A few words about the Eurovision Song Contest. My favourite entry this year, as you probably know by now, was from Belgium. My unofficial club mix of Love Kills is doing very well and I am glad that many of you share my opinion that it was simply a great song and that it deserved an extended club mix. http://youtu.be/GBHvLCdPj0o I thought the Danish winner was much weaker, but – hey: Europe has spoken 🙂 The one thing that I find unbelievable is that nobody complains about the Big Five; the countries who are in the finals, no matter what, simply because they are the biggest financial sponsors of the festival (Spain, France, UK, Germany, Italy). Any contest where you can buy a place in the finals is not a fair one. Engelbert Humperdinck received just 12 points last year, yet the UK performed during the final, effectively taking the place of one of the countries that didn’t make it throuhg the semi-finals. If you compare it to any other sports competition or talent show it becomes apparent just how absurd this construction is. Imagine if at Wimbledon a country sent a  tennis player, along with a large bag of money, and the organisers said: oh: that’s a lot of money – don’t you worry about those semi-finals; we’ll see you for the big match in three weeks time. It’s ludicrous! And the argument: “well, without those sponsors, there wouldn’t be a festival” that I sometimes hear, is irrelevant. If you can’t organise a  contest where all participants get the same chance, without bribes (what else do you call getting a guaranteed place in the finals, in exchange for money?), than the contest shouldn’t take place. As long as the Big Five principle is in place, Eurovision will never have a fair winner.

Almighty have picked the 5 lucky winners in the Matt Pop competition. To see if you have won one of the 5 signed copies of the We Love Matt Pop album, go here: http://www.almightyrecords.com/news/label/2013-05-07/winners-of-aprils-we-love-matt-pop-competition-announced

You may also want to pay the MattPopOfficial Facebook page a visit for the free  mix give-away. Don’t wait too long because the download link expires May 19th 2013! https://www.facebook.com/MattPopOfficial

Almighty Records are giving away 5 signed copies of the “We Love Matt Pop“ double album and you have one more day to be in with a chance of being one of the five lucky winners! Competition closes at midnight, Sunday 5 May 2013, UK time. To enter, follow this link: http://www.almightyrecords.com/competition/1691

All you pop lovers out there: get an advance on your salary, sell a kidney, or show your report card to your nan to get 10 bucks, because you will need it! Hazell Dean’s This Is My Life is released today, the much anticipated single taken from the upcoming Matt Pop-remixed album In The Name Of. Mixes by Matt Pop, Dean & Ware and Sleazesisters, plus in two weeks time, there will be a second release featuring remixes by Almighty!  https://itunes.apple.com/nl/album/this-is-my-life-ep/id635938944 Also out today is 24 Hours, the album by Australian bombshell Sammy Paul. The album features collaborations with Peter Wilson and Pete Hammond among others, and Matt Pop was involved on 6 tracks: Why (remix), Gimme All Your Money (mix and additional production), Lose Yourself (produced), Hold You In My Arms (produced), Supersonic Lover (remix) and Endless Road (remix).  https://itunes.apple.com/nl/album/24-hours/id634966803