Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Last but not least Georgia finally revealed its card for Eurovision song contest: It's Mariam Shengelia with Freedom. Her name might be the second best kept secret of the season. Not. And surprise: Despite the name the first two minutes of the song is in Georgian! And somehow the act and look and staging recalls their first ever entry Visionary dream in Helsinki 2007! Mariam (22) is another artist that has gone by The Voice and The X Factor before Eurovision stage called her. She was chosen internally among the 18 submissions and the entry is  heavily fueled with Georgian culture and tradition. Apparently Eurovision has been her goal in life and career all along. It was about to happen already back in 2020 when she was supposed to be the backing singer for Georgian entry before the contest was cancelled. But now she's no longer a backing singer but the star in the spotlight.  She's also singing in group Mixtura.  Enjoy some of her other songs below:

Portugal's Festival da Canção 2025 also reached the final after two semi-finals. The winner was chosen by 50/50 regional juries and televotes. For me once again one of the best and most interesting national finals, a true contrast to Melodifestivalen's polished boredom and playing it so safe also here it seemed beforehand a duel between two: for international fandom Josh vs national popular Fernando Daniel with Henka in for a possible surprise. And yes, Portugal did Portugal and unlike San Marino and Sweden where things went as scripted - except Sweden did the unthinkable finish against all odds - chose Napa that no one abroad saw coming.... nor in Portugal I guess watching those votes going everywhere and so different from the juries and televotes Napa (ex Men on the Couch) is a Portuguese indie rock pop band since 2013. Francisco Sousa, João Guilherme Gomes, João Rodrigues, Diogo Góis and  João Lourenço Gomes are from the island of Madeira. Switch from English to Portuguese,...

The most insane national selection - in size and details - has come to an end. After zillions of auditions and heats and twists and turns and semi-finals that didn't air and got results no one could keep up with (read more here and here ) And it all ended as expected, hoped and wished by the fandom: the Sanremo 2025 theme song became San Marino's entry. One couldn't make this up. Tutta l'Italia features vocals by Andrea Bonomo (46), Italian singer-songwriter and well known author for also other artists including Eros Ramazzotti, Annalisa, Emma Marrone, Marco Mengoni (Voglio) and Nek (incl. Fatti avanti amore) just to name a few. His career started in Sanremo 2008 Newcomers.  The other singer and co-writer is Edwyn Roberts (32). He also has a past trying to become a singer via Amici and Sanremo Giovani  but ended up writing songs for others like Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazzotti, Malika Ayane, Giusy Ferreri, Arisa, Elodie, Il Volo, Ricchi e Poveri and most of all Diodato (...

The long, loooong Swedish Melodifestivalen reached its climax after six weeks. In the end it was set to be a duel between Eurovision veteran and winner Måns Zelmerlöw and his utterly polished and perfect revolution and fresh and crazy nonsense by the Finnish band KAJ. KAJ was clearly the winner is streaming and video views and chart action beforehand. Also the only song in Swedish this year in the final, and even a Swedish dialect spoken in a small area in Finland only. In the end KAJ won. This is a bit like Cha cha cha phenomenon. Finland is the new Eurovision superpower; we have Finland, Estonia and Sweden in Basel! How I like happy endings! KAJ is a Finnish group from Swedish speaking Ostrobothnia region and sing in their Vörå dialect. The trio is Kevin Holmströn, Axel Åhman and Jakob Noorgård and they have been working together since 2009. They pop-folk.rock-schlager music is often spiced up with satire and humor. They have produced two musicals for Wasa Theater and have been award...

The worst kept secret of the season is BBC has chosen Remember Monday for Eurovision song contest 2025 for the United Kingdom. The name, and song title, and the song, have been floating the internet for weeks and days so no one was surprised anymore this morning when it was made official. WTHJH? Remember Monday is Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele. The three friends have been singing together since 2018 when they all were studying together. Their music classes were always on Mondays and that explains the name. They've made a name on TikTok and The Voice UK . In 2023 they have worked full time on their music career and have released so far two EPs and What the hell just happened? is their 13th single release.  Below are some of their previous songs for your enjoyment:

Switzerland has announced their artist for Basel 2025 Eurovision song contest and 24-year-old  Basel born Zoë Më will represent Switzerland at the home soil. Her song will be revealed next week on March 10. Update: Here it is: Voyage, in French :-) Zoë Alina Kressler aka Zoë Më usually sings in German and in French and it will be interesting to see if she continues with the trend of national languages in this year's Eurovision, the most multilingual for ages! Zoë started writing her own songs at the age of 10 and has been active as a singer-songwriter since 2018 with her pop chanson style. In 2024 she won RTS Artiste Radar and  SFR3 Best talent awards following the footsteps of previous Euroviison entrants Marius Bear and Nemo, and she's been touring with Remo Ferrer. She has released one album, two EPs and 11 singles so far. Enjoy some of them below:

Croatia had its national final for Eurovision song contest final Dora 2025 and Marko Bosnjak emerged as a winner with his poison cake and will travel to Basel. The semi-finals had only televoting but the final had 50/50 televote/eight jury groups. Marko (21) is Bosnian Croat singer. He rose to fame in 2015 in a talent show and in 2022 he was already aiming to Eurovision and became the runner up with Moli za nas. I must say back then he was one of my top favorites but I'm not having such desire for this poison cake. Between then and now he has been attending festivals and releasing singles, getting nominated for awards and he was also announced as one of the participants for the Serbian version of Your face sounds familiar, let's see how that goes now! Nine singles, all in Serbian but this Poison cake from 2022 to 2025 to his credit and two Song of the year nominations (2023 for Moli za nas and 2024 Spokojan) under his belt so far.  Enjoy some of his previous songs below: Final...

The German national selection ( read more here ) was won by Abor and Tynna who bring yet another non-English song (Hooray!) to Basel. Abor and Tynna are Austrian duo of  siblings Attila and Tunde Bornemisza. They origins are in Romania and Hungary, and come from a musical family their father being a cellist in Vienna Philharmonic orchestra or Vienna State Opera. The siblings started working together in 2016, and has gotten more recognition . In Spotify they have released ten singles since 2020 and one album this year. Enjoy below some of their previous songs:   Super final results: Abor and Tynna - Baller  34,9% Lyza - Lovers on Mars  31,1% Moss Kena - Nothing can stop love  22,6% Leonora - The Bliss  7,0% The Great Leslie - These days  4,4 to be updated

Denmark had its MGP 2025 final tonight and Sissal won after online voting between February 24 and 28, and again during the live show. The top-3 was announced after 50/50 online/sms votes/international jury panel and a super final followed with the same voting system. Sissal lives in Copenhagen but is originally from Faroe Islands (just like Reiley in 2023) and has been on stage since she was 10. She's done festivals and dubbed Disney and even performed for the king of Denmark,  She's got about 40.000 monthly listeners on Spotify where she has released three singles and an EP prior to Hallucination, her entry.  Read more here Final results: Mariya - I belong to me Tim Schou - Proud Max Ulver - Supernova Hervé Toure - Allez allez Maria Mathea - Air Adel the Second - The unluckiest boy in the world Sissal - Hallucination Andreas Kruse - Hear my prayer Super final (jury/televote): Tim Schou - Proud  (14 + 23) 37 Adel the Second - The unluckiest boy in the world  (16 + 9)...

Serbia's Pesma za Evroviziju'25 came to an end tonight and went on apparently smoothly despite al the hassle around it, and Serbia's anti-corruption and student protests. Read more at the bottom of the page. Update: Music video was released March 16: Princ took home the victory with Mila after the voting were televotes and jury votes went all over the place. But I am pleased, Mila was one of my favorites even if I'm not fully convinced of its structure but it has its moments and sticks to your head. Good to have a rreal balcan ballad with melody among all the other entries we will have in Basel! Princ aka Stefan Zdravković (31) was already runner up in 2023 with Cvet za Istoka is also Serbian karate champion and a philologist by profession, graduated from the Department of Scandinavian Languages, Literature and Culture, Norwegian Language, at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. Princ sings, plays the guitar and drums. Since 2016, he has been the lead singe...

Last year Croatia's reserve song of Dora 2024 swept to victory and conquered Europe finishing second in Eurovision so HRT is facing YLE like pressure this year. YLE may have stumbled ( check out most streamed songs in Finland 2024 ) a bit in the end but Croatia is still riding high in hopes as a new record number of entries was submitted, 221, and these 24 made the cut - and four reserves, better keep eye on those, too, should someone withdraw or be disqualified or something! And indeed, two entries have been disqualified and two reserve entries enter the game, Swingers and Fenksta! Among the artists as usual some familiar names from Luka Nižetić to Marko Bošnjak and Eurovision 1995 veterans Magazin with 45 years of experience and career, but the lead singer has changed. And oui, there's a song i French in the mix.  There will be two semi-finals and the grand final on March 2, 2025.. Below is my usual first time hearing ranking. Nothing really bad here in my opinion and taste b...

Australia has revealed it has chosen internally Go-Jo with his song Milkshake man for Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel. He states: “The Milkshake Man’s purpose is to inspire people to embrace the loudest and proudest version of themselves, and I can’t think of a better place to share that message than the Eurovision stage! It’s an absolute dream come true to represent such a beautiful and diverse nation, and I've never been more excited to share my art and vision with the incredible Eurovision fans around the world!” Marty Zambotto (35) aka Go-Jo rose to a global fame and streaming platforms with his previous hit song Mrs.Hollywood. The Sydney based singer-songwriter, producer can play guitar and unicycle at the same time, has 1,4 million followers on TikTok and other social medias. He's been releasing music since 2016.  Enjoy below some of his previous songs: