In addition, I have a couple of personal Eurovision announcements to make. One today and one later in the week. So let's get started with that:
Announcement #1:
I AM HOSTING EUROVISION.* (**)
* In a pub.
** In Birmingham.
Yes, it's true. Our usual hosts at The Wellington Hotel are deserting us this year - something about a Eurovision cruise (which is what I'm generally doing every year I'm there) - so I have been asked to step into the breach. My friend Said and I will be hosting what is probably Birmingham's biggest Eurovision party, at the Wellington pub on the corner of Bromsgrove Street and Bristol Street on the night of the final, Saturday 10 May. We'll be showing the final on the big screen from 8pm, but you'll need to turn up from 7pm in order to get a seat. (The room was absolutely stuffed full last year, and some latecomers ended up going away, so don't say I didn't warn you.) There will also be a sweepstake, VOTING, balloons, bunting and a bit of a Eurovision disco afterwards. Most importantly, VOTING. Said and I will be performing Birmingham hosting duties, very much following in the footsteps of Wogan and Ulrika, who did the same seventeen years ago. Whether or not we'll be looking like them is a matter of debate, but it has resulted in this frightening photo of us being created.
Who could resist that? If you're interested in joining us in Brum for the final, either leave a comment here or sign up on our facebook event page here.
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Apart from rehearsals starting, the other Eurovision 'event' today was the release of the digital package of the UK entry. (No sign of a CD yet, apart from some promo copies which definitely exist.) Although Molly's 'Children Of The Universe' has been available for two weeks already, it was only as a track which people could pluck from the official Eurovision compilation album. Not many people have bought the album in the UK. It entered at #18 in the Compilation Albums Charts eight days ago and disappeared completely from the chart (which is only a top 40) yesterday. Not enough people have cherry-picked Molly's track from the album for it to make the UK top 100, so today's the day for the track to soar! Let's see how she was doing at 10 o'clock tonight:
Oh dear.
That's the single version at #132 on the iTunes realtime sales listing, and the Eurovision album version at #173.
Molly's upcoming performance on this Friday's Graham Norton TV show certainly has some work to do.
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I've only had time for a brief skim through the reviews and video clips from Eurovision's first rehearsals today, but my main impression is that, despite what we might have expected from a year that's chock full of ballads, there is a lot of - and I'm going to use a technical term here - 'stuff' going on. A Ukrainian muscle hunk running in a hamster wheel! Russian horror twins on a seesaw! It's like I threw those words up in the air to form random sentences, but no, these ludicrous things exist. These are the reasons that people have Eurovision parties. And that's just the first ten of 37 acts. Bring on day two!
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