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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Episode 70: The Ones That Got Away 2010s Edition
December 31st, 2019 | Season 3 | 54 mins 48 secs
albania, azerbaijan, belarus, bulgaria, croatia, finland, hungary, latvia, lithuania, montenegro, north macedonia, portugal, romania, san marino, slovakia, slovenia
408 songs competed on the Eurovision stage this decade. 148 did not qualify for the Grand Final. From those, we picked 20 that still hold up.
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Episode 69: Ben’s Grand Eurofying Theory
December 24th, 2019 | Season 3 | 25 mins 9 secs
australia, azerbaijan, bulgaria, cyprus, italy, sweden
Ben flies solo this week after getting too caffeinated while prepping for the last Eurowhat of the year. He develops a theory about Eurovision in the last decade and makes an audio essay about it. It involves snacks.
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Episode 68: Eurovisie Songfestivus
December 17th, 2019 | Season 3 | 45 mins 24 secs
albania, austria, czech republic, iceland, netherlands, sweden
Tickets! Hosts! More selections! Eurovision 2020 is in full swing, but we look back at 2019 pop culture and make a 2020 wish list in this episode.
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Episode 67: Hungary for Turkey
December 3rd, 2019 | Season 3 | 34 mins 29 secs
australia, bulgaria, cyprus, estonia, france, hungary, russia, spain, sweden, türkiye
Hungary's reasons for withdrawing from Eurovision sound similar to Turkey's. What else do the two countries have in common?
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Episode 66: Iceland Airwaves
November 19th, 2019 | Season 3 | 46 mins 12 secs
australia, bulgaria, cyprus, czech republic, estonia, georgia, germany, iceland, slovenia
Our Senior Hatari Correspondent Ben traveled to Reykjavik to check in with the Iceland Airwaves festival and what's going on in the Icelandic music scene.
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Episode 65: Lebanon-starter
November 5th, 2019 | Season 3 | 39 mins 19 secs
bulgaria, hungary, lebanon, moldova, netherlands
Lebanon was supposed to debut at Eurovision 2005. We examine the unexpected ways international relations impact the Song Contest.
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Episode 64: Win Win Win Win
October 22nd, 2019 | Season 3 | 32 mins 12 secs
france, georgia, germany, hungary, iceland, italy, malta, netherlands, spain, united kingdom
We jump back 50 years to that time Eurovision had a four-way tie for first place... and no way to break it.
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Episode 63: Flags on the Play
October 8th, 2019 | Season 3 | 50 mins 50 secs
armenia, belgium, iceland, israel, russia, spain, united kingdom
Who knew that flags—symbols of national identity—could have political implications at the Eurovision Song Contest? Drink!
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Episode 62: Morocco 1980
September 24th, 2019 | Season 3 | 24 mins 30 secs
iceland, ireland, morocco, spain, turkey, united kingdom
Remember that time Morocco competed at the Eurovision Song Contest? We don't since neither of us existed at the time. Let's learn about it together!
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Episode 61: It’s Rotterdam! Ahoy!
September 10th, 2019 | Season 3 | 32 mins 53 secs
israel, italy, netherlands, russia, spain
Happy Eurovision New Year! We're talking about Eurovision 2020's host country the Netherlands and the host city of Rotterdam.
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Episode 60: Hallelujah
August 27th, 2019 | Season 2 | 48 mins 32 secs
israel, luxembourg, monaco, netherlands, spain
With Tel Aviv about to pass the Eurovision hosting baton to Rotterdam or Maastricht, we watch the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest to see what has changed in the last 40 years.
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Episode 59: 12 Angry Points
August 13th, 2019 | Season 2 | 33 mins 53 secs
germany, iceland, netherlands, turkey, united kingdom
Nothing courts Eurovision controversy quite like the juries. We journey back to 1997 when the introduction of the televote made the juries A Thing.