All posts by Roy van der Merwe

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NOMINATIONS FOR OGAE R O W MEMBER AWARD

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Here are the nominations we have received.
It is quite a long list. A panel will look at them carefully and narrow them down before one of them will win the award in December.
1 – CALVIN PHILIPS – USA (taking part for R O W in KARAOKE contest in VIENNA)
2 – JASON-SCOTT WATKINS – AUSTRALIA (taking part for R O W in KARAOKE contest in VIENNA)
3 – PHIL MCNULTY – AUSTRALIA (taking part for R O W in KARAOKE contest in VIENNA)
4 – RICHARD THIELE – AUSTRALIA (coordinating the GOOD LUCK POSTCARDS)
5 –ANDREW PENTECOST – AUSTRALIA (presenting the GOOD LUCK POSTCARDS to artists)
6 – JEFF NEAL – AUSTRALIA (coordinating the website postings from home for us in Vienna)
7 – BELINDA CONN – PAPUA NEW GUINEA (doing the constitution draft)
8 – MARCUS DAVEY – AUSTRALIA (handing out the OGAE cards in VIENNA)
9 – GERRY AVELINO – USA (designing the 60th anniversary covers)
10 – SCOTT FOLLEY – AUSTRALIA (designing the winning logo for R O W)
11 – MICHAELA SOWDEN – AUSTRALIA (helping us with tons of news from AUSTRIAN media)
12 – FRED MEDEIROS – UNITED KINGDOM (covering for R O W Melodifestival)
13 – IAN FOWELL – UNITED KINGDOM (really had his finger on the pulse of EURO artists and their latest releases)
14 – SASCHA STOLP – UNITED KINGDOM (discussing in detail the 40 entries for 2015 on our website)
15 – TAMAS VAMOS – HUNGARY (for bringing to R O W so much from EUROPE in such a short time)
16 – KAREN MEIRING – SOUTH AFRICA (doing the first AFRI VISIE show)
17 – ACE FREHMEN – UNITED KINGDOM (as usual working on the various competitions and having R O W won  RETRO for 2014)
18 – KATE HANSEN – AUSTRALIA (coordinating the PERTH event)
19 – RONNY ADDAMO – AUSTRALIA (always willing to participate in projects)
20 – ADELE ADELLE – AUSTRALIA (voting surveys)
competition

TAKE A CHANCE ON ME

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We start off the 60 day competition around ABBA since we will be in STOCKHOLM for Eurovision 2016.
I have selected 24 ABBA songs and the competition over 60 days will involve this 24 songs. Depending on how busy I am, every 2 or 3 days a new song will become available. The 24 songs have been picked at random and TAKE A CHANCE ON ME came up first so that is therefore the name of the competition.
There are 6 times 60 points at stake, so 360 in total, dividing that through 24 songs, is 15 points per song. But some will carry more points to a maximum of 30 and others less, but never less than 10 points. So the 360 points have been split between the 24 songs, and as TAKE A CHANCE ON ME starts the competition, it gets 30 points.
The competition will work as follows:
First of all, it is a joint effort between the WEBSITE and the FACEBOOK. The new song will be announced on the website but people can publish their response either on the website or the facebook under that song title.
I will take a sentence from the song lyrics and present that and you have to write a line or two about what memory this ABBA song brings – maybe your first kiss or a special birthday or whatever. The winner works as follows – if just one person responds, he or she gets the 30 points – if 2 respond, they each get 15 points, if three respond, then 10 points each. If more than 3, then I pick the best 3 in my opinion and each get 10 points.
If someone does not want his or her 10 points, then such a person can trade it in for half an euro discount on 2016 membership (or those that have paid already, then it is banked towards 2017 membership).
This gives everybody a chance – those that want points towards the ticket list for 2016 and those who for whatever reason cannot go and so want to earn “discount” towards their membership.
Winners will be announced one day after the next song is presented. So it gives people a couple of days to send their memory of a particular song.

Chiara, EuroFest, Eurovision event, Malta, News

CHIARA LIVE IN LONDON

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Last night (Friday 24th July) the regular Eurofest party was held at the historic Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London.  The special guest for this Eurofest was the wonderful Chiara from Malta.

©Photo by Edward Till 

Chiara delighted the crowd, which consisted of not only her Eurovision fans but also a large number of Maltese fans, with a number of her most well known hits.  She opened the night with the song she described as ‘her everything’, her 1998 Eurovision entry “The One That I Love” .  This was followed by her 2005 Eurovision entry “Angel”.

She also performed a few other songs, such “It’s Raining Men”, “Forget Forgetting Me” and “Zarbun” as well as her 2009 Eurovision entry “What If We”.

The audience loved her, and it was clear that Chiara had a great time performing for the crowd.  Chiara is certainly welcome in London whenever she wants to come back.

 ©Photo by Edward Till

 

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GOING BACK TO MY ROOTS

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I always like campaigns that are build along a specific song and I was raking my brain to find a suitable one from EUROVISION for this, but this song from 1981 by ODYSSEY is going through my brain non spot. This is despite me disliking the song, as I am not fund of disco songs and US songs in general. But this really is portraying how I feel at this moment.
A week full of turmoil and now I think it is time to stop this and going back to my roots.
I am putting it on the website on purpose and also at this time.
The whole idea is that OGAE REST OF THE WORLD is going back to its roots, how ANDY and I started it in 2005 and how it got approved to the network in May 2006 in Athens, Greece.
Since Copenhagen there had been a lot of pressure on me to change R O W fundamentally and I have always been open for chance but it just is NON STOP. The moment you allow something, then people want more and more and more and more – well, we go back to our roots and in the next days I will give more detail. For the majority of R O W members/fans this will probably mean no change in their lives, for some, they probably will be happy that we go back to our core values but there will be some who will not like this (but you never can please everybody and as I have said, some will never be happy with whatever chances are made).
So OGAE R O W will again be there like it has been for the past 10 years for fans of EUROVISION who subscribe to what R O W stands for, DIFFERENT CULTURES but ONE PASSION (Eurovision).
Most of you have probably been unaware of what has been happening since Copenhagen and now since Vienna. I do not want to wash dirty laundry anymore, so on advise from our legal person, all Andy and I will do is take the club take to what it was created for and those that will prescribe to those values, will be happy to stay with us, unfortunately those that are not happy, have two options
1 – accept it or
2 – leave and find another club who will reflect those values they regard as important.
Andy and I have both mentioned this often and I will again say it
1 – neither he nor me needs the club for us to ENJOY EUROVISION as we have never taken ticket packages
2 – we both prefer rather a small dedicated member/fan base than a large one which come to us thinking they can change R O W to suit them
It is a fan club, not a large corporation with tons of rules and people should want to be here for the enjoyment it brings to share EUROVISION with others.
This is the basic idea of the new campaign and in the next days we will just spell out a few more details.
ROY
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VOICES FOR CHARITY

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OGAE Rest of the world has launched an event called VOICES FOR CHARITY.

Towards the end of the year a glittering event will happen somewhere in the province of Gauteng with artists singing EUROVISION covers and donate all their time for this show to a variety of charities.

Michael de Lange, the CEO of DE LANGE PRODUCTIONS and vice president of EUROVISION SOUTH AFRICA handles all the arrangements for this event.

The theme song is taken from the 2015 Russian Eurovision entry A MILLION VOICES but as been covered in Afrikaans as EEN MILJOEN STEMME by Jasmyn. We hope to help one million people through this event.

Artists who want to be part of this must apply at roy@esccovers.com and a panel will decide who will sing at the event. Only EURO covers will be allowed, so if you want to sing other songs, do not even apply.

We will also a CHARITY HERO for the event and will bring more details of this in due course.

voices logo

 

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RATING OF THE PRESS P R OF EACH COUNTRY – PART TWO

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Every year I do rate the P R of each each country from a press perspective (seen out of my own eyes mostly) but also taking into account that I hear from others and then give them a point of out 10
Every year some countries SHINE and others are just awful. 2015 was no exception. I have decided to do this in order of appearance via semi final 1 and 2 and then those automatically in the final
SERBIA
I had very little to do with the press people as the president of OGAE Serbia brought me the promo CD with several language versions. As the week went on, many more copies seemed to be given to mindividuls.
8 out of 10
HUNGARY
It was quite easy and I was not neccessary to wait for Tamas arrival to help me. I got the promo CD easily and the whole delegation was nice and friendly.
8.5 out of 10
BELARUS
A huge disappointment, having had always fantastic relations with them, especially in 2009 in Moscow when the head of press, every time she saw me put another gift in my hands, this was such a low point for me. I had for exampled asked no less than TEN times if we could get a t-shirt of Belarus to give to someone to wear at the fanstand – it was the most beautiful t-shirt with the lyrics, yet although they kept saying yes, it never came. I was told no promo CD but a UB stick that looked like a watch. had it not been for Pavel, I would have had nothing. I know why this change but will rather keep quiet on it.
2 out of 10
RUSSIA
A first difficult, In got postcards and t-shirts but they have run out of CD’s by the time they got to my pigeonhole nunber 1576. I had to write to the Swedish composers and CEO’s of the publishing company and then I got the CD for me. Most of these people came especially to say hallo to me at the fan stand and I was able to hand Jasmyn’s cover of the song. I do understand that the Russian people in the delegation were not as clued up to my involvement as the Swedish group. Luckily it all ended well.
8 out of 10
DENMARK
Horror after horror after horror, three years in a row now. Just absolutely nothing and they seem to live by the name of the group “Anti social media”. The chances are slim that I ever will be involved in an Afrikaans cover of a Danish euro song. I wish  could give minus points.
0 out of 10
ALBANIA
They made up for last year and I quickly got the CD and DVD.
9 out of 10
ROMANIA
For many years, Romania has been among the top 5 when it comes to my experience with them and 2015 was not exception, so much so that I wore a Romanian T-shirt one day at the fan stand and also the lead singer and his little son came to chat to me when they walked on the red carpet. The song has also jumped into my rankings to number 6.
10 out of 10
GEORGIA
I also have close relations with Georgia, especially when they have a Thomas Gson song and I got the CD almost immediately. I also got gift bags and t-shirts which I were able to hand to other fans. We also took a photo of Georgian head of delegation coming to vote at the fan stand.
10 out of 10

2015 Eurovision Song Contest

RATING OF THE PRESS P R FOR EACH COUNTRY – PART ONE

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Every year I do rate the P R of each each country from a press perspective (seen out of my own eyes mostly) but also taking into account that I hear from others and then give them a point of out 10
Every year some countries SHINE and others are just awful. 2015 was no exception. I have decided to do this in order of appearance via semi final 1 and 2 and then those automatically in the final
MOLDOVA
I always love it when it starts off with a great country. Getting the bag with the CD single and full CD and the singer making himself available for photo’s. What more can you ask?
10 out of 10
ARMENIA
A rough start – for me a special interest because the one member is from Ethophia and he actually was recently in South Africa to audition for Big brother Africa. I think the head of press felt a little overwhelmed by the degree of interest (because of the 6 members being from different continents). But in the end all worked out well, getting the bag with the paper CD single and also the special production of a 3 set with CD, CD rom and DVD.
9.5 out of 10
BELGIUM
A huge disappointment, having personally wrote well ahead of the event and seeing that the entry is via SONY MUSIC Belgium. There were 250 promo CD’s and I failed to get one. Yes there was a lot of interest because the song was a favourite, plus some language problem since it was the turn of the French side of Belgium TV to have the entry, but I still feel extremely let down by them. Maybe those 250 press people who did get the promo CD will have another more positive experience?
0 out of 10
NETHERLANDS
After a little rocky start it was great and each pigeonhole got the promo CD without having to ask (Netherlands did that also in 2013 and 2014). Sorry they failed to make the finals but if it had been me, I would have staged the song like WALK ALONG and have a road and lots of icons along the road like ABBA, CELINE DION, UDO JURGENS, etc so to play in with the fact that it is 60 years of Eurovision.
9 out of 10
FINLAND
It could not have been easy to work with the band and their circumstances but they did a great job – we were upset that we could not hand the good luck messages but the band members were tired and had to go home and then later they allowed us personally inside an interview booth to do it. I am also one of a few who did the the promo CD
9 out of 10
GREECE
I cannot recall a year Greece was not among the top 5 in my review – they are just amazing when it comes to promo CD’s and the way it is available to all. And their promo CD’s always look so good.
10 out of 10
ESTONIA
Difficult to judge them since I got the promo CD from the president of OGAE Estonia as a thank you for helping one of their members with Mark Churches tickets. Luigi and I were glad to stand next to Estonian TV at the red carpet so we called most artists to them and has close access as well.
9 out of 10
MACEDONIA
Compared to last year, this was a big disappointment. I expected more but we learned that Daniel donated the money normally spent on promo material to a hospital and we all got just a UB stick (that is enough, at least we got something). The song is in huge demand to cover in Afrikaans and we probably will do a single with both Daniel’s version and the Afrikaans cover so we could have a physical single.
6 out of 10

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FINAL RUNNING ORDER

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1. Slovenia
2. France
3. Israel
4. Estonia
5. United Kingdom
6. Armenia
7. Lithuania
8. Serbia
9. Norway
10. Sweden
11. Cyprus
12. Australia
13. Belgium
14. Austria
15. Greece
16. Montenegro
17. Germany
18. Poland
19. Latvia
20. Romania
21. Spain
22. Hungary
23. Georgia
24. Azerbaijan
25. Russia
26. Albania
27. Italy 
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