As in previous years, the majority of my thoughts about The Eurovision Song Contest will be found on ESC Insight (www.escinsight.com). Rather than daily news about the Contest, an area well served by many sights, ESC Insight looks at some of the issues in more depth – think of it like a Sunday newspaper compared to the daily news of sites such as ESCxtra.

Alongside the articles from myself, a core writing team of three others, and a number of regular contributors, it’s also the home of my Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast. There’s enough Eurovision news throughout the year for a weekly news podcast, but as the Contest gets ever neared (May 26th) and the countries all declare their songs for Europe, the ESC Insight team sit down to judge every single song on the podcast, in a series of “Juke Box Jury” shows.

A simple format (we listen to each song, five per episode) and rate them Hit, Miss, or Maybe. After some lively discussion. Two episodes have already been posted, with the rest to follow one a week each Friday till Eurovision starts.

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Episode 1:  Albania, Finland, Moldova, The Netherlands, and Turkey.

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Episode 2: Macedonia, Hungary, Latvia, Iceland, and Slovenia.

Don’t miss an episode of this year’s Juke Box Jury (or any of The Unofficial Eurovision Podcast episodes), subscribe to the RSS feed dedicated to the podcasts. iTunes users can find us in the iTunes Store and get the show automatically downloaded to your computer.

There’s another Eurovision Song Contest around the corner (Junior Eurovision will be on Dec 3rd, and broadcast from Yerevan, Armenia). Leading up to the contest, the traditional preview shows on the Eurovision podcast will be running, but this time the regular guests on Juke Box Jury have been stood down. It’s Junior Eurovision, so that means Junior Juke Box Jury and the kids from Duncan Place deciding on a Hit, Miss, or Maybe.

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Round 1 has the songs from hosts Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine and Belgium.

As always, more fun and games at ESC Insight, along with a bundle of coverage on JESC (as the abbreviation goes)

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With the latest Eurovision news, Ultra Nate’s potential song for Switzerland, and just a tiny hint of a riff from Abba… RSS and iTunes, with more commentary on ESC Insight.

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With news on the JESC and ESC finals, the Crystal Arena, who’s in and out for the contests, and music from Marie Myriam. Follow all the Eurovision Song Contest fun at ESC Insight (or in iTunes).

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The clock has started, 267 days to go, songs can be published and still be eligible, and the Grand Final is set for Saturday May 26th. All that, more news, and music from Georgea Blakey, in the latest Eurovision Song Contest Insight Podcast.

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Frisky and Mannish join in the Eurovision fun with the latest editition of Ultimate Juke Box Jury. Apart from them being great guests, they’re one of the few judging combinations that could give a fair crack of the whip to Abba. Enjoy!

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With Rohan Gunatillake (Festivals Lab), James Master (FestaFriend) and Paul Levy (Fringe Review). More at the Edinburgh Fringe Podcast and The Stage. Follow via RSS or in iTunes.

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Keeping up with the fun and games of the Eurovision Song Contest over on ESC Insight with my regular news podcast.

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Which is the best Eurovision winning song of all time? The quest continues over on ESC Insight, as Luxemburg (1973), Israel (1998), Ireland (1980) and The Netherlands (1969) are judged.

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(Cross posted from ESC Insight)

For the third year, it’s a delight to present my alternative commentary tracks for the Eurovision Song Contest. You’ve lived with the ESC Insight podcasts not just from Dusseldorf, but in the run up to the contest, through the national finals, and from the "Post Eurovision Depression" summer last year.

So let’s start the end of our journey for the 2011 winner as we begun, together, online, and with the podcast. You can either start with your national broadcaster, or head to www.eurovision.tv/esctv to watch the official stream (which is lacking a commentator).

As always, technical and legal reasons mean syncing up with the live broadcast without the help of the BBC Radio 2 production van mean you need to do a little bit of work, so grab the MP3, cue it up in your audio player of choice, be it portable on headphones, or on your PC. Feel free to start listening whenever you want, but starting as the show starts is fine.

I’ll remind you in the show, but when you hear a beep, you pause the track, watch the song performance, then start up the track again. Don’t stop for adverts or cutaways, just for the music.

The only potential gotcha is that with no opening ceremony or show, there’s no obvious starting point, so start the track, pause when I tell you and start up again when our hosts say "Let the Eurovision Song Contest begin!"

Enjoy! And you can still follow me real time on Twitter for updates direct from Dusseldorf and the Contest.

Eurovision 2011 Podcast: Semi Final 1 Commentary

Ewan Spence talks you though the first semi final of Eurovision. Press play before the show starts, and don’t forget to pause for the music when you hear the beep!

You can stay up to date with The ESC Insight Podcast by subscribing to the RSS feed for all the shows, or use iTunes to get the show automatically downloaded to your computer if you’re an Apple user.

As I write this blog post, I’m safely wrapped up in the Press Centre of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. For those of you keeping track of the dates, the live shows are on May 10th and 12th for the semi-finals, and Saturday 14th for the Grand Final. As is the norm for Eurovision, my experiences are a bit out of sync with the majority, but that actually helps the coverage I can do around the Contest.

The reason for "five seconds" is that my Eurovision experience is always challenging time. Last week I was at the Scottish "preview" Party for the Song Contest, which was the time where a big group of us all gather to watch Eurovision on TV – being three weeks before the broadcast we have to rely on the preview videos, but that’s my Eurovision on TV time.

During the dress rehearsals, I’m watching, taking notes, scripting and recording my commentary, so I’m watching the live show the day before the TV audience. And when they all settle in at home to watch the conference, the physics behind the transmission of the video signal from Dusseldorf getting to your TV screen means that my tweet-commentary can out-race the pictures.

You might have noticed that there’s been a lot less coverage of Eurovision on my personal blog – there’s a simple reason for that. Last year I ran my podcasts from the Eurovision category on this blog, but after the huge response and listenership, it seemed the right thing to do was spin off the podcast and Song Contest coverage to a separate site.

In essence, the site here was an incubator for what has become ESC Insight, which is not only the home of the podcast (direct RSS, iTunes and Zune links), but also a ‘long-form’ blog and website that focuses on in-depth articles around the Song Contest. If you’re looking for a daily chat show, articles and commentary from Dusseldorf this year, that’s where you want to go.

And before you ask, the annual commentary for the live shows will still be happening on Twitter via my own account @Ewan.

If you’re looking for a bit more Eurovision, I’m also working with SBS, the Australian broadcaster, to provide a range of Eurovision themed shows and daily news bulletins from Germany for their DAB broadcast – head over to the SBS Eurovision website, and catch the highlights in their podcast!

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MP3 File – Show Notes – RSS Feed – iTunes Link

Now for something a little different on the podcast for the Christmas holidays, as Juke Box Jury takes a little break. What happens if you take every comedy panel quiz discussion show, mix them all up, throw in a little bit of Eurovision? You get this.

Nul Points! is the Eurovision Quiz show which challenges them to think on their feet, justify their choices about those moments and memories, and tests our pundits knowledge of the Eurovision Song Contest to the maximum. Whether you label it “points for punditry,” or “tell us something quite interesting”, it’s time to see where this pilot goes, and if you’d like us to add it in to the schedule of ESC Insight podcasts.

Nul Points! (December 2010)

Hosted by Ewan Spence, with Elaine Dove, David Elder, Danny Lynch and Ross Tillbrook.

Ultimate Juke Box Jury will be back in the New Year, on Friday 7th January.

Don’t miss an episode of The Unofficial Eurovision Podcast by subscribing to the RSS feed dedicated to the podcasts. iTunes users can find us in the iTunes Store and get the show automatically downloaded to your computer. You could support the site by buying Tim Moore’s Nul Points from Amazon (which has nothing to do with the quiz, but is a great Eurovision book).

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MP3 File – Show Notes – RSS Feed – iTunes Link

Time for the third round of Ultimate Juke Box Jury and our Quixotic Quest to find the best Eurovision winner of all time.

Returning from the Jury that looked at the 2010 Contest we have Scotsman Eurovision contributor David Elder; while fresh from his interviewing at this year’s Swiss National Final is Andrew James Main. How will they, along with regular host Ewan Spence, rate our four songs? Hit? Miss? Maybe? There’s only one way to find out!

Listen!!!

Eurovision Insight Podcast: Ultimate Juke Box Jury Heat 3
Hosted by Ewan Spence, with David Elder and Andrew James Main.

Sweden 1984: Diggi-loo Diggi-ley, by The Herreys.
France 1977: L’oiseau et L’enfant, by Marie Myriam.
Ireland 1993: In Your Eyes, by Niamh Kavanagh.
Greece 2005: My Number One, by Elena Paparizou.

Don’t miss an episode Ultimate Juke Box Jury (or any of The Unofficial Eurovision Podcast episodes) by subscribing to the RSS feed dedicated to the podcasts. iTunes users can find us in the iTunes Store and get the show automatically downloaded to your computer. Want to support the site? Why not consider buying the The Official History of the Eurovision Song Contest book from Amazon.

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MP3 File – Show Notes – RSS Feed – iTunes Link

And we have our first Song for Europe in 2011! As Switzerland votes to send Anna Rossinelli to Düsseldorf, our version of that ‘exclusive’ interview with her from backstage at the National Final is just one of many parts in the weekly news podcast from ESC Insight.

Lots going on this week, from the problems that many had in booking tickets for the Grand Final, to new countries going on the provisional entries list, lots of submission deadlines for the various national finals, and the annual tradition of one song being disqualified from Melodifestivalen.

Eurovision Insight Podcast: No tickets, one interview and lots of songs

Switzerland chooses their song, why no ticketing system could have coped on Sunday, National submission deadlines, the potential return of Malcolm Lincoln and the horror of Jedward. With music from J.C. Chasez.

Don’t miss an episode of The Unofficial Eurovision Podcast by subscribing to the RSS feed dedicated to the podcasts. iTunes users can find us in the iTunes Store and get the show automatically downloaded to your computer. You can support the site by buying the official 2010 CD from Amazon.

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MP3 File – Show Notes – RSS Feed – iTunes Link

Ever noticed that Eurovision is turning into Harry Hill’s TV Burp? When you can make up headlines like “Scottish Dinner Lady sings for Azerbaijan” and they’re deadly serious, you know that the Song Contest is covering the entertainment as well as the education remit!

The big news this week is of course the return of Italy, and while we don’t yet know if they’ll be given “Big” status and automatic entry to the final, there’s now another country to speculate on their singer and song. Could it be Nathalie Giannitrapani from the Italian X-Factor with her latest single?

Time will tell, but in case it is, we’ve got it on the podcast.

Eurovision Insight Podcast: New Countries, Old Friends and the Azerbaijani Rulebook

Nicola Barclay gets a surprise wild card in Azerbaijan, I think Belladonna should sing for Italy, Ukraine tweaks their National Final, and why Jedward really would be a bad idea for Ireland. With music from Nathalie Giannitrapani.

Don’t miss an episode of The Unofficial Eurovision Podcast by subscribing to the RSS feed dedicated to the podcasts. iTunes users can find us in the iTunes Store and get the show automatically downloaded to your computer. You can support the site by buying the official 2010 CD from Amazon.