Wikipedia:WikiProject Eurovision/News/Weekly-News/Issue 1

Eurovision Weekly News Update 15-18 August 2023 Recently in the news... Recently in the news... Wild Youth were accused of being too drunk when performing at the Ballygar Carnival in Galway, Ireland. The carnivals organizers released a statement supporting the band. Patricia Bredin, the first representative to Eurovision from the United Kingdom, has died aged 88. Azerbaijan will close applications for their selection on September 30. Mae Muller has canceled her November tour. Belgium will choose their 2024 representative internally. EasyJet is launching a new route from the United Kingdom to the Icelandic city of Akureyri, near Húsavík. Mae Muller puts music career on hold to focus on film and television. Happy birthday to... 15th Kølig Kaj 16th Marc Moulin, Jari Sillanpää 17th Katri Helena, Carrie Grant, Ilinca, Anton Lissov 18th Ronnie Carroll, Hugues Aufray, Gundars Mauševics Cesár Sampson Did you know... Natalia Gordienko, who represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, holds the record for the longest continuous note in Eurovision at 17 seconds. The largest number of nations to take part was 43 in 2008, 2011 and 2018. The most covered Eurovision Song Contest song is Domenico Modugno's "Nel blu, dipinto di blu", also known as "Volare". The song has been covered by famous stars such as Dean Martin, Cliff Richard, David Bowie and many more. Even though the Eurovision Song Contest took place 67 times, it has 70 winners. In the 1969 contest, 4 countries topped the scoreboard with an equal amount of points; the United Kingdom, Spain, Netherlands and France. Lacking rules to resolve tie situations, the EBU had to declare all 4 contestants as the winner Eurovision entrant... Guy Bonnet is an author, composer, and singer, born in Avignon, France in 1945. He wrote the lyrics and composed the music for the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 (performed by Isabelle Aubret). In 1970 he participated in the Eurovision song contest for France with "Marie-Blanche" coming 4th out of twelve contestants. In 1983 he represented France in Eurovision again with "Vivre" (finishing eighth). Dave Benton (born 31 January 1951, birth name Efrén Eugene Benita) is a pop musician from Aruba who lives in Estonia. He is one of the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. At the age of 50 years and 101 days at the time of his victory, Benton is the oldest singer ever to win Eurovision, as well as the first Black winner. Born Efrén Eugene Benita in 1951 on the Caribbean island of Aruba, he was fluent in English, Dutch, Spanish and Papiamento, the creole language of the island. As a drummer and a backing vocalist, he worked with The Drifters, Tom Jones, Billy Ocean, José Feliciano and The Platters. Benton's daughter Sissi participated in Eesti Laul in 2021 with the song "Time", attempting to follow in her father's footsteps and represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. She qualified to the superfinal, where she placed second. Marion Welter (born 1965) is a Luxembourgish singer. When she was 15 years old, she became part of the band Quo vadis. She studied music in a music academy and has worked in several styles of music, such as classical music, pop and jazz. She represented Luxembourg with the band Kontinent in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 in Malmö, performing the Luxembourgish song "Sou fräi" (As free). The song ended the contest in 21st place (out of 23 contestants) with 10 points. Before and during her performance, she had an acute attack of malaria that seemed like a severe migraine. She became infected with malaria during a vacation in Kenya in 1990. Samira Azer gizi Efendiyeva (Azerbaijani: Samirə Azər qızı Əfəndiyeva; born 17 April 1991), known as Samira Efendi or Efendi , is an Azerbaijani singer. She represented Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Mata Hari". Efendi gained popularity in her home country after participating in the singing competitions Yeni Ulduz (2009), Böyük Səhnə (2014) and The Voice of Azerbaijan (2015-2016, third place). In 2017, she was the Azerbaijani representative in the international singing competition Silk Way Star, staged in Almaty, Kazakhstan, finishing in third place. In 2014, she participated in Azerbaijan's national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest but was eliminated at the third heat of the competition. On 28 February 2020, the Azerbaijani broadcaster İTV announced that Efendiyeva had been internally selected to represent Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song "Cleopatra", held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. However, the contest was cancelled on 18 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She instead represented Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Mata Hari". Efendi qualified to the final, where she ended up in 20th place out of 26 countries, receiving 65 points.