Today was Norway’s “Constitution Day”, a chance for citizens to be proud and enjoy big parades and festivals, and the Eurovision made it’s mark on the festivities as they joined in with the celebrations. Many of the performers and countries’ delegations munched and boozed on a champagne breakfast, watched the party outside (along with the all important Royal family) and then finished it off by having some fun at a gathering of flags, balloons and over one thousand children. And to think the Eurovision acts had a tough life!

But, there was work to be done as Belgium, Albania, Malta, Portugal, Greece, FYR Macedonia, Belarus and Iceland took to the stage to practise and rehearse for the main event.

Today, Iceland’s Hera Björk performed “Je Ne Sais Quoi”, FYR Macedonia’s Gjoko Tanevki sang “Jas Ja Imam Silata”, 3+2 represented Belarus with “Butterflies”, Portugal’s Filipa Azevedo delivered “Há Dias Assim”, Thea Garrett from Malta shared her song “My Dream”, Tom Dice for Belgium was on stage with “Me and My Guitar”, Greece with “Opa” by Giorgos Alkaios & Friends and Juliana Pasha from Albania with “It’s All About You”. Phew! At this point all of the acts from the first Semi-Final have given it a go in the arena. They’ll be doing it again on May 24th, only live in front of millions.

Only things weren’t so smooth! Thea Garrett was flooded with smoke as her dry ice display turned into cloud, but she kept the act going and gave it her best attempt.

And, whilst speaking of clouds, the Eurovision Song Contest have spoken their advice over the “Ash Cloud” fiasco. As stated, Ireland have already started to make their way over, but there are rumours emerging that other countries may be affected. Sieneke, the Dutch entry may experience difficulties getting to Oslo due to the closer of the country’s airports. United Kingdom’s Josh Dubovie was also rumoured that he, along with this representatives, might have got caught up by the travel disruption, however it was confirmed that they have contingency measures in place. The Eurovision organisers are informing those coming to the show that they should have back-up travel arrangements, if the big nasty cloud keeps causing trouble and creating mayhem for the airlines of Europe.

Lithuania, Israel, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Azerbaijan and the Ukraine are scheduled for practise tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see what the talent is like after a review tomorrow evening.

Thanks again, Eyjafjallajökull.

Just as you think everything is going smoothly, news breaks that Niamh Kavanagh, the entry from my home of Ireland, is hitting some travel issues due to the ash cloud from our Icelandic arch-nemesis: Eyjafjallajökull.

The Irish delegation are currently in the process of making alternative arrangements which, apparently, will see Niamh leaving in the next few hours, due to the fact that Irish airspace has been closed. The team need to be in Oslo for Wednesday around midday for their first rehearsal and their press interview before 2pm local time.

According to popular Eurovision news website, ESCToday, Niamh said “[that] We need to see how it looks and try to get the sound right in the first rehearsal, but we’ll still get the look and feel and go with that if they don’t make it. If we have to drag people on stage for the cameras, that’s what we’ll do. What a story, it’s going to be a big adventure”.

Who knows what this travel disruption will cause for Ireland. I wonder, will it affect any other performers?

Niamh’s got a bit of travelling ahead of next week, so let’s hope it doesn’t hinder her performance.

Many of you know how much of a fan I am of the Eurovision Song Contest. I take the whole thing very seriously and get highly involved in the event in the run up to the international broadcast. As many do, I enjoy a nice night in front of the television with my friends and colleagues, alongside a nice few bottles of booze to wash down the festivities, but I am keeping a close eye on the competition alongside that, with constant blogging and ‘tweeting’ amongst other sources of input. This year is no different, as I’m starting the ball rolling again ahead of the show.

Today I reactivated my presence and account with Eurovision.tv, the website provider for the contest, where news and other media sources are delivered by the staff, press and some fans. On this website I will be venting my thoughts again, and engaging in the contest, whilst sharing my opinions and feelings on the performers and the general news that comes from Oslo, Norway; the host country this year, after their ground-breaking win last year with Alexander Rybak’s Fairytale. If you don’t know it, or didn’t hear it last year, it’s the song played on RTÉ Radio 1′s Mooney programme when they give out the telephone numbers for the daily Mooney’s Money competition. It did also get a bit of airplay after the win last year, but it hasn’t been shifting much broadcast time since then, as it never really became a popular track for radio in Ireland, unlike other parts of the continent.

Where I probably won't be this month, sadly: The Eurovision Press Centre

On the website, as stated, I will engage with the public and press, but I will post my updates here also, on my personal blog (or wherever you end up reading this article) . This way I will be sparking, hopefully, some input and conversation with fellow Eurovision fans, and my regular blog readers. And, due to the fact that everybody seems to be on Twitter, I’ll be posting there too. Yep, there’s no escaping it over the next few weeks.

Unfortunately, I won’t be travelling over to Norway this year for the contest, so I won’t be living it up in the press centre (see picture) or fan-zone. However, I will be getting some feedback from some Norwegian friends who will share their thoughts and news with me, as well as my regular daily trawling through press releases that I receive.

If you’re a fan, or you’ve somewhat an interest in the event, hit me up, and like any other thing relating to music, I’ll gladly talk with you about it until the cows come home. If you’re not interested, well, sorry- but you did read this entire article about it.

If you’re one of those interested parties, I enclose a remix of Ireland’s Niamh Kavanagh’s It’s for You. It’s just been released and it’s, er, interesting. Some argue that it’s better than the original. What do you think?

If you can’t see the video, click here.

[Thanks to Brendan B.]

(Images copyright of ESC, as posted on their Flickr account)