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 263 Episodes.
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Special Edition: Well…
March 18th, 2020 | Season 3 | 10 mins 19 secs
netherlands
No news is good news. This news is bad news. Eurovision 2020 has been canceled. Now what?
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Episode 81: WHY ARE WE YELLING?
March 17th, 2020 | Season 3 | 50 mins 33 secs
austria, azerbaijan, bulgaria, cyprus, ireland, malta, north macedonia, russia, san marino
We finish up our initial evaluations of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest entries with the last nine songs to drop in March.
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Episode 80: This is Fine
March 10th, 2020 | Season 3 | 40 mins 12 secs
denmark, finland, georgia, israel, netherlands, portugal, sweden, switzerland
We made it through the end of Eurovision Selection Season! Well, the competitions in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Portugal, at least.
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Episode 79: Songageddon 2020
March 3rd, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 1 min
azerbaijan, belarus, croatia, estonia, germany, greece, iceland, moldova, romania, russia, serbia, united kingdom
Somehow we managed to be verbal after mainlining hours upon hours of Eurovision content this past weekend. It's Songageddon 2020!
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Episode 78: Remedial Dance Party
February 25th, 2020 | Season 3 | 38 mins 18 secs
belarus, croatia, estonia, germany, iceland, moldova, poland, portugal, romania, serbia, slovenia, sweden, ukraine, united kingdom
We're in the eye of the Eurovision Selection Season storm thanks to a light TV schedule this weekend. Time to practice the "I'm a Little Tempest in a Teapot" dance!
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Episode 77: Anarchy in the NRK
February 18th, 2020 | Season 3 | 53 mins 16 secs
armenia, belgium, france, iceland, lithuania, norway, poland, portugal, romania, slovenia, sweden, ukraine
The Eurovision 2020 songlist has hit double digits after this past weekend as we encounter internal selections and national final results.
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Episode 76: Sanremo LXX (Long, Xtra Xtra)
February 11th, 2020 | Season 3 | 52 mins 15 secs
andorra, australia, iceland, israel, italy, latvia, lithuania, malta, norway, sweden, ukraine
Saturday proved to be a marathon as Australia, Latvia, and Italy chose their Eurovision entries and a whole bunch of other countries made progress.
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Episode 75: Austvia Superdecides
February 4th, 2020 | Season 3 | 55 mins 39 secs
australia, czech republic, greece, iceland, italy, latvia, lithuania, malta, norway, poland, spain, sweden, ukraine
It's time to update your Eurovision Top 2 videos as Czech Republic makes their choice and Australia, Italy, and Latvia get ready to make theirs.
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Episode 74: Semi Final Allocation Czech In
January 28th, 2020 | Season 3 | 50 mins 31 secs
belarus, czech republic, denmark, finland, lithuania, moldova, norway, poland, spain, sweden
Czech Republic came to play, y'all. We do a deep dive on this year's Eurovision selection entries and check in with news across Europe as we wait for the semi final draw.
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Episode 73: Boys!
January 21st, 2020 | Season 3 | 31 mins 27 secs
czech republic, denmark, finland, france, iceland, lithuania, moldova, north macedonia, norway, portugal
We have an avalanche of Eurovision news this week, including two new artist selections, a bunch of songs, and Billie Eilish?
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Episode 72: DRIP in a Box
January 14th, 2020 | Season 3 | 27 mins 4 secs
czech republic, iceland, latvia, lithuania, netherlands, norway, portugal, serbia, slovenia
Eurovision Selection Season 2020 begins in earnest with Norway's revamped Melodi Grand Prix and Lithuania's fashion makeover.
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Episode 71: Sticks Nix FiK Picks
January 7th, 2020 | Season 3 | 37 mins 43 secs
albania, australia, georgia, italy, lithuania, netherlands, north macedonia, norway, ukraine
We're barely a week into 2020 and we already have Eurovision drama up to our ears (HI ALBANIA!). We get caught up on the news from over the holidays in this episode.