Run a marathon? Climb a mountain? Swim the channel?

Nope!

There are 1564 songs in the Eurovision back catalogue, (1605 if you count 2020) and whilst I know some of them well and listen to them a lot there are some that I, even I, have never heard. #

So starting on 1st May 2020, I am going to listen to every Eurovision song ever in a year. Starting with song number 1 in 1956, which was 'Den vogels van Holland' by Jetty Paerl for The Netherlands, in case you were wondering right up to 'La Venda' by Miki for Spain in 2019. If I get really excited I might even carry on and include the 41 selected for 2020 too. I've worked out a listening schedule (which runs to 95 pages of songs) and given myself a handful or rest days, it's a marathon not a sprint!

It's a slow burner of a fundraiser, but believe me you wouldn't want to listen to more than 5 Lithuanian ballads in one sitting and neither do I! I also have a full time job and a lot of other things going on so 5 per day seems a bit more reasonable.

I thought as I was going to do this it'd be more motivating if I tried to raise some money for charity at the same time, and a charity that I love and found about through my Eurovision buddy Monty Moncrief (who happens to be its CEO) is London Friend who give huge amounts of help, support and advice to LGBTIQ+ people in and around the capital.

Go on, chuck a couple of quid in and watch me squirm as I listen to the good, the bad and the bonkers from 64 years of the Eurovision Song Contest!

I'll blog it too, just so you know I'm on track - details to follow.