The annual ESC Big Brother event - starting SOON

The ESC Big Brother game which is an annual elimination game hosted on our forum is about to kick off.
This game is always full or excitement, fun (some call it drama) and competitiveness.



This is where you have to go to receive more information. Basically all 39 songs will face each other off on a daily basis. Members will vote for the songs they don't like and want out of the race. This goes on until only 1 song remains and that song will be crowned the "ESC BIG BROTHER WINNER". Serbia won in 2007, Slovenia in 2008 & Azerbaijan in 2009....who will be next?

Make sure to check our forum on a regular basis to find out!

NSC 48 winner revealed!!!

The ESCFORUMS popolar online contest NSC just wrapped up it's 48th edition and a new participating country by the name of Ecclestonia won the show with the song "Uprising" by the english band Muse.
The band has been together since 1994 but this has been their most sucessful song so far. So enjoy the winner and if you like what you hear, feel free to join this fun contest.

Big weekend for ESC - 5 Finals

Many of us have been craving for me ESC over the past few weeks. So far only Albania, Switzerland & Finland have picked their entry. And even the biggest fan will eventually get tired of listening to the same songs over and over again. But the 'suffering' is coming to an end because this weekend we'll have 5 Finals which means 5 more songs will be picked. What countries will make up their mind this weekend?

DENMARK - Saturday, Feb 6th


10 acts were selected by the broadcaster and now it's up to the public to vote for their favorite. Bryan Rice, Joakim Transber, MariaMitilde Band, Simone, Jens Marni, Chanee & N'evergreen, Kaya Bruel, Thomas Barsoe, Sukkerchock, Silas & Kat, who is it going to be?


ICELAND - Saturday, Feb 6th


Iceland, who was the runner up last year is eager to actually bring home the victory in 2010 and even though everything is still possible Herja Bjork is currently the favorite to win with "Je ne sais quoi".


NORWAY - Saturday, Feb 6th


The winner of 2009 (and host of 2010) is one of three scandinavian countries to pick their song that day along with Iceland & Denmark. Finland already chose their entry this past weekend so after saturday only Sweden is left.
A1, Maria Haukaas Storeng (ESC 2008) Venke Knutson, Bjorn Johan Muri, Maria Arredondo, Alexander Stenerud, Didrik Solli Tangen & Keep of Kalessin are the 10 acts fighting for the victory. We'll know tomorrow night who suceeded.


CYPRUS - Sunday, Feb 7th



Deep Zone who were one of the faves to win were disqualified the last minute as they broke the rules by having their song available online prior to the show. So instead of 10 acts there will only be 9 in the lineup: Konstantinos Christoforou, Evagoras Evagorou, Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders, Hovig Demirjian, Vivian Douglas, Anthi Pashi, Konstantinos Kontozis Soulthrow, Andreas Economedes, Nicole Paparistodemou


NETHERLANDS - Sunday, Feb 7th


The Netherlands tried a different approach this year. 'Ik ben verliefd, shalalie' written by Perre Kartner aka Father Abraham composed the song and 5 acts will perform the same song on Sunday using unique arrangements trying to win the ticket to Oslo. It is going to be interesting to see the same song perfomed several times and what those acts made out of it.





Overall it is a good weekend for us Eurovision Fans as the ESC season is really kicking off. ESCFORUMS will be here to keep you updated so make sure to check back on a regular basis.

ESCFORUMS AWARD - THE RESULTS!!!!

At last, here are the results of the ESCFORUMS.COM votes. Our members voted for their favorite singers, songs and forums. Let's see the results:


BEST MALE SINGER OF 2009

-----ALEXANDER RYBAK ------




He won the Semi Final vote, the jury vote, the televote and he also won the ESCFORUMS award. Alexander had an amazing year. 34% of the votes were casted in his favor.

Results
Alexander Rybak - Norway - 34%
Brinck - Denmark - 28%
Petr Elfimov - Belarus - 14%
Sasha Son - Lithuania - 13%
Sakis Rouvas - Greece - 10%




BEST FEMALE SINGER OF 2009




--- PATRICIA KAAS ----



It was a close race but in the end the french singer Patricia Kaas won this vote over cute Yohanna from Iceland. This proves that age does not always matter, Patricia had a big following on escforums.com and was able to end up on top.

Results:
Patricia Kaas - France - 32%
Yohanna - Iceland - 30%
Jade Ewen - United Kingdom - 25%
Malena Ernman - Sweden - 11%
Chiara - Malta - 0%




Best DUO/BAND/GROUP of 2009

----- URBAN SYMPHONY -----



Between 2004 and 2008 Estonia never managed to qualify for the finals and in 2009 they not only got a 2nd place in Moscow but they also won over the hearts of the forum members. With an amazing 38% of the votes Urban symphony were declared the best band/group of 2009 even Aysel & Arash were not able to keep up with them.

Results
Urban Symphony - Estonia - 38%
Aysel & Arash - Azerbaijan - 23%
Alex swings Oscar sings - Germany - 19%
Lovebugs - Switzerland - 12%
Noa & Mira Awad - Israel - 8%



Best SONG NOT TO QUALIFY from the Semi Finals

----- Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy -----



Ireland may not have had a whole lot of success in the recent past when it comes to Eurovision but our members believe that they deserved to be in the finals with "Et cetera". The best song not to qualify was a tight race but Ireland ended up on top and wins the award, congratulations!!!!!

Results
Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy - Ireland - Et cetera - 27%
Andrea - Montenegro - Just get out of my life - 23%
Lovebugs - Switzerland - The highest heights - 19%
Susanne Georgi - Andorra - La Teva Decisio - 15%
Quartissimo feat martina - Slovenia - Love symphony - 13%





Best ESC song of 2009

----- FRANCE * PATRICIA KAAS * S'il fallait le faire -----



Out of all those awards given out this was probably the closest one and Patrica won another award. Big winner Alexander Rybak was unable to stop france on taking the top spot and needs to settle for 2nd place. Congratulations once again to France, maybe they 'only' achieved an 8th place in Moscow but to our members she is a big winner

Results:
France - Patricia Kaas - S'il fallait le fair - 20%
Norway - Alexander Rybak - Fairytale - 18%
Estonia - Urban Symphony - Randajad - 17%
Iceland - Yohanna - Is it true - 13%
Azerbaijan - Aysel & Arash - Always - 12%
Ukraine - Svetlana Loboda - Be my valentine - 10%
United Kingdom - Jade Ewen - My time - 9%




Best FORUM THREAD of 2009!

----- Would anyone like the language rule back -----

paddyirl wanted to discuss the language rule and by doing that won the award of "best forum thread of 2009". I guess it is something people still feel strongly about

Results:
Would anyone like the language rule back - 25%
What tune are ya listening to - 18%
NSC 45 in Scorpionia - 14%
NSC 44 in Scorpionia - 14%
New/returning countries - 11%
Getting to know each other game - 10%
Best of british decade - 7%





Best FORUM

----- NSC - Nation Song Contest -----

The FSC & NSC contest are two highly popular online contests on the forum and they were dominating the votes. It was a close vote but in the end NSC emerged as the winner in a tight race. Congrats NSC!!!

Results
NSC - Nation Song Contest - 38%
FSC - Forum Song Contest - 31%
ESC 2010 Song, NF Discussions - 23%
Norway here we come - 4%
Talk me to your heaven - 4%



Best AVATAR

----- Matt -----



No, we are not referring to the movie but to the best forum avatar and the admin Matt won the award in a surprise vote. Thank you for the votes, it was a close one

Results
Matt - 29%
No name - 22 %
Alexu - 21%
takeru - 12%
apocalexxnow - 11%
jukica - 2%
berlyda - 1%


Most contributing FORUM Member

Due to a super tight race we have three winners in this category. All receiving pretty much the same amount of votes.

The winners ARE

----- ALEKS * MILOS-BC * TF100 -----

Coincidentally all three of them happen to be mods (this vote was not fixed, i swear ;) ) and have been contributing a lot. Thank you so much to the three of you for being an important part of the forum. The members truly appreciate it.
And thanks to all of the other nominationed members 94ayd, alexu, noname, simmeke & takeru. everyone received a lot of votes.

Vanessa takes home FSC January crown!!!

Vanessa Amorosi is an australian singer who brought home the first victory for Down Under at the Forum Song Contest. Australia first joined FSC in September 2009 showing a big variety of music styles but it was the rock/pop song that finally sealed the deal. Vanessa Amorosi started her career in 1998 at the age of 17 and had her first international hit in 1999 with "Absolutely Everybody" catapulting to the top of the charts in most european countries. Now over 10 years later she is still proving that she is more than a one hit wonder. The song was released on August 28, 2009. If you love good music I'm sure you're going to love this song

It's a Man's World!!!

When you look at previous years the ESC is full of female singers left and right. Single male vocalists seem to be more of an exception. From 2002 - 2007 all winners were female (with 2006 being the exception thanks to Lordi).
However, the last 2 years both winners were male singers (Dima from Russia and Alexander from Norway) so is 2010 going to be the year of male dominance?
Based on the artist known so far that may be the case.

Ukraine announced that Vasyl' Lazarovich will represent them in Oslo, Bosnia& Herzegovina selected Vukašin Brajić as their representative, Israel is sending 'cutie' Harel Ska'at Bulgaria will send singer Miro to Oslo in May and Switzerland decided that Michael von der Heide should have a shot at winning the ESC2010 contest choosing him internally.
And yesterday Turkey announced that the internationally known band "MaNga" will travel to Oslo trying to win the contest for them. (FYI, they're male)

So is this a new trend or just a coincidence? Should we expect even more testosterone in Oslo? We'll find out soon enough but it's quite an interesting observation. Let's see if the ladies can 'catch up'.

Let's blog until we drop

Starting a new blog is never an easy task but better now than never. So welcome to the ESCFORUMS.COM Blog. Our forum is an official partner of esctoday.com the biggest independent website for anything related to the Eurovision Song Contest (you can also just go to their website and click on 'forum') so if you are a big fan of the contest then this is the right place to be. We've been around for over 3 years but the admin team has recently changed and we created a new forum to become better than ever. Joining the blogging community is only the first step and we're looking forward to it. This place will not only be used for major ESC updates but also members comments and reviews and many, many, many other things including our own forum contests. So check back on a regular basis as we intend to update this blog on a regular basis.

Matt, the Admin