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JP |
Remote Members - Our Eurovision Song Contest Correspondents and Experts.
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David Mann |
My earliest Eurovision memory is of hearing 'Sing Little Birdie' (UK 1959) played on 'Childrens Favourites' on the BBC Light Programme on the radio. I'm old enough to remember when Eurovision was BIG in the UK and even just seeing a live broadcast from a foreign country was a huge event. So much so that even the audiences wore evening dress back then - no flag waving, just polite applause! After so many years watching the show, it was the advent of the world wide web that was the catalyst to start taking a more serious interest, and I've been lucky enough to attend a couple of finals. the 50th Anniversary show in Copenhagen as well as Sweden's Melodifestivalen . Now, with the demise of BBC Television Centre, it's also time to look back 'fondly' at the countless hours spent queing in the cold and wet over the years to get in to see the various incarnations of the UK national selection shows! I run the eurovision-norwich.info website and try to update my blog on a reasonably regular basis during the 'on' season, although it is primarily directed at the 'just generally interested' rather than the super-fan. The aim is to attempt to provide some insight into the madness of the entire Eurovision thing to all those non-believers!
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Nathan Waddell interviewing Kristian Kostov |
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Dermot Manning |
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Marcus Keppel-Palmer |
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Chris Poppe |
Alasdair Rendall lives in London, although studied in Edinburgh and grew up in the small town of Bedford. He was always fascinated by songs in foreign languages and became addicted to the Eurovision Song Contest from an early age, watching every year since 1989. After graduating in Modern Languages and European Union Studies he qualified as a broadcast journalist, and now works in political journalism. The Eurovision Song Contest is without doubt the highlight of his year, and thinks the social aspect of Eurovision, meeting fans from all over the world, is just as important as the musical side of the contest.
Michael Goodrich, our youngest member of the team, lives in the USA but do not let the location fool you. He is an avid fan of the Eurovision Song Contest and likes the contest for the fact that the music is different then in the US. He helps Radio International and the Hit Hunter by making jingles, show openers, medleys and much more. He loves to travel to different places and hopes that one day he will be able to travel Europe. In his spare time he likes play soccer, tennis, and golf. One of his biggest goals in life is to enter the Eurovision Song Contest as a singer and/or composer and since he can now enter the contest with breaking the age rule, he is already planning to go for this.
Lilian Brunell has grown up in the Swedish-speaking part of Finland. Since 1985 she is living in Stockholm, Sweden. She has a university degree in music science and has been playing the trumpet since an age of 9. By co-incidence she started to work in the travel trade business but music has always been a major interest. Lilian has been following the Eurovision Song Contest since early days. To see Finland win with Lordi 2006 was as fantastic as when ABBA won for Sweden 1974. Another hobby is travelling and by joining Eurovision finals it's always possible to end up in unexpected, exciting places. For some years she maintains her own Eurovision blog (www.lilianseurovision.blogspot.com ) and she also writes for various newspapers and web-sites.
Eric Lehmann, native Luxembourger supplies Radio International with great interviews of Eurovision Performers and works closely with JP during the busy period of the Eurovision Song Contest and the National Selection in various European countries. Soon more to be published about Eric here. Stay tuned ! :)
Stephen Boddington is a British expat living in Brussels. He discovered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980 and was very disappointed when his parents told him he had to wait a whole year for the next one. Still, it was worth the wait as Bucks Fizz won the following year, a UK victory cementing a passion that would grow to become a full-time hobby rather than something that comes round just once a year. Travelling to various national finals and fanclub conventions, he was frustrated at the lack of detailed information about such events and decided to do something about it, hence Radio International's Eurovision Calendar was born! His other passion is birdwatching and he has travelled all over the world seeing well over 1000 species as well as being a guide for foreign birdwatchers visiting Belgium and the Netherlands.
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