Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Yle has released data on viewing figures during the Eurovision song contest final. An average of 1,7 million people watched the show with peak up to 2,6 million. The streaming platform reached over 500.000.  The first semifinal with Finnish KAJ representing Sweden got 1,5 million viewers with an average of 808.000. The second semifinal with Finland's Erika Vikman did better with 1,6 million viewers and an average of 930.000. Meanwhile Yle has announced the UMK 2026 will take place again i Tampere on February 28, 2026.

The Eurovision song contest 2025 was the most variable in languages since the free language rule and several songs were featured in French for example and three of them being among the biggest favorites: France, Netherlands and Switzerland. We might add also Luxemburg that was gaining momentum in the last minute and yet they all bombed in the televotes. What happened?  Besides the language they were also staged very dark, that's common but then again the winner was all black and white. After jury votes Switzerland was second with 214 points, France third with 180 points and Netherlands 5th with 133 points. Then the televotes rolled in: Netherlands got only 42 (15th), France 50 (14th) and Switzerland flat zero! I mean, how? France dropped to 7th, Switzerland 10th and Netherlands 12th. Luxemburg finished 22nd overall.  As a consolation these gons swept away all the Marcel Bezençon awards: France won Press and Artistic ones, and Switzerland the Composer award.

Erika Vikman placed 11th in the grand final of Eurovision song contest 2025 after being all spring and EuroviSIon week in the Top-6 in the odds reaching top-3 during the broadcast after her performance. Yet only 11th.... Feels a little bit let down but then again it's worth remembering it's Finland's 4th best placement in modern Eurovision after Lordi's win 2006, Käärijä's 2nd place in 2023 and Blind Channel's 6th place in 2021 together with Softengine's 11th place in 2014.  In the semifinal Finland was third after Israel and Latvia before Greece and eventual winner Austria. Here's break down of the televotes in the semifinal ( 115 ): 12 -  10 Australia, Malta, Denmark 8 Latvia, Serbia 7 Ireland, Lithuania, Czechia 6 Montenegro, Armenia, Luxemburg, Germany, RoW 5 - 4 Austria, Georgia, UK 3 - 2 Greece, Israel, France 1 - 0 - (Israel scored 13 times 12, 3 times 10, once 8 and 7 and 2 from Armenia...) In the grand final Finland got jury points as follows ( ...

Ebu and Eurovision world just avoided a bullet and in the end Finns have only a small tiny consolation that the winner JJ's outfit was Finnish design and made as well was the staging and he even rehearsed it in Vantaa, Finland over the spring. He only managed 5th in the semifinal but it all changed in the grand final. I leave the vote analyzing to else but ..... This was a weird weird year. But dear Lord the jury voting was all over the place! Austria managed only 8 full sets of 12s, Italy six (I told you so! read more here ) and France 5, Greece 4, Switzerland and Latvia 3, Germany (!!!) 2 and Israel, Armenia (!!!), Finland, Albania, UK and Sweden one. A bit like here's something to most everyone! Then the televoting: Only 50 to France (!!!), Switzerland zero!!!! I mean... what the hell just happened (oh yes, zero to them, too, but that was already a norm). I have no words. Final results (jury votes/tele votes) 1. AUSTRIA (258 + 178) 436 2. ISRAEL (60 + 297) 357 3. ESTONIA (98...

As the Jury show was leaked in full (sigh) and I couldn't resist watching it once (or maybe twice in parts) during the Saturday afternoon as warm up for tonight's grand final it's a good excuse to share some impressions and opinions. And a prediction. First of all it was very nice and nostalgic to an old fart like me to hear and see again on stage Io senza te , one of my all time favorite Eurovision entries, as well as Canzone per te , a song that I still remember by heart and also Cinema that I remembered surprisingly well even if I never was a huge fan. Only proves the fact that when you are young your memory works so easily! The opening was nice playing on the Nemo's broken trophy but the final line delivered by Sandra could have been delivered a bit funnier somehow.  Sandra is doing solid job while Hazel is letting it loose. Michelle is a nice add to the final line up as and I just love this grandmother (!!!) and her sense of humor I can excuse her Volare as well. ...

  So, Erika Vikman got the same slot 13 than Käärijä did in 2023, both also closed their respective semifinal. Also the combo of Luxemburg-Estonia-Israel-Lithuania-Spain one after another is the same as last year - you only need to switch Netherlands to replace Estonia performing just before Israel. Intentional? Kids friendly Norway and Luxemburg will open the evening and we close with top favorites Sweden and France before going out with a bang with San Marino and Albania.  Below are the odds as of Friday morning 7am CET. Last night Finland passed Israel and France passed Netherlands, otherwise no change on top. 

The second semifinal is over and we have the full line up for Saturday's final. If the results of the first semifinal were somewhat surprising this second was a total chaotic surprise for most everyone. Had I done my list after the performances I would have dropped Czechia, Serbia and Australia from my list and had added Armenia and Lithuania and scored a lot better than my prediction list 6/10. From my wish list I got only 5/10 while the Home jury also got 6/10 right. The worst results probably ever! The show was somewhat more boring than the first semifinal except for Hazel who was letting it loose and can't wait what they combine with Michelle in the final at this point. The idea of the 2020 artists getting chance to perform their 2020 entries was nice and should have been done already in 2021. Or 2022. Or 2023. Or 2024... But why, oh why they chose those four who actually did return in 2021??!! WHY?? Why not giving a chance to Arilena Ara, Athena Manoukian, Damir Kedzo, San...

  Here we go again. The first semifinal was a decent result ( here 8/10 each prediction, wish list and Home jury). This time our home jury predicts Finland, Malta, Israel,. Czechia, Greece, Australia, Luxemburg, Serbia, Austria and Ireland . My prediction would be Finland, Malta, Israel, Czechia, Austria, Australia but then things get trickier. My initial choices were Greece, Luxemburg, Ireland but.... I guess Luxemburg is safe judging the comments from the first rehearsals. Then again judging the comments, too, Czechia would be out?  Denmark seems to have a lot of support but is it Belgium of the situation? Just like Lithuania and Latvia? What about Armenia? I suppose we can rule out Georgia but is Montenegro Portugal of semifinal two? Things are getting tricky here.... I let my personal taste effect this more than odds and fandom and go for Ireland, Latvia and Serbia . But then, is Malta this semis Belgium? Judging the comments from jury show I am more confused than eve...

The most popular and easiest alternative version to do is of course an acoustic version and there's been plenty of them this Eurovision 2025 season.... Enjoy!

What a great show, I really liked it. Great stage, not so great graphics. Hosts were good and funny enough, opening and interval acts very enjoyable incl. Petra Mede and the Made in Switzerland thing, the message and homage to Celine Dion with the Class of '24. And the qualifiers all fine with me. Only sad for Slovenia but then again it was expected. The new announcement procedure worked fine, too. All seemed to go smoothly - except for Switzerland itself when the filming froze at one bit. Martin Österdahl & co were no longer in the arena but in a tiny little room somewhere out reach of booing and whistling. FUN FACTS: San Marino's Gabry Ponte becomes the first Sammarinese artist to qualify at his first try! All non qualifier songs in semifinals were sung in English rather than in the native language! Only Norway did in English, the others in native or mixed English/other language!!! 9/10 were songs from national finals, only Netherlands Claude qualified with internally se...

Giving predictions these days has become a bit boring as the betting odds and polls seem to be quite accurate already weeks before the deadline. But here goes, based more on my first impressions rather than latest developments (as well as I can recall them). First, our Home jury would send to final Estonia, Sweden, Portugal, Netherlands, Norway, San Marino, Slovenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Iceland . But as much as regret this but it seems Portugal and Azerbaijan are not really delivering and making an impact on stage so I rule them out and replace with Poland and Albania. Then we have the threesome of Belgium, Iceland and Cyprus to pick up one as Croatia feels like a sure NQ, the only one. I hope it'd be Iceland but Cyprus has the staging and Belgium seems to be working at least in the hall judging the comments. And I do have some doubts on San Marino, too. So.... against my better judgement let's go with Belgium. So the prediction before seeing the performances is: Estonia, S...

The old days it was a form to record the Eurovision in songs in multiple versions but that's not been so common anymore. How ever even this year we do have some surprising ones: France in English, Germany in Hungarian and Serbia in French. My favorite though is the jazzy version of Iceland in English, just vaebulous!

This year there's been quite a few orchestral versions of the Eurovision 2025 entries released, and that's always a nice bonus. If there was the big orchestra like the old days this may give a tiny little hint in which direction the live production might have gone. 

It was quite nice to see the Turquoise carpet again after last year's disaster. Even though the tv production wasn't exactly perfect.... (Photos collected from Ebu and various sources) + some extra spark