Its time for another bonus episode of Eurovision Queens.

This time we are joined by a very special guest who is not only a massive fellow Eurovision fan, but the current reigning Mr Gay Great Britain – David Allwood.

David takes us through his top 5 Eurovision songs, taking us on a queer journey through music and time, and we talk about some big issues along the way, including everything David has been working on within the LGBTQ+ community.

Charities / Causes talked mentioned in the episode:

- Ask for Clive: https://askforclive.com/

- Pride Radio: https://prideradio.co.uk/

- The Charlie & Carter Foundation: https://thecharlieandcarterfoundation.co.uk/

- Homoparody: https://www.tiktok.com/@homoparody

- London Friend: https://londonfriend.org.uk/

- Terrence Higgins Trust: https://www.tht.org.uk/

You can find David at:

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/david_allwood/

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidallwood_

- Homoparody: https://linktr.ee/homoparody

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Bonus 06 Episode:

Gina G - (Ooh Aah) Just A Little Bit

Måneskin - Zitti E Buoni

Katrina & the Waves - Love shine a light

Dana International – Diva

Conchita Wurst - Rise Like a Phoenix

As this episode goes out Andy & Ryan are recovering from three frenetic weekends in Stockholm. After 2 Melfest specials, this is a return to our regular episode format with 7 songs in 7 different categories.

First up is Portugal’s sublime Saudade Saudade (a sad state of intense longing for someone or something that is absent) which is essentially group therapy in song form, for which the lead singer, MARO, is in a purple judo outfit. Then we have the irrepressible Krista Siegfrids singing the joyful and queer Marry Me back in 2013 which was in many ways ahead of its time with its drag kings, lesbian kiss and intention to represent sexual equality. Our ‘over 15 years ago’ slot takes us back to 1998 and Netherlands legend Edsilia Rombley and her 4th place song Hemel & Aarde with its Mike and the Mechanics ‘bounce’.

This episode’s UK entry is Still in Love with You. Not exactly a favourite of Eurovision fans, but we consider it to be fun and feelgood even if the performance was a little lacking on the night. This is followed by the uber-controversial Icelandic mega-star Silvia Night - with her hotline to God - who almost everyone misunderstood back in 2006, so much so that the crowd booed her during the semi-final. We discuss how Silvia was a character rather than a real person and how she perhaps suffered more for her art because of her gender rather than what she said and did. Our Deuce award category is filled by the gravity-defying and ever-youthful Stig Rasta whose infectious pop song Interstellar (co-written with Melfest’s Victor Crone) was a contender in the Estonian national final back in 2022. Finally, the Randomiser generously (?) gifts us the Swiss entry from 1980, Paola’s Cinema, at a time in Eurovision history when every other song title was a place or an art form e.g. Colorado, Theatre, Amsterdam.

Elsewhere in the episode, we rip into Johnny Logan and Andy has his Eurovision expert card revoked when he completely forgets about the existence of Duncan Lawrence!

So… congratulations, we have arrived.

We’re Andy and Ryan and we’re shining so bright.

Eurovision nations, your dreams coming true.

You’ve been waiting forever for a pod to save you.

Wham, bam, boom!

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Season 1: Episode 17

Saudade saudade by MARO (Portugal 2022)

Marry Me by Krista Siegfrids (Finland 2013)

Hemel & Aarde by Edsilia Rombley (Netherlands 1998)

Still In Love with You by Electro Velvet (UK 2015)

Congratulations by Silvia Night (Iceland 2006)

Interstellar by Stig Rasta (Estonia 2022)

Cinéma by Paola (Switzerland 1980)

In which your Eurovision Queens review all things Melfest…

Andy & Ryan have had quite a week here in Stockholm and decided to release another bonus episode as aresult. They share their experiences of the Melfest Weekend parties with guests like 2023 entrants Alessandre, Reiley, Blanka, and past year favourites such as Senhit, Anna Bergendahl and Klara Hammaström. They also cover their unforgettable experience of the final in the Friends Area, in which they bagged seats right next to the Green Room and even managed to say personal congratulations to Loreen herself. All life is here - and a heck of a lot of Eurovision.

Enjoy, because they certainly did!

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Ahead of this year’s final of Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s national final, Andy & Ryan give their take on this year’s finalists. They’re paying extra special attention as this year they’re actually going to be in the audience in Stockholm cheering and whooping from the tenth row.

Until Heat 4 it was perhaps fair to say that this year’s Melfest might not be as strong as the last 2 years, but the long-awaited return of Loreen seems to have turned everything around. Either that or it’s just the fact that we can finally listen to them all on Spotify and play them continuously.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, let’s explain the format of the episode… We’re going to play and score 10 songs in total. The eight finalists and two semi-finalists. As we write the semi-final has yet to happen, but when this episode goes out, you will know which 4 acts progressed to the final. We only chose two - one each - as we hadn’t realised four acts would make it through from the semi-final, but, no matter, we’re confident that we chose the best ones anyway. If we’d known though we would have also reviewed Kiana and Nordman. We wonder if we picked the right four?

Onto the songs. We start with Tone Sekelius who walked the Heat 1 voting and reminded us why we fell in love with her when she sang My Way last year. Then there’s perennial performer, Swedish-Sámi singer and jojkare, Jon Henrik Fjällgren with Arc North feat. Adam Woods with Where You Are which won Heat 1. Country duo Tennessee Tears won Andys’ heart in Heat 2 and are his pick of the semi-finalists, while Theoz’s pop sunshine track Mer av dig is Ryan’s favourite to progress from the semis. Football chant On My Way from Panetoz is next, followed by Ukrainian Maria Sur who blew everyone away with her confident performance a few weeks ago. Then we have Paul Rey with Royals, the lyrics of which Andy has probably looked into a little too deeply, and Norwegian duo Marcus & Martinus, winner of Heat 3, whom the Swedes seem to have really taken to despite their ill-fitting trousers. Linkin Park-meets-Evanesence band Smash Into Pieces rocked their way into the final, but were ultimately no match for the stupendous Loreen whose vocals and stage presence made her performance everyone’s highlight of Melfest 2023. Could she even be a contender for the Eurovision crown?!

If you want to find out Andy & Ryans’s personal favourites from this year’s Meloldifestivalen and what scores they give them out of the traditional 12 points then tune in to this special episode of Eurovision Queens.

Tack så mycket!

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Songs & Artists

Tone Sekelius - Rhythm of my Show

Jon Henrik Fjällgren with Arc North feat. Adam Woods - Where You Are

Tennessee Tears - Now I Know

Theoz - Mer av dig

Paul Rey - Royals

Panetoz - On My Way

Maria Sur - Never Give Up

Marcus & Martinus - Air

Smash Into Pieces - Six Feet Under

Loreen - Tattoo

Dearest wonderful listeners, from this episode we're changing things up a bit, not to mess with your minds but simply because we wanted to play more songs from recent Eurovision history. We hope you don't mind too much and we promise we'll still play some golden oldies.

In this, our sixteenth episode, we debut our 'Last 5 years' category with the brilliant Mata Hari by Efendi, one of the songs that formed our soundtrack to living in Stockholm in 2021. We follow this with our previous 10 years category (Yep that's 2008 to 2107 - keep up at the back!) and that headphone-obsessed Slovenian duo Maraaya from 2015. There's a lot of excitement about this years' Czechia entry by Vesna, but back in 2002 it was Croatia's Vesna who was causing a fuss as she writhed around to Everything I Want on the stage in Tallinn. Vesna is the first in our new and ridiculously mammoth 1956-2007 slot! Or the Eurovision Archive as we are rather rudely calling it.

Next up we have everyone's favourite scouser, the diminutive Sona who represented the UK in 1993 at Millstreet, Ireland, and only missed out on winning thanks to a truly bizarre set of points from Malta. We might forgive them one day, but it's unlikely. The Semi-Final exit slot brings us the joy that is the irrepressible Donna and Joe McCaul, a little-known (and little in size) Irish duo that Andy adores. He has a similar passion for what is the most current Deuce award we've ever included: Ulrikke Brandstorp who came second to Queen of Kings in the recent Melodi Grand Prix final in Norway with the wondrous power ballad Honestly. Finally, the Randomiser lives up to its name and offers up Liora singing Amen for Israel, in Ireland once again, who secured a top 10 finish in 1995.

"But what is the theme of the episode?' I hear you cry? Well, Ryan thought he was on to winner when he noted that several of the artists have their own businesses, Efendi owns a sweet shop for instance, and Liora is a yoga teacher. Aside from this we realised after we recorded that there's a lot of performances in Ireland and of course there's pocket-sized Donna and Joe, so, yep, 'Entrepreneurs and, er, Leprechauns' it is. Apologies!

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Season 1: Episode 16

Mata Hari by Efendi (Azerbaijan 2021)

Here for You by Maraaya (Slovenia 2015)

Everything I Want by Vesna Pisarović (Croatia 2002)

Better the Devil You Know by Sonia (1993)

Love? by Donna and Joe (Ireland 2005)

Honestly by Ulrikke Brandstorp (Norway 2023)

Amen by Liora (Israel 1995)

Every now and then a national final comes along that ticks all the boxes, offering multiple songs that you just know are going to end up as some of your most played on Spotify.

We quickly realised that this year’s Melodi Grand Prix was going to be just such an event, with its wonderfully diverse range of talent bidding to win the right to represent Norway at this year’s Eurovision.

We had the modern pop sensibility of underdog Eline Thorp, the quirky beauty of Elsie Bay, the cheeky camp of drag queen Skrellex, the youthful bravado of Umami Tusunami, the strident and unforgettable Alessandra and the pure class of the soaring Ulrikke Brandstorp, to name, well almost all of them!

While we enjoyed the final very much, we both knew we wanted to shake up the scoreboard a little, and for this reason, in this bonus episode of the podcast, we have chosen to give our own scores after each performance for the 9 finalists.

Who were Andy’s and Ryan’s favourites? Who would they have sent to Liverpool? Join us as we take a celebratory song-filled look back at Melodi Grand Prix 2023!

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Bonus 03 Episode:

Umami Tsunami - Geronimo

Swing'it - Prohibition

Skrellex - Love Again

Eline Thorp - Not Meant to Be

Jone - Ekko inni meg

Elsie Bay - Love You in a Dream

Atle Pettersen - Masterpiece

Ulrikke Brandstorp - Honestly

Alessandra - Queen of Kings

In this episode, Andy and Ryan curate a typically eclectic collection of Eurovision classics, many of which, despite their brilliance, only made the middle of the results table.

There’s country-inspired Stefan from Estonia with a guitar slung on his back, the UK’s own Samantha Janus who has a sincere message to your heart despite singing in her underwear, and the wondrous Zoë who takes us far away from here with uplifting flower-filled entry for Austria.

Elsewhere Ryan seeks retribution for the 11th place Albina with Tick Tock another song that should have made the final; the Deuce Award celebrates the hypnotically silly Belgian entry She’s After My Piano; while Swedish household name Lena Phillipson proves she knows how to cavort with a mic stand and, oooh, it hurts.

In the deepest dive of the episode Andy explains the complicated history of Baccara, that Spanish duo who represented Luxembourg back in 1978. Only Bucks Fizz can match them for the behind-the-scenes backstabbing, line-up changes and legal shenanigans that went on. Yes sir, they could boogie, but they couldn’t get along.

All this and a few bonus tracks including Flight of the Conchords seminal Foux da fa fa. Il pleu dans le jardin avec la chat et le chien sur le table en l’hotel de le plage. Parlez vous Francais? We are obviously fluent. Au revoir nos beaux petits amis de l'Eurovision !

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Season 1: Episode 15

Hope by Stefan (Estonia 2022)

It Hurts by Lena Phillipson (Sweden 2004)

Parlez vous Francais by Baccara (Luxembourg 1978)

A Message to Your Heart By Samantha Janus (UK 1991)

TickTock by Albina (Croatia 2021)

She's After My Piano by 2 Fabiola feat Loredana (Belgium 2014)

Loin d'ici by ZOË (Austria 2016)

Andy & Ryan are back with another heady mix of Eurovision goodness in which pianos duel and it all gets a bit angst-ridden up in here. We start with Romanian-Norwegian Ovi who managed to reach the contest twice with Paula Seling. Their pop duet 'Playing with Fire' features a giant perspex double piano, a leather catsuit, and, naturally, lots of flames. It's a certified banger which ultimately placed third. Elsewhere Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran also have a 'piano-off' with the catchy 'Rock Bottom' which represented the UK during the bleak strike-ridden days of 1977. The strikes meant no broadcast of A Song for Europe that year and a 5-week delay of Eurovision itself as the UK struggled to honour their duty to hold the contest. Apparently there were sighs of relief all round at the BBC when Rock Bottom missed out on the top spot.

Andy goes back to his happy place - 2003 - for that glorious Turkish winner 'Everyway That I Can' which saw feisty Sertab Erener 'ha' and bellydance her way into the Eurovision history books determined to get her lover back. Similarly desperate for her relationship is Iceland's Selma who will even shoot arrows and wear pedal-pushers to ensnare her man. Sadly, with this awesome song 'If I Had Your Love' (which just maybe Andy's favourite Euro track of all time!) she fails to better her 2nd place in '99 and doesn't even advance beyond the semi-finals. Ryan muses that it was simply ahead of its time and he may just be right about that.

Elsewhere we have Birthe Kjaer painting the town red while simultaneously giving the Danish musical-loving audience a title for a highly successful Eurovision-based theatre production and Vanessa Amorosi surviving a nasty car accident on stage in her bid to represent Australia back in 2020. It's not hard to see why absolutely everybody loved her attempt.

The chaos monkey that is the Randomiser is also in an angsty mood, selecting Victoria from Bulgaria who complains that 'Growing Up is Getting Old' in some style back in 2021. At this rate we're going to end up trusting this crazy song-choosing machine.

Until next time Euro-chums!

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Season 1: Episode 14

Playing with Fire by Paula Seling & Ovi (Romania 2010)

Every Way That I Can by Sertab Erener (Turkey 2003)

Vi Maler Byen Rød by Birthe Kjaer (Denmark 1989)

Rock Bottom by Lynsey de Paul & Mike Moran (UK 1977)

If I Had Your Love by Selma (Iceland 2005)

Lessons of Love by Vanessa Amorosi (Australia 2020)

Growing Up Is Getting Old by Victoria (Bulgaria 2021)

It’s a new regular episode of Eurovision Queens featuring 7 more classic songs from contests past with your ESC-obsessed hosts Andy & Ryan.

This time we unveil a brand new category as we ditch 2nd placed songs (we’ve done all the good ones!) for semi-final entries that didn’t make it through to the final. It’s a rich vein and we start strong with Kate Ryan’s seminal Je t’adore from 2006.

Two of the songs are performed by ‘fun aunties’: Maltese powerhouse Claudette Pace with Desire (which should have won everything back in 2000) and the unstoppable Joy Fleming whose 1975 performance is as memorable as it is terrifying.

We also hear from McBusted-esque Lake Malawi with Friend of a Friend and finally get around to celebrating the wondrous Gina G. There’s even a mini-quiz in her honour.

We return to Melfest for the supremely talented songwriter Cazzi Opeia with the catchy I Can’t Get Enough. And then there’s the Randomiser… oh dear. He’s from Iceland. He’s called Daniel. He looks like a creepy Bible salesman. His song is terrible. It secured zero points. You have been warned.

So there we have it - another eclectic Eurovision fever dream and we loved every minute of it. Well almost every minute. Until next time.

Kisses, A & R xxx

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Season 1: Episode 13

Friend of a Friend by Lake Malawi (Czech Republic 2019)

Desire by Claudette Pace (Malta 2000)

Ein Lied Kann Eine Brücke Sein by Joy Fleming (Germany 1975)

Ooh Ahh Just A Little Bit by Gina G (UK 1996)

Je t'adore by Kate Ryan (Belgium 2006)

I Can't Get Enough by Cazzi Opeia (Sweden 2022)

Það sem enginn sér by Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson (Iceland 1989)

How about a bonus festive episode of Eurovision Queens?

In a slight break from regular programming, we have gathered together 7 festive tracks from some of our favourite Eurovision artists that have featured on the podcast so far - get ready to discover some new christmassy tunes.

A message from Andy & Ryan: Please review us on Apple Podcasts and like and share our content wherever you can - it will help others find us and makes us happy. Thank you!

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Bonus 02 Episode:

A Christmas Night to Remember - The Mamas

Hallelujah - Ben & Tan

Christmas Around Me - The Common Linnets

Every Moment is Christmas - Daði Freyr

Dagen Ar Kommen - Charlotte Perrelli

A Winter’s Night - KEiiNO

Last Christmas - SuRie