Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Sal Da Vinci came, sung and won. After being rejected 13 times. Out of the (it may seem) blue like he did in 1994 in Festival Italiano with Vera .(Sadly there's only a very, very bad live Youtube of it but the Passion comes through anyways)   He remains the only artist ever to have won both contests now. ( Festival Italiano was created my Mediaset to compete with Sanremo but Rai managed to kill it after only three editions by forbidding any artist taking part in it even dreaming of taking part in Sanremo ever again, as the story goes ). And to think that many (critics), as has happened in the past, didn't even see him coming. Relegated to the semi obligatory  "neomelodic quota of the Festival" (where neomelodic stands for kitch, which in turn stands for trash), mocked like a living meme, they had to change their minds the first time he sung live  his "Per sempre sì," dedicated to his wife Claudia Pugliese. All it took was one live performance with his usual ...

Australia has revealed its cards for Eurovision song contest 2026 and yes, it's finally true. Delta Goodrem is the chosen one as heavily speculated (also) this year before the announcement.  Delta (41) from Sydney is Australian singer, songwriter and television personality. her career started at the age of 15 and her debut album sold nearly six million copies being the second best selling Australian album ever. Seven albums todate including 5 #1s and two #2s . Eight #1 singles including one of my all time favourite songs Lost without you she's finally here!

Bulgaria had its artist selection earlier (read more here) and among all that happened during the Super Saturday 28 February they staged their song selection for Dara. The chosen one is Bangaranga.  The songs (jury + tele): This is me (12 + 1.075 = 1+1) 2 Curse (18 + 1.422 = 2 + 2)  4) Bangaranga (30 + 19.119 = 3 + 3) 6

The five day Italy stopping affair that is Sanremo music festival came to and end tonight and was won by Sal da Vinci!!!!! And he has said he would do Eurovision should he win! Forza Napoli! You read more about the previous nights here , here , here , here and here .  1. Sal Da Vinci - Per sempre si  22,2%  (televote 23,6%) 2. Sayf - Tu mi piaci tanto  21,9% (televote 26,4%) 3. Ditonellapiega - Che fastidio!  20.6% (televote 18,9%) 4. Arisa - Magica favola  18,9% (televoto 19,2%) 5. Fedez & Masini - Male necessario  18,5%   (televoto 11,9%) 6. Nayt - Prima che  7. Fulminacci - Stupida sfortuna 8. Ermal Meta - Stella stellina 9. Serena Brancale - Qui con me 10. Tommaso Paradiso - I romantici 11. LDA & Aka 7even - Poesie clandestine 12. Luchè - Labirinto 13. Bambole di pezza - Resta con me  14. Levante - Sei tu 15. J-Ax - Italia started pack 16. Tredici Pietro - Uomo che cade 17. Samurai jay - Ossessione 18. Raf - Ora e per sem...

Serbian national final for the Eurovision song contest was held tonight and was won by Lavina and Kraj mene. Certainly not a Balcan ballad! Out of open call submissions 24 songs were selected for the semi-finals, among them many familiar names from the previous years: Harem Girls (2025), Zejna (2022, 2023, 2024), Yanx (2009, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2024) Eegor (2023), Aleksandra Sekulić (2019) and Nemanja Erić (2019). Seven songs made the final from each semi-final. Read more here .  Lavina is a Serbian metal band since 2020. They are Luka Aranđelović, Pavle Aranđelović, Pavle Samardžić, Andrija Cvetanović, Nikola Petrović and Bojan Ilić. They have toured Europe and released their debut album in 2022 and Kraj mene is their 6th single release.  Final results (Jury + tele): Mirna - Omaja (1 + 0) 1  14th  Kosmos trip - Sve je u redu (0 + 5) 5 8th Iva Grujin - Otkrivam sebe ( 0 + 4) 4 10th Lores - Unseen (6 + 2) 8  6th Yanx -  Srušio si sve (8 + 0) 8...

Germany has had its national selection Das Deutsche Finale for Eurovision song contest and it was won by Sarah Engels and Fire.  The songs were gathered by open submissions, invitations for record companies, publishers and managers. The songs were selected through three different selection and development rounds including international songwriting camps and eventually the nine finalists were out for the on off grand final. In the final an international panel of 20 selected the top-3 for the televoting only super final.  Sarah Engels, also known as Sarah Lombardi, is a German pop singer and television personality known for her participation twice in Deutschland sucht den Superstar talent show, finishing first in top-10, the  runner up. Six albums todate, two of them Top-10. Some sixteen singles so far, many of them with ex-husband Pietro Lombardi. The two first ones hit #2 in the charts.  Bela - Herz Dreamboys the Band - Jeanie Laura Nahr - Wonderland Malou Lovis - Wh...

Finland's national selection for Eurovision song contest 2026  or UMK (Uuden musiikin kilpailu) took place in Tampere tonight and was won by pre-contest favorites Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen and their Liekinheitin. Or rather they swept the floor with the other ones by winning both jury and televotes with a huge margin.  Special guests were last year's UMK winner Erika Vikman (11th in ESC) with last year's Eurovision winner JJ, Finland's Eurovision 1985 represent Sonja Lumme and quartet of leading Finnish rappers Elastinen, Ares, Turisti and Averagekidluke .  Out of 491 submitted entries a panel of 9 members along with five audience groups selected the seven entries for the final. Linda Lampenius & Pete Parkkonen emerged instantly the runaway favorites to win the selection gaining more Youtube views in 24 hrs than any other UMK entry ever and also reaached one million streams in record time. They also became international favorites pushing Finland to #1 in od...

  Norway had its national final for Eurovision song contest 2026. Jonas Lovvw on Melodi grand prix with Ya ya ya.  The final songs were selected among some 1.500 submissions shortlisted to 16; eight made the final directly, the other eight had to go through a radio competition in duels until one was left, that being Skrellex. Read more here . Among the competitors previous Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak and Eurovision veteran Marcus & Martinus little sister Emma, both being the favorites to win as well. Final (jury + tele) Skrellex - Into the wild (15 + 30) 45  7th Hedda Mae - Snap back (11 + 4) 15  8th Storm - Lullaby (14 + 36) 50  6th Mileo - Frankestein (54 + 35) 89  4th Silke - Forevermore (0 + 4) 4  9th Alexander Rybak - Rise  (66 + 126) 192  2nd Emma - Northern lights (28 + 99) 127  3rd Leonardo Amor - Prayer (60 + 13) 73  5th Jonas Lovv - Ya ya ya (96 + 196) 265  1st to be updated 

The 76th Sanremo festival comes to an end tonight. The 30 Big artists will perform once again and are voted by the holy threesome: Press, web and tv (33%), radio (33%) and televote (34%). the votes will be added to those of the first, second and third night and the final ranking will be revealed from 6th palce to 30th. The Top-5 will face another three way voting that is added to the previous votes and that will finally give us the winner and other placements. The winner may or may not go to Eurovision 2026 in Vienna. (Vai Sal!!!) Several other awards will be handed out for best music, lyrics, arrangements etc. Giorgia Cardinaletti and Nino Frassica will be co-hosting. Andrea Bocelli will be the musical guest while I Pooh (the most sold Italian group ever before Ricchi e Poveri including Eurovision veteran Riccardo Fogli) will be performing on Suzuki stage outside Teatro Ariston and Max Pezzali still aboard the cruise ship.  In pole position are Fedez & Masini, Arisa and Serena...

Finland's national selection for Eurovision song contest 2026  or UMK (Uuden musiikin kilpailu) takes place in Tampere tonight in Tampere arena to sold out crowds.  Special guests are last year's UMK winner Erika Vikman (11th in ESC) with last year's Eurovision winner Austrian  JJ, Finland's Eurovision 1985 represent Sonja Lumme and quartet of leading Finnish rappers Elastinen, Ares, Turisti and Averagekidluke. It's worth remembering JJ's staging and even outfit was made in Finland last year with UMK team.  The show is hosted by Jorma Uotinen, Sami Sykkö and Jasmin Beloued. Read more about them here . Out of 491 submitted entries a panel of nine members along with five audience groups selected the seven entries for the final. Linda Lampenius & Pete Parkkonen emerged instantly the runaway favorites to win the selection gaining more Youtube views in 24 hrs than any other UMK entry ever and also reached one million streams in record time. They also became inter...

Lithuania's long selection process Eurovizija.LT  for Eurovision song contest 2026 came to an end tonight and the winner is Lion Ceccah. He won the televote and was second with juries. Shwr won the jury and was second with televote but televote rules and Lion was declared the winner. He's no stranger to the contest as he was runner up last year and has participated multiple times before with different names I recall, Alen Chicco being at least one of them. And Tomas Alenčikas his real name. A total of 40 songs competed in pre-recorded five semi-finals and a wildcard round before the live broadcasted grand final with 11 songs (top-2 of each semi-final plus the wildcard round winner): Rug!le, Atikin, Black Biceps, Shwr and    were the semi-final winners while   won the wildcard round. Read more here .  Final results (jury + tele): Noy - Stand up   (0 + 0) 0  11th Rug1le -  Ikona Žemaitė   (4 + 3) 7  8th Atikin -  Degant...

The 76th Sanremo festival continues with the Covers night that no longer (hallelujah!) has no effect directly on the scoreboard but is a separate competition with its own winner and Top-10 announced. The competing Big artists have chosen a song to their liking and invited Italian or international artists to perform together. That brings many Sanremo veterans and regulars back on stage in Teatro Ariston: Morgan, Pupo, Fabrizio Moro, Giusy Ferreri, Gaia, Gianluca Grignani, Brunori Sas, Fiorella Mannoia, The Kolors, Michele Zarrillo, Alex Britti along with international stars like Gregory Porter. Morgan was supposed to be there with Chiello (Remember Dov'è Bugo? Where is Bugo? incident a few years ago?) but after rehearsals he withdraw because he didn't want to shadow the artist with his own talent"... Yeah. Right.  The competition itself sees Arisa, Serena Brancale and Fedez & Masini reaching Top-5 both nights and therefor are in pole position while Sal Da Vinci mania ke...

The 76th Sanremo festival continues and the remaining 15 Big artists will perform again and be judged by Radio (50%) and televote (50%). Once again the Top-5 will be announced in random order. The Newcomers final will take place and the two winners of yesterday's duels will battle it out with the holy three way voting: Press, web and tv (33%), radio (33%) and televote (34%).  Co-host will be supermodel  Irina Shayk and Ubaldo Pantani. There's also Virginia Raffaele and Fabio De Luigi. Musical guests are Eros Ramazzotti  (celebrating 40 years of his win with Adesso tu) with Alicia Keys. The Kolors will perform outside Teatro Ariston on Suzuki stage and Max Pezzali still on the cruise ship. Laura Pausini will sing Heal the world with children's choir Piccolo coro Antoniano.  Some are calling the viewing figures a flop but 9,053.000 watched the second night with a share of 59,5%. The peak was 13,706.000 and the share peak 66,1% while Lillo was doing his comedy. Laura Pa...

The 76th Sanremo festival continues tonight. The Newcomers will kick of the evening with two duels with the winners going to the final. The voting is the holy threesome: Press, web and tv (33%), Radio (33%) and televote (34%). Half of the Big artists will perform again and are voted by Radio (50%) and televote (50%). Again the Top-5 will be announced in random order. Co-hosts are Pilar Fogliati, Achille Lauro and Lillo. Bresh will perform outside Teatro Ariston in Suzuki stage and Max Pezzali again on the cruise ship.. Apparently Eurovision veteran Fausto Leali will be present and receive a life time award. The first night was watched by 9,6 million viewers with share of 58% compared to last year's 12,6 million so 3 million viewers  were lost. The peak was 15.782.000 during the 105 year old lady's interview while the biggest share 64,5% during Leo Gassmann's performance. Laura Pausini did not sing last night but tonight this will change as she will be dueting (at least) wit...