Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

"I love it" says Malena Erman, the Swedish operadiva in Moscow 2009 about her dress. Designed by Camilla Thulin its estimated to be worth of almost 40.000 euros, filled with sequins from Turkey that alone cost about 1.000 euros. And don't be scared if Malena will spread her wings on stage as well....

The most famous talk show host in the world Oprah Winfrey has decided to dedicate a show to Croatian singer Igor Cukrov, the Slobodna Dalmacija daily writes. How she has found out about Igor and the Croatian entry is not known as Eurovision is not so very well known in the USA. Her producers have however asked for footage of Igor and an invitation to the show is in the air. This little extra promotion comes very welcome in the Croatian team as the entry is not ranked very high in the various fan polls. I personally love the song and am quite confident it will get to the final - to the horror of many diehard fans! http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjiIHmax53Y

On April 30, 1994 Ireland became the first (and only) country to host Eurovision two years in a row, and the first (and only) to win three times in a row! They also scored the highest points and biggest margin to the runner up until then. It was also the first winner without orchestra, oldest performer, first winning male duo... A record breaking night for Ireland for sure. Funny thing is that no one considered the song beforehand and it was said that Ireland had chosen the song on purpose so they wouldn't win again. However, the biggest thing to come out from this edition was Riverdance , that still tours the world. An interval act that stole the show. 1994 was a very special year also for the number of debuting countries: Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia - and for the first time some countries didn't have a right to participate. It was beginning of those mad years of rotating the worst placed countries from the previous year. No further comme...

Royal Dublin Society's Simmonscourt Pavillion hosted the 33rd Eurovision on April 30, 1988 and 22 countries joined in. Cyprus was ment to be there, too, but was disqualified: the song had been in the Cypriot final already back in 1984! The facelift started in Brussels a year before was taken further in Dublin and 1988 was very fresh and modern production even if the songs didn't quite follow the trend. Tommy Körberg, Yardena Arazi, Hot Eyes and MFÖ returned to the contest. Körberg had a flu and serious problems with his voice and reached only 12th place despite being one of the favourites. Yardena instead agreed only to participate after a fortuneteller told her song #9 will win, Israel's number before Cyprus was disqualified! Number 9 was then Switzerland who sent 19-year-old Celine Dion and won - only with one point! Eurovision maybe didn't "make" Celine Dion but it surely helped: apparently her career was on the line after being a child star and if she did...

Urban Symphony has released the single Rändajad , the Estonian entry in Moscow 2009. Besides the familiar Eurovision mix is also includes rather groovy Lazy Drumbeat mix that I like a lot! Estonia is doing well in the polls and should finally qualify to the final for the first time since the semifinals were introduced back in 2004. This year's entry has Diamond of night kind of qualities and that one ended up 6th ten years ago. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=U29y5bjJ92c http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFK9TU9G4AI

All of sudden out of the blue here we have Yohanna doing the Icelandic song in Russian, Spanish and French! A German version should be coming, too. Yohanna is therefor challenging the Serbian Marko with the most foreign language versions. Also the number of Russian versions is quite remarkable this year: besides Iceland and Serbia also Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine and Bosnia-Herzegovina have released a Russian version - not forgetting Latvia that will actually sing its song in Russian in Moscow. If Tapani Kansa won in Finland he would have joined the group as well... And we can't forget Croatia's entry in Spanish as well. Or Serbia in Finnish! Or... Iceland in Russian: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=An1Io0EUEF0 Iceland in Spanish: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkwDE1jAxh0 Iceland in French: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=21F7GA64izE Croatia in Spanish: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xum5EXX9Zk Serbia in Russian: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQU1bGT3ZQs Serbia in Finnish...

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Waldo has been busy the past week meeting the media and finishing the rehearsals for Moscow. Now he will disappear for a week to his countryhome, do some gardening and forget all about Eurovision to recharge his batteries. The Finnish media has been writing a lot about the pyro problem Waldo's People are facing in Moscow. Apparently the Russian TV is not providing great deal of pyros and Waldo should get some extra money to get the pyros they want or the staging will not be what they want it to be... Sounds familiar? Lordi had the same problem back in 2006. The official aim for Finland in Moscow is the final. If we qualify for the final that's good already. Once in final the goel will be obviosuly set higher. Finns are hungry for another success now that we have been in the final since 2006! You can watch a video of the rehearsals here: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrIipo1Go2U UPDATE: Waldo has found a sponsor. Himos Festival will pay for the pyros. "We have been coll...

Waldo is a real Eurovision fan himself and has been searching the songs on Youtube but admits the picture came clear only after the preview shows on TV that also Karoliina has been watching closely. "The level of the songs this year is extremely high. They are like 15-20 perfet pop songs this year" he says in YLE's radio interview. He has no trouble naming these: "Norway, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Andorra, Malta... Iceland, Denmark! These are really good songs, really good pop songs! " Besides that he names Patricia Kaas, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ronan Keating as ones he has to battle against. He also says he doesn't believe the juries will not have a big impact to the results and he is very curious to hear who will be the jury in Finland!

The third Guest review comes from Peter Clancy, an Irish megafan living in Belgium and a member of OGAE Sweden. That sort of cocktail should give us some interesting views.... Here's what he has to say: "What's another year" in relation to you "making your mind up" between "all kinds of everything" in this years batch of Eurovision entries. This year they are also quite varied with a splash of the new mixed with the familiar "eurovision" song, some are experimental and some just mental! (Note: The "(f)" indicates I think this song will go through to the final. ) Montenegro (f): This will be a very lively opening to ESC2009 - and I'm sure it will do very well - a typical eurovision type song with a lot of potential. I expect it to go through to the final, and it will probably get into the top half. 7/10 Czech Republic : Unfortunately the Czech Republic hasn't sent it's strongest entry, unless this c...

Christina Metaxa from Cyprus has released an acoustic version of her entry Firefly featuring just a piano and her brother Nikolas who wrote the song. Why I think this should be the version on stage in Moscow? www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ebyK178f8

Five more OGAE clubs have voted and now when we have the votes from total of 28 clubs Norway is running away in the lead. Here are the votes from Italy, FYR Macedonia, Russia, Ireland and Poland. 01. NORWAY (12 - 10 - 3 - 12 - 10) 278 02. FRANCE (10 - 0 - 6 - 0 - 6) 166 03. SWEDEN (0 - 1 - 0 - 10 - 7) 159 04. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (1 - 8 - 0 - 5 - 3) 129 05. SPAIN (0 - 6 - 7 - 4 - 0) 101 06. AZERBAIJAN (0 - 7 - 2 - 0 - 0) 96 07. ICELAND (4 - 0 - 4 - 0 - 12) 84 08. GREECE (0 - 0 - 5 - 8 - 0) 82 09. UNITED KINGDOM (7 - 0 - 12 - 1 - 5) 81 10. ESTONIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 8) 74 10. TURKEY (0 - 12 - 8 - 0 - 0) 74 12. FINLAND (3 - 5 - 0 - 6 - 1) 45 13. DENMARK (2 - 0 - 0 - 7 - 0) 37 14. SWITZERLAND (8 - 0 - 0 - 3 - 0) 28 14. LITHUANIA (0 - 0 - 1 - 0 - 0) 28 16. PORTUGAL (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 25 17. MALTA (0 - 0 - 0 - 2 - 0) 21 18. ISRAEL (5 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 20 19. UKRAINE (0 - 0 - 10 - 0 - 4) 18 20. ARMENIA (6 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 11 21. ALBANIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 10 22. RUSSIA (0 ...

Lordi has been in the frontpages of tabloids again this week. First of all the concert in Espoo last week ended with kids in tears running away and parents in an angry mood. Why? Because Lordi was doing what they have been doing in concerts since 2003: "killing" people, tearing kids apart, eating their brains and such horror stuff. As said, regular thing in Lordi concerts. Concerts that start like 10pm. I totally agree with Mr Lordi who commented that they were just doing their thing and if parents want to bring little kids at night to a concert of a monster band who loves to play with horror clichees, it's entirely their own responsability. Amen. Today another bad news. It has been revealed the Lordi movie Dark floors actually made a loss of 1,7 million euros.... Oh well....

Four more OGAE clubs have voted bringing the number of clubs to 23, when Norway, Austria, Israel and Finland get things sorted out. No stopping Norway in the lead, and the battle between France and Sweden continues. Here are the votes (from Norway - Austria - Israel - Finland): 01. NORWAY (X - 12 - 10 - 12) 231 02. FRANCE (6 - 10 - 12 - 5) 144 03. SWEDEN (10 - 8 - 8 - 8) 142 04. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (8 - 7 - 7 - 7) 112 05. AZERBAIJAN (5 - 6 - 0 - 2) 87 06. SPAIN (0 - 5 - 0 - 0) 84 07. GREECE (12 - 1 - 0 - 6) 69 08. ESTONIA (0 - 0 - 6 - 10) 66 09. ICELAND (4 - 0 - 0 - 3) 64 10. UNITED KINGDOM (0 - 0 - 4 - 0) 56 11. TURKEY (0 - 2 - 0 - 0) 54 12. FINLAND (1 - 0 - 0 - X) 30 13. DENMARK (7 - 3 - 0 - 0) 28 14. LITHUANIA (0 - 0 - 3 - 0) 27 15. PORTUGAL (0 - 0 - 2 - 0) 25 16. MALTA (0 -0 -0 -0) 19 17. SWITZERLAND (0 - 0 - 5 - 4) 17 18. ISREAL (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 15 19. ALBANIA (2 - 0 - 0 - 0) 10 20. RUSSIA (3 - 0 - 1 - 0) 7 20. SLOVENIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 7 22. ARMENIA (0 - 4 - 0...

Forget Johnny Logan . Forget Rolf Lövland , Philip Vella and the rest. It is Ralph Siegel who has given us the most number of songs and shaped Eurovision a lot in the 1970's. He has had 19 songs to date in the contest, including one winner, 3 runner ups and two third placed ones. He has represanted four countries and has been involved in many other national selections from Malta to Finland, from Austria to Bosnia-Herzegovina. This is the first post of the Ralph Siegel saga leading us to Moscow 2009. Ralph Siegel was born September 30, 1945 in Munich as a son of famous composer Ralph Maria Siegel and operet singer Ingeborg Döderlein. His grandfather Rudolf was also a musician, opera composer and director of orchestra in Krefeld. Little Ralph was much inspired by him, and composed his very first songs at the age of 5. By then he played already guitar, piano and accordeon. When Ralph Jr was 12, his father wrote the German entry in Eurovision 1957. Margot Hielscher took Telefon, Tele...

Finnish DJ Yankee has remixed Petr Elfimov's Eyes that never lie and these are the official remixed of the song, 4 of them. The mixes vary from Bond themes to house, disco and trance and they are very good! In all this song has much more potential than polls and fans suggest. The Russian version is also out, called Vzglyad Lubvi . The original remix and rearrangement as well as the production was also made in Finland earlier this year. The video instead is shot in Ukraine. Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPO5aQWWaOE

Waldo's People have finished their home rehearsals for Moscow and the act is ready. Once on stage in Olympiysky Arena they will set the last details fitting them to the stage. They have packed with them amongst other an industrial wheel of diameter 2,5 meters and 15 liters of burning oil. Pyros will be used but fire acrobats Niko and Kasmir will do their own fire show as well. The uniting color in their dresses will be gold. "This is the highlight of my life after the births of my children. My dad would have been so proud!" Waldo tells and Katariina adds that Waldo is such a daddy. The Finnish team is clearly ready to go. They will arrive in Moscow on May 3.

The reports from Moscow tell the stage construction is falling a bit behind schedule, and the first rehearsals on stage should start next Tuesday. Let's see if everything will be ready by then. Also, Russians are apparently putting new asphalt and repainting everything in 5 kms radius from the venue. Talk about showing the good side to the guests! Maybe that's were the extra 25 million euros is going? If Athens, Helsinki and Belgrad managed with 12-15 million euros and Moscow is using 40, one can only wonder.... The show's better be good!

Well, sort of. Gipsy singing group from Finland Suoralähetys took the first prize of 7.000 euros and recording contract, followed by Grupo Kaney from Cuba and Luca Cannavó from Italy. Suoralähetys has been singing together since 2002 and they aim at Eurovision 2010. Let's wait and see... In 2007 they were still 5 and  took part in  Talent Suomi with some dreadful religious stuff. They qualified for the second round. And here are the Ourvision 2009 semifinalists.

Four more OGAE Clubs have voted bringing the clubs to 19 so far. No stopping Norway in the lead even if they get the lowest votes so far: only 2 from Portugal - but Belgium and Germany give them full 12 points. Sweden passed France for a moment but thanks to Portuguese and German 10 points took the 2nd place again. (Votes from Cyprus - Belgium - Portugal - Germany) 01. NORWAY (10 - 12 - 2 - 12) 197 02. FRANCE (6 - 7 - 10 - 10) 111 03. SWEDEN (12 - 10 - 6 - 8) 107 04. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (1 - 8 - 3 - 7) 83 05. SPAIN (7 - 4 - 0 - 1) 79 06. AZERBAIJAN (8 - 0 - 7 - 6) 74 07. ICELAND (5 - 0 - 5 - 0) 57 08. TURKEY (0 - 5 - 0 - 0) 52 08. UNITED KINGDOM (0 - 6 - 8 - 0) 52 10. GREECE (4 - 2- 0 - 2) 50 10. ESTONIA (1 - 0 - 12 - 0) 50 12. FINLAND (0 - 0 - 1 - 0) 29 13. LITHUANIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 24 14. PORTUGAL (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 23 15. MALTA (0 - 3 - 0 - 3) 19 16. DENMARK (0 - 0 - 0 - 5) 18 17. ISRAEL (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 15 18. ALBANIA (3- 0 - 0 - 0) 8 18. SWITZERLAND (0 - 0 - 0 - 4) 8 20...

OurVisison, the singing contest for immigrants in Finland - born as a sidekick to Eurovision 2007 in Helsinki - is here again for the third time, getting bigger every year. Ten finalists have made it to the final in Finlandiatalo tonight at 8pm after preselections and semifinals divided by 5 continents wherefrom 5 best ones moved on to semifinals. "We have been contacted by singers from Philippines and the USA for example. They wanted to take part but of course this is only for people living in Finland" tells OurVision producer Kitari Mayale. "Also organisations in Germany a nd Spain have contacted us to help them organize similar contests. Even EBU has been interested and has contacted as for information ". 139 singers took part this year and the winner gets 7.000 euros and a recording deal. This year's finalists are Anusha Ayer (India), Didi Blanco (Morocco), Luca Cannavó (Italia), Grupo Kaney (Cuba), Noah Kin (Nigeria), Ebunolova Kivinen (Nigeria...

I have now added some pics from Thursday night's concert on my photoblog here on right. Or just click here. .

Already 92 countries have visited my blog since April 13 when I added FlagCounter and with Andorra the Eurovision family is now complete. :-)

The second Guest Review comes from Rafael de Alba from Spain. You all must remember him from the Spanish selection this year with One more chance ,. He is a big fan himself and will be in Moscow. Read more about him here. .Here is what he has to say about ESC 2009: Greetings to all eurofans in Finland and abroad! Here is my modest opinion of what promises to be a great show this year! MONTENEGRO - A great song with a brilliant bridge just before the final chorus. Incidentally, the lyricist is Spanish, and co-ordinates OGAE Spain. Good luck, Jose! > 7 CZECH REPUBLIC - Very entertaining. It could well be part of a musical. Perhaps too exotic/specific for the general public > 5 BELGIUM - A charming story, and different to the rest. Might look attractive on stage, especially if they bring the cartoon character in! Shame that Belgium never receives points lately > 7 BELARUS - Great verse, not sure about the chorus. Vocally sound, I predict a mid ranking, but I love the...