Welcome to the home of the Joy of Eurovision.
JOYEurovision.com is part of Joy 94.9‘s coverage of the 2012 ESC in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Here you can find news and plenty of view as well as a plethora of podcasts on the contest and its colourful history.
Hikaru Freeman & Andy Bell are the “EuroSongCountdown 2012″ twins.
Every Saturday they present an hour of all things Eurovision.
“EuroSongCountdown2012″ is on air & online (joy.org.au) at 2100 AEDST (1200 BST) on every Saturday up to the contest in Baku.
Join us for a celebration of all things about le Concours Eurovision de la chanson 2012.
Now for more about the Bell-Freeman combo.
Andrew/Andy/AJ Bell first became aware of the Eurovision Song Contest as an 8 year old when Sandie Shaw won for the UK.
It was love at first hearing !
Over the years the ESC’s combination of music, technology, geo-politics, unintentional irony and camp has coalesced to form a substantial part of AJB’s DNA.
He moved to Australia in 1988 and thanks to the annual telecast on SBS he was able to maintain his emotional link with the contest.
That stepped up even more in 2008 when Andy started his weekly radio show “The Full Catastrophe” on Joy 94.9.
Its annual ESC special on the eve of the Concours is now part of the Joy landscape.
And now, in 2012, he is part of JOYEurovision with Hikaru Freeman and delighted to be in the glorious company of a fellow traveller of the ESC kind.
As for Hikaru, who was born in the United States of America, his first encounter with Eurovision came in 1998 when he was a student at the former University of Luton, in Luton, UK.
It combined his love of media, popular music, and things international, and by the first entry of that year, he became a fan.
His love for Eurovision continued long after he left the UK, to return to the land of his birth as a journalist, and via his blogs Hikaruland & hikarublue, he managed to cover the contest.
Since moving to Australia in 2009, Hikaru has enjoyed watching and covering the contest with actual English language commentary.
A part of the original team on JOY94.9′s WorldWideWave, and now part of JOY’s news team, he’s extremely excited to embark on a journey through Eurovision.
