REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 16, 2025--
Nintendo Music:
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250116810931/en/
Activities:
Also new this week on Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch:
* Any Nintendo Switch Online membership (sold separately) and Nintendo Account required. Not available in all countries. Internet and compatible smart device required to use app. Data charges may apply. Terms apply. http://nintendo.com/switch-online
** A Nintendo Account is required to receive and redeem points. Terms apply ( https://accounts.nintendo.com/term_point ).
Nintendo Switch Online is a paid membership service that allows members to team up or face off online in compatible Nintendo Switch games, such as Splatoon 3,Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo Switch Sports and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Members also enjoy a curated library of classic NES, Super NES and Game Boy games, including Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Metroid, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Kirby’s Dream Land, among many others. To find out more about the benefits that come with Nintendo Switch Online, to view membership options and to learn about a free seven-day trial for new users, visit https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online/.
With a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, players get access to even more benefits, including a library of Nintendo 64 games with added online play for up to four players (additional accessories may be required for multiplayer mode; sold separately), a library of select Game Boy Advance games, Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Happy Home Paradise DLC, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass DLC, Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion DLC (full version of game required to use DLC for that game; sold separately) and retro SEGA Genesis games.
Nintendo eShop is a cash-based service that features a wide variety of content, including new and classic games, applications and demos. Users can add money to their account balances by using a credit card or purchasing a Nintendo eShop Card at a retail store and entering the code from the card. All funds from one card must be loaded in Nintendo eShop on the Nintendo Switch family of systems.
Customers in the U.S. and Canada ages 18 and older can also link a PayPal account to their Nintendo Account to purchase digital games and content for the Nintendo Switch family of systems both on-device and from the Nintendo website.
Remember that the Nintendo Switch features parental controls that let adults manage some of the content their children can access. Nintendo Switch players who register a Nintendo Account gain access to free-to-start games and free game demos from Nintendo eShop, and also get the latest news and information direct from Nintendo. For more information about parental controls on Nintendo Switch and other features, visit https://play.nintendo.com/parents/tools-for-parents/parental-controls/ and https://www.nintendo.com/switch/.
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Blade Chimera is available today. (Photo: Business Wire)
Tales of Graces f Remastered will be available on the Nintendo Switch system Jan. 17! Pre-orders are available now on Nintendo eShop. (Photo: Business Wire)
The Donkey Kong Country Returns HD game is available now. (Photo: Business Wire)
BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — There has already been triumph and tears, singing onstage and in the streets, and a touch of political division, as the 69th Eurovision Song Contest approaches its grand final in the Swiss city of Basel.
Musical acts from 26 countries will take the stage at the St. Jakobshalle arena on Saturday in a spectacular, sequin-drenched competition that has been uniting and dividing Europeans since 1956.
Here’s everything to know:
Eurovision is competition in which performers from countries across Europe, and a few beyond it, compete under their national flags with the aim of being crowned continental champion. Think of it as the Olympics of pop music or the World Cup with singing instead of soccer.
It’s a celebration of silly fun and music’s unifying power, but also a place where politics and regional rivalries play out.
“It’s Europe’s biggest cultural event,” said Dean Vuletic, an expert on the history of Eurovision. “It has been going on for almost 70 years and people love to watch it, not only for the show, for the glitter, the stage effects, the crazy costumes, but also because they like to see it as a reflection of the zeitgeist in Europe.”
Of 37 countries that sent performers to Eurovision, 11 were knocked out by public voting in semifinals on Tuesday and Thursday. Another six automatically qualified for the final: the host, Switzerland, and the “Big Five” that pay the most to the contest — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.
The 26 countries competing Saturday, in order of performance, are: Norway, Luxembourg, Estonia, Israel, Lithuania, Spain, Ukraine, the U.K, Austria, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Poland, Germany, Greece, Armenia, Switzerland, Malta, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, France, San Marino and Albania.
Favorites, according to oddsmakers, are KAJ, representing Sweden with “Bara Bada Bastu,” a jaunty serenade to the sauna. Dutch singer Claude is also highly rated with soulful ballad “C’est La Vie.” Other favorites include classically trained Austrian countertenor JJ with his pop-opera song “Wasted Love,” and Israel’s Yuval Raphael, with her anthemic “New Day Will Rise.”
Eurovision has a reputation for campy europop with nonsense lyrics — past winners include “La, La, La” and “Boom Bang-a-Bang.” But It has also produced some enduring pop classics. And it helped make stars of performers including ABBA — winners in 1974 with “Waterloo” — Celine Dion, Austrian drag performer Conchita Wurst and Italian rock band Måneskin.
This year’s finalists range from Lithuanian emo rockers Katarsis to a power ballad Spanish diva Melody and Ukrainian prog rockers Ziferblat.
Campiness, humor and double entendres abound. “Espresso Macchiato” is a comic ode to Italian stereotypes performed by Estonia’s Tommy Cash. Miriana Conte sings for Malta with the double entendre-filled “Serving” -- performed on a set including a glitter ball and giant lips, it is classic Eurovision.
It was once widely accepted that the most successful Eurovision songs were in English, but that is changing. This year’s contest features songs in a record 20 languages, including Ukrainian, Icelandic, Latvian, Maltese and Armenian.
Vuletic said viewers these days want “more authenticity in Eurovision entries.
“They don’t just want a standard pop song sung in English,” he said. “They want to also see something about the culture of the country that the song represents.”
Once all the acts have performed in the final, the winner is chosen by a famously complex mix of phone and online voters from around the world and rankings by music-industry juries in each of the Eurovision countries. As the results are announced, countries slide up and down the rankings and tensions build.
Ending up with “nul points,” or zero, is considered a national humiliation.
The final starts Saturday at 1900 GMT (3 p.m. EDT) and will be aired by national broadcasters in participating nations, on streaming service Peacock in the United States and in many countries on the Eurovision YouTube channel.
During and immediately after the final, viewers in participating countries can vote by phone, text message or the Eurovision app — but not for their own country. Viewers in the U.S. and other nonparticipating countries can vote all day Saturday, online at www.esc.vote or with the app. The combined “rest of the world” vote is given the weight of one individual country.
The contest’s motto is “united by music,” but the world’s divisions inevitably intrude.
Russia was banned from Eurovision after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and since then Ukrainian musicians — including 2022 winner Kalush Orchestra — have competed under the shadow of war in the home country.
This year’s contest has been roiled for a second year by disputes over Israel’s participation. Dozens of former participants, including Nemo, have called for Israel to be excluded over its conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests have both taken place in Basel, though on a much smaller scale than at last year’s event in Sweden.
A handful of protesters attempted to disrupt a rehearsal by Israeli singer Raphael on Thursday with oversized flags and whistles and were escorted from the arena. Organizers say they have tightened security ahead of the final.
Miriana Conte from Malta performs the song "SERVING" during the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Yuval Raphael from Israel performs the song "New Day Will Rise" during the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
