Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Marcel Bezençon awards, named after the father of the Eurovision song contest have been handed out and Israel gets a consolation price after disappointing result in the contest itself by winning all three of them. Now that's the first. The Press Award is voted by the accredited media and press in Oslo 2010, the Artistic awar d by the commentators, and the Composer award by the composers of the song in competition. Congratulations Israel!

A quick look at iTunes top-10 chart gives Lena's Satellite in almost all of them already: #1 in Finland, Greece, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland #2 in Spain #3 in Netherlands, Ireland #4 in Belgium Apparently she is also #45 already in Italy, where the contest was not broadcasted nor advertised in any way.

Germany is the first Big4 country to win and this brings us a problem: Will there be only 24 countries in the final next year? Apparently the rule book isn't prepaired for this - if I am wrong someone correct me, please. As it has been 10 + 10 + Big4 + host country = 25. Easy solution would be adding the highest scoring drop out from the semifinals but then all delegations from the first semifinal should stick in town for extra days "just in case". Or will Turkey get a wildcard to the final as it was the runner up? (Not that it would change a thing, Turkey will be in the final anyways so in a way it would be rather fair...) Germany will host the contest in 2011 for the third time, as they also did in Frankfurt 1957 and Munich 1983, but for the first time as an united country. At least three towns have come forward to host the 2011 edition: Berlin, Hamburg and Hannover. Nine countries have so far definately confirmed their participation (Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, ...

Thousends of fans were waiting for Lena who arrived to Hannover this afternoon with Sfefan Raab and the rest of the team. Later in the city center about 40.000 people met her in the welcoming reception.  Angela Merkel has also congratulated the 19 year old student saying she's "an example of the new young Germany".  No good wishes nor comment of any kind from the previous and only German winner until last night, Nicole. She was only 17 when she won in 1982. Reporters tried to call her for a comment and only got her husband who hung up on them!  Mayor of Berlin has already welcomed Eurovision to his town in 2011, let's see how it goes. But they already talk about repeating the talent show that brought them Lena, this time titled Unser Star für Berlin, so... But Hannover and Hamburg won't let it be easy for Berlin - they want Eurovision 2011, too! Tomorrow night there will be a special broadcast 20.15 CET on Total TV. One thing is for sure: Germany has gone LenaCra...

By winning for the second time Germany passes Denmark, Italy, Switzerland and Spain in the medal table and stand now firmly in top-10 amongst the most succesful Eurovision countries of all time with two wins, four runner ups and 5 third places over the years. Turkey passes Greece, Estonia and Latvia having now one of each medals. Romania leaves Azerbaijan and Bosnia-Herzegovina behind with their second third place. A total of 32 countries out of 51 have finished in the top-3 at least once, 25 have won. Here is the sportive medal table: (1st place - 2nd place - 3rd place) 1. Ireland (7 - 4 - 1) 2. Luxembourg (5 - 0 - 2) 3. United Kingdom (5* - 15 - 2) 4. France (5* - 4 - 7) 5. Sweden (4 - 1 - 4) 6. The Netherlands (4* - 0 - 1) 7. Israel (3 - 2 - 1) 8. Norway (3 - 1 - 1) 9. Germany (2 - 4 - 5) 10. Spain (2* - 4 - 1) 11. Switzerland ( 2 - 3 - 3) 12. Italy (2 - 1 - 4) 13. Denmark (2 - 1 - 3) 14. Russia (1 - 2 - 2) 15. Belgium (1 - 2 - 0) 15.. Ukraine (1 - 2 -0) 17. Mona...

For the first time YLE was trying new ways to involve people in the Eurovision using Twitter. YLE's Twitter and Facebook are already very busy but now people had a chance to comment songs and the rest live on TV through Twitter. Messages were visible on Text-TV and it was a success: 1.100 messages were published in the semifinals and 1.435 in the final. A good way to involve the common mortals but Eurovision freaks surely don't want their screen be filled with extra texts! YLE has EBU's blessing for this experiment.

Kuunkuiskaajat are back to Finland after eventful two weeks in Oslo. Even in the Helsinki airport they are hunted down by fans, like this Gabriel from Barcelona! Great job, girls. Shame for the missed final for 3 points but that's the game.

Followers of this blog know the story about Eläkeläiset, the big favourite to win Euroviisut 2010 and Kuunkuiskaajat. Now the "Losers Reunited" got together in Oslo before the final and Eläkeläiset gave the girls gifts as consolation and they all seemed to have fun. Good sport girls! Video is here (in Finnish). Longer video here . (Still in Finnish)

If 13 countries out of 17 gets at least one 12 pointer in the second semifinal, 10 out of 17 in the first one and 16 out of 25 in the final... what does it tell us? Was it an extremely good year or is there still something to be fixed in the voting? Especially as it didn't really change the obvious - and I mean obvious, not merited - neighbouring voting like always before or how you explain even Belarus that came seond to last got a 12? Germany also won with the second lowest average ever (only Greece 2005 got less) and even if the top-3 in the final seems to be very clear the rest of the top-10 are within points from each other: 13 points devide places 4-9, 10 points devide 13-16,  and again places 20-23 are within 10 points. I think it has been very compromising perhaps, meaning the jurors and televotes have been at some points very different from each other causing haöf of the songs ending with almost same points. Let's see if EBU will publish separate votes for both televot...

The winner's press conference was delayed but when it started it was a total chaos in the beginning. Champagne erupting in every direction and Lena jumping on table. When the situation settled she asked to speak in German and started (in German):  Hi! Hello! My name is Lena. I'm 19 from Hannover. Today I have won. The Eurovision song contest .  How legendary is that? And after that she's completely freaking out ! German TV people informed us they have no idea where the next year's contest is going to be held; Berlin, Hannover, Hamburg, Köln.... The German team and Lena are flying home tomorrow and will land in Hannover 3.10pm and then willl meet the fans in the city hall... Well here's a video moments after winning. 

And here are the results. Convincing win for Germany. A total of 16 countries got 12 points from someone. Germany won with the second lowest average (that being Greece 2005) points. Belgium was second for a long time but dropped to 6th place. Romania did surprisngly well, as did France (I thought it might be a surprise) and Ukraine and Russia to the horror of most fans managed to the upper part of the scoreboard. Serbia, Israel, Albania and Ireland failed badly. As did Iceland and host country Norway. Turkey got its second best score ever, and Romania equals its best back in 2005. Azerbaijan, Armenia and Greece stay in top-10 and Georgia also makes its best result ever. Germany got 9 times 12, 5 times 10 and 4 times 8, and points from all countries but Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Israel. Russia got high marks from all ex-Sovejet countries and Israel plus odd ones from Slovakia and Turkey. 1. Germany:  Lena " Satellite " 248 2. Turkey: maNga "We Could Be Th...

The evening was very polished one and the presenters were funny and nice. The only incident happened when some clown that turned out to be infamous Jimmy Jump jumped on stage while Daniel Diges was performing. Honeslty I was thinking it's the backing singer - I have been here complaining about him stealing the show in the background and thought he was finally into the act and dressed for it, lol - but then I saw the security guys and went Ooh! Something similar happened in Helsinki 2007 during The Ark's performance. Luckily that was not seen on TV and didn't disturb the act.... EBU and Svante then decided Spain can perform again which was fair. Video is here . UPDATE: Why it took the security to react for so long? They simply thought he was part of the act so I wasn't alone thinking that way first, lol! But then this makes it a bit scandalous, doesn't it? I guess the security close to the stage should know what's going to happen on stage and what is not suppos...

Finland was the 11th and therefor out of the final in the first semifinal only 3 points behind Moldova. The same faith for Sweden in the second one, 5 points behind Cyprus. It is quite shocking Slovakia finished 16th and Switzerland last. Anyways, what comes to disapora voting: if only Sweden and Finland were in the same semifinal propably both would have qualified.... :-) First Semi-Final (27 May) 01. Belgium (167 points) 02. Greece (133) 03. Iceland (123) 04. Portugal (89) 05. Serbia (79) 06. Albania (76) 07. Russia (74) 08. Bosnia & Herzegovina (59) 09. Belarus (59) 10. Moldova (52) 11. Finland (49) 12. Malta (45) 13. Poland (44) 14. Estonia (39) 15. FYR Macedonia (37) 16. Slovakia (24) 17. Latvia (11)  Second Semi-Final (25 May) 01. Turkey (118 points) 02. Azerbaijan (113) 03. Georgia (106) 04. Romania (104) 05. Denmark (101) 06. Armenia (83) 07. Ukraine (77) 08. Israel (71) 09. Ireland (67) 10. Cyprus (67) 11. Sweden (62) 12. Lithuania ...

All is good that end well and I think Germany after all is a worthy winner. Good for Eurovision as finally one of the Big4 made it, even France did well and Spain reasonabyly well even if UK finished right there were I said it would end: last. Good for image as Satellite has been already a big hit in certain countries and now propably will chart elsewhere, too, so the winner is again a commercial success. And Germany will surely produce a great show in 2011.

Ok, tonight's the night and we will see if we will be off to some exotic location like Yerevan or Baku, just north of Iran! Or shall we stay in the cold north like Antwerp or Berlin. Or maybe to somewhere a bit warmer, Madrid or Athens? Or shall we have a vulcanic exprerience in Reykjavik finally? Tonight I will sit tight on my sofa with drinks and snacks but relaxed as my favourite is out as well as Finland. Enjoy the show and come back for comments and feelings afterwords. Right here.

Last year 130 million people watched the contest and over 10 million televotes were given, let's see if those records will be broken tonight when the competition is fiercer than ever before. There is not a clear winner candidate unlike last year when Norway was won before the voting started really. The juries have already voted last night, tonight it's time for the people in all 39 participating countries to do so. Eurovision 2010 will be also broadcasted live or delayed in Australia, New Zealand, Kosovo, Kazakhstan and also in Hungary and Montenegro giving them a possibility to return next year. The final can be also watched all over the world by various satellites including TVE Internacional, RTP Internacional, HRT Sat, RTS Sat, TVP Polonia and SVT World, and of course on line in eurovision.tv. Have a great time wherever you are watching!

Hera Björk, running for victory tonight for Iceland tells on eurovision.tv that she had to have a cake bazaar to collect funds for her trip: “We actually held a cake bazaar! We needed some more money than we had to do this like we wanted it to be, so we went to the biggest shopping mall, and everyone baked – all the mummys, grannys and fathers. And we sold cakes for a lot of money and sang ,” Hera says. I just have to love that woman! And here's a lovely interview with her.

Even if Kuunkuiskaajat didn't make the final the girls have stayed in Oslo doing PR and having fun. Tonight they will be in Telenor arena watching the show in the audience. "We don't know who's gonna win but we have our favourites!" they say and here they are: 1. Serbia : Just so full of good humour. We like Balkan horn music. And Milan is so sweet! 2. Spain: Great spund. Daniel is very charismatic, with a twinkle in the eye - we could eat him! 3. Israel : Harel has amazing voice and charisma. He doesn't flirt with the camera, he goes into the music. The song has power, it's not a sugary ballad. 4. Iceland: Winner! Hera's singing is so effortless, amazing peronality. We will meet with Hera as soon as possible in Finland or in iceland. 5. Greece: Party song. Great choreography. The whole performance is filled with manly sweat! Heavenly testerone! 6. Georgia : Sofia is even better singer than Hera but Hera has more personality. 7. Belgium : Tom will ...

Moments after Anna Bergendahl's This is my life didn't qualify for the final in this year's Eurovision song contest final - a first for Sweden - SVT bosses were called in for a crisis meeting "How to make sure Sweden will make the final in 2011". In short that means Europe will get more power is choosing the song. Swedes have been particularly harsh on Christer Björkman, the man in charge for Melodifestivalen asking him to resign. "That's bullshit. I don't choose the songs or vote out the winner " he says. "I'm in charge for making an entertaining Saturday night program and not picking up the winner. We have to change the system. We know what works in the Swedish market as a program and music but we need to get more international feel to it now. The main problem seem to be the jury that picks up the songs for Melodifestivalen. They try to find a bit everything in it, a little Sweden. Politically correct. Maybe we should get a little Eu...

Comments have been flying in Sweden after Thursday night's fiasco and the media throws accusation here and there but what do the Eurovision veterans and the Swedish songwriters say? Thomas G:son , the Swedish writer for the Danish entry In a moment like this that was originally rejected from Melodifestivalen shouts out for Anna Bergendahl: "She was absolutely great. Outstanding. I was sure she's going to win! "  Also many other Eurovision veterans have commented the fiasco:  Nanne Grönvall says she was in shock. She thinks that singing just before Azerbaijan may have reduced Anna's chances. Charlotte Perrelli is under shock, too. She wonders now what should the Sweden send now? What does Europe want from them? She believed in Anna's chances.  Ola Salo from The Ark urges Anna not to get depressed over the result. He says Eurovision is only a spin off of Melodifestivalen that is the only contest that matters. (Err...??) A Finn can only comment here...

EBU just announced that Greek TV channel, STAR channel, is banned from three Eurovision future events. This afternoon, STAR Channel aired live the NRK feed of the first dress rehearsal at least from Cyprus to Greece. EBU was notified immediately and called the police to remove the live link and the STAR journalists while they took them their accreditations. The NRK and EBU as they have the rights, asked from the STAR Channel journalists, Katerine Souliotis and Yannis Poulopoulos to leave the country immediately not attending the show or any place near the arena. Up to this moment there are negotiations for which the crew asks permission to stay at least to the hotel, reports Oikotimes . It's about the time, too. I remember them from Helsinki 2007 and they were really annoying, hysterical and far from professional in my opinion. Also freegossip.gre, whatever that is, was showing the rehearsals on their website live. I'm not sure if that is allowed either. As I have sta...

First of all I have to say I have no clue anymore. I would have stuck to Sweden but as it is out, my second choice was Azerbaijan but now it is performed first and have not really been very convincing on stage, I must say. I don't like Denmark at all and was hoping it wouldn't even make the final but now it's there. As the last one. Another favourite of mine Croatia is also out. What to think? So, Azerbaijan starts and is followed by Spain that is followed by Norway and Moldova . Four very different songs to start with which is good, gives good variety. But it also makes them all stand out. My least favourite out fo these is Moldova but it really stands out now between Norway and Cyprus . Cyprus . I never thought it would make the final but it did look and sound pretty good in the semi. My concern now is that being close to Belgium now separated only by Bosnia-Herzegovina it means trouble. Three guys in a row with guitars. I think that might end Belgium 's wi...

After a long break a new flag entry: Capo Verde making it 182 on Flagcounter. Welcome!

Finland is the only country where the Eurovision songs are subtitled with their translations. Sounds odd? Well, it's YLE's nostalgia from the past - they used to subtitle even the rock concerts as late as 1990's.... In a way it's kinda sweet and if you are not an Eurovision freak who reads the lyrics online or somewhere how on earth regular Finns would know what this and that artists is singing about? (Truth to be said, sometimes it would be better not to know...) Some absolutely hilarious translations have passed in the screen over the years proving nonsense oh baby baby shanana lyrics are written in every language! Kalle Niemi has been in charge of that part in YLE for years now and tells: "We used to be several translators for Eurovision but for a few years now I have done it alone. I have done this since early 1990's with a couple of exceptions along the way. I get the original lyrics and the English translation about a month ago. In 1990's I also got ...

Jaana Pelkonen, the hostess of Helsinkim 2007 and YLE's commentator for the 5th time and of course the Finnish Euroviisut hostess since forever has given a very nice interview to eurovision.tv about the job as a hostess and a commentator. Here .

Five trends have been pretty evident in this year's rather recession market contest. First of all these shower curtain trailed dresses sported by Serbia, Croatia and Azerbaijan at least. Secondly violins (or similar) maybe influenced by Alexander Rybak's example last year. Mark Moldova, Albania, Finland and Greece. Thirdly barefoot. Finland, Croatia, Poland, Armenia, Georgia.... Then we have wings of some kind in Malta, Bulgaria and Belarus. And Sweden, the most dominant one even if Sweden is out herself. Denmark, Ireland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Norway, Belarus - all of them have a touch of Swedish.  Outgoing trends seems to be pyros, which is a relief. They were used a lot less than before and now it is nearly good = used where they fit and not only used because they can, no matter if they fit the staging and the song or not. Also gone are huge drops on stage á la Ukraine 2009 or Greece 2008. Another outgoing trend, or a sign of recession? is the lack of promotion material. All...

Missing the Eurovision final for the first time since 1958 (when they have wanted to take part) and after 49 entries the 50th turns out a fiasco. Sweden is under shock and apparently people don't know to handle this and take it all too seriously. Ask Finns for help. After all we are experts, after missing every other year in 1990's and many finals have been stopped in semifinals, too.  But last night, after the last envelope that didn't say Sweden but Denmark (a song written by Swedes and rejected from melodifestivale one might like to point out) a silence fell to the Swedish delegation.   Fast forward : Anna locked in a room crying and getting crisis help from SVT. (How very Swedish!)  Fast forward: teary eyed Anna meeting the press with a weak smile.  Meanwhile in Sweden the headlines of tabloids are crying out a fiasco asking should Swedes stop participating? Close down Melodifestivalen? Do Italy and keep Melodifestivalen but stop Eurovision? Fire Christer Björkm...

Kate Ryan was a big favourite to win back in 2006 with Je t'adore but failed to make the final. Such a shock for fans similar surprises have been named after her ever since. This year it's not easy to pick up just one as both semifinals provided surprises, both personal and predicted ones. In the first one Slovakia was topping many polls and was in most everyone's list of the qualifiers. It didn't. Finland became a huge favourite at the spot and was also given as a certain qualifier. It didn't. In the second one last night both Croatia and Sweden were given as sure qualifiers, I personally thought both of them could win it all, especially Sweden. I have never in my Eurovision career been so wrong, since 1976. That is also the year Sweden last time was not in the final btw. So, like in Eurovision 1969 there are four winners this year for me. And mind you, there are more countries I would have gladly seen in the final.....

One can easily understand the reactions in Sweden. The country will miss the Eurovision final for the first time since 1976 - and back then they were boycotting the contest by they own will. The papers are asking Christer Björkman to leave his job and that Anna's career is over. Anna herself has been gracious even if a bit of tears in her eyes. One can onw only hope the Swedish media won't really massacre her and blame her for the disaster as she did a fantastic job. We should also remember the international jury in Melodifestivalen didn't care at all for This is my life giving their top marks to other songs. Despite that the Swedish people voted her as the winner. Besides the Melodifestivalen organisation, the jury that picks up the songs is better target to accuse. After all they dropped In a moment like thi s and now it's in the final but for Denmark instead. And to end with Anna's comment to stupid journalist asking her "Are you disappointed?": ...

01. AZERBAIJAN 02. SPAIN 03. NORWAY 04. MOLDOVA 05. CYPRUS 06. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 07. BELGIUM 08. SERBIA 09. BELARUS 10. IRELAND 11. GREECE 12. UNITED KINBGDOM 13. GEORGIA 14. TURKEY 15. ALBANIA 16. ICELAND 17. UKRAINE 18. FRANCE 19. ROMANIA 20. RUSSIA 21. ARMENIA 22. GERMANY 23. PORTUGAL 24. ISRAEL 25. DENMARK

I'm not sure if I like Eurovision anymore. I have been all these years saying friends who complain it isn't so, but now... I am tired of standing up for Eurovision. I have never predicted so bad as this year. Where is Croatia? Sweden? Lithuania? I kinda predicted Ukraine would do it after all and kinda agree after seeing it tonight but.... This is not fun anymore.... Lithuania did a good job, so did Armenia even if the dancer is totally useless and just distraction. Israel was kinda nervous or why else was he smiling like an idiot when singing such drama? Denmark sounded and looked plauback to me, especially compared to the rehearsals. Switzerland was good even if some flat notes. Sweden was fantastic as always, why people can't see that? I don't get it. I just don't. Azerbaijan was a real mess and even if I have been supporting the song the past couple of months with this performance it didn't deserve the final place. Ukraine, even if I loathed the way it was ...

Second semifinal tonight at 9pm CET. I will be here right after to comment and blog. Scroll down for my review and thoughts. And have a great night! Let the best ones qualify - well, one can only hope after the first semifinal.... :-) Here 's a little taste of things to come tonight.

YLE's Eurovision Facebook group got 8/10 right in the first semifinal ( here) , how will it be for the second one? In the second one the winner Slovakia and no 4 Latvia didn't make the final. Will Bulgaria have a similar fate? 1. Bulgaria (8,64) 2. Armenia (8,57) 3. Croatia (8,3) 4. Ireland (8,21) 5. Denmark (8,17) 6. Turkey (8,0) 7. Azerbaijan (7,9) 8. Romania (7,6) 9. Israel (7,5) 10. Switzerland (7,4) 11. Sweden (7,1) 12. Cyprus (7,0) 13. The Netherlands (6,58) 14. Georgia (6,56) 15. Lithuania (6,1) 16. Ukraine (5,1) 17.  Slovenia (4,7)

One of the five Finnish jurors for the Eurovision 2010 is Heli Kajo. She was the big fan favourite in Euroviisut 2010 with Annankadun kulmassa . She's currently writing her debut album to be released later this year and next week, June 4, she will be performing again in Baker's in Helsinki city center. Hopefully she will sing some new songs, too! YLE is also using her song along with selected previous winners in the ads for the open selection for Euroviisut 2011 that have been aired these days on YLE's channels. Amonst the jurors is also singer/writer Pekka Ruuska, Elina Orma from Live Nation and Alex Fager from Svenska YLE's X3M.

Apparently Maltese didn't take their missed qualification as gracefully Finns. She first complained the neighbouring voting with tears in her eyes but all was soon forgotten and later that night she was dancing the night away with Polish Marcin who also didn't pass to the final, as you can see in the pic (source: Times of Malta) Well, the media in Finland did their "told you so" and so did 70% of the nation. It seems that Finns have forgotten the years we never did make the final or had to skip every other year. We have been in the final 2006-2009, it's just a skip year no so what's the big deal. (Sad it is though). I wonder what the reaction in Slovakia has been? Anyone know? Slovakian reading, let us know! Also, the organisation has been only praised until now. First we got the harsh critic from fans and delegations for the empty arena for the dress rehearsals. Then I started hearing complaints for the Euroclub being too small. And of course things being too...

Italy is not participating, we all know that but like most every year some Italians have sneaked in anyways. Or artists with Italian connections at least. Thea Garrett from Malta basicly started her career in Italy two years ago with Gigi D'Alessio. The Albanian violinist Olen Cesari also got his big breakthrough in Italy back in 1993 by winning Partita doppia TV-show. Since then he has worked with most Italian big stars and lives and works in Italy. He has even arranged the strings for one Sanremo winner, Ti regaleró una rosa in 2007. Georgia has a lot of Italy in it. One of the writers, Christian Leuzzi, one of the dancers Francesca Lavecchia and the dress, by Dolce & Gabbana. Croatia's Feminnem recorded an Italian version of their song. And on top of that there are two (2) Italian accredited journalists! Two! (Eddy, is that you?)

Did you know that while Portugal's Filipa was on stage Tuesday night in the first semifinal RTP International run a text in screen inviting all Portuguese all around Europe to vote for it? With the numbers in different countries. So I have been told. Isn't that a bit partiar and against fair play? Can these TV station really run their own stuff on screen in the live broadcast? Can they? Same goes for Romania. A mega advertising just before the show started to alert all Romanians all over the continent to vote for Paula & Ovi today. I'm sure the ad will be there even tonight. I just wonder....

Still reigning Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak will release his second album in 3 weeks. After Fairytales we get No boundaries (wasn't that the title of the first album after winning for Sertab Erener, too?) and it has a tribute to Finland amongst the songs, Suomi . Last summer Rybak was overwhelmed about his popularity and hsyteria she caused in Finland stating it was "biggeer than in Norway right after my winning" so it sure was something! The first single of the album is Oah .

Here comes my thoughts and ideas about the second semifinal. After the first semifinal it is pretty clear the 50-50 juries-televote doesn't seem to change a thing so I am not going to adjust any my remarks written here before that. But I must press the fact that I have not seen the final screen shots, camera runs and the overal show the TV viewers will see. It made me change my mind about a few things during the show yesterday (dropping Slovakia and adding Bosnia-Herzegovina for example) but I can't help that now. Lithuania - InCulto - Eastern European funk Like the first semi we have an opener that will surely get viewers attention. When this won I wasn't very pleased but I started liking this very soon and I find it still funny and entertaining. It's all about their attitude I guess. They have fun themselves and don't take this too seriously, yet being totally serious about it. This isn't stupid silly like We are the winners or other similar acts in the past....

The Finnish fans and performers were very disappointend and a bit shocked when the promised final place didn't happen. The other big loser last night was Slovakia but at least from the first semifinal the Kate Ryan award goes to Kuunkuiskaajat for sure, let's see what will happen in the second one!  Susan and Johanna were good humoured after initial shock: "Of course we are disappointed. Not because of the result but the fact that this fun ended here! We were so wanting to repeat this on Saturday and the rehearsals in between. But now we have all the time until Sunday to meet fans, make contacts and have fun. We have decided to stay here as planned!" Good news for the fans who surrounded the girls last night at the hotel, at the Euroclub and everywhere were they went. "At hotel the other delegations came up to us one after another telling how sorry they are we didn't make. They said we brought fun and smiles back to the contest!" The add they have gott...

My sources tell Kuunkuiskaajat was the hit of the evening in the afterparty at Euroclub. 1,5 hours of adoration, concolences, hugs and photos. The other artists just sneaked in and felt sorry. Tié!

So, we have filled up a bit the running order for the final  Looks pretty good so far with different music styles meck to neck, except the Albania, iceland, France lot building up with uptempo ones, hopefully we will get Ireland or something in no. 17. And Luckily Sweden cannot be drawn next to Belgium! 01. 02. SPAIN 03. NORWAY 04. MOLDOVA 05. 06. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 07. BELGIUM 08. SERBIA 09. BELARUS 10. 11. GREECE 12. UNITED KINGDOM 13. 14. 15. ALBANIA 16. ICELAND 17. 18. FRANCE 19. 20. RUSSIA 21. 22. GERMANY 23. PORTUGAL 24. 25. Ok, I'm off to bed. To have some disappointed sleep. And tomorrow my blogging's a bit slim, I'll have day of off Eurovision before Thursday! This is my life, my friend...See ya all! Nah, I'll be back in the evening and will report how the Finnish media will treat this, will there be a lot of "told you so"'s....

Kuunkuiskaajat were full of positive energy right after their performance: "Absolutely fantastic! Great energy! It all went well and we had such fun on stage! Greetings to Finland! Coolest thing ever!" but after the results were out the girls were not to be found for comments. YLE's head of press was also one big "No comment". Well, the disappointment is huge. Let them get over it. On Monday they where laughing they have a Plan B in case they don't reach the final: "Maybe we will go and see Eläkeläiset's gig in Oslo!" UPDATE: The girls are alive and well on their Facebook: We are still having a blast. We didn't loose! Thanks everyone for your support! Random facts: Poland's Marcin had to pay himself the trip to Oslo. A bank loan. Shame it was wasted. And Estonia's Malcolm or rather Robin speaks perfect Finnish. He learned it when he was picking strawberries in Suonenjoki for living.....

Well, what can I say? Obviosuly I'm disappointed for Finland not making the final after all. Now I am very curious to see the full scoreboards afterwords! But checking the top tens of most everyone who has published them in blogs and sites no one made 10/10 and very few 9/10 (Escadaily's Luke, AKOE's Keith and Andrew and Esckatz's Mike) I made 7/10 which seems to be the most common score. However it is evident how seeing the rehearsals on spot in screen helps. I changed by list when seeing them finally on TV and scored 8/10 tonight based on the live show instead. I still didn't believe in Russia and Moldova and had Finland and Malta qualifying instead. Tonight I dropped Slovakia and Russia (!) and replaced them with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Belarus. Ok, overal a bit boring show wasn't it? I didn't get the feeling of the audience or was it empty there? Presenters were good. Not exceptionally good but good in a lowkey way. Postcards were something new but I thi...

The third and last dress rehearsal for the first semifinal of Eurovision song contest 2010 has just finished in Oslo's Telenor Arena and now all is said and done. Juries have already voted and it's a shame for Malta and Slovakia who did better now than last night. They will have to make it right tonight by catching the televotes. Apparently biggest applauses from the journalists and fans present in the arena and in the press center went to Greece and Finland... I will be back tonight after the show to comment the results and the show so please come back then. Around midnight CET. H A VE   A   G R E A T    S H O W !