Building It Up 
3. Midnight Boy - Don’t Say No
4. Annika Herlitz - Ett andetag 
5. Hasse Andersson - Guld och gröna skogar 
6. Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes 
7. Dinah Nah - Make Me (La La La)

Earlier today, the logo design of the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest was revealed. The theme art is shaped like a sphere and comes with the slogan "Building Bridges". Many Eurovision fans said that the logo design is a combination of ESC 2010 (the spheres) and ESC 2011 (colors). 

"It is a great logo, a strong sign with recognition value and endless possibilities," says Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the contest on behalf of the European Broadcasting Union.

Dr. Alexander Wrabetz, Director General of ORF: "With this graphic identity we have presented a contemporary, professional entertainment design. A big advantage of the Sphere is the versatility because it is suitable for both - dynamic screen design as well as any analog use. I am particularly pleased that the graphic appearance was developed by a great team in-house."

"The Song Contest moved to Austria and Austria welcomes guests happily and with spirit, without the expectable cliches, just in a modern and cosmopolitan way. This dynamism is also reflected in the graphical appearance of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest," adds Edgar Böhm, Executive Producer of the contest in 2015.