Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Era stupendo is the first known song title for ESC 2008 and means a welcome return of real Italian to the contest! Paolo "whateverhissurnamemeansinserbian" Meneguzzi has been confirmed as the Swiss entrant today and Paolo himself seems very happy and pround to be able to sing for his native country. To add to my previous post on him worth mentioning is his duet with the French Idols winner Ophelia in In nome dell'amore (Au nom de l'amour), a Top-10 hit in France.

So far the most awaited catfight in this year's semifinals took place last friday, Eurobandið vs. Hara's Pussy punk written by well manicured hands of Gerard James Borg. This time around Fridrik Omar and Regina Ósk, both of Icelandic national selection fame beat the Hara Sisters and their beauty salon and go directly to the final in February... Menn ársins - If you were here Eurobandið - Fullkomið líf Hara - I wanna manicure

Swiss media is fussing about Paolo Meneguzzi as possible represant according YLE's website. Paolo or Pablo Meneguzzi (30) is a Swiss-Italian from Canton Ticino and a sort of "poor man's Tiziano Ferro". Paolo is no stranger to festivals like Sanremo and Viña del Mar (that he won in 1996), and his music would be very "Eurovision friendly". Actually his career started in South America where he released already two albums in spanish before his Sanremo debut in 2001. Two years later he has his biggest Italian hit to date with VeroFalso , and returns to Sanremo in 2004 and places 4th with Guardami negli occhi (prego). The year after he is back to Sanremo with Non capiva che l'amavo and the album including the song sells platinum. He was back to Sanremo again this year with Musica and gains 6th place. His fourth album in italian shortly followed and he has been touring most of the year in Italy and Switzerland. Let's see if he is really chosen and if, ...

Semifinals 4-6 and their 20 songs have been voted in Bulgaria and these 3 proceed to the final, all of them failing to make an everlasting impression on me... 1.Svetozar Hristov & Vladimir Dimov- Tired soul 13.22 % 2. Sunnie - Do you love me 9.81% 3. Di-Do - Full of love 9.67% The other songs taking part in these three semifinals were Iliyana Yordanova - Unischozhavascha ljubov, Mario Denev - Viarvam, Christina Pipova - Kalino mome!, Zhivko Ivanov - Planeta bez bydesche, Kristina Georgieva - Don't leave me, Reni, Vili & Vesi - Zvezdi, Motel - Chocolate girl, Tsetso Vladkov & Stetson - Euro Train, Hristo Todorov - Ostani, Misha Iliev - Nai-krasivoto litse, X-R@y - Na son, Simona Sivanio - Obeshtay mi, Konkurent - Edin zhivot, Margarita Hranova - Ne me boli, Deep Zone & Balthazar - DJ, take me away, Big Mama Scandal - Come with me, Bobi Kokera, Bleki & Raya - Tezhka vecher

Hind, a 22-year-old singer of Moroccan origin will be the Dutch entrant in Belgrad, as widely tipped beforehand. She shot to fame from Soundmix Show in 2002 where she imitated Vanessa Williams and reached the final. The year after she came 3rd in the Idols. She has released two albums so far and seems to be a real Eurovision fan! Watch Hind in actione here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_dat5Tf0KU&feature=related and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7UHEmxqGrU&feature=related

Serbia's Marija Serifovic and Molitva reign also in the esctoday.com awards picking up six nominations (best song, best performance, best composition, best lyrics, best female performance and best female vocal performance). Hungary's Magdi Rúzsa and the Netherland's Edsilia Rombley both picked up five nominations. See the full nominations here: http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/9645

Jaana Pelkonen, the hostess of the Eurovision 2007 and Euroviisut 2005-2007 says she " has been there, done that" and is ready to leave TV-work and hosting and look elsewhere. She tells she has applied jobs abroad, including embassies, and is ready to step aside and leave the stage for other faces. She also got one of the most sought invitations of the year in Finland: the president's independance day party on December 6th. She says she will go alone and her dress will be designed by Dolce & Gabbana's Finnish designer Teemu Muurimäki who also designed two of her Helsinki 2007 dresses. But before that she will still host Euroviisut 2008 with Peltsi.... and she has been invited by the Spanish Eurovision organisation to come and follow their selection, whatever that means... (oh, and she apparently has a Spanish boyfriend...)

Austria has confirmed their non participation in Eurovision 2008. They stepped out also in 2006 and managed only second to last place in the semifinal with Eric Papilaya's Get a life, get alive despite it's glamourous staging with Swarovski chrystals and good cause behind the song. The official reason is they are not happy with the new "unfinished" format... Sigh... Losers. Look at Finland: failure after failure we pushed ahead until Athens 2006.... Aren't we glad we did???

The most reliable Eurovision website www.esctoday.com just reported that San Marino is in!!! This is wonderful news and as they say in Italy "quando si chiude una porta, si apre una finestra" or when a door closes a window opens, to the italian artists to sing again in the Eurovision stage. Many Sanremo winners in the past ten years have been willing to but RAI hasn't sent them and maybe SMTV can invite them. If we only think about some artists like Giorgia, Elisa or Alexia who would have been PERFECT for Eurovision even with their winning Sanremo songs.... Benvenuto San Marino! (I hope!). From Sanremo to Sanmarino?

Bjartur Guðjónsson got the ticket to the final from the 7th Icelandic semifinal singing about a girl in a golden dress - and indeed had a back up girl in a golden dress, and not only: another one had golden boots and the third apparently golden panty hose - but somehow I think he & golden girls won't set the final on fire with this number.... Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir - Á gleymdum stað Einar Ágúst Víðisson & Sigurjón Brink - Straumurinn Bjartur Guðjónsson - The girl in the golden dress

Semifinal 1 on February 8: Hanna Marsh, Movetron, Crumbland and Kari Tapio Semifinal 2 on February 15: Mikael Konttinen, Jippu, Ninja and Kristian Meurman Semifinal 3 on February 22: Jenna, Vuokko Hovatta, Cristal Snow and Teräsbetoni

Jippu is 21 year old girl from Helsinki who won an Emma award (Finnish Grammy) for her debut album and scored six radio hits from it. Her first single was from a movie soundtrack in 2005 and she was also the very first artist signed to HMC. Her debut album got a very good critic when released in 2006 and she is at the moment working on her second one. Her Enkelten kaupunki is also the theme song for this year's Ylen Hyvä charity shows. And she is my top favourite this year, if that was still unclear to someone! More of her in a previous post here http://ilkar.blogspot.com/2007/10/stop-press-jippu.html

Hanna is 28 years old and has studied piano, composing and singing as well as ballet and mime. She loves Claude Debussy and Ciaikovski and started composing her own music when she was just five. Over the years she got interested in pop and film music, the Beatles and ended up being involved in ambient jazz band as well as a tecno band. She got her record deal when a talent scout heard her singing in the conservatorio and her debut album Cameleon Girl: Sleeping Under The Rising Sun was released in 2006 entirely written by her. She wants to tell stories with her Tori Amos-esque songs, and she also states Kate Bush as one of her influences.

Movetron is Jukka Tanttari, Timo Isomäki and singer Päivi Lepistö. They started in 1994 and first sung in English but soon changed into Finnish. Their second single Romeo ja Julia despite record company's expectations became a huge success in summer 1995 and Movetron all of sudden was the most succesful Eurodance act in Finland. Two more hits followed, Ristinolla and Alla koivupuun with a platinum selling debut album. They recorded Romeo and Juliet also in English and it was released all over Asia and many European countries and Movetron made over 300 gigs within a year! Second album and 2 more hits followed before the time had passed Eurodance and Movetron found itself in trouble. A change of sound didn't help the third album flopping and Movetron took a break. In 2000 they added a rapper and recorded their 4th album, another flop. They split up after that. In 2007 the 1990's sound was in again and Päivi was asked to join "Back to the 1990's" tour where...

Cristal Snow, Crumbland, Vuokko Hovatta, Jenna (Bågeberg), Jippu, Kari Tapio, Mikael Konttinen, Hanna Marsh, Kristian Meurman. Movetron, Ninja and Teräsbetoni.... here they are. What a disappointing group of names, hoping they will prove me wrong! At this point I am all for Jippu as I couldn't care less to anyone else but somehow even her name amongst these others doesn't bring a smile on my face. Crumbland , Vuokko Hovatta , Jenna , Mikael Konttinen , Hanna Marsh I have propably never heard singing even if some of the names are familiar. Ninja and Cristal Snow I have heard and it makes me ever more sad they are on the list. Kari Tapio I may have heard even too much and for too long and with all respect this feels like an "award" for a long career, just like Jukka Kuoppamäki last year. Movetron had a huge hit far too long ago, when I was young and slim... Teräsbetoni is this year's heavyrock gang pleaser and with televoting will end up in top-3 just for bein...

Israel beat Armenia just by hours when making their artist known. Sirusho Harutyunyan is also 20 years old rising star in Armenia. Like in Israel, she will sing 5-7 songs in the national selection. Watch watch she does here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3AD1sAi26E and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgIMQzKgrNs (Craig David anyone?)

Out of the blue the first known participant comes out: Israel has chosen Boaz Mauda, the winner of Israeli Pop Idol 5 will go to Belgrad. Boaz is 20 years old and will sing 5 songs in the Israeli selection... See him here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owzxKQqp5K0 and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8jZoj77Qlk

... tomorrow's artist list. YLE will announce the 12 Finnish artists around 4pm tomorrow and in http://www.viisukuppila.fi/ fans have been toying with the artists as well. So, to add to my own ones here are a few more names: Agnes Pihlava - from the second Idols, singing heavy rock and originally from Poland. Cristal Snow - the most tipped name by the fans. Do we need another drag queen??? Hausmylly - 1990's eurodisco/house/melodic rap band trying a come back? Katri Ylander - moral winner of second Idols. But she just released a new album.... Kristian Meurman - from the third Idols They also tip Anna Abreu , the runner up in the third Idols as well as several names from my listand confirm the lack of interest of Anna Eriksson and Paula Koivuniemi , both released a new album this week.....

So it seems to be for real: next year's two semifinals will be broadcasted live on different days, and the Big 4 will be divided into them as well (that is for the voting, they will go to the final even if they come 18th and 20th as usual...). Now, I wonder if YLE and some other eager broadcaster will be allowed and willing to show also THE OTHER semifinal?? If not, may I ask WHY?? I want them all!!!

Tarja Turunen's debut album sold gold at its release date, that is today, despite the bad critic given by Helsingin Sanomat. She is now doing promo in Finland - stopping at Stockmann's this afternoon - and will also give her only Finnish concert on December 8 in Kuusankoski, her hometown.

Tarja Turunen's debut solo album My winter storm will be released tomorrow in Finland, and over 70 countries worldwide will follow in the coming 2-3 weeks. The title seems rather perfect as the past few days Finland has indeed been under winter storms with hard winds, rains and finally snow! Oh, and Tarja will be at Stockmann's tomorrow afternoon.... Austria, Germany and Switzerland will release it on 16th, Australia 17th, Greece and UK 19th, Tarja's second home country Argentina 25th and the USA on 26th just to name a few...

After Gerard Joling said no the Dutch media has speculated on other names, such as Hind (right on pic) of Idols fame (Hasn't her name been up every year since??) and the Ben Cramer & Dutch Divas combination. Ben seems to be a big musical star with 40+ years of career behind him and while the divas are... well, divas including Maggie McNeal of "Amsterdam" fame (ESC 1980)

Swiss media has been speculating who will go to Belgrad for them and claim at least ( from left in pic) comic Peach Weber with rock singer Sina , rock singer Florian Ast , rapper Gimma and self proclaimed German king of schlager Jürgen Drews have opted for the job. Also Salvo has been mentioned and Gunvor who scored a flat zero in 1998 for her native country wants to do it again, but not for Switzerland. I don't know if she ment Eurovision or the zero though....

Yet another Icelandic semifinal took place and what I read in comments at least the fans are not happy.... Baggalútur won and goes to the final with their stetson hats et all... Margrét Kristín Sigurðardóttir - Bigger shoes Baggalútur - Hvað var það sem þú sást í honum? Seth Sharp - Tonight

Andorra seems to become the first one to reveal their artist this time around, if the Giselagame becomes reality. Over the past few days the news of her have been rumoured, confirmed, denied and all over again.... She sounds and looks like a good Eurovision choise on the safe side so let's see if she manages to pull Andorra to the final for the first time. That is, IF she is chosen!

Jaana Pelkonen has been confirmed as the host of Euroviisut 2008. It will be her third year in a row besides hosting the Eurovision 2007 in Helsinki as well. The male co-host has not been revealed but I doubt it will be not be Mikko Leppilampi nor Heikki Paasonen. Heikki is currently working for MTV3.

Ladies and gentlemen, here we have it: the first real contender for Belgrade 2008: Iceland's Ho, ho, ho we say hey hey hey! performed by Rebekka & Ceres 4. It won the 5th Icelandic semifinal and goes to the final. It is a real sum up of all that's Eurovision and gay: half naked bodybuilder drummer boys, a pretty girl singing some insane lyrics over a technobeat from the 90's, even a muscle guy shouting some rap on top! A kind of song that A) if it wins hardcore fans will hate it or B) if it doesn't win they shout for scandal and love it to bits.... Ho, ho, ho... I kinda like it!