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Wikipedia:WikiProject Eurovision/News/Weekly-News/Issue 1

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Eurovision Weekly News Update
15-18 August 2023

Recently in the news...

  • Azerbaijan will close applications for their selection on September 30.
  • Belgium will choose their 2024 representative internally.
  • Mae Muller puts music career on hold to focus on film and television.

Happy birthday to...

15th

16th

17th

18th


Did you know...

  • The largest number of nations to take part was 43 in 2008, 2011 and 2018.

Eurovision entrant...

  • Guy Bonnet is an author, composer, and singer, born in Avignon, France in 1945. He wrote the lyrics and composed the music for the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 (performed by Isabelle Aubret). In 1970 he participated in the Eurovision song contest for France with "Marie-Blanche" coming 4th out of twelve contestants. In 1983 he represented France in Eurovision again with "Vivre" (finishing eighth).
  • Dave Benton (born 31 January 1951, birth name Efrén Eugene Benita) is a pop musician from Aruba who lives in Estonia. He is one of the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. At the age of 50 years and 101 days at the time of his victory, Benton is the oldest singer ever to win Eurovision, as well as the first Black winner.
Born Efrén Eugene Benita in 1951 on the Caribbean island of Aruba, he was fluent in English, Dutch, Spanish and Papiamento, the creole language of the island. As a drummer and a backing vocalist, he worked with The Drifters, Tom Jones, Billy Ocean, José Feliciano and The Platters.
Benton's daughter Sissi participated in Eesti Laul in 2021 with the song "Time", attempting to follow in her father's footsteps and represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. She qualified to the superfinal, where she placed second.
She represented Luxembourg with the band Kontinent in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 in Malmö, performing the Luxembourgish song "Sou fräi" (As free). The song ended the contest in 21st place (out of 23 contestants) with 10 points. Before and during her performance, she had an acute attack of malaria that seemed like a severe migraine. She became infected with malaria during a vacation in Kenya in 1990.
Efendi gained popularity in her home country after participating in the singing competitions Yeni Ulduz (2009), Böyük Səhnə (2014) and The Voice of Azerbaijan (2015-2016, third place).
In 2017, she was the Azerbaijani representative in the international singing competition Silk Way Star, staged in Almaty, Kazakhstan, finishing in third place.
In 2014, she participated in Azerbaijan's national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest but was eliminated at the third heat of the competition.
On 28 February 2020, the Azerbaijani broadcaster İTV announced that Efendiyeva had been internally selected to represent Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song "Cleopatra", held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. However, the contest was cancelled on 18 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She instead represented Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Mata Hari". Efendi qualified to the final, where she ended up in 20th place out of 26 countries, receiving 65 points.