Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Sinikka Monte (23) is a newcomer to the music scene - at least for the wider public. Half Finnish, half South African, born in Scotland and grew up in Vienna, Austria she a mix of many things. She describes her music as a gig to sad people. And yes, she does speak some Finnish and even her entry Ready to leave has a few lines in Finnish.  Sinikka started dancing ballet at the age of five and realized performing is her thing. Then came music. Her debut single It ain't ou was released 2019. So far the highlight of her career has been her song ending up in reality Love is blind. A perfect match for her "crying in the club" style music.  She submitted Hers, too for UMK 2024 and finished in top-10 but didn't make the final seven. She has released a dozen songs on Spotify so far. She has almost 199.000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Ready to leave ** Sinikka Monte, Florian Spies Charts action: Official singles chart: #35. / - Official Radio play charts: #98. / #87./ #47. ...

Last year's  winner and host of the Eurovision song contest 2026 Austria has selected its entrant for Eurovision song contest 2026 in Vienna. The winner is 19-year-old Cosmó with Tanzschein. ORF haven't had a national final since 2016 but has selected their entries internally. Songs were sought by invitation, songwriting camps and open submissions and the finalists were chosen among the over 500 songs. In November 30 of them were invited for auditions and 12 made the cut. Tamara Flores withdrew and was replaced by Sidrit Vokshi.  Cosmó aka Benjamin Gedeon is Austrian pop artist born in Budapest. His mother is Hungarian, father German. . He has less than 25.000 monthly listeners on Spotify at the moment of winning and Tanzschein his only release .  Final results (jury + tele) : Anna-Sophie - Superhuman  (2 + 7) 9  6th Bamlak Werner - We are not just one thing  (4 + 10) 14  3rd Cosmò - Tanzschein  (10 + 12) 22  1st David Kurt - Pockets full of...

  What to say? Chachi has been known so far only as the wife of Jukka Hilden of The Dudesons. They married in 2019 and have already three kids together. They met when she took part in Ultimate expedition. Now she's making her debut as a recording artist in UMK 2026 with Cherry cake. Among the songwriters Johannes Naukkarinen of Cha cha cha and Espresso macchiato fame, as well as Linnea Deb who has co-written already nine Eurovision entries,including one winner, Heroes.  Olivia Irene Gonzales (30) is an American-Mexican dancer. She's the youngest champion of America's Best Dance Crew at the age of 15 with her I.aM.mE crew in 2011. The year after she was awarded as the teenage choreographer of the year in World of Dance gala . She has danced in some music videos. In 2022 she took part in Masked Singer Finland making it to top-5. Her Youtube and Instagram have 1,6 million followers each.  Cherry cake ** Chachi, Johannes Naukkarinen, Linnea Deb Chart action: Official singles ...

When rumors started circulating Antti Paalanen might be one of the finalists a certain part of Finnish Euroviison fandom got very excited. This blogger on the other hand had really never heard of him but obviously got quite interested: accordion,.throat singing, folk music.... His entry Takatukka meaning mullet showcases all that with a sparkle in the eye with its humorous lyrics. But did I like it? Read at the bottom.... Antti Paalanen (48) is already a seasoned artist at home and internationally. He has won several awards and besides his solo career has been active in various groups with whom he's been nominated and won Emma awards. He's the Finnish champion in accordion three years in a row (1994-96). He has worked and composed for theater, studied in Sibelius Academy and other prestigious music schools. His international breakthrough happened in WOMEX showcase concert in Copenhagen 2011 Four solo albums todate and 17 collaboration albums with his various bands. Additional t...

Belgium's RTBF has chosen internally Essyla with Dancing on the ice for Eurovision song contest 2026. Essyla, or Alice van Eesbeeck. Essyla launched her music career in 2020 by participating in The Voice Belgique. She reached the finals and finished second to Eurovision 2022 veteran Jérémie Makiese.She has released a couple of singles and an Ep so far. When writing this she has 2.154 monthly listeners on Spotify and her most streamed song Let you go has less than 130.000 streams. Listen to some of her previous songs below:

  Kiki offers as a mix of Finnish melancholy and Greek passion in her Rakkaudenkipee. Kiki, aka Petra Gavalas (29) if half Greek, half Finnish and her brother is none other than pretty successful rapper Lukas Leon, thanks to whom she met her producer and the rest is history.  Kiki's debut single 666 in 2021 was a Top-10 success and the singles have been coming in a steady flow ever since. Her debut album Intuito was released in 2023. Decent chart action and streaming numbers for each and every single but the Big one is still waiting. Could it be Rakkaudenkipee? Eurovision is her big dream and right after that a collaboration with some big Greek artist is on her wishlist.  Rakkaudenkipee *** Kiki, Jaakko Kiuru, Niko Salmela, Leo Jupiter Chart action: Official singles chart: #13. / #19. / #36. Official radio play chart: #21. / #27. / #28. / #27. Spotify debut: #9 with 101.764 streams Spoty monthly listeners: 327.000 What do I think? Not much. For me not her best effort. Too...

Etta (or Emmalotta Kanth, 28) is the most successful and the first female rap artist to have a #1 album. But besides being a rapper she is also an excellent singer. She has released three  top-10 albums and has eight Top-10 singles (and four more as featuring, including one #1 hit). She first came to spotlight at the age of 10 when she reached the semifinal stage in Talent Suomi. Coming from a musical family her brother Vilikasper Kanth also has UMK 2015 experience. Another funny fact is her ex-boyfriend Lukas Leon is Kiki's brother. She has also done featuring with Pete Parkkonen and Isaac Sene among others.  Her song Million dollar smile is an ode to her single mother and gets inspiration from her difficult youth and dealing with alopecia that made her lose her hair as a teenager. As said music was always present in her family and she says she didn't choose music, music chose her. They have tried to label her as pop singer or a female rapper but she says she's and Artist....

BBC has internally selected Look mum no computer for Eurovision song contest 2026.  His entry will be revealed later. BBC also deny someone was already selected before and was dropped due to some internet writings.  Sam Battle (35) or Look mum no computer is a British Youtuber, electronics enthuastic. musician and composer. He is known for making and playing unusual, esoteric, and eccentric electronic musical devices made from vintage technology. he set up his Youtube in 2013, originally to promote his band Zibra. He released his first single Groundhog day in 2019 and toured Germany, Switzerland and the UK. He's lately got involved also in video games development. He's been releasing singles, Eps and albums in steady flow since 2019. Human procrastination is the one with the most streams on Spotify with just a bit under 2 million. He has less than 30.000 monthly listeners at the moment of the announcement.  Below are some of his songs for you to enjoy while waiting for th...

  Komiat (or The Handsome in Ostrobothian dialect or smth) brings to UMK a genre never heard there before, more or less: Finnish dance hall schlager.  They have been around for ten years or so and after doing covers first in 2016. The year after they did their first gig s and in 2018 they already won the Finnish championships of dance orchestra (yes, there's such thing)  in Tangomarkkinat. They have been voted the most popular dance orchestra already seven years in a row! The dance hall culture is having a revival especially among younger people so their music hits the right cords. They released their debut album in 2020 and between 2022-24 they scored several minor  hits and last year their released their second album including Kaihosielu, a crossover hit streaming platinum and reaching #4 in the Radioplay charts. Last year they also played the Helsinki Olympic stadium as a warm up to Katri Helena's farewell mega concert. They are also nominated for four Emma (Finni...

Sing for Greece, the Greek national final for Eurovision song contest, come to an end tonight and Akylas as expected swept full set of points from each and every jury.  A total of fourteen songs made it to the final from two semi-finals, each with 14 songs selected out of 265 submissions,  staged earlier this week, among them Eurovision veterans Koza Mostra, fan favorites Good Job Nicky and Evangelia and most of all Akylas who has already gone viral in some Käärijä way (who indeed has shown support in Joost Klein, Baby Lasagna and Tommy Cash style) irritating some part of the fandom.  Akylas Mytilinaios (27, Ακύλας Μυτιληναίος) is a Greek singer and songwriter. He has been releasing singles since 2021. Four years ago he participated in The Voice of Greece.  Final rresults: Stylianos  - YOU & I   18  7th D3lta - Mad about it   21   6th Mikay - Labyrinth   4  10th Marika - Daughters of the Sun (A, E, I, O, U)   0  1...

Croatia's national final for Eurovision song contest 2026 has also come to and end after two semi-finals where out of 251 submissions 24 selected songs competed for the 16 places in the final line up, among them last year's fan favorite Lelek. If I should pick up some names I would go for Alen Duras, Sergej, Lana Demarin, Stela Bade and Lana Mandaric. Read more here .  Lelek is a Croatian folk pop all female band. They are Inka Večerina Perušić, Judita Štorga, Korina Olivia Rogić, Lara Brtan and Marina Ramljak. They were formed in 2024 and already last year treied to get to Eurovision with fan favorite The sould of my soul placing 4th. A handful of singles released so far they are yet to release an album.  Final results (jury + tele): Ananda - Dora  (13 +7) 20  15th Sergej - Scream   (33 + 9) 42  10th Noelle - Uninterrupted   (27 + 11) 38  13th Alen Đuras - From Ashes to Flame   (41 + 15) 56  6th Irma - Ni traga   (32 + 11) 43...

Spain is not taking part in Eurovision song contest 2026 but their usual national selection took place anyways. After two semi-finals - each with 9 songs selected from 870 dsubmissions - earlier this week the final took place and was won by Tony Grox and Lucycalys and T amaré. Read more here  I have always loved Benidorm fest's graphics and finally the stagings were at the same level, thanks to some help from Finland :-)  Asha won expert jury's vote the winning couple being second before Izan llunas who won demoscopic jury before Rosalinda Galan  and Mikel Herzog Jr  the winners placing 4th but they won the televote before Rosalinda Galan and Miranda! and Bailamama. International fan favorite Kenneth was left last.... My favorites were Asha and Mikel Herzog Jr. Final results (experts+demoscopic+tele) : Mayo - Tócame (24 + 4 + 36) 64   11th Kitai - El amor te da miedo (51 + 20 + 32) 103    6th Asha - Turista  (92 + 28 + 24) 144   2...

  Latvia's Supernova 2026, the national final to select Latvia's entry for Eurovision song contest came to conclusion tonight and the winner is Atvara.  Atvara or Liene Atvara (33) is Latvian singer-songwriter. She has studied music, English and  marketing in Denmark. Her first attempt in music was in 2017 in X Factor but without luck. Her first single Pie manis tveries came out in 2024 and was a Top-10 hit in Latvia.  Dzīve mūs mētā was a radio hit. She has released some more singles as solo or featuring, and her debut album came out in 2025.  Out of 124 submitted entries and a jury of Latvian and international professional selected 24 entries for the two semi-finals where from the ten finalists were voted by a professional jury and televoters. Among the acts Eurovision veteran Robert Ox (2022 as a member of Citi Zēni). The semi-final results were not made public beforehand to keep things exciting. Last year's runner up Emilija seemed to be the favorite ...

The Danish national selection for Eurovision song contest 2026 took place tonight and the winner is Søren Torpegaard Lund. It was his second time in DMGP after Lige her in 2023 when he didn't reach the top-3. Søren Torpegaard Lund (27)  is a Danish singer, songwriter and actor. At the age of 17 he cecame the youngest ever student to be accepted to Den Danske Scenekunstskole. He has done several musical roles from West Side Story to Kinky Boots and even won awards for them. Past three years he has released few singles and an Ep. beforementioned Lige her being his debut. Other singles include En dreng som mig , Stor kunst and De ting jeg hvisker . There was an open call for entries and DR also invited record companies to send in their best offering. After selection committee and several national and international focus groups eight songs made it to the final. The number of submitted entries has not been revealed I believe. Amng the acts last year's winner Sissal again along wi...

Estonia has had the final of the 18th Eesti laul tonight, the national final for Eurovision song contest 2026. Vanilla Ninja was selected as the winner so they return to Eurovision after finishing 8th in 2005 for Switzerland with Cool vibes (that was actually cool). This Too epic to be true isn't very epic sadly. Neither the whol selection this year. My initial favorite was NOEP and indeed it may still be the best one for me. Vanilla Ninja these days is Lenna Kuurmaa, Piret Järvis and Kerli Kivilaan. They had their prime time in 2002-2008 when they had several hits in Central Europe ( Tough enough , When the Indians cry and Blue tattoo just to mention some) and reunited in 2020. They tried to win Euro laul also in 2003 with Club Kung-Fu (9th) and 2007 with Birds of peace (4th).  A total of 177 entries were submitted for the contest. A 34 member jury chose the 12 finalists and the songs were presented on October 30 and 31. Among the artists Eurovision veterans Getter Jaani (2011),...

  Ukraine's national final for Eurovision song contest 2026, Vidbir, has had its final and was won by Ukraine is the only country that has managed to qualify every time they have participated plus they have won three times and been runner up twice in the past 20 participation. War or no war Ukraine is one of the Eurovision power houses no doubt. In 2026 the selection followed already familiar path: Out of submitted 451 entries  15 were announced and invited for an audition where from nine made it directly to the final. The rest were put on an online vote and the winner Khayat was added to the final. Other familiar names made the cut as like last year's runner up Molodi, and two Eurovision veterans: Jerry Heil (3rd in ESC 2024 with Alyona Alyona) and Monokate (5th with Go_A in ESC 2021). Ad Olena Usenko, a member of The Elliens (6th in JESC 2021). Read more here   My favorite in the end was Laud witj Jerry Heil even if her song doesn't quite fit into Eurovision stage I sup...