So this is the very first "chapter" of this "book". As the title suggests, it will be a quick update on the most important news that we have for this upcoming ESC 2018.

Firstly, I will quickly talk about Belgium and their choice, and then, I will ran... talk about Finland and their quite... weird decision (and maybe I'll be inspired enough to say one or two words about the official slogan and logo that were revealed today).

I- Laura Groeseneken

Well that was early. 

I am kind of glad that Belgium announced half of their act for 2018, because I am still in PED, so it gives me something to think about and more importantly, to listen to.

Laura seems to be a really sweet and nice person, and she has a lovely voice, but... I bet she was selected because of the fact that her style is a bit like Sobral's one (and it's definitely not a compliment, coming from me). By the way, she even did a cover of Amar Pelos Dois, and even if I quite liked her version, I feel like she was rushing through it, almost like if she wanted to get rid of it (and I also didn't really like that piano but it's only details). I know that this year will be full of Sobral copycats with more or less quality, and I know that you never escape ballads, but still. Actually, I don't mind ballads at all, some of them are really beautiful and touching, just like last year's Blackbird, but I really really don't like Amar Pelos Dois' style, so I guess that this year will be quite painful to watch :')

Speaking of this year...

II- UMK

Oh well.

Since the day that we were announced this UMK press conf, I couldn't wait to see what they had in store. Will they announce the acts already? Or maybe they would do just like Latvia did with their Supernova, releasing the songs only? Or maybe they would simply give more details about this year's UMK, like, I don't know, some format changes. Well, I wanted format changes, here they are.

I finished my morning classes at 13:00, so I rushed back home so I could watch at least the end of the conference. And it's only when I was staring at the video on UMK's channel that I understood. France and Finland are not in the same time zone. And actually, this saved me about ten minutes of my life (because why would I bother watching a video in finnish if the only thing that I would understand is "IMK 2018", when everything is already translated on Wiwibloggs?). So I went on Wiwibloggs, read the article, and lost faith in humanity.

Europe, start ranting now!

Now, before you start yelling at me, no I don't hate Saara Aalto. Actually, I don't even have an opinion about her, the only time I heard her singing (pretty well, gotta admit) being when I saw her cover of Kuula on YouTube (I saw it yesterday, coincidence? I don't think so). So I'm not mad at her. I am mad at Yle.

Do you remember the flashdrive with all of the submitted songs on it? Well, behind these songs were hundreds of people hoping to get selected. If I were them, I would definitely feel betrayed by Yle. They made them (and us) hope for a good selection show, and I was excited to see it for the first time, and then... they announce this. There will be a final, but it will only be Saara singing three songs. Yay. Eurovision has quite a lot of suspense, and I think that it's something that we should find in every national final. Here, there won't be any suspense at all. Well, okay, we don't which song will represent Finland. Granted. But that is exactly what I hate about internal selections: that there is hardly any suspense at all. Because yes, this was an internal selection, and a very shameful one. 

On the other hand, I can understand that Finland simply has enough of not qualifing, even when they have a good song (just look at last year). I can also understand that it's been a while that Saara Aalto wanted to enter Eurovision, and that she is popular enough among Eurovision fans (especially the british ones I guess) to gain some votes, and that with a good song, she could win, but still. Yle should have planned this at least a little, because I don't like their "yeah but the songs sent were not high enough for our standart" excuse, because I don't think that they want good songs. I think they want big names. Because it is just impossible that there is not a single good song among all of the songs that were sent. And if it sounds too "amateurish" for you, well just revamp it!

I feel like I am the only one ranting about it. Everybody seems to be happy about the decision, and no mind seems blown by the fact that Yle just basically betrayed hundreds of persons in one day. I hope that they at least contacted all the artists who submitted a song to tell them that they think that "they are not good enough for their standarts".

III- All Aboard!

What. On. Earth is this logo? A shell? Is Portugal kidding us? Okay. Why not. In 2016, you had a dandelion, so why wouldn't we have a shell? Well, let me tell you. At least, the dandelion was BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED, while this shell is... meh. I know that Portugal is planning on doing the cheapest ESC ever, but they could at least put some effort into it. Like, you know, ask some skilled designers (they even can be portuguese) to design the design. Wait... designers designed the design? Oh well...

Okay, I got it, everything this year will be all about the sea, the coast, the south, the sun, but... a shell? Oh and yes, I saw the other designs too. I kind of liked the jellyfish. A little.

Well, and about the slogan... Maybe it would have been great for JESC, indeed. But not for ESC. I already don't like this MEO Arena or whatever it's called, and now with this logo and slogan...

I think I'm gonna love this year :')

Oh, and while I was writing, the official list of participating countries was announced too. I don't have much to say about it, nobody's missing, except for, of course, Turkey. Miss you Turkey. And I am also sad for FYROM, I hope they will be back in 2019 (not that they usually send killer songs, but it's always sad when a country is banned because of money).

Okay that's it for today! I will try to post my rant about Supernova tomorrow, if I'll have the time, and of course, Friday, I will write something about Eesti Laul!

Until then, :tries to find a fancy thing to say: well... bye.