Live Interview with Justine Pelmelay (Netherlands 1989): Radio International had the pleasure to meet and interview the singer on her Eurovision experience in 1989 when Justine took part in the OGAE Netherlands Eurovision Convention 2011 last October. Soon after the news hit the headlines a couple of weeks ago that Dutch Eurovision entrant Justine Pelmelay was aboard the cruise ship Costa Concordia and luckily rescue Radio International is extremely happy to have Justine on the show this week to tell us her experience aboard the ship when the accident accually happened off the coast of the Italian island Giglio. In addition, Justine also will chat about "Made by Justine" - what is behind that you need to tune in to find out. :)

 

Interview with Soluna Samay (Denmark 2012): Last Saturday, 21 January 2012 the Danish Nation including a juries from Azerbaijan, Germany, Norway and  Russia decided in an excellently produced National Final, The Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, to send Soluna to Baku to represent Denmak at the Eurovision Song Contest next May with the song "Should've known better". Radio International and colleagues from escXtra.com were present and had the pleasure to interview the Danish hopeful. These interviews will be aired on the show this week. You can see some photos from the event in the two albums made available here:  ALBUM 1  |   ALBUM 2

 

Interview with Alexander Rybak (Eurovision Winner 2009, Norway):  Alexander Rybak was invited as Special guest to the Danish National Final 2012 performing a medley of various Eurovision Song Contest entries of the past. Alexander Rybak won the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 for Norway with the song "Fairytale". Radio International met the singer during the aftershow party of the Danish National Final and made a small interview with Alexander.  

 

Interview with A Friend in London (Denmark 2011): The group represented Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Duesseldorf with the song "A New Tomorrow" which ranked 5th in the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest. They handed over the winner's trophy to Soluna Samay as the new Ambassador of Denmark to the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Also during the Aftershow Party of the Danish National Final on 21 January 2012 Radio International had the pleasure to speak to three of the four guys of A Friend in London which you can hear during this week's edition of Radio International. 

 

Interview with Andreas Johnson (Melodifestivalen 2012, Sweden):   Andreas Johnson competed quite a number of times at the Melodifestivalen to obtain the ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest. He came Third in the Final of the Melodifestivalen 2006 with the song "Sing for me". Then he almost got the ticket in 2007 when he reached Number 2 in the Final of Melodifestivalen with the song "A little bit of love". He tried it again but this time with Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1991and three times representative Carola, however, the song "One Love" only made it to the Second Chance. Finally, in 2010 Andreas went back as a soloist with the song "We can work it out" reaching Number 6 in the Melodifestivalen Final. His biggest ever hit in the Swedish music charts was "Glorious" he released in 1999 but was not connected to Melodifestivalen at all. Now in 2012 it will be his fifth attempt to obtain the ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest and representing Sweden. Our Scandinavian Reporter Lilian Brunell has been at the Press Conference of SVT to meet and interview some of the artists. Listen to the interview with Andreas Johnson on this week's edition of Radio International.

 

Interview with Sonja Alden (Melodifestivalen 2012, Sweden):  Sonja Alden last appeared in Melodifestivalen back in 2007 when she reached Number 6 in the Final with the song "Foer att du finns". The previous year, 2006, she took part as well in the selection process with the song "Etymon" which unfortunately did not qualify for the Final of Melodifestivalen. Besides being a singer Sonja Alden is also a famous song writer in Sweden. She was involved in the creation of Shirley Clamp's entry in the 2005 edition of Melodifestivalen called "Att aelska dig". Another interesting fact of Sonja is that she actually made it to the Eurovision stage back in 2005 as backing vocalist for the Lithuanian entry Laura and the Lovers in the song "Little by Little". Now in 2012 she tries her luck again to compete for the ticket to Baku to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Lilian Brunell, Radio International's rowing reporter in Scandinavia had the pleasure to meet and interview Sonja at a Press Conferenceof Swedish Television (SVT). That interview canbe heard on Radio International this week.

 

Eurovision Song Contest Spotlight - "The National Finals so far" with Alasdair Rendall:  Until the end of the National Final Season  for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 (10 March 2011) a new series has already started on Radio International  where our Eurovision specialists will be taking a weekly look at the songs that have been selected for Baku so far. Ally will take a look at some highlights from National Finals and Semi Finals of Ukraine, Denmark, Iceland and Norway.

 

Euro Friends Song Contest 2012 with Andy Simon: The next season of the Euro Friends Song Contest is under way in search for the ultimate Eurovision song as voted for by the many fans around the world.  Andy  Simon joins us every week to reveal the qualifiers for the next round.  The website of the Euro Friends Song Contest you will find here where you can easily vote for your favourite Eurovision song per country and also see The Euro-Friends TV Show as hosted by Andy Simon. You can also join the Facebook Group here. This week Andy looks at the next qualifiers from Heat 34 (Israel).