Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Sweden took their 7th win and now share the first place with Ireland. And Ireland, the Eurovision superpower of the 1990's has been struggling big time the past 20 years or so while the frustration has grown. A bit like Finland and then in 2006 we decided to just go all in, sent Lordi and won. Same kind of feeling I got from Ireland this year when they  decided not to go safe but went "ok, let's send something weird and wild and see how that goes, as who cares?!" kind of thing and here we have something never seen in Eurovision before: Bambie Thung and their Doomsday blue.  And mind you they wasn't the only wild and bold entry in Eurosong. Incredibly the international jury voted for the dullest, most boring safest entry ever. Shame on them.  Bambie Thug or Bambie Ray Robinson (31) is Irish singer-songwriter born of Swedsih father and Irish mother. Their music has no genre and is inspired by breakups, witchcraft and drug addiction among others. Their career started

After 30 years they are BACK! Indeed RTL launched a big scale national final that looked like they've only been seeing the Eurovision finals rather than national final all these years: big stage, big arena, so many previous winners present or on video that you lost count. On top of that all it was co-hosted by Désirée Nosbusch, the last Luxemburgish Eurovision hostess in 1984  If that was a plus, a minus was it was all done by the most common Eurovision names Christer Björkman to Alex Panayi and Tali Eshkoli. A total of 459 submissions were received  and they were cut down to 70 songs and 50 singers nd eventually the 8 finalists. Some polemic was raised as singers that made the cut were made to sing songs they had qualified with to those written by the usual suspects rather than their self penned ones.  Tali won the first round easily but struggled in the super final winning only thanks to jury. Tali Golergant (23) is Israeli born of Peruvian father and Israeli mother, and has liv

NRK arranged once again Melodi grand prix, even if with a revamped system with three semi-finals. After 60-40 televote-jury Gåte beat KEiiNO after winning the televote with a margin. That came after a new lyrics between semifinal and the final as originally the lyrics were nothing but a medieval ballad already existing. KEiiNO's original Damdiggida lyrics needed no change though. Gåte is a Norwegian folk-metal-ethno-progressive rock band founded in 2000. These days the line up is Gunnhild Sundli, Magnus Børmark, Jon Even Schärer, Mats Paulsen and John Stenersen. They released their first EP in 2000 but it was the second one followed by an album in 2002 that breakthrough. They gained popularity not only in Norway but also in rest of Scandinavia and Germany. Another EP and second album were released before they announced a break. A live album was released in 2006. They toured and did live concerts until the farewell one in Oslo in 2010. They were back in 2017 with another EP and then

Israel's internally selected entry Hurricane finally was approved by EBU March 7, 2024 and published three days later after several re-writes after its original lyrics and title October rain. The song and its music video refers to Re'im Music Festival Massacre on October 7, 2023 when Hamas did a surprise attack killing 384 and taking at least 40 hostages, many of them still missing.  Eden Golan (20) is Israeli-Russian singer. She was born in Israel but moved to Moscow when she was six for 12 years. She started her singing career taking part in the Russian selection for Junior Eurovision in 2015 and later Russian The Voice Kids. Back in Israel she found fame winning The Rising Star that was used to select the Eurovision artist. She won both the jury and the public vote. She has released recently four singles before Hurricane, and already one in Russia in 2015: Schastye. So, what do I think? Putting everything else side and concentrating only solemnly on this entry it's one o

The 62nd Festivali i Këngës was held in December 2023 and Besa won the ticket to Eurovision song contest with her Zemrën n'dorë while the winner was Mal Retkoceri with Çmendur, but as for the second year there's the new separate voting (or public's vote) for the Eurovision entry she's the one. In true Albanian style her song was later revamped and translated in English and became TiTAN.  Besa Kokëdhima (37) is Albanian singer. She was born to a wealthy family, her father being a local politican, and at the age of 15 she moved to United Kingdom to finish her education. Her music career started back in 2003 with Më Beso and it was already an awarded song of the year. In 2006 she released her debut album. She's no stranger to festival and contests. She won Kënga Magjike 2013 with  Tatuazh në zemër , she also won Notafest with  Lëshoje Hapin . In 2010 she was awarded The Best female singer in Top Fest with  Kalorësi i Natës . In 2009 she even tried the Romanian selecti

ČT organized once again ESCZ already in December 2023 with a live final and online voting running for a week with separate Czech and international votes. Aiko emerged victorious with Pedestal in a final of seven, selected out of 200+ submissions.  Aiko or Alena Shirmanova-Kostebelova (24) is a Russian born Czech singer songwriter who lives in United Kingdom. Her career started in reality talent show  Česko Slovenská SuperStar in 2015. She made the girls top-10 but not the top-4. After that she mmoved to UK to pursue her career and released her debut album in 2018. Second album followed in 2020. She's done a few firsts for a Czech artist, like being featured in the Time Square's screens in New York. Her songs have made it to tv-series like Teen mom and Love island. Her third album was released last year. She has released also a dozen singles so far. Her entry Pedestal was revamped for Eurovision, here's the original one .  So, what do I think? To be honest, at first nothing

Georgian GPB announced on January 12, 2024 that Nutsa Buzaladze has been internally selected for Eurovision song contest 2024 and at the same time launched an open call for song. They received around 300 submissions and March 11, 2024 they announced the song is Firefighter, written by Darko Dimitrov. This is his 13th Eurovision entry - for 4th country after several entreis for North Macedonia and Serbia, and one for Albania previously.  Nutsa (27) is a Georgian singer-songwriter born in Tbilisi but grew up in Turkey. She's been performing since she was 5, and learned piano since she was 8. Later she has lived also in Los Angeles and in Dubai. Her pop singer career started in Georgia's got talent in 2011, continued in Jurnala's New Wave festival in Latvia 2014 representing Georgia. Other talent shows followed like The Voice of Turkey (coached by Eurovision veteran Hadise), Two Stars Georgia, Georgian Your face sounds familiar and Dancing with stars. in 2017 she came 2nd in t

  Polish TVP chose internally this year after last year's chaotic and controversial national selection. Open call resulted in 212 submitted entries. Five member committee ranked all the songs and ended having Luna with The Tower as their winner beating fan favorite Justyna Steczkowska's Witch-er tarahoro by one point.  Luna or Aleksandra Katarzyna Wielkomas (24) is a Polish singer-songwriter. She has studied violin but also legal and political sciences. Her musical career started in children's choir and continued with singing studies and performing in operas. After various projets she went solo as Luna and scored a few minor radio hits. She describes her music as Cosmic Pop and is interested in astrology, philosophy, art, egology and fashion, and she's also a face for Equality campaign on Spotify and Poland. She has released one album, one EP and over 20 singles and several collaborations and featurings since 2018.  So, what do I think? First I didn't think so much.

  Australia's SBS kept quite quiet about Eurovision this season and there were even rumors they might skip it altogether but then out of nowhere February 15, 2024 they announced yet another previous national final runner up Electric Fields as their entry with One Milkali (One blood). They came 2nd in 2019 with 2000 and whatever . This entry features a new language for Eurovision: Yankunytjatjara, an Australian aboriginal language. Electric Fields is an Australian electronic music duo made up of vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and keyboardist and producer Michael Ross. They mix electro, soul and aboriginal culture in their music, and both English and Aboriginal languages in their music. Zaachariaha started with music at young age and grew up in Aboriginal lands and culture and says he still has difficulty to adapt to Western life style. In 2014 he took part in The Voice and the year after formed Electric Fields with Michael and has had an award winning career ever since. He's also

Azerbaijan had a long internal semi-open selection going on and when apparently only two names were left according rumors İTV announced Fahree, a name outside those rumored two (but one of the final six). And a few days alter Ilkin Dovlatov was added as featuring. Özünlə apar was released March 15, 2024 as the last entry for the Eurovision song contest 2024. The song brings Azeri language back to contest and for the second year in a row  (and only third time in general) the song is by Azeri songwriters instead of a song bought from Sweden or somewhere else. Hooray for that! Fahree or Fakhri Ismayilov (28) is Azerbaijani singer-songwriter coming from an artistic family. His dad is a famous jazz drummer and his grandfather an actor. He has both Bachelor's and Master's degree in law buit during Covid-19 pandemic he realized music is what he wants to do in life. His first single Dance came out in 2022, and he has another one in 2023, and also a duet with Mila Miles in 2022. Ilkin

  Armenia's Ladaniva was the last act to be revealed for Eurovision song contest 2024 when AMPTV announced their (already rumored) entry on March 9, 2024 and four days later their entry Jako was confirmed as well. And brings Armenian back to the contest! Ladaniva is a world music duo made of Armenian singer Jaklin Baghdasaryan (27) and French multi instrumentalist Louis Thomas (37). They met in Lille, France in 2018 in a jam session in a music bar in Vieux-Lille. Jaklin grew up in Minsk, Belarus before moving to France with her mother in 2014. Thomas comes from a family of musicians and is a accomplished jazz musician.  They started releasing music on Youtube during the Covid-19 pandemic and soon reached success first among Armenian community, later also elsewhere. Their third video Kef chilini reached 18 million views in a few months. They released their debut album in September 2023 and their entry Jako comes from it. Their music is a happy mixture of traditional songs from Armen

One of the funny details in this season's Eurovision is that Nebulossa participated in Una voce per San Marino last year (and didn't even make the final) and won Benidorm Fest this year  while Megara participated in Benidorm Fest last year and won Una voce per San Marino this year.  RTVE received 825 submissions for the third reborn Benidorm Fest and 16 were chosen for two semifinals before the grand final. Nebulossa won after winning the televote, being tied first in the jury vote with St.Pedro and placing second in demoscopic jury behind Jorge Gonzalez.  Nebulossa is married couple Maria Mery Bas (who also happens to be the oldest this year at 55) and Mark Dasousa (50). They have been married over 20 years and have two kids. Mery has been running a beauty salong among other things while Mark has been involved in music as author and producer. Their Nebulossa electrosynthpop duo released their debut EP in 2019 and album in 2021. They have released also a dozen singles before Z

Ukraine organized once again Vidbir, the national selection for Eurovision song contest. This time it was broadcast from Kiev's National museum of  history of Ukraine WW II instead of underground metro station bunker. The show was hosted Eurovision veterans hosts Timur Miroshnychenko and Julia Sanina.  Out of 389 submission 20 were selected for auditions and eventually ten chosen out of them. The 11th entry, Anka,  was voted by people, as were the three judges as well. Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil won the final with outstanding numbers, nearly 7 times more votes than the second most voted act. Alyona Alyona or Aliona Olehiva Savranenko (Альо́на Олегівна Савране́нко) (32) is Ukrainina rapper and songwriter. She's been described by Ukrainian media The Sensation of rap and The new rap star, while New York Times included her among 15 European Pop star that matter right now comparing her to Azelia Banks. She has released four albums and an EP, over 20 solo singles and several feat

YLE brought Finland's UMK aka Uuden musiikin kilpailu 2024 the the biggest ever arena for our national show and expectations were high after last year's Käärijä and Cha cha cha mania and second place in Liverpool. Tickets sold out in minutes and the fever was high before the songs were even released. For the selection it all remained the same and open call received 419 submissions and as usual seven was chosen for the one off final. Why seven? Yle has explained it's the amount they can fully give their all for the production, music videos and staging. And why not? UMK is living its prime time and for a few years already every song has charted and three years in a row a song from UMK has been the most streamed and sold one of the year so sometimes less is more! In every way. And just like last year most every act was already known, or even a big one. Except one. At least to the majority of the audience. And just like last year that one won. But unlike last year as a huge sur