Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Everybody remembers Dima from Eurovision 2006 when he came second behind Lordi, but who remembers Dima from the Russian selection 2005 where he came 2nd with Not that simple ? So, Mr Bilan was third time lucky and has given us three strong Eurovision songs. Here's a reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLV6NMF1-wc

Ok, Edvin Marton was playing a Stradivarius on stage. Of course it was play-back but on record it's the real thing. The violin, worth of approx 4 million dollars, is also on Winner's tour with Dima and Edvin. (And you thought all those bodyguards were for Dima? Think again, he has only one, the rest are for the Stradivarius!) What makes this violin so special? The Stradivarius violins were built between 1666-1737. The one Edvin is playing is from 1697 and is from the so called Golden Era of the violin makers of Stradivari. No one seems to know exactly what makes them so special but what we know these are made out of three different woods: spruce, willow and marple. The wood has been treated with different minerals and vernice bianca , made of arabic gum, honey and egg whites. One explanation given is that during that period Europe was experiencing a Little Ice Age from 1645-1750. The temperatures were cooler all around Europe so the wood grew denser than usual growth rings. A...

Dima Bilan with Edvin Marton has been moving towards west in his winner's tour. From Helsinki to Stockholm, further west to Oslo where he performed with the Norvegian entrant Maria (who came 5th). Now he is in Dublin Ireland before tomorrow's stop in London and the big winner's party organized by esctoday.com where also the runner up, Ukrainian Ani Lorak will perform along with Bucks Fizz, Sonia and Nicky French. After that the busy schedule will still include Belgium where he will meet again the Belgian represantives Ishtar, France and San Marino! In San Marino he will meet Miodio and many OGAE fans from Italy and elsewhere....

Two finalist of Euroviisut 2007 have released new albums, in both cases their second one hoping to repeat the success of their debuts that were also re-released for different reasons... Jani and Jetsetters performed Musta sulhanen in the Euroviisut final and later re-released their debut album with both Euroviisut entries (the other being Etupenkillä ). This new release also has Eurovision connection: a cover of Aud Wilken's fantastic Husker du from the Danish final in 2007! The album appeared in the Top40 only for two weeks reaching number 13. Lovex came only third in Euroviisut with Anyone anymore despite being the favourite. Their debut was re-released in several versions in different markets from Japan to Germany. They hope to make it even bigger with this second album, or at least maintain their status. The start hasn't been very good even in Finland. The album Pretend or surrender debuted at no 13 and has been moving down since. The first single Take a shot made it n...

People started gathering in Stockmann already when it opened at 9am this morning and by 1pm the first floor was packed, so were all the balconies in 2nd and 3rd floor with a view to the stage. I never saw such crowd in there and when Dima & co finally arrived fashionably 15 minutes late it was impossible to move down there. Dima thanked Finland for the 10 points he got and promised he would be back soon. As we know this wasn't his first visit... Then finally Dima and Edvin with his Stradivarius were on stage and met by hundreds of screaming fans. The screams echoed though building's all 8 floors. After singing Believe he remembered how he was in Helsinki last year doing PR and was met another screams from the girls who surely were there then, too. In Vanha that was. (Oh what fun, remember Stella?) After that it was time for some autographs and those who had waited since 9am when the store opened were satisfied, the others not as Dima & co left 15 minutes early and sta...

The viewing figures in Finland remained high this year and Eurovision is IN. More than 800.000 watched the semifinal and 1.200.000 the final, making it the most watched programme of the week and it surely will be one, if not the most, watched programme of the year. Just like last year. Now if YLE would only manage to make people watch and follow also the Finnish semis and final....

I must have heard Believe today about 48 times at work. The store's loudspeakers were advertising Dima's visit tomorrow every ten minutes. For the strange twist of fate I was not working in my department today but in a Mastercard infopoint that happens to be the same stage where Dima will be performing tomorrow! And judging by the number of (mainly) Russian speaking teenagers asking question Where? When? What? all afternoon it's going to be a chaos unseen at Stockmann's before. I wonder if Teräsbetoni is going to be there, too? And is Jaana presenting? I will try sneake out from my job again and get some pics for you.... if I survive the screaming girls.....

Teräsbetoni is restarting its tour around Finland and in August they will play with Lordi in Imatra's Jokirock or Rock to the river festival. This is one of Lordi's only two gigs in Finland this summer. They are touring places like New Zealand these days.... :-)

Many artists have returned to Eurovision, some more than twice. Some winners have returned and failed miserably ( Charlotte anyone?) while other with good placing have made it better ( Chiara and Katja Epstein for example, third and second). Only Johnny Logan has managed to win twice. Then we have four artists who have made it both first and second: Swiss Lys Assia was the first winner back in 1956 with Refrain but she returned also in 1957 (8th) and again in 1958 when she came second with Giorgio . Gigliola Cinquetti won for Italy in 1964 with Non ho l'etá and returned ten years later and came second with Si , only beaten by ABBA. Irish Linda Martin made it second in 1984 with Terminal 3 and returned to win in 1992 asking Why me? And now we have Russian Dima Bilan who came second after Lordi in 2006 with Never let you go and returned to win only two years later with Believe. Watch here: Lys Assia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxv-Q-JKkTo and http://www.youtube....

This morning, after a wild night out with booze and well slept night he had come to his senses: "Eurovision was a wonderful experience. Our goal was to make the final and we did. Once in the final everyhting was just an added bonus!" Also guitarist A. Järvinen thought the same "We got into the final with rock, in Finnish! Others are welcome to try that, too!" Teräsbetoni returned home from Belgrade late last night and at the airport the group wasn't very pleased. "After the semifinals things were going so well we believed in better result. When Estonia gave us 10 we were still hoping but soon after realised it's not our evening. And at the last moment even Sweden past us by " tells J.Ahola. (sources: Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti)

If you wondered who's behind the increasing number of pyros and wind machines and other special effects in Eurovision the answer is Pyroman of Finland . They were in the Eurovision for the third time and after Helsinki 2007 also Belgrade 2008 trusted them. They took care of 14 countries' pyros along with 20 countries wind and smoke effects, the fireworks in the end and the rain of confettis for the winner. In the final over 600 "bombs" exploded and during the two weeks more than 5000 during over 120 performances! Hyvä Suomi!

... when a country wins Eurovision for the first time! Russia follows Serbia, Finland, Greece. Ukraine, Turkey, Latvia and Estonia with this trend that started in 2001. But do these wins have something else in common? Serbia won with their first attempt, Finland with its 40th. Greece and Russia been close there the previous years while Finland and Turkey came from nowhere. So, maybe not.... Estonia won back in 2001 with its 7th try. It was in the air as Estonia made it top-10 four times the years before the win but when Tanel Padar & co won, it was a huge surprise to everyone. After their win Estonia has collapsed completely doing well only at home in 2002 (3rd). Latvia took the honors in 2002, another song no one expected to win, with their 3rd try. They debuted in 2000 with 3rd place but haven't really been so succesful afterwords either (with the exception of 2005 (5th). Turkey was one of the favourites and won in 2003 with their 25th entry. It was a close call, top-3 was ...

Well, I didn't got it all right but at least I got the Top-2 ( Russia, Ukraine ) right, along with Turkey, Israel, Iceland, Germany and UK . That makes 7 out of 25. Also I got it very close Serbia (6th, I predicted top-5), Armenia and Greece (4th and 3rd, I predicted 6-10), Bosnia-Herzegovina and Azerbaidjan (10th and 8th, I predicted 11-16), Albania and Croatia (17th and 21st, 16-20) and Finland (22nd, 16-20). That's 8 more so 15/25. I got it all wrong for Portugal, Sweden, Romania and Poland that did much, much worse and Norway, Latvia and Denmark that did much better than I believed or they deserved!

Funny how everyone thought the 2nd semifinal is the stronger one but here we see all the top places except Ukraine came from this one! And Russia was only third... Slovenia's Rebeka can have a little consolation with that, had she been in semi 2... The order otherwise remained pretty much the same except Bosnia-Herzegovina that jumped up a lot in the final. In this one the televoters and back up juries ageed on the Top-10. 01. GREECE 156 (final 3.) 02. ARMENIA 139 (final 4.) 03. RUSSIA 135 (final 1.) 04. NORWAY 106 (final 5.) 05. ISRAEL 104 (final 9.) 06. AZERBAIDJAN 96 (final 8.) 07. ROMANIA 94 (final 20.) 08. FINLAND 79 (final 22.) 09. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 72 (final 10.) 10. POLAND 42 (final 24.) 11. SLOVENIA 36 12. MOLDOVA 36 13. THE NETHERLANDS 27 14. MONTENEGRO 23 15. IRELAND 22 16. ANDORRA 22 17. BELGIUM 16 18. ESTONIA 8 19. SAN MARINO 5

So, Sweden was the back up juries highest scoring entry not to make Top-9 of the televoting! And televoters didn't like it in the final either that much... Portugal, Denmark and especially Croatia dropped a lot in the final while Turkey did a lot better in all... 01. UKRAINE 152 (final 2.) 02. PORTUGAL 120 (final 13.) 03. DENMARK 112 (final 13.) 04. CROATIA 112 (final 21.) 05. GEORGIA 107 (final 11.) 06. LATVIA 86 (final 12.) 07. TURKEY 85 (final 7.) 08. ICELAND 68 (final 14.) 09. ALBANIA 67 (final 17.) 10. FYROM 64 11. BULGARIA 56 12. SWEDEN 54 (final 18.) 13. SWITZERLAND 47 14. MALTA 38 15. CYPRUS 36 16. LITHUANIA 30 17. BELARUS 27 18. CZECH REPUBLIC 9 19. HUNGARY 6

01. RUSSIA 272 02. UKRAINE 230 03. GREECE 218 04. ARMENIA 199 05. NORWAY 182 06. SERBIA 160 07. TURKEY 138 08. AZERBAIDJAN 132 09. ISRAEL 124 10. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 110 11. GEORGIA 83 12. LATVIA 83 13. PORTUGAL 69 14. ICELAND 64 15. DENMARK 60 16. SPAIN 55 17. ALBANIA 55 18. SWEDEN 47 19. FRANCE 47 20. ROMANIA 45 21. CROATIA 41 22. FINLAND 35 23. GERMANY 14 24. POLAND 14 25. UNITED KINGDOM 14

Also this one was on the back of my head since the beginning. I like the song but I never believed she would win. I never believed she would do this bad either though.... This year's Kate Ryan is Charlotte Perrelli.

Well, it was clear from the beginning even if I tried to convince myself with other choises. Two years ago I was a huge Dima fan, and I have been predicting Russia's win the past 3-4 years and now when it happens, with Dima I should be very happy. Yet, I feel a bit disappointed.... Why?

Eurovision.tv has published a backstage video from the final dress rehearsal to get you in the mood so check it out! It's rather clear how different the silver ladies are if you watch it: one is chewing gum ignoring everyone, the other is signing autographs.... And they have completely overshadowed other far more interesting ladies this year: Laka's crazy sister and the Spanish hooligans! Enjoy the show and do comment the result afterwords! Get into mood here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWDxKq4ptBc

As we all know Jaana Pelkonen, last year's charming host in Helsinki is the TV commentator for YLE again this year. She has been in Belgrade with the Finnish delegation since the beginning and has been the center of attention most everywhere she went whether she wanted or not. We know she speaks fluent Spanish and no wonder she is a fan of Spanish Rodolfo this year and has seen dancing El Chikichiki with him already. We also know she is a fan and spontaneous. Her yelling and screaming at the commentator's box in Athens is already legendary when the votes for Lordi came in and Mr Lordi himself has SMSed her after Tuesday's semi when Jaana got a bit excited when Teräsbetoni qualified. "Rauhoitutaanpas" or "Let's calm down" was all it said, in true Mr Lordi style. She reveals Mr Lordi is at home and watching also tonight... Jaana has believed in Teräsbetoni since the beginning (like she did with Lordi telling everyone they will win when no one even dre...

Russia is still leading the bookmakers list while Serbia is losing ground and Finland has rocketed up. Here is the Top 10 with the best odds: 01. RUSSIA 3/1 02. UKRAINE 7/2 03. GREECE 9/1 04. SERBIA 14/1 SWEDEN 14/1 FINLAND 14/1 07. ARMENIA 16/1 08. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 28/1 09. PORTUGAL 40/1 TURKEY 40/1 SPAIN 40/1

The ones with the accreditation hanging from their neck have been voting Eurovision style the past couple of days and the results have been announced just before the final dress rehearsal for tonight started. The winner is Portugal! I wish all the best for Portugal and will be happy as a bee if they win tonight but I can't help thinking back 2002 when Finland's Laura was the chosen one. And we all remember how that ended.... :-( Here's the delegations top ten: 01. PORTUGAL 02. SERBIA 03. UKRAINE 04. SWEDEN 05. GREECE 06. ISRAEL 07. ICELAND 08. RUSSIA 09. GEORGIA 10. TURKEY

75 Cent commented on going on to the final: " Aight, new teeth, new suit, new walking stick. And a Eurovision final. This is one hellofa good week we’ve got going right here! Gimme a flag , let’s wave this thing !" Priceless, this man is adorable!

If picking up the qualifiers from the semifinals was difficult (especially semi 2) it feels almost impossible to try to make out the final prediction. I have a sneaky feeling we will be in for some major surprises. The final is very strong and if we only could replace Latvia and Denmark with Bulgaria and Switzerland, and Norway with Slovenia or San Marino this would be perfect for me. Here are my votes: (in no particular order) ***** Israel, Croatia, Iceland, Portugal, Sweden **** Albania, Germany, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Poland, Ukraine, Azerbaidjan, Serbia, Russia *** Turkey, France, Romania ** United Kingdom, Finland, Greece, Norway * Latvia, Denmark, Georgia, Spain And here's a wild prediction how they will end up: 01-05 Portugal, Sweden, Ukraine, Serbia, Russia 06-10 Armenia, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Spain 11-15 Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Poland, Iceland, Azerbaidjan 16-20 Albania, Finland, Croatia, Georgia, Norway 21-25 United Kingdom, Germany, Latvia, Denmark, France T...

EBU had another press conference today and there were some news. Eurovision for Europe has been going on since 1956 and soon there will be one similar contest for the Middle East and one in Far East in Singapore. South Africa is planning one for Africa and as we all know there is one coming up in the US as well. As I cannot make myself getting so excited about the Junior Eurovision or the Eurovision dance contest I doubt I will go crazy for these either. The European one keeps me busy enough almost all year around already! (Bloody Icelandic semis in September!) The Big4 status seems to be under review (good!) and the Eurovision movie production starts early next year. There are also plans for a musical featuring Eurovision stars.... Apparently there's no hope Italy would return but Slovakia and Austria should make it back to family next year.

The Winner's tour will kick of on May 28 when the winner(s) will be at Stockmann in Helsinki at 1pm-2pm performing and giving autographs. A visit to YLE is in the program. Avid readers of this blog know Charlotte is already familiar with Stockmann. Will she return and be guest of Teräsbetoni? Now that would be interesting, ha ha!

After Teräsbetoni's qualification Sweden's Charlotte Perrelli commented she doesn't get it. Then the Swedish media followed and wondered how it could happen. Last night Teräsbetoni's guitarist V. Rantanen commented back saying the Swedish song is so kitch and easy anyone can "compose" it during the lunch break.

The Finnish press is speculating the rumours circulating in Belgrade that Finland won the first semifinal, just like Lordi 2 years ago. EBU says it won't reveal the results until after the final, but in 2006 by Saturday morning most everyone knew Lordi's semifinal win already. Could it be?

The new two semifinal format with the voting division has worked, one can think by looking at the map of qualified countries. It's more evenly spread than for a long time. Besides the Big4 (UK, Germany, France, Spain) we can add Portugal and Israel from the "old countries". Three countries from the ex-Yogoslavia made it: Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia besides Serbia. Two countries from the Baltics: Latvia and Poland. Four countries from the Balcans: Turkey, Greece, Romania and Albania and also four countries from the ex-USSR: Russia, Georgia, Latvia and Ukraine. Add new comer Azerbaidjan and relatively new Armenia. Surprisingly the strongest block comes from the Nordic countries: all of them (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland) made it to the final for the first time since 2000! Now let's see on Saturday how they will spread up on the scoreboard....

01. Romania 02. United Kingdom 03. ALBANIA 04. Germany 05. Armenia 06. Bosnia-Herzegovina 07. Israel 08. Finland 09. CROATIA 10. Poland 11. ICELAND 12. TURKEY 13. PORTUGAL 14. LATVIA 15. SWEDEN 16. DENMARK 17. GEORGIA 18. UKRAINE 19. France 20. Azerbaidjan 21. Greece 22. Spain 23. Serbia 24. Russia 25. Norway What a funny way it was the numbers came up. The first semi and Big4 already filled the endings and then 2nd semi started filling up from the bottom and top towards the center, too...

As I predicted this time I didn't score so well but yet 8/10. Bulgaria, Switzerland and Hungary sadly missed the final when Denmark and Latvia qualified. The finalists are Ukraine, Croatia, Albania, Iceland, Georgia, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Turkey and Portugal . Worth mentioning is this is the first time all five Nordic countries are in the final since centuries (that is in 2000. And before that in 1993 when Eurovision was still the "old" one) and for the first time Macedonia didn't make it. The division works?

Stop the press! Teräsbetoni's guitarist J Rantanen and Morena are in love! Stay tuned for details...

In general it seemed a more colorful and better show, but I still tend to think there were better average of songs in the first one, or is it only an impression? Iceland kincked the show off to good reaction from the arena. Happy, relaxed performance and Regina's shoes deserve a special mention. What's her size? 45? Sweden followed with bad camerawork. I was left a bit cold by Charlotte's performance. I don't think she clicked so well or was it the amount of mascara hiding her eyes? Turkey was very convincing proving less is more and simple is beautiful. Good pyros in the right places where they fitted. Ani from Ukraine started maybe a bit shakily but got going very soon in 200.000 dollar dress. Perfect! Lituania was like bad karaoke. Even he looked like he was suffering... Albania' s Olta gave a very convinving, very Laura Pausini like performance. Very good! Switzerland 's Paolo also started very nervously but once the tempo was put to high gear he also fo...

Friends & Finns having fun in the opening party. Photos happily borrowed from www.viisukuppila.fi Jaana baila el chiki chiki con Rodolfo! Eerr... Barry? Jaana & Peltsi What are you up to, Rene? Teräsbetoni

Somehow I find it much more difficult to predict this second semi's outcome. Now that there were no major surprises in the first semifinal (well, some of you think about Finland making it and Ireland not making it but after seeing the performances was it really so surprising?). Will we have the big surprise tonight, will one of the superfavourites fail to make it? Sweden, Ukraine, Switzerland or Turkey? Or Portugal? Who's going to be Kate Ryan 2008? ICELAND opens the show with a bang. Fridrik and Regina have been very good in all rehearsals and have strong vocals, right look in the eye and seem to enjoy the moment as real Eurovision fans they are. Perfect europop song. Eurovision perfection. Needs to be in the final. My votes ***** Chances of qualification ***** SWEDEN follows in this explosive start for the 2nd semifinal. If Iceland is perfection in a good homely way Charlotte delivers perfection in an Ice queen way. She also has the pressure of the supermegafavourite...