3 new artists and 5 new songs for Rotterdam

17 February 2020 at 17:02 CET

Ulrikke, Athena Manoukian and The Roop

It was another busy national final weekend in Europe: Armenia, Lithuania and Norway selected their Eurovision Song Contest 2020 representatives and entries during televised national finals and Belgium and France released their participating songs.

On Saturday 15 February, Armenia's Athena Manoukian, Lithuania's The Roop and Norway's Ulrikke won their national selections and became their country's representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. With them, 3 new songs got added to the roster for Rotterdam.

Combined with the Sunday reveal of Tom Leeb's The Best In Me for France and Hooverphonic's Release Me for Belgium on Monday 17 February, the number of released songs for Rotterdam is now at 11.

From national selection to Eurovision artist

Armenia: Athena Manoukian - Chains On You

Athena Manoukian has won the Armenian national selection Depi Evratesil 2020 with 168 points. The points were determined by equal parts international jury, AMPTV jury and public televote. ERNA came in 2nd with 120 points and Vladimir Arzumanyan in 3rd with 118 points. Athena received 60 of her votes from the international jury, 58 from the AMPTV jury and 50 from the public televote.

Lithuania: The Roop - On Fire

The Roop received 12 points from the professional jury, as well as from the viewers at home for a total of 24 points. Monique finished second with a total of 20 points, and Monika Marija came in 3rd with 15 points.

The Roop describe their musical style as a mix of pop-rock and indie. According to the band, their song On Fire relates to being in a state of excitement, feeling passionate, engaged and full of energy.

Norway: Ulrikke - Attention

Ulrikke Brandstorp (24) from Sarpsborg became well known to the Norwegian people when she came second in the TV show Stjernekamp (NRK) in 2018. Later, she was featured in Addresse: Tel Aviv (a show about Eurovision), charity show Håp i ei gryte and Idrettsgallaen, where she paid tribute to ski athletes Marit Bjørgen and Ole Einar Bjørndalen with an emotional performance.

Neighbours Belgium and France released their songs

Belgium: Hooverphonic - Release Me

After being played for the first time on Belgian radio in the early morning of Monday 17 February, Hooverphonic officially premiered the music video of Release Me on our YouTube channel. The trio will represent Belgium on 12 May, in the 2nd half of the 1st Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. And find out below what connects 'Release Me' to Italy's Eurovision 2017 entry Occidentali's Karma.

France: Tom Leeb - The Best In Me

Broadcast live from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, French public broadcaster FT presented their song for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. Tom Leeb will sing the French-English ballad The Best In Me during this year’s Grand Final on Saturday 16 May in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

READ MORE: France brings out The Best In Me with Tom Leeb

National semi-final results

Iceland

After Ísold & Helga and DIMMA moved on to the Icelandic final, Daði & Gagnamagnið, Iva and Nína will go to the last round after the second semi-final.

Sweden

Sweden's national selection Melodifestivalen travelled north, to Luleå. Here, the 3rd semi-final took place where 7 seven more acts competed for 2 final spots. The happy winners: Mohombi and Mariette!

Mohombi and Mariette, finalists in Melodifestivalen SVT

Ukraine

Another 8 acts performed during the second semi-final of Vidbir 2020. David Axelrod (11 points), KHAYAT (14 points) and TVORCHI (16 points) have qualified for the national final on Saturday 22 February.