Ben Smith has been watching the Eurovision Song Contest since 2008, blogging/podcasting about it since 2011, and a part of its digital press center since 2021. He has deep thoughts about the ways improvements in streaming media in the last decade have made the contest more of a truly global event, and can also do a tight five on Norway’s selection process. He lives in Somerville, MA and can be found more generally at goodatinter.net.
Ben Smith has hosted 225 Episodes.
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Episode 102: Hoe is de Zorg?
January 12th, 2021 | Season 4 | 35 mins 11 secs
finland, france, greece, israel, lithuania, netherlands, norway, sweden
We have songs to talk about! Israel and Norway have Eurovision tracks in the wild while we consider the optics of putting on the Contest amid a pandemic.
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Episode 101: Disco Toilet
January 5th, 2021 | Season 4 | 38 mins 3 secs
albania, belarus, croatia, cyprus, iceland, ireland, israel, italy, lithuania, san marino, serbia, slovenia, spain, sweden, turkey
From Albania's FiK selection to Senhit's latest disco cover to the results of ESC 250, we discuss a lot of Eurovision news from over the holidays.
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Episode 100: Spotify Warped
December 15th, 2020 | Season 4 | 42 mins 59 secs
albania, croatia, estonia, france, israel, italy, portugal, sweden
We're celebrating 100 episodes and the end of 2020! After checking the news, we look at our Spotify Wrapped, ESC250 ballots, and our origin stories.
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Episode 99: Merry FiKmas
December 1st, 2020 | Season 4 | 1 hr 3 mins
albania, bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, estonia, finland, france, lithuania, norway, sweden
Eurovision season usually begins in December with Albania's Festivali i Këngës, sometimes known as FiKmas. We dig into FiK's history.
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Episode 98: Let’s Talk Turkey
November 17th, 2020 | Season 4 | 50 mins 5 secs
albania, belgium, estonia, germany, israel, türkiye
Turkey was last at Eurovision in 2012. We take this opportunity to comb through its history and gobble up any information we can find.
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Episode 97: Eurovision AV Club
November 3rd, 2020 | Season 4 | 51 mins 10 secs
albania, austria, denmark, finland, france, iceland, israel, lithuania, netherlands, san marino
We could all use a distraction during gestures at universe. Here are some picks for Eurovision-adjacent media from our AV club.
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Episode 96: Take! It! Off!
October 20th, 2020 | Season 4 | 46 mins 3 secs
australia, belarus, iceland, italy, montenegro, norway, poland, portugal, united kingdom
The Masked Singer has proven to be an international hit and a potential aftermarket for Eurovision alumni. Mike from Aussievision joins us to discuss the insanity.
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Episode 95: Six on Stage
October 6th, 2020 | Season 4 | 1 hr 2 mins
austria, belarus, denmark, estonia, greece, ireland, israel, kazakhstan, moldova, portugal, russia, sweden, ukraine, united kingdom
Will Howells has created a database called Six on Stage, cataloguing every performer on the Eurovision stage. We chat with him about the project and get caught up on the news.
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Episode 94: Double Trouble
September 15th, 2020 | Season 4 | 29 mins 39 secs
belgium, bulgaria, estonia, hungary, ireland, israel, italy, malta, moldova, north macedonia, norway, romania, russia, san marino, slovenia, sweden, switzerland, turkey
Ben flies solo again with another audio essay, this time looking into performers who made double, triple, and even quadruple visits to the Eurovision stage.
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Episode 93: Rotterdam, Ahoy! Take 2
September 1st, 2020 | Season 4 | 33 mins 57 secs
australia, belgium, bulgaria, iceland, kazakhstan, kosovo, netherlands, norway, san marino, sweden, switzerland, ukraine, united states
Rotterdam gets to take a mulligan on 2020 as we look ahead to how preparations for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest begin to take shape.
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Episode 92: Americandom is Naujo!
August 18th, 2020 | Season 3 | 40 mins 28 secs
germany, iceland, lithuania, moldova, sweden, united states
We welcome Helen Groothuis back to the show to workshop how on earth the American Song Contest is supposed to work?
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Episode 91: A Brief History of the EBU
August 4th, 2020 | Season 3 | 49 mins 38 secs
belarus, belgium, france, germany, romania, russia, switzerland, ukraine, united kingdom
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) turns 70 this year! How did the EBU come into being? We dive into telecommunications history and evolution to find out.