Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Younghearted became almost a household name a few weeks ago thanks to PM Sanna Marin who revealed them as her favorite bands, or rather songs with Tässä ja nyt . A perfect free publicity stunt for a band that has been quiet for over two years after a promising start with platinum selling debut album and nomination for Emma award as the band of the year for their second one. Songs like Nuorisydän, Hetkeksi and Vaikeeta introduced their then sound, rather small and acoustic. The new sound is apparently a bit rockier and their UMK 2022 entry Sun numero will be the first offering of that. Younghearted is Reeta Huotarinen (vocals), Atte Ranta (guitars and vocals) and Emil Korkiakoski (guitars and vocals). They started together in 2015 and originally planned to sing in English but ended up singing in Finnish thanks to their debut single Hyvä näin . Nine singles later they are starting a new. The first album delivered some minor radio hits, the second none.  For me they were totally unkn

San Marino and Eurovision. What can I say? The tiny little thing every year invents something new from sending the same singer three years in a row, or the youngest duet ever or whatever they invent any given year. This year they run the biggest national final out of any. After the submissions and auditions there are still 75 acts in the list who will have their spotlight in the semi-finals and eventually in the final.  The selections started already mid December 2021 with 91 acts showing up in December 13-17, and 190 in January 3-11, 2022 out of 585 in total.  Full list here Now there are 60 international acts and 6 Sammarinese acts left and nine out of them will make it to the grand final where these emerging artists will meet nine established artists. Confused yet? Here's the dates and facts: February 13 - Emerging artists - semi-final 1 Twenty artists, three will make it to the final February 14 - Emerging artsits - semi-final 2 Twenty artists, three will make it to the final F

  The Rasmus was born at the high school where they had their first gig in 1994. Their debut EP was released a year later. Now they have released nine studio albums and two compilations. 32 singles including global hit In the Shadows (Finland #1), F-F-F-Falling (#1), Heartbreaker / Days (#1), Living in a world without you (#1) and their latest Venemous moon (with Apocalyptica).  A curious fact is The Rasmus lost one member and gained a new guitarist, Emppu Suhonen who herself enjoyed great national success and fame with TikTak about the same time The Rasmus broke through. As we remember also Lordi changed its members a bit just before Eurovision.... Current band members are Lauri Ylönen and Eero Heinonen, both original, Aki Hakala and before mentioned Emilia "Emppu" Suhonen. Lauri has had also a sort but successful solo career with gems like Heavy and In the city . Btw he lives these days in Hawaii. Apparently Yle asked them to represent Finland (when Saara Aalto and Da

  This week's dose sees a return of Erin and Nelli Matula with some lesser known acts with hints of 80's Italodisco and a Sanremo pop ballad. All four would have been also a great addition to the UMK2022 Kuumaa - Oo vielä sekunnin mun Erin - Anna mun rakastaa Nelli Matula - Limbo Juhani Tikkanen - Kaatuen

BESS is a pop artist from Helsinki who mixes electronic sounds to house and pop but her musical journey has been trough classical music, Michael Jackson, jazz, reggae and heavy periods just to name a few. She's got a recognizable voice, a double platinum selling single ( Tempo ), over 20 million streams for her singles and debut album that sold gold before its release and yet she's pretty much unknown to a wider audience. Eurovision has been one of her "Well, then some day....." dreams but now the someday is here. And she's going to be a household name after it. Her first releases are dated 2017 and she usually works with Nopsajalka and as many other singers these days has done also several featurings ( Pimeyteen with Mikael Gabriel, 100% with Keko Salata and Seittemän with Raappana). For futher listening listen to Peace ,   Viisi kesää (feat. Nopsajalka) and   Melodia ,  She has written her entry Ram pam pam with Jonas Olsson and Tomi Saario.

Alternative rock band Cyan Kicks was founded in Helsinki 2016. They mix in their music hard rock with melodic pop and electronic sounds. The members are Susanna Alexandra (vocals), Niila Perkkiö (guitars), Leevi Erkkilä (bass) and Pietari Reijonen (drums). They have written their entry Hurricane with Swedish-Danish Eliza Ryd, singer in Amarathe and it's been produced and mixed with American Chris Walla and Zakk Cervini. Their debut single Feathers was released in 2017 but it was the second single Gasoline that brought them to radio waves and notoriety. Critics have labeled them as a very possible export product. Their debut album I don't love you (2019) was nominated for Emma award as the best rock album of the year. Last year they released their second album Not your kind and their latest (and 10th) single is Invincible . Late last year they also did a cover of Blind Channel's I died enough for you . Check out also The Flood , Tidal wave , Wish you well   and Beat of m

Here they are, and for once the names were not leaked ahead of time (let's see how it goes for the songs though....) and as the fandom had been speculating and investigating the clues the past week none of the names was a surprise, on the contrary. All were out and loud and some even a certain thing. But let's have a look in order of my excitement from most to none. I will do a better bio and review one by one as the songs are being released at midnight Finnish time.  Out of names that were also heavily circulating Tomi Saario is one of the writers for Bess, Haloo Helsinki for Tommi Läntinen. Ad Elize Ryd of Amarathe as a co-writer for Cyan Kicks, Desmond Child for The Rasmus, Vilma Alina for Younghearted so the name dropping wasn't in vain. The Rasmus - Jezebel I was a bit of a The Rasmus fan, and especially Lauri's solo fan and if this combo with Desmond Child took part in say 2010 I would have been pissing my pants in excitement. Now all I do is hope for a real har

  This week #Finpop goes kinda Latino! With a hint of Estonia. Sofia Zida - Te queiro a ti nublu / Mikael Gabriel - Vihje Playa / Jesper - Mitä vaan JVG - Vamos

Montenegro makes a very welcome back to Eurovision after sitting at home for two editions and has internally chosen Vladana among 30 submissions. Her song will be... You guessed it... revealed later. It's titled Breathe .  Will she become the first lady to take Montenegro in to the final after Sergej and Knez? Vladana Vučinić (35) is Macedonian born singer-songwriter/journalist. She started her musical career at 17 and studied music theory and opera singing but made her television debut in a karaoke show. After that she released several songs and made videos and participated in various festivals. including Montevizija, the national selection for Eurovision in 2005 and 2006, before Serbia & Montenegro went separated ways. Now, after years concentrating on her online fashion magazine she's ready to take on her music career again! While waiting for her Eurovision 2022 entry in Turin enjoy some of her biggest hits below:

This week's dose of more or less new #FinPop  Ollie - Vesper Pimu - Seremonia Olli Halonen - Pohjola Pins.ku - Planetaario

  A collections of national finals, internal selections, chosen artists and songs as they happen.  To be updated as things happen. Click titles for more info. Enjoy! MONTENEGRO ALBANIA CZECH REPUBLIC GREECE THE NETHERLANDS BULGARIA GEORGIA BELGIUM

 

It's been a sad year in the Eurovision family. We lost a great number of Eurovision artists from young Örs to eldest of them all Emil, and Finland particularly was hit hard with three artists and also a legendary songwriter. Another great loss was Franco Battiato, an Italian legend to whom Eurovision is just a minor chapter in his curriculum.  Carlos Do Carmo (21.12.1939-1.1.2021)  Portugal 1976 Uma flor de verde pinho Liam Reilly (29.1.1955-1.1.2021) Ireland 1990 Somewhere in Europe Ireland 1991 Could it be I'm in love (composer) Pave Maijanen (3.9.1050-16.1.2021) Finland 1992 Yamma yamma Örs Siklósi (1992-5.2.2021) Hungary 2018 with AWS - Viszlát nyár Sanja Ilic (27.3.1951-7.3.2021) Serbia 2018 with Balkanika - Nova deca Patrick Juvet (21.8.1950-1.4.2021) Switzerland 1973 Je vais me marier, Marie Shay Healy (29.4.1943-9.4.2021) Ireland 1980 What's another year (composer) Matti " Fredi " Siitonen (23.7.1942-23.4.2021) Finland 1967 Varjoon - suojaan Finland

Albania's Festivali i Këngës 60 came to an and last night and crowned Ronela Hajati as its winner with an ethnic banger, as fandom might call it. I call it blast from the past thinking these songs have had their Best before date already many years ago, but what do I know? Ronela and another pre-contest favorite Alban made the top-2 while newcomer Eldis shared the third place with Rezarta. Ronela will revamp, make it partly English and cut down the length and the number of dancers for Turin 2022. Maybe it makes it better as in my honest opinion at the moment it is a mess; bits and parts that occasionally sound kinda nice but in whole it's not going anywhere nor memorable. In short a song that you only hear in the Eurovision created for staging purposes. I would have preferred Eldis or Alban. Or even Gjergi. Ronela (32) is already a seasoned artist as singer and dancer with a lot of experience in various festivals and contests, a string of hit singles and collaborations. She will

Eurovision host Mikko Leppilampi and Eurovision veterans  Krista Siegfrids and Lasse Piirainen of Norma John fame  wish you merry and white Christmas! And so do I!

Czech Republic's selection has come to an end as well after a mix of Czech fans (25%), international fans (25%) and international jury (50%) We are Domi emerged as a clear winner with their Lights off. The trio is an international mix of Norwegian and Czech and brings their dancefloor experiences of Oslo, London and Prague now to Turin 2022  This said it's looking interesting for Norway as also the Greek entrant can be labeled as Norwegian - Norway will be the Albania of 2018 with multiple artists representing various countries!

Greese has internally chosen Amanda Tenfjord for Eurovision song contest 2022 in Turin. Her name was one of the five names in their shortlist made public earlier so she has beaten good job nicky, Joanna Drigo, Lou is and Eurovision veteran Ilias Kozas. Amanda Georgiadis (24) was born in Greece but moved to Norway, Tennfjord as a kid. She dropped her medical studies when her music career took off a couple of years ago, but she's been up and coming since 2014 with various experiences. Two EPs and 13 singles so far. Her Eurovision entry will be released later. Meanwhile enjoy her hit Then I fell in love below:

Sanremo 2022 kicks off tonight when finally the 12 become 2 and those two join the Sanremo 2022 Big cast. Meanwhile there was a rumor Amadeus might be adding another two Big names in the cast as well to make it 26 in total. Veteran names like Alice (!!!), Ron, Nada, Marcella Bella, Ricchi e Poveri, Riccardo Fogli, Luca Barbarossa and Anna Tatangelo, or newcomers like Ariete and Mara Sattei, or will he add the newcomers winners from past two years Leo Gassman and Gaudiano after all? Or more superpower to the already stellar cast with Francesco Gabbani, Elodie or Diodato? Or Giovanni Caccamo with a song written by late Franco Battiato? Matteo Andrea's son Bocelli? Simona Molinari? Renzo Rubino?  All that proved wrong (so far....) yesterday when he announced that not only Top-2 but Top-3 of the artists tonight will have a ticket to Ariston in February!  He also let us know that 320 submissions didn't make it, among them that of Jalisse who he said he's got nothing personal aga

Australia has announced now all the ten finalists of Australia decides Eurovision 2022 - with a twist. First of yes, there's a returning Eurovision veteran. Yes, here's a returning artist. And yes, there's rock. And yes, there's someone from talent shows. So they seem to check all the boxes that seem to be this year's trend in national finals. The Eurovision veteran is Isaiah Firebrace from 2017. Jaguar Jonze is the returnee from 2020. Voyager brings in the rock. And Sheldon Riley made himself known in America's Got Talent. Just to name some. The Australia decides final will be on February 26, 2022. Oh the twist? There's a competition on Tiktok to get a wildcard to the line up...... Here they are - click on their names for a previous track from their catalogue!: Andrew Lambrou Charley G-Nation Isaiah Firebrace feat. TBA Jaguar Jonze Jude York - I won't need to dream Paulini Seann Miley Moore - My body Sheldon Riley Voyager

Pabandom iš naujo! is back for 2022 and January sees the start of six shows where 36 become one and travels to Turin 2022 Eurovision. Among the hopefuls we have several familiar names, including four ladies who have already done the honors: Erika Jennings (with SKAMP 2001), Ieva Zasimauskaité (2018), Monika Linkyté (2015 with Vaidas Baumila) and Vilija Matačiūnaitė (2014). All of them have also participated several times in the national selection as well so they are true veterans. But that's not all. There are also other familiar names trying to win it for the first time like last year's runner up Gebrasy, Aldegunda, Cosmic Bride, Titas ir Benas, last year's third Voldemars Petersons and more. Who ever wins has big boots to fill after two years of The Roop and their successful 2020 winner On fire and they won again the national final in 2021 with Discotheque after having not been re-elected internally having huge support by the nation's televoters and fandom.Full l

After last year's cancellation and many countries just sending the previously chosen artist to Rotterdam 2021 the edition 2022 sees an increase of national selections which is very nice. It also seems already that many previous entrants are after another go, so far Estonia taking the prize with six previous winners trying again compared to one in Spain (Azúcar Moreno), three in Sweden (Anna Bergendahl, John Lundvik, Robin Bengtsson) and four in Lithuania (Erika Jennings, Ieva Zasimauskaité, Monika Linkyté, Vilija Mataciunauté). So far. They are Evelin Samuel (1999), Anna Sahlene (2002), Elina Nechayeva (2018), Lauri Pihlap (2001), Stig Rästa (2015) and Ott Lepland (2012). Estonia's Eesti laul 2022 is already in full swing and after the last quarter final all but Lauri Pihlap (Eurovision 2001 winner as a member of 2XL) made the cut for semi-finals coming up next in February. So many songs in Estonian in the mix! Jaagup Tuisk - Kui vaid Stig Rästa - Interstellar Maian - Meeletu B