Last Saturday has been very busy for the Eurofans as many events were taking place on the same day. The day started in Kiev with the Vidbir festival, then straight to Oslo for the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, followed by Benidorm Fest in Spain and the Maltese MESC. Don’t worry if you missed any of the shows-we have gathered here the winners from each show that are going to Malmo!
Nebulossa for Spain
Nebulossa won Spain’s Benidorm Fest with the song ‘Zorra’ and will represent Spain in Malmo. Nebulossa are a duo from Alicante consisting of Maria Bas and Mark Dasoura. They started their career in 2018 and their style is mainly electro-pop. Zorra is a powerful anthem about women empowerment. The word Zorra in Spanish language is an example of the inequality between sexes; for a male Zorro literally means fox and is used to describe a smart man. But for a woman the word Zorra means b!t*h, a completly different meaning. Nebulossa sing: ‘If I go out alone I’m the b!t*h,
if I have fun, the biggest b!t*h, if I come back home after dawn I’m even more of a b!t*h’. Benidorm loved the song, and we are positive the whole Europe will sing to it!
Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil for Ukraine
Vidbir 2024, the Ukrainian National Selection contest, was broadcasted on Saturday 3rd of February but took place on Friday for safety reasons. After some technical issues with the voting app the winner was announced on Sunday after a 22-hour delay. Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil were the big winners with their song ‘Teresa and Maria’. Alyona Alyona is one of the biggest Ukrainian rappers with collaborations with the Ukrainian Eurovision winners Jamala and Kalush Orchestra. Jerry Heil is not a stranger to Vidbir, as she participated in 2020 and 2023, the second time finishing third with her song ‘When God Shut The Door’. Her third time was the lucky one and she secured her ticket together with Alyona Alyona for Malmo.
Gåte for Norway
Norway this year will be represented by Gåte, who won the Melodi Grand Prix with their song ‘Ulveham’ (= ‘Wolf Skin’). Gåte are a progressive folk-rock band, famous for their combination of traditional Norwegian folk music with metal and electronica. They started back in 2000 and rapidly became a Norwegian phenomenon. However, they took a long break and came back in 2017, releasing more albums and touring around Europe. Their songs are inspired by Norwegian folk tunes and poems. Ulveham was originally released as part of their latest EP Vndar in December. It is a rearranged version of a thousand-year-old Scandinavian medieval ballad called “Møya i ulveham” (= “The Maid in Wolf Skin”). This will be Norway’s first Eurovision entry in Norwegian language since 2006.
Sarah Bonnici for Malta
Sarah Bonnici won the Maltese national final of MESC2024 with her song ‘Loop’. The Maltese festival took place in Valetta last Saturday and all the entries were pre-recorded and live on-tape performances were shown during the show. The winner was decided after jury and public votes, which counted 78% and 22% receptively. Sarah Bonnici is a 25-year-old singer from Gozo. She started her Eurovision journey in 2009, when she participated in the final of Malta’s Junior Eurovision Contest, finishing 3rd. She also took part in last year’s MESC festival with her song ‘Heaven’. Finally, she won her Euro-ticket and will show her dancing skills in Malmo in a few months!
The coming Saturday is looking very busy too with the Italian San Remo final, the Latvian Supernova final, the Finish Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu and the Swedish and Lithuanian semi-finals. Stay updated for more new artist announcements next week!
