ESC Insight: Eurovision Song Contest Podcast Ewan Spence

Eurovision Technical Director Ola Melzig has worked on the Song Contest since Stockholm 2000, from renting out a few lights to creating award-winning stages and emotional moments unsurpassed in the industry. He is in charge of the Contest's various 'show' elements. He puts into practice the vision of the Eurovision stage with decades of experience in lighting and set design on the grandest of canvases.



The Contest has played a huge part in developing his professional career, helping him move away from the Rock and Roll Stadium tours of old and becoming one of the most respected names in his industry.



How did he get started in this career, how has Eurovision changed, and what can we expect in Malmö? We caught up with him in his rather hectic production office behind the scenes at the Malmö Arena to discuss about his role as Technical Director for Malmö 2024, deciding on and designing the impossible stages of Eurovision, and how he joined the Eurovision world...

Fin Ross Russell and Lucy Percy join Ewan Spence to discuss this year's Eurovision songs from Iceland, Germany, Malta, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, and Finland.



Read more on this year's Eurovision Song Contest from ESC Insight at www.escinsight.com.

In our third Juke Box Jury episodes for 2024, Samantha Ross and Matthew Ker join Ewan Spence to judge the songs on the way to Malmö from Denmark, Czechia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, and Poland.



ESC Insight reviews the songs heading to Malmö for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. Find out more at www.escinsight.com

You don't get long to prepare to host the Eurovision Song Contest. Once you allow time for the bidding process at one end and the time needed to start construction and rehearsals at the other, you have a handful of months to not only put on the TV show but also to sort out the Host City and build on the success of previous years.



The latter is the challenge facing Malmö. The organisers hope to make a difference in sustainable practices by ensuring Malmö 2024 and its activities are certified as a sustainable event. Not only does this benefit Eurovision 2024, it is experience that can be passed on to the 2025 Host City and broadcaster. While the whole Contest cannot be made one hundred percent sustainable overnight, Malmö can guide future Contests.



How will this be achieved, what will it take, and what can visitors to Malmö expect to see? 



Malmö's Karin Karlsson sits down with Ewan Spence to talk about Malmö's plans to make a sustainable Eurovision Song Contest.



Ewan Spence and the ESC Insight team bring you the latest news from the world of the Eurovision Song Contest.

In the second Juke Box Jury episode ahead of Malmö 2024, Ewan Spence is joined by Dude Points and Fin Ross Russell to judge the songs from Albania, Ukraine, Spain, San Marino, and Italy.

There are several innovations in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, but one of the biggest on-screen will be the stage. No longer anchored to the auditorium's rear, the stage's full behemoth is being brought into the middle of Malmö Arena. With the audience on all sides and cameras capturing a 360-degree view, this year's artists will be the first to sing at a Contest where the performers are  "in the round."



But what does it mean to perform in the round?



We approached Paul Robinson, the Artistic Director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. The theatre company was the first in Britain to perform 'in the round, championing a new wave of theatre presentations.



What impact does working in the round have on both the actors and the audience? Where can you take the acting process when you know not everyone will see it?  And how could it change what we see on-screen in May at this year's Eurovision Song Contest?