Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Last but not least, here comes the very last song for Liverpool's Eurovision song contest 2023. Georgia chose their entrant via The Voice of Georgia and Iru Khechanovi (22) won. Now her entry has been revealed and it's Echo. One cannot compare with yesterday's release or Armenia. Both have fancy expensive looking videos, somehwta original songs but I must say after first hearing I prefer Armenia. Also, I may be tired but I didn't understand about 4/5 of the lyrics of Echo. "We are pedaling".... what? I don't know....

Armenia chose internally 21-year old Elen Yeremyan (Էլեն Երեմյան) aka Brunette in February and now her entry Future Lover is out, song 36/37 for Eurovision song contest 2023 in Liverpool. Was it worth the wait? The video looks gorgeous and expensive, the song starts off very nicely but then.... well... The song has a very tender bits, and then quite aggressive bits and somehow Brunette manages to have the same look on her face with has no expression at all. Armenian lyrics in the air floating bit is a nice touch and if they manage to bring that floating scene on stage in Liverpool it's bye bye Loreen - in staging gimmicks department. Otherwise, after hearing the song twice now.... It's not among my top favorites right now. Let's see where it ends once all songs are out and I have a listen of them all together. 

Another day, another entry. Today it's Azerbaijan's turn to reveal Their entry for Eurovision song contest 2023 in LIverpool and it's Tell me more by TuralTuranX, a song they have written themselves so Azeei tv didn't go shopping around this year, something that they declared already early on in the selection process. Read more here .  I heard the leaked snip earlier today and wasn't very impressed to say the least but now hearing the whole song... Hmm.... It's not so bad, it's kinda sweet after all. A bit beatlesian in a way. Zero Azeri vibes I'm afraid even if they somewhere promised there might be a bit. If they didn't mean their casual wear, I don't know...

After a lot of drama, attempted lawsuit by the runner up and all that holabaloo it's finally here. Internally selected  What they say, sung by 16-year-old Victor Vernicos.  And I must say it wasn't worth the wait. The song isn't anything special, memorable or catchy or interesting in any way and most of all sounds like some bootleg recording or demo made in the garage. His vocals don't help and one can't really say he'd be singing but mumbling and talking though the song. I'm already scared for the live performance in Liverpool. Sadly this sails straight to my bottom-3. If there's something positive it's not the typical Greek europop by some foxy lady produced in Sweden. 

Last but not least, we have a winner in Portugal! Festival da Canção 2023 was won by Mimicat and she goes to Liverpool's Eurovision song contest for Portugal hoping to continue the success Portugal has enjoyed the past two editions. It looks like the juries and televote didn't agree on nothing but the top-2 that were very clear. The jury even tied them giving both of them 12 points.  Results (jury/tele vote) 1. Mimicat - Ai coração (12 + 12) 24 2. Edmundo Inácio - A Festa (12 + 10) 22 3. Claudia Páscoal - Nasci Maria (8 + 4) 12 4. Bárbara Tinacvo - Goodnight (3 + 6) 9 5. Ivandro _ Povo (6 + 3) 9 6. Dapunksportif - World needs therapy (0 + 8) 8 7. Voodoo Marmelade - Tormento (0 + 7) 7 8. Tou can't win, Charlie Brown - Contraste mudo (7 + 0) 7 9. Churky - Encruzilhada (0 + 5) 5 10. Neon Soho - Endless world (5 + 0) 5 11. Esse Povo - Sapatos de cimento (4 + 0) 12. SAL - Viver (1 + 2) 3 13. Inés Apenas - Fim do mundo (2 + 1) 3 I can't believe I did review and watch each and

She did it. Sadly. Loreen has won Melodifestivalen 2023 with Tattoo. And I still don't hear what everyone is hearing. I find it shouty uninteresting piece of music that borrows the intro from ABBA's Winner takes it all a bit and that's the best bit in fact. Oh well.... Results (jury/televote) 1. Loreen  - Tattoo (92 + 85) 177 2. Markus & Maretinus - Air (71 + 67) 138 3. Smash Into Pieces - Six feet under (53 + 59) 112 4. Jon Henrik, Arc North, Adam Woods - Where are you (23 + 58) 81 5. Theoz - Mer av dig (42 + 36) 78 6. Kiana - Where did you go (37 + 39) 76 7. Paul rey - Royals (56 + 1) 57 8. Mariette - One day (35 + 16) 51 9. Maria Sur - Never give up (10 + 37) 47 10. Panetoz - On my way (22 + 25) 47 11. Nordman - Släpp alla sorger (8 + 36) 44 12. Tone Sekelius - Rhythm of my show (15 + 5) 20

Melodifestivalen is here again and this year Loreen has electrified the otherwise somewhat snooze fest and everyone seems to be taking for granted that she will again and that she will also win Eurovision in Liverpool again. Maybe she just got pissed off when Euphoria was kicked off from the first place in the ESC250 this New Year's? Who knows. She has entered Mello three times before, twice not making the final at all but this time the hype is real. But more about that later. A lot has been said about the quality of the songs, and especially the songwriters as there are names having six and four and who knows how many songs in the final, and each and every song having about a dozen songwriters. I find that a bit boring to be honest. Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods - Where are you (Sávežan) * Poor Jon Henrik used as a prop! And still he's the only interesting part of this mediocre pop song that goes on three minutes and vanished without a trace...  Tone Sekeliu

Time has come also to find out who will represent Portugal in Liverpool's Eurovision song contest. Festival da Canção has went through the usual semi-finals (read more here and here ) and it's time for the grand final. The finalists are 13 instead of 12 as ín the first semi-final there was some hick up with Esse Povo's voting lines, and they were added to the line up for that. The favorites seem to be Mimicat, Ivandro and Edmundo Inácio, one of the open call winners in the line up. There will be 50/50 regional juries/televote. Here's my new take on the songs after initial reviews (links above), now with the stage performance effects added and maybe a couple of further listenings.  Cláudia Pascoal - Nasci Maria ** Already a rather confusing song has been staged to become even more confusing. It's colorful, a bit fun, a bit crazy and rather entertaining. Only that you forget about the song while you wonder what's happening next and what everything has to do with

The last missing piece of the Class of '23 for Eurovision song contest is out: Azerbaijan has confirmed 22-year-old twins and street musicians Turan and Bağmanov from Zaqatala under name TuralturanX for Eurovision. They have written their entry Tell me more themselves, a welcome change from Azeris usually shopping songs from Sweden and elsewhere, and in fact its the first Azeri made song since their debut in 2008! Well done! They were chosen among the five short listed artists internally. The other ones were Azer Nazibov, Humay Aslanova & Amrah Musayev, leila Izzatova and Mamagama.  The song will be revealed later. 

United Kingdom has ended a long rumor mill this morning by announcing their entrant for Liverpool's Eurovision song contest 2023 will be  A long string of female artists were rumored over the past weeks and months. Freya Ridigs, Birdy, Mimi Webb and especially Rina Sawayama were mentioned along with Mae Muller who was leaked yesterday by Sun. Mae wrote a song and now she's here! Actually I kinda enjoy this!

She was the first artist announced for the Eurovision song contest 2023 that didn't even have the host city back then yet. Read more here . Few weeks ago the song title was revealed and finally tonight the song, Unicorn.  And.... oh dear what a mess. There's about seven different songs, a real puzzle of ideas thrown together as is the video with different settings and looks that at least with the first viewing have no sense at all. Including that ridiculous Noa as unicorn scene.... Oh my. It's phenomenal indeed but all for the wrong reasons. The first two minutes stick together somehow but then the last minute with that sudden end. Why?

  Austria has presented this morning their chosen entry Who the hell is Egdar? by Teya and Salena. It certainly is different, somewhat funny, a little bit arrogant and timidly in your face. But is it something I would listen to if not Eurovision? No. Do I like it a lot? No. They say the lurics are clever but what I read about them remains an inner circle criticism or joke and who the hell knows how much Spotify pays to people for example? (Except it's too little)

Another day, another Eurovision entry revealed. Switzerland announced already few weeks ago ( read more here ) that Remo Forrer is the chosen one. The 21-year-old The Voice of Switzerland 2020 winner will sing Watergun  in Liverpool's Eurovision song contest 2023 in May.  With first hearing this is straight to my Top-3. The babyface + manly voice combo is intriguing, the song's arrangement is fantastic, good melody, the lyrics.... What's there not to like? Bravo!

  Serbia has decided. Luke Black travels to Liverpool's Eurovision song contest 2023 with Samo se mi spava. Pesma za Evrovizija was surely a feast for boys, and for once the pre-contest fan favorite actually did win.  All in all Serbia's selection was clearly one of the better ones in every way: song, graphics, stagings. Well done! The winner is a stunning show, not so much a song so I'm not yet so confident the general televoting public will go crazy for it as much as fandom. We'll see! And the jury did some questionable votings but then what do I know? I'm just wondering what did they hear or see that I didn't? It's also worth noting Luke didn't win either jury nor televote but placed second in both. Jury's 12 went to Nađa (???) and televote's 12 to Princ. Princ (20.398) and Luke (20.070) ruled the televote as 3rd placed Dzipsii got only 11.582, and Filip 8.529. Results (jury + televote): 1. Luke Black - Samo mi se spava (10 + 10) 20 2. Princ -

  Diljá has won the Icelandic final for Eurovision song contest 2023 with her Power, beating Langi Seli og Skuggarnir in the super final. It seems this Saturday the fandom got what they wanted as also in Moldova and Serbia the fan favorite won.  Results: 1. Diljá - Power 2. Langi Seli og Skuggurnir - OK Sigga Ózk - Dancing lonely Bragi - Sometimes the world's against you Celebs - Doomsday dancing

He was the favorite and did it after many attemps again. Pasha Parfeni returns to Eurovision song contest in Liverpool for Moldova. He won both jury and televote, and the other Eurovision veterans occupied the rest of the podium. This wasn't apparently good enough for Sunstroke project who badmouthed Pasha's victory. Sour people. Aliona on the other hand praised Pasha's song. It's worth remembering Pasha was a member of Sunstroke project for a short period. In 2013 Pasha wrote Aliona's entry for Eurovision while Aliona was Pasha's backing singer in 2012. The circuits are small in Moldova it seems. Results (jury + televote): 1. Pasha Parfeni - Soarele și Luna (12 + 12) 24 2. Sunstroke Project - Yummu mommy (8 + 10) 18 3. Aliona Moon - Du-mă (10 + 7) 17 4. Surorile Osaianu -  Bade, bădișor, bădiță (7 + 8) 15 5. Donia - Red zone (5 + 6) 11 6. OL - Why you play it cool  ( 6 + 1) 7 7. Corina Ivanov - When love's real (4 + 3) 7 8. Cosmina - Indestructible (2 +

After two semi-finals and after some questionable choices (my review SF1 here and SF 2 here ) Serbia is ready to pick up the song for Liverpool's Eurovision song contest 2023. Half the songs made it this far and there will be 50/50 televote/jury vote.  I watched the semi-finals and I have to say they did a great job. By far  the best graphics this year and most every staging was thought after and looked great. Well done! Stefan Shy - Od jastuka do jastuka Boris Subotić - Nedostupan Nadia - Devojka tvog dečka Duo Grand - Viva la vida Nađa - Moj prvi ožiljak na duši Frajle - Neka, neka Hurricane - Zumi zimi zami Chegi & Braća Bluz Band - Svadba ili kavga Dzipsii - Greh Luke Black - Samo se mi spava Filip Baloš -Novi plan drugi san Princ - Svet sa Istoka Filarri - Posle mene Gift - Liberta Empathy Soul Project - Indigo Zejna - Rumba

Iceland has had its two semi-finals ( read more and my review here ) and tonight's the grand final. Everything as usual as two qualifiers from each semi-final is here, plus one wildcard (Celebs). Everything as usual as now all but Langi &co. will switch into English instead of Icelandic. Which. Is. A. Shame. There will be 50/50 jury/televote in the first round, and another voting with the Top-2 to determinate the eventual winner. I'm still fully #teamBragi.  Sigga Ózk - Dancing lonely Bragi - Sometimes the world's against you Celebs - Doomsday dancing Diljá - Power Langi Seli og Skuggurnir - OK

One of the three countries choosing their entry for Liverpool's Eurovision song contest 2023 is Moldova. ( Read more about it and my review here ). There will be 50/50 televote/jury vote to determinate the winner. Let's see if we will have another returnee if and when one of Pasha Parfeni, Aliona Moon or Sunstroke Project wins. It seems Pasha is the front runner this time around.  Donia - Red zone OL - Why you play it cool Victor Gulick - Let's dance Surorile Osaianu - Bade, bădişor, bădiţă Cosmina - Indestructible Nördika - Damn and down Aliona Moon - Du-mă Sunstroke Project - Yummy mommy Pasha Parfeny - Soarele şi luna Corina Ivanov - When love's real

Germany has chosen. Lord of the Lost with Blood & glitter has won the German selection. Rarely the international juries and the local public have disagreed this much on the ranking! We'll see how this ends. Maybe the shock value of Lords was fresh 20 years ago, not anymore?  This said, this is maybe the most interesting German entry since... well..... For a long long time! And on a personal note I can say my two favorites won both the televote and the jury vote, so I'm quite pleased.  Results (jury + televote) 1. Lord of the Lost - Blood and glitter (43 + 146) 189 2. Ikke Hüftgold - Lied mit gutem Text (10 + 101) 111 3. Will Church - Hold on (90 + 21) 111 4. Trong - Dare to be different (52 + 19) 71 5. Lonely Spring - Misfit (40 + 30) 70 6. Anica Russo - Once upon a dream (57 + 8) 65 7. René Miller - Concrete heart (54 + 8) 62 8. Patty Gurdy - Melodies of hope (22 + 34) 56 Jury votes: Final result:

Sweden's Melodifestivalen 2023 has cut down the songs in the previous four heats (here) and it's time for the semi-final, formerly known as Andra chancen aka Second chance round. In previous four heats two songs qualified for the final directly, and the 3rd and 4th placed ones are here fighting for four places in the final line up. It may not be a big surprise I haven't been a Mello fan for years anymore; great looking show, usually also very funny and entertaining but the songs haven't really made any impact on my own personal playlist, so let's see what they have in offer. I haven't followed the heats with attention, barely watching them when run on Finnish television delayed so basically all these songs are new to me.  Theoz - Mer av dig *** Old school schlager and he's quite likable but there's zero emotion, just perfect choreography and performance. Sterile. But the song echoes mello of the yesteryears. More like an opening number than a competing e

Here we go with the second semi-final of Festival da cancao 2023. You can read my thought about the first semi-final here. Edmundo Inácio - A festa **** He's one of the open call qualifiers and I certainly want to join his party. Lovely arrangement and rhythm, very nice voice. Latin inspired but not in the usual banal way. I hope the live staging and performance will be good! The Happy Mess - O impossivel *** Again very nice but quite forgettable. Not much to say, enjoyable while it's playing. Teresinha Landeiro - Enquanto è tempo *** Very classic old school, beautiful. Timeless.  Bandua - Bandeiras *** Intriguing and interesting. Probably would suffer Telemóveis fate in Eurovision. But I like this a lot more, that was way too weird.  Bárbara Tinoco - Goodnight ** Why in English, why? Loses a lot becoming a song from any random national final anywhere. A song that doesn't bother the top of the scoreboard. Anywhere. Inés Apenas - Fim do mundo ** Another open call qualifier.