Better late than never is the case of Masoe who has released a video for his Paradis. The song was one of my favorites in the Destination Eurovision 2018 for France (same concept is coming also for 2019 btw) but didn't quite impress in the semifinal placing only 7th out of nine. There's something about it I liked since the first hearing.... especially the chorus and his falsetto voice. It's all very French somehow. Love it. Hopefully he tries again in 2019!
Yle has revealed that next year's UMK will be handled out like this year's, aka internal selection for the artist who can handle the big stage, live performance and has high tolerance for stress. This way they are able to invest more on staging and the rest, they say.
They don't know yet however if there will be one artist or several, and how the song(s) will be selected. Yle has contacted record labels, artists, songwriters and producers for ideas. In other words: depends who they manage to get and on what conditions.
The Finnish musicians association approves Yle is clear from the beginning this time and has offered their help, but Yle hasn't yet agreed nor disagreed on that. This year Yle angered them when they changed the rules and threw away the 300 submissions wasting their time and money for nothing when Yle went for Saara Aalto instead all of sudden.
Fans and common people pretty much in unison have named Jenni Vartiainen as the suitable and dream one for 2019....
When Claudio Baglioni was announced the Musical director for Sanremo 2018, as well as the host, many were sceptical - this blogger included - but after the record breaking success of the edition it was only logical Rai would want him again. And after negotiations since February the deal is done and oops, he'll do it again in 2019. Most likely his winning format will stay aka more music, less talk and endless guests that had nothing to do with music. In fact he pretty much zeroed that in 2018. If I could say one wish: a little younger and modern acts please. Just a little. No one needs rappers, it is proven in 2018.
This year he had fabulous Michelle Hunziger and equally fabulous Pierfrancesco Favino as his co-hosts. The question is: How can he top that? And will he host again?
Rai is yet to give any further information regarding the 69th festival such as dates etc.
It's no seecret to any reader of this blog Gente De Zona has become my favorite ever since I started planning by trip to Cuba about a year ago. To my great surprise and pleasure they are indeed number one band there as they were played everywhere during all my holidays. All the time. everywhere.
Their fame has spread all over the globe also thanks to their numerous collaborations and songs they have written for from Enrique Iglesias to Marc Anthony and many other local names. Recently they also turned Laura Pausini's ballad and Kylie's country into Cubaton heaven. Their most recent ones include Eurovision veterans Il Volo, beforementioned fifty and fabulous Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Lopez and this week they have finally released also something on their own, too. Enjoy!
Italian Eurovision stars Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro have decided to give up the copyrights of their Sanremo winner and Eurovision 5th placed entryNon mi avete fatto niente to EMERGENCY thus giving its profits to charity joining Musica per Emergency project.
EMERGENCY is an independent and neutral Italian association founded in 1994 to offer free and high quality medical and surgical care to victims of wars, anti-personnel mines and poverty. EMERGENCY promotes a culture of peace, solidarity and respect for human rights.
The French national selection had way too many songs I liked to feature here so here's the runner up, Lisandro Cuxi's Eva. It seems the live performances are no longer available so here's an alternative.
Nika Zorjan didn't even pass the Slovenian semifinal (thanks to the jury) but I took a liking to her song. Uspavanka despite the questionable staging...
One of Eurovision legend Ralph Siegel's most succesful songs - if not the most sold one - Moskau is reborn. Back in 1979 is charted all over Europe hitting #1 in Germany, Japan, Russia and Australia of all places and has since sold millions in dozens of versions in different languages. And here we have some more new versions and videos, reproduced by Siegel himself with British born Jay Khan and the German lyrics revisited by Bernd Meinunger for the occasion of the FIFAWorld Championships in Russia this summer. Original band members Edina Pop and Henriette Strobel provide vocals as well with the recent band members while the Russian and Spanish versions have featured lead singers Alexander Malinin with his daughter and Mexican Jorge Jiménez and Marifer Medrano.
Moskau Moskau lives again in a worldwide event, after being used as a theme songs during Moscow Olympics by Aussies and played all over the world. Now this summer, soccer games give us an excuse to listen this pearl of a song again. Over and over again!
Check out all the versions below:
Dschinghis Khan & Jay Khan - Moscow Moscow (English version)
Dschinghis Khan & Jay Khan - Moskau Moskau (German Football version)
Dschinghis Khan, Alexander Malinin & Ustinya Malina - Москва (Russian version)
And here's their legendary Eurovision performance - I remember the Finnish commentator mumbling in confusion "there was a person on stage who didn't sing!" Was it the first time?
John Lundvik may have placed only 3rd in Melodifestivalen, but he hit #1 in the charts and considering Austria's success with a similar gospely song and somewhat similar singer ... with Sanna Nielsen's lighting and Celine Dion's jacket, who knows? Did we miss Sweden's 7th win? For sure Cesar Sampson is grateful John wasn't in Lisbon!
Just like Swiss Reyes also Norwegian Fuentes is Chilean born. If Reyes only flirted with the Latin sound Fuentes goes full blast into Cubaton/Reggaeton with his Tengo otra in the national final. Not very Norwegian but out of that context this works as well as the original ones from the Caribian!
