Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

We already had Saucy Sebastian trying his luck in Slovenia and now his friend Luka Nizetic in Croatia tries his luck. He also introduced Sebastian to the world of calendars by doing one already before him. Since they have dueted together and who knows, maybe 2008 they will do a calendar together? Oh, and yes, Luka's Pusti me u san is my favourite in Croatia (even without the help of the calendar).

Greece will choose its winner tomorrow night and after hearing the three songs various times last week only I can now say that Tamta has appeared in my brain's jukebox every now and then since, Dantis a time or two but Sarbel's been appearing regularly the past few days out of the blue and made me think about Maria... So, I have decided I want Sarbel for Helsinki. If not him then Tamta. Dantis would be the last choíse and if he wins, I won't be that sad after all as I do like it as well. Nice to have a final with only 3 songs instead of dozens of songs with semifinals and second chances for a change!

The Israeli final was held tonight and Teapacks/Tipex performed their four songs Salam salami , 12 points , Voulez vous and Push the button that scored full 100 points while the others were left with a flat zero. The songs were quite "interesting" and the winner is... well, different. Is it fun (or is it ment to be?), I do not know! But it is a long 3 minutes....

Stevan Faddy with Hajde kroci has won the first Montenegrin final. The country that separated from Serbia last year debuts in the Eurovision in Helsinki. As Serbia-Montenegro they managed to have two entries in the content after more or less scandalous and very crazy national finals where in 2004 a Serbian song won (and came 2nd in the Eurovision 2004) and in 2005 a Montenegrin song won. In 2006 it all ended up in a fight and the country who couldn't decide who is the winner stayed out of the content. This year they both come under their own flag.

Hayko singing a tender ballad Anytime you need with the last chorus in armenian has won the Armenian final. He was both televoters and jury's favourite, and one of the most popular singers in the country. He has been voted the best singer in Armenia in 2003 and 2006 following the last year's trend when Andre represanted the country having won in the years in between.

Hungary has chosen its artist as well. Magdi Ruzsa is her name and the song will be announced in a week or two. She is the winner of the third local Popidol or Megaszár held in Hungary last year and is of Serbian hungarian minority.

Karolina Goceva, who already represented her country in 2002 will return with Mojot svet . Last time she created fuss about the language rule and had a great wardrobe trick on stage. Who knows what she will up to this time with her slavic drama? And yes, my predictions were all wrong, Lamba managed a third place and I did mention Karolina as a possibility but for the rest it went all wrong! However her victory was a very convincing one as she got full points from each jury.

The six men tenor group Bonaparti.lv singing in italian Questa notte has won the Latvian selection. And it is not good at all. Last year they offered us accapella singing and now operatic pop that makes me miss Il Divo and almost every other similar act. Sigh. Oh, and the song is written by Swedes....

As I predicted the bizarre stuff did well in Bulgaria: Elitsa and Stoyan with Voda won while Sofie and Ustata came third, KariZma managed to squeeze in into second place. Voda is the winning song and means Water. Funny, in Finnish slang voda means just that... And it is a rather ethnic thing with drums and weird voices that remind me of Lappish joiku for some reason...

Evridiki presented her third Eurovision entry Comme ci, comme ca and it is a far cry for her previous rather ethnic entries in 1992 and 1994. Is a catchy 80's electropop the key to win post-Lordi Eurovision? It sure is one of the best songs this year. And sung in French. Shame, a bit of Greek would have ben a nice bonus.

NASH with I love you mi vida won in Spain, and sorry all the fans of the song but I think it's even more boring than the Thomas G:son penned song fro Norway. If Norway qualifies for the final it would be interesting to have it drawn right next to Spain and those two song propably eating the votes from each other. Anyways, I love you mi vida sounded better when Rebeca sung it. NASH does not manage to add anything to it, if not more boredom. Well, this said it propably wins in Helsinki Norway being the runner up all I know...

DJ BoBo has revealed his song and it's called Vampires are alive . Europop with guest vocalist, catchy tune and comes with a huge stage show, me thinks. Dancers, fire works.... the whole package. Will surely do better than the Swiss effort last year, but better than foreign labour from Estonia in 2005? Hmm....

FYR Macedonia is having its final on Saturday, too, and judging the short samples there is something cooking. Giorgij Krstevki with Letni dozdovi and Lambe Alabakovski with Belo e se have two nice sounding songs, Ivana Andonorska offers a ballad Odi si , Supernova a pop rock Potseti me but Maja Grozdanovska-Panceva (pic) offers us caviar and silk, Kavijar is svile ! Oh, and Karolina is back, too...

Belgium has finally chosen. Internally that is. The KMG or The Krazy Mess Groovers will represent the country in Finland with Love power It sounds like we are set to hear another novelty act. The band members have fancy names like Sexyfire, Mr Scotch, Mr French Kiss, Big Boss, Mr The Answer, Mr Dee Bee Dee Bop, Mr Y and Mr Cream. Oh hang on, that's too many! Only six are allowed on stage! Who will stay home??

... or not really. It just splits and now Serbia and Montenegro after fighting every year over Eurovision, even so much they missed this year because they couldn't agree on the winner, can award each other with lovely 12 points... Or will they? Anyway, after a quick listen to the songs there isn't any new Lane mojes or Lejlas waiting to grace Hartwall Areena's stage. Nina & Dan Poslija's Andele sounds quite nice but the favourite seems to be Stevan Faddy with Hajde kroci . Montenegro final on next Sunday!

Austria returns to Eurovision after a short break with an Idols kind of talent show fame who can't decide if his name is Eric or Ric. But never mind. He will surely win a few hearts with his looks alone in Helsinki for sure. And he already covered Hard rock hallelujah in the show! And the song? Well, we will hear it in early March. Welcome back Austria!

Whatever that means but it's one of the songs, performed by Igeta and it's scary, just look the pic and see what it did to her! That's what repeating only Dundari dandari in different ways for 3 minutes does to you I guess (bottom right). The Latvian final is on next Saturday and it's rock, tenor pop, rock, country, rock, jazz, rock, pop, rock and some more rock. My vote goes to Lenii's Take of your mask (top right) - I wonder what inspired the lyrics? -, Kesija's You're losing me (top left) - even if her previous entry In the heat of the night was way better - and as a wild card Gunars Kalnins & Jolanda Suvorova's What a love can do to me (bottom left). Finland's adopted son Geir Rönning is featured in The legends of rock'n roll by Jonny Salamander & Meldra.

Next Saturday will be another SuperSaturday with 5 national finals and Bulgaria is one of them. Like Andorra they have had a very rocky start in the Eurovision and it looks like their luck won't change this year either. None of the songs really stands out, if not being very bizarre (Katseko Kalki with Freedom and love , Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankulov with Voda , Sofi Marinova & Ustata with Ya tvoya ) or just plain boring. My guess goes to KariZma with Fool for you (bottom left), or Grupata with Back in your heart (top right) , or Dimitar Atanasov with Only way back home (top left) . They're offering ethnopop, boyband pop and a ballad, in that order. Not because they're particularly good, but they're the easiest to chew. Should I add Sofi & Ustata (bottom right) after all as a dark horse?

Sweden has had three semis by now and there have been a lot of surprises and I am still waiting for THE song. One semi left and there is still hope. Last night super favourites Nanne was left in Second Chance (quite rightly so) and Magnus Carlsson eliminated for good (hmm...) while the Idols best pals Måns and Sebastian went on to Globen and kissed the night away afterwards, maybe inspired by Nanne's I have to kiss you ? In previous semis many of the songs I kinda liked have been eliminated, Cosmo4's What's your name , Regina Lund's Rainbow star , Addis Black Widow's Clubbin and Sofia's Hypnotized just to name a few. Thanks to Måns Zelmerlöf last night I do have a favourite now (despite the corny title Cara mia ). Not so great on record but looked and sounded very good on stage.

The other final tonight is over and and I thought I was heading for a jackpot with my prediction when the chairman came third, Fridrik second and I was then expecting Jónsi to win but no. Eirikur Hauksson with Eg les i lofe finum won, so he returns to the Eurovision for the third time but for the first time solo. Oh well. Here's anyways Eirikur and Jónsi, which one would you rather have seen in Helsinki?

Hanna managed to beat Lovex after all and won tonight. Even Thunderstone squeezed in before them and Lovex ended only third. Hanna was fabulous. She even changed dresses showing self confidence to share with others. In the first round she gave a very angry performance in a weird white/black/silver dress that flew away in some point with a little help of the wind machine. In the final round she had changed into red and black piece and flirted with the camera like there was no tomorrow and even danced around a bit! And that girl said she is nervous beforehand!? She was fa-bu-lous! And Johanna got viisukuppila.fi's award so... In all a very good final and with over 250.000 votes YLE should be happy, too. And we have a very popular winner with great backing by BMG Finland, just like Lordi last year. It is looking good.... Full results: 1. Hanna Pakarinen 73.052 or 44% (17,7 first round) 2. Thunderstone 54.716 or 33% (11,5% first round) 3. Lovex 38.175 or 23% (15,8% first round) 4. L...

The Irish final took place last night and Dervish performed four songs. First the Finnish penned one, a very slow one, then the Swedish penned one, a slow one, the the Irish penned one, a bit of movement here and she hit a few notes in the right places. Then the last one where she sang as she is supposed to sing, the song was clearly the best one and there was no doubt it is the winner. Over and done.

So, I have been listening to the ten French finalists and seen the videos and to my horror (?) I seem to like the most a song sung in a fake British accent, Les Fatals Picard's L'amour à la Française . It is a jolly little tune, catchy and even if most the other songs are rather interesting this is the one that I think would have the best chance in Helsinki to get France out of the bottom of the list for a change.... There are quite a few other ones that could easily be straight from the French charts so it will be interesting to see which one the French will pick up!

The Icelandic semifinals have been the most boring thing to follow this year. Only one song stands out and that is Jónsi's Segdu mér (and no, I wasn't a Jónsi fan in Istanbul 2004!). It's a good dramatic rock ballad. Fridrik Òmar with Eldur is also a favourite what I hear but it's a bit boring really and doesn't go anywhere. He is good though. Hafsteinn Faroldsson's Thú tryllir mig is worth a mention, too, with it's electro pop beat and his chair action. The only woman worth mentioning is Briet Sunna Valdemarsdóttir's Blómabörn .

It was "Edsilia naar Helsinki" show time in the Netherlands tonight. Paul De Leeuw hosted so the fun was guaranteed but Edsilia herself proved she is one funny lady herself. And she picked up the best song. Yes, no televoting nor juries. One woman in charge and what a woman. Edsilia is, besides being beautiful, wonderful on stage and has a voice to die for.... And the song's good, too! Even the Finnish ambassador present said it has the beat one can't miss. Or something but indeed it makes your foot hit the beat and sing along even if you have no idea what you are singing about. Hopefully she will keep at least a part of the song in Dutch as no one makes Dutch sounds so good she does! Oh, the other songs were good, too. Ballads but not good enough for this stage. And then we had Lordi (circa 2047) singing Hard Retirement Home Hallelujah ! And when announcing the result she forgot she needed to change and run off the stage undressing while running (black bra!)

The weirdest of them all this year, and the most complicated, the Spanish Misión Eurovisión has finally chosen the five final singers/acts and the 5 final songs. Now they only have to mix & match those together. Apparently they themselves realized what madness it is and as a result each 5 acts will sing each and every of the 5 songs in the final... Sigh. The singers are Yanira Figueroa, NASH (pictured), Merche Llobera, Mirela and Nazareth. The songs are I love you mi vida , Tu voz se apagará , La reina de la noche , Busco un hombre and Una lágrima . The Spanish winner is one of these 25 combinations! But the songs will also be sung (in full) by 5 invited guest artists, to add to the confusion, while the 5 real artists belt out only one minute of each... How complicated can you get??

...aspetteró tra favola e realtá, in un inverno di ricordi ti riscalderai...

So here we have them. All songs and performances. And Laura rules this last selection. First on stage with a wonderful ballad Kosketa mua . Great vocals, very good performance and some added italian vocals by the end of the song that are missing from the studio version. Beats and Styles were chaotic on stage and had people going here and there with two female vocalists and Charles Slater hanging around, too. Not very convincing. Jann Wilde & Rose Avenue... well, I don't want to be rude so I won't comment any further if not that the better song went to the final. With the other two I disagree. Especially Laura. Her final song has a great presentation, good choreography and all but it lacks something. It's just good track and visually is good but... it won't be enough in Helsinki and she will do Addicted to you - part 2 , as she said, in every sense.

Denmark followed Norway and all my favourites where nowhere close to winning. Instead the Danish picked out the second chance qualifier drag act DQ with the all telling title Drama queen . And it isn't even funny. I bet Sweden will now follow the lead and send Anna Book to Helsinki. Hooray Nordic schlager Europop! Not...

Well, if you read my previous post about Norway it comes as no surprise that none of my favourites left managed to make the superfinal 4... I guess I have to be happy that the Dusty Cowshit thing didn't make it. Instead we have a nice lady - that looks her age instead of being totally botoxed - doing a tasteless and smelless summer dance track that leaves no traces anywhere, if not the memory of two tall dancers. Ven a bailar conmigo a is the title. How Norwegian is that? Oh, and it's written by a certain Swede, Thomas G:son. Enough said.

As expected Locomondo with their funny multilingual song Ljubi ljubi I love you won. Ionut Ungureanu came 2nd, Marcel Povel 4th and Nico 5th, so I guess I should be happy. Do we have the makings of the funny act that scores well in the final, and Romania will go on with its record breaking top-10 placements since the semifinal was introduced to the Eurovision? I think so.

Kenan Dogulu and the TRT committee has chosen the song for Helsinki out of three songs Kenan proposed. Apparently he got so inspired by the whole affair he penned 7-8 songs in all. Shake it up, sekerim is a happy up-tempo number that will be first aired in early March.

The third of the countries selecting this Saturday is Denmark. There are a couple of song I like in the final, one clear favourite and the best song that is out (yes, again! Is it me or the people?). The best one is Aud Wilke's Husker du . Atmospheric and mystical, but maybe not right for the Eurovision anno domini 2007. So, my vote goes to Jacob Andersen's Listen to love . Apparently it is also a favourite so I hope he wins! (And that Brian McFadden won't mind...) I also like Katrine Falkenberg's Carpenters-esque It's a beautiful day and Me and My's Two are stronger than one .

While listening to the Norwegian songs this year I was a bit shocked to realize almost every song I liked was already out of the competition, not even in second chance for them: Monica Hjelle with Creator , Christine Undhjelm with Here , Amelia with Unbelievable and most of all Marika Lejon with Perfect sin . Now what does that say about my taste (or Norwegians' taste?)? So, I have to pick up Infinity's Hooked on you as my top favourite. It's a nostalgic Aqua-esque 90's techno I liked so much when I was young(er). Just keep that Dusty Cowshit far from Helsinki! Norwegian final on Saturday night along with Romania and Denmark!