Critic Jonni Music Specials

The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 went off with a bang during Eurovision Week. Creating quite a lot of anticipation throughout the entire week. The result has had a lot of mixed decisions. Personally, I am not a fan of the song, but I do congratulate and send kudos to Portugal for finally winning after entering 49 times, and if Portugal had to win, I'm happy it was with someone so genuine and honest as Salvador Sobral, who sang beautifully on the night; yet, "Amar pelos dois" is still not a song I like or would listen to.

As per usual, Eurovision 2017 still continues in our heads, on iTunes, on Spotify, on all other downloads and streaming sites, so much so that many acts will chart all across the globe come chart day - although, if last year was any indication; unless Spotify users play these Eurovision songs over and over again all week, they may not crack the UK chart. Regardless, I am here to continue the Eurovision spirit and review the music videos of my favourite entries from this year.

Year after year, my Eurovision Song Contest Specials have proven to be popular, and I believe this year will be the exact same. Don't forget to check out my music video reviews of my favourites from previous years:

Critic Jonni's Eurovision Song Contest Specials:

Eurovision 2012
Eurovision 2013
Eurovision 2014
Eurovision 2015
Eurovision 2016

This year, I didn't review the contest itself. At the moment, I am way too busy with my internship with Electric Mode, whilst writing articles for CelebMix, Outlet Magazine, Fuzzable, SPECTRUMM, and Modern Magazine, whilst keeping my blog up-to-date, as well as my social media. However, I did set up a Eurovision Team on CelebMix, and we nailed our article content on there. I am so proud of everyone involved in the Eurovision Team. Don't forget to check out the CelebMix Facts and Stats article on all 42 countries that competed and their representatives.

So are you ready to find out who my favourites were? Are you ready to read my music video reviews? And are you ready to find out all my thoughts on the UK entrant and the winning entrant, since I HAVE to review both of them? It's time for Eurovision to take over my blog!

As per usual New Release and Chart Mondays will stay in place with the occasional Thursday Revisit - I hope.

Let Critic Jonni's Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Music Video Reviews begin.

My Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Favourites:

UK Entry: Lucie Jones - Never Give Up On You
Latvia Entry: Triana Park - Line
Iceland Entry: Svala - Paper
Macedonia Entry: Jana Burčeska - Dance Alone
Albania Entry: Lindita - World
Estonia Entry: Koit Toome & Laura - Verona <---- No Official Music Video
Switzerland Entry: Timebelle - Apollo
Serbia Entry: Tijana Bogićević - In Too Deep
Georgia Entry: Tamara Gachechiladze - Keep The Faith
Spain Entry: Manel Navarro - Do It For Your Lover
Israel Entry: IMRI - I Feel Alive
Poland Entry: Kasia Moś - Flashlight
Cyprus Entry: Hovig - Gravity
Denmark Entry: Anja - Where I Am <---- No Official Music Video
Belarus Entry: NAVIBAND - Story Of My Life / Historyja majho žyccia
Netherlands Entry: O'G3NE - Lights And Shadows <---- No Official Music Video
Australia Entry: Isaiah - Don't Come Easy
Romania Entry: Ilinca feat. Alex Florea - Yodel It!
Sweden Entry: Robin Bengtsson - I Can't Go On <---- No Official Music Video
Moldova Entry: SunStroke Project - Hey, Mamma!
Bulgaria Entry: Kristian Kostov - Beautiful Mess
Eurovision Winner: Portugal Entry: Salvador Sobral - Amar pelos dois <---- No Official Music Video

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Once again, I shall be going to Birmingham Pride, and they have recently been announcing their acts. I have to admit, I'm a lot less impressed this year, with the line-up, with only one particular act that I am a fan of. This wouldn't usually bother me, but the discounted tickets are pricier this year compared to last year, which made me think there was going to be a mega-star announced, or at least a globally-known star that would hit headlines; but with 6 weeks to go, and still the discounted tickets available, they're clearly not going to announce someone big until the tickets go up in price even more, and that's only if they have more announcements to make.

I am hoping Birmingham Pride will surprise us and do another round of announcements, since I still believe there are many more acts that are just waiting to be revealed, and I'm hoping, a few of them, I am fans of, otherwise it'll look like I'll be stopping in the funfair or in the dance arena or maybe even the bars, rather than spend most of my time in the main stage tent.

Birmingham Pride Facebook Cover Photo

I doubt this year will beat last year, there were so many awesome stars, just check out my Birmingham Pride 2016 Music Special blog post. But we can just continue to hope they plan to surprise us. And, who knows, they might just do that.

Furthermore, last year saw The Nightingale Club throw a massive event, having two big stars performing on the stage on respective days. With the bookings they've managed to score in the last year or so, we are expecting them to grab some iconic stars for their two pride events.

Birmingham Pride 2017 will take place on 27th and 28th May 2017. This year's theme is "Love & Pride" in honour of the 50-year anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK. This is why I feel they have some big acts still to announce because you don't take on a theme that recognises this momentous occasion without booking someone big, surely - well. that, and with pricing going up too, there just has to be someone much bigger than who they've already announced.

So here are the acts that have been announced so far, every day I shall be reviewing one of the acts' music videos, and linking any previous reviews I have already published. Will this turn out to be the biggest and best Birmingham Pride to date? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Main Stage:
Dua Lipa - Be The One, Hotter Than Hell, Scared To Be Lonely
Basement Jaxx - Rendez-Vu
Gabrielle - Dreams, Rise
Sigala - Sweet Lovin', Say You Do, Give Me Your Love, Don't Need No Money, Show You Love
Jonas Blue - Fast Car, Perfect Strangers, By Your Side
Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Murder On The Dancefloor, Death Of Love
Jamelia - Superstar
Louisa Johnson - Tears, So Good, Best Behaviour
RAYE - I U Us, By Your Side
M.O - Who Do You Think Of?
Boney M. - Rivers Of Babylon, Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord
BETSY - Lost & Found
Hercules & Love Affair - Controller
Nadia Rose - Skwod
Charlotte Church's Late Night Pop Dungeon
Saara Aalto - Blessed With Love, You Had My Heart
Paul Morrell - That Ain't The Way (To Show Me Love), Move
Pink Angels - Mamma Don't Lie

Dance Arena:
Tough Love - So Freakin' Tight
Official Nancie
Kissy Sell Out - Tell You, This Kiss
The Stickmen
Pete Graham
Rue Jay
Brandon Ross
Jade Marie & Ash Turner
James Silver
Sandi G
Pearce M
Larry Han
Marc Spence
Tom Shorterz - Colours
Joe Hunt
Donkie Punch
Andre Amour
Dan Harris
Wayne H
Phil J
Jamie Duggan
Cavna
Kelli-Leigh - So In Luv, Sun Token
Malisha Bleau
Todd Terry - Back Around
Ryan Blyth - Special
Mark Levett
Marcus James
Beaver
Stuart 'Cookie' Cooke

Overall, this is quite a line-up, especially the dance arena this year. I cannot wait for Birmingham Pride 2017, and all it has got to give. Yeah, I wish more acts could've been announced, ones I'm actually fans of, but regardless, this year is going to be one of the best, and I literally cannot wait!

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The race is on for the popular UK Christmas Number One. This year is no different with the X Factor champion battling it out against all-time classic Christmas songs, Collective choirs and vocalists, as well as charity singles and highly backed facebook groups & pages.

We haven't had a Christmas song at number one in the UK for years, and I bet this year will not be any different. Year after year it's competitive, and a bunch of Christmas songs either re-enter the chart or brilliant ones slip under the radar and are never thought of again.

There's so many out there, that my blog deserves to get a bit festive for one week of the year. Since Christmas Day lands on an awkward Sunday this year, with the chart being announced on Friday (Christmas Eve Eve), I shall be reviewing Christmas music videos for 10 days, starting with a great New Release.

Who will win my favourite Christmas music video 2016 this year? Let's find out...

New Release: Christmas Collective - Dance Tonight (It's Christmas)
Bronnie - Modern Day Christmas
Hello Christmas - Christmas Without You
Chart Mondays: Matt Terry - When Christmas Comes Around
Cruz Beckham - If Everyday Was Christmas
Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me
Justin Bieber & Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!)
Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime
Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree
George Michael - December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas)

Check out the UK Christmas Chart 2016 here.

Don't forget to check out my other Christmas Specials, also featuring various Christmas music video reviews:
- Christmas 2011
- Christmas 2012
- Christmas 2015

That's the end of my Christmas Special 2016. I hope you enjoyed visiting some classics, some Charity singles, the X Factor Christmas winner's song, and some new popular Christmas songs.

A special shoutout goes to George Michael, who sadly died on Christmas day. He's famous Christmas song was when he was in the duo, Wham! and sung: "Last Christmas"; Since I had already reviewed that, I also reviewed his solo Christmas song: "December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas)".

The winner is a toss up between Christmas Collective and Kelly Clarkson, as they both received four stars from me. Personally, the Christmas Collective's music video for "Dance Tonight (It's Christmas)" deserves to win this special, due to its catchy song, brilliant talented vocalists, and the festive spirit of Christmas in all it's glory shown within the music video. Kelly Clarkson's "Underneath The Tree" comes an extremely close second.

That's the end of my Christmas Special 2016. It shall definitely return next year, but I need some suggestions of Christmas music videos to review, so suggest some to me on Twitter, Facebook, or in the comment section below.

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Time to bring out the scary music videos, because Halloween is just around the corner! It's time for trick or treat, it's time for the supernatural beings to come out to play, it's time for the dark to eviscerate the world!

There are many, many, many scary music videos, some iconic Halloween songs, and a tonne of unknowns just waiting to be played during Halloween week. It's time to review them, which one scares you the most?

I've been wanting to do this for years, but I've never been active enough on my blog around this time... And although I am behind every now and again, especially this week due to being at Kiss Haunted House Party 2016. I am willing to catch up as I am so happy to be doing this special for my blog.

This will clash with my on-going themes, from New Releases to Chart Mondays to my Eurovision 2014 & 2015 Special. On these days, I shall be reviewing two music videos. If any of the music videos work with this theme, they shall be added.

New Release: Pretty Sister & Dragonette feat. Tobtok - Galactic Appeal
Ashlee Simpson - Bat For A Heart
allSTARS* - Things That Go Bump In The Night
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
Chart Mondays: Calvin Harris - My Way
Rihanna - Disturbia
Bronnie - Scared Much
Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me
Michael Jackson - Thriller

The winner of this special is totally Michael Jackson with "Thriller", but that was completely predictable as it has a perfect narrative and a brilliant performance and dance scene. What more could we ask for during a Halloween Music Video Special? The shock was totally Rihanna's "Disturbia" that still manages to freak me out to this day. Both received five stars!

My Halloween 2016 Special has brought an alien, possession (twice), the dark, cheesy pop, two werewolves, a futuristic robotic ghost, makeup tricks, candles, crystal balls, the woods, graveyards, paranoia, and zombies. 2017 has got to be scarier, is that even possible? There are some typical Halloween monsters missing this year, though!

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Every year that I've done a Eurovision Song Contest special, it has been successful on my blog. However my blog has both been active and inactive since I first started it. I have done blog posts on the years that I was active, but now I feel there is this big hole where these two contests are missing.

So I have decided, every week I will review at least one music video from either of these contests and link it up to this post, so that when the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 comes around we will have all the contests on here from when I first started my first Eurovision Special, up until 2016.

So far I have done

Eurovision 2012
Eurovision 2013
Eurovision 2016

This leaves two years missing, and both had star-studded acts and numbers that are on my iTunes and that I constantly play on my phone now and again as I walk to work. These acts deserve to get mentioned and deserve to be a part of my blog.

This special may end up running alongside another blog special in the future. We'll get to that problem when it arises.

Eurovision 2014
Israel Entry: Mei Finegold - Same Heart
Latvia Entry: Aarzemnieki - Cake To Bake
France Entry: Twin Twin - Moustache
Slovenia Entry: Tinkara Kovač - Round And Round
Italy Entry: Emma - La Mia Città
Greece Entry: Freaky Fortune Feat. RiskyKidd - Rise Up
UK Entry: Molly - Children Of The Universe
Poland Entry: Donatan & Cleo - My Słowianie - We Are Slavic
Switzerland Entry: Sebalter - Hunter Of Stars
Romania Entry: Paula Seling & OVI - Miracle
Finland Entry: Softengine - Something Better
Spain Entry: Ruth Lorenzo - Dancing In The Rain
Russia Entry: Tolmachevy Sisters - Shine
Ukraine Entry: Mariya Yaremchuk - Tick-Tock
Hungary Entry: András Kállay-Saunders - Running
Sweden Entry: Sanna Nielsen - Undo
Netherlands Entry: The Common Linnets - Calm After The Storm
Winner: Austria Entry: Conchita Wurst - Rise Like A Phoenix

Eurovision 2015
UK Entry: Electro Velvet - Still In Love With You
Romania Entry: Voltaj - De la Capăt (All Over Again)
Georgia Entry: Nina Sublatti - Warrior
Latvia Entry: Aminata - Love Injected
Belgium Entry: Loïc Nottet - Rhythm Inside
Russia Entry: Polina Gagarina - A Million Voices
Winner: Sweden Entry: Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes <----- No Music Video :(

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The Eurovision Song Contest is back once again, and has always proven popular on my blog!

Eurovision 2013
Eurovision 2012

This year will be no different, for the next few weeks, I shall review the music videos of my favourite Eurovision 2016 songs.

In association with Outlet Magazine, My ongoing commentary of this year's events are being published on this online magazine.

Who Didn't Get Through:

The Qualifiers:

Eurovision Song Contest 2016

After this Eurovision Special, I plan to review the music videos of my favourites from the previous two years, that I missed. That way I'll be up to date on my Eurovision specials on my blog.

Get ready for Eurovision to take over my blog!

New Releases and Chart Mondays will continue as normal.

Eurovision 2016, my favourites:

UK Enty: Joe And Jake - You're Not Alone
Switzerland Entry: Rykka - The Last Of Our Kind
Moldova Entry: Lidia Isac - Falling Stars
Denmark Entry: Lighthouse X - Soldiers Of Love <--- no official music video
Finland Entry: Sandhja - Sing It Away
Iceland Entry: Greta Salóme - Hear Them Calling <--- no official music video
Noway Entry: Agnete - Icebreaker
Bosnia & Herzegovina Entry: Dalal & Deen Feat. Ana Rucner & Jala - Ljubav Je
Spain Entry: Barei - Say Yay!
Serbia Entry: Sanja Vučić ZAA - Goodbye Shelter <--- no official music video
Azerbaijan Entry: Samra - Miracle
Latvia Entry: Justs - Heartbeat
Israel Entry: Hovi Star - Made Of Stars
Malta Entry: Ira Losco - Walk On Water
Belgium Entry: Laura Tesoro - What's The Pressure
France Entry: Amir - J'ai Cherché
Bulgaria Entry: Poli Genova - If Love Was A Crime
Russia Entry: Sergey Lazarev - You Are The Only One
Australia Entry: Dami Im - Sound of Silence
Winner: Ukraine Entry: Jamala - 1944

Last year's winner, Måns Zelmerlöw, returned with new song "Fire In The Rain".

That's the end of my Eurovision Special. I did consider continuing it to include 2014 & 2015, which I missed out on blogging about last year, however that will just make this way too long. However, I might revisit the last two years in the future, as I feel it's incomplete without my favourite entrants gracing my blog.

This year's winner, in retrospect of the music video, has to go to the Russia Entry: Sergey Lazarev - You Are The Only One. The music video is visually amazing, and is not only a must-watch, but it defines the music video industry and will stand out on any music channel.

Well until next year. This is the end of my Eurovision Special. Back to normal on my blog for the next few weeks. We are still waiting for Jamala to release a music video for 1944, as soon as it is released, I shall review it... If Lighthouse X, Greta Salóme and Sanja Vučić ZAA release music videos for their respective songs, then I'll review them too when they're released.

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Birmingham Pride Announced Acts #Pride20
19th March 2016 - 16th April 2016

Birmingham Pride - Click here to buy tickets

Birmingham Pride announced their star studded acts on 17th March. They have got amazing acts this year, and there is still more acts to be announced. I'm definitely hoping for a few good acts to be revealed later, as well as a few more X Factor stars no doubt.

Birmingham Pride turns 20 this year with a theme called A Generation Of Pride. I went to my first pride last year and I loved every minute of it, apart fros having a boyfriend that one of my best friends didn't approve of, and he was working in one of the bars during pride so I didn't care about the acts performing as I just wanted to be with him. This year I'm not going to fall head over heels for any guy, I will see all the artists I want to hear live, I will not drink as much as I did last year, and I will have the best time this year with all my friends there. I am just hoping for good weather.

Pride in Birmingham takes place on 28th - 29th May 2016, and I really can't wait. They announced 18 acts on 17th March, but there are still a lot more to be announced. I shall review at least one music video from each of these acts. Some of which I've already reviewed. As each new act gets released I shall review one of their music videos as they are revealed.