Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

YLE has announced the running order for the Euroviisut 2011 final in Turku, the European city of culture 2011. As usual the final will take place in Caribia Hotel-Spa. There will be televote only and first round will pick up the top-3 that will go for another round, the superfinal. Jaana Pelkonen, hostess of Helsinki 2007 Eurovision is hosting for the 7th year in a row but she has a new co-host, Tom Nylund. Linda Lampenius will be the interval act with the Swedish group Gemtlemen. Hard to say if the running order has been drawn or decided as it is a bit weird, Eveliina starting again and Stala & So. finishing again. Eveliina Määttä - Dancing in the dark Sami Hintsanen - Täältä maailmaan Milana Misic - Sydämeni kaksi maata Paradise Oskar - Da da dam Cardiant - Rapture in time Johanna Iivanainen - Luojani mun Father McKenzie - Good enough Marko Maunuksela - Synkän maan tango Saara Aalto - Blessed with love Stala & So. - Pamela The final takes place on February 12, 2011. Next ...

The Dutch have chosen and indeed they picked up the best out of those five. Mostly pleasant and nice songs but Eurovision winners? Hardly. Winning song could turn into a catchy poprock hit with a little re-arrangement and English lyrics. The singer's fine, the song has a little bit of U2 vibe in it once it gets going but the other two guys shouldn't look so miserablöe and serious all the time! The blondie looks sullen and in pain and the older chap just half asleep.... Wake up, this is Eurovision!

Tonight it's the decision ttime in the Netherlands. 3Js was chosen to represant the country already last year and they have written five songs for the occasion and the winner will be picked up by 50-50 jury-televote. Against the previous news it seems like the winning entry will be translated into English and if it's any good will be performed as such in Germany. The show starts at 21.20 CET from Hilversum. Previous Eurovision stars Hind and Rene Froger are amogst the jury. Judging the snippets my favourite might be Nooit alleen.     1. De stroom (The stream)    2. Je vecht nooit alleen (Never alone)    3. Ga dan niet (Then don't go)    4. Toen ik jou vergat (When I forgot you)    5. Weelderig waardeloos (Luxuriously worthless) UPDATE:   Ok, I wasn't planning to watch the show but I am watching it after all.... :-) The show started with the most boring song of them all, Ga dan niet. It just didn't go anywhere. The followe...

Belgium took one step further in their selection process and after a radio semifinal with the 30 songs that qualified from the internet we have the 14 finalists left for the TV. Internet, radio, Tv - now that's involving all medias if we could also have a good old fashioned postcard round, too! Some of my favourites made it, some didn't. I still like for some reason Steve Linden's song but would it be the best choise? They say Witloof Bay's the big favourite but accapella never did well in Eurovision. On the other hand if France tries with operapop again they haven't learned a thing either! The Belgian final will take place February 12, 2011 and there will both jury and televoters choosing the song for Germany. 1. Chloé - Just One Chance 2. Alexandre Deschamps - Elle Merveille 3. Syla K. - Simple Love 4. Thayss N' Bau - Somewhere With You 5. The Blazing - Our Way 6.  J Cool - Dans Ma Chanson 7. .fen - Yes I Know 8.  Nelza - Be My Friend 9.  Steve Linden...

UK may have picked way wiser than France choosing the boyband Blue for Eurovision 2011. They were together from 2001 to 2005 releasing three albums and scoring 11 top-10 hits. They reunited in 2009 and in 2006 also Antony Costa of the band tried his luck in Eurovision already with It's a beautiful thing ending second behind Daz Sampson. Lee Ryan took part as composer in 2005 UK final with Andy Scott-Lee performed Guardian angel, and Duncan James gave the British votes in Eurovision 2009 so the band's been flirting with Eurovision all along. f the song Blue is going to perform is strong enough I'd say UK is back on track. The song's called I can. UPDATE: Apparently this is big enough news for Finnish tabloids to publish it, too. The last one might have been Patricia Kaas....

Tonight the third semifinal takes place in Iceland and you can follow it live on RÚV's website as usual. Tonight it's a solid back, all male cast and two of the biggest names are in; Magni Ásgeirsson and Jógvan Hansen and the delicate matter of Sjónni Brink's song. I have not written in this blog about his sudden and sad death at the age of 36 just a couple of weeks ago but it doesn't mean I haven't cared. I have. I have always liked his songs in the Icelandic selections and he will be missed. His song will now be performed by his friends, by the request of his family. Let's see if the Icelandic will vote the song all the way to Germany out of respect? I like all the songs tonight and can't pick up my favourites. Listen yourself here . I will update this post with results later. Georg Alexander - Morgunsól Magni - Ég trúi á betra líf -> FINAL Jógvan - Ég lofa -> FINAL Buff - Sáluhjálp Sigurjón's friends - Aftur heim -> FINAL

Like Iceland Norway is having its third semifinal tonight coming from Skien. As usual you can follow it live on NRK's website. And there's a little bit of everything from rockabilly to heavymetal, from boyband to ballad and etno. And even The Blacsheeps, the winners of the Nordic Junior MGP. The girls have grown up a bit. You can listen to the songs here .I will update this post with the results later. Susperia -   Nothing remains -> Last chance Noora Noor -   Gone with the wind Girl Happy -   SOS Grethe Svensen -   Like dreamers do The BlackSheeps -   Dance tonight -> FINAL Stella Mwangi -   Haba haba -> FINAL The lucky bullets -   Fire below -> Last chance

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports:   TVE promised a night full of surprises and indeed it was since they kicked out Maria Lopez and qualifying to the final two teenage deja vu pop bands and someone so called a crooner unable to perform decently "Estando Contigo". Seems likes teens and housewives collapsed the Spanish votes tonight. Gio and Lucia Perez also move to the final, leaving behind Maria Lopez,  neither the public nor the jury picked her after an outstanding performance of "Vuelve Conmigo". She is beautiful and she can sing, she can really sing but looks like TVE is not looking for an overwhelming voice...seems like we are looking for keep being the 20th. The first gala of Destino Eurovisión took place last night in Barcelona. The stage was convincing, not the jury or the public. Anne Igartiburu conducted a fresh and dynamic show, as she usually does, with Daniel Diges being in the backstage. The jury was part of the show with funny comments, tips...

Stuff on the Spanish karaoke show coming up..... tomorrow morning!

So, after the third semifinal and YLE's surprising wildcard we have the ten finalists for the Finnish final on February 12, 2011 in Turku, the European capital of culture in 2011. And there's a little bit everything from gospel to glamrock, metal to acoustic pop, radiopop and powerballads. All three qualifiers from the internet selection got to the final making way to the big changes next year in Euroviisut. Six songs are in English now and Iivanainen, Hintsanen and Misic have said they will sing in English should they win so only Maunuksela is left in Finnish, and he has said it stays in Finnish no matter what. Two big fan favourites didn't make it, Jimi Constantine and Tommi Soidinmäki and YLE's wildcard went to Eveliina Määttä instead of them. Weird. I guess I'm now for Paradise Oskar and Stala & So. With Johanna Iivanainen (in English) as the black horse... Saara Aalto - Blessed with love Cardiant - Rapture in time Father McKenzie - Good enough Sami Hi...

Live from Tohloppi studios in Tampere the third and last Euroviisut 2011 semifinal. Get ready for a black and white evening with a hint of red! Also YLE's wildcard to the final in two weeks time will be revealed along with the three qualifiers. Come back for live blogging at 20 CET and watch the webcast here . The show has just stared again and Tom and Jaana are on stage welcoming the audience and explaining the prodecure. Tom has a wild hair tonight and Jaana a wild dress: turquoise leopard! Hmm.... Hanna Pakarinen presents the first act tonight. EVELIINA MÄÄTTÄ - DANCING IN THE DARK First of the black acts tonight, lighten up with some neoncolors designed by Teuvo Loman. Very 1980's act in everyway, she sings ok, the choreography's nice enough but most likely the neon vampire act won't get people voting her and she will follow the fate of other dance acts this year and won't qualify. We will see. Anneli Saaristo presents the next act. SAMI HINTSANEN - T...

Portugal's 12 finalists have been voted out from the 21 (or originally 24 but three were disqualified). The final will be on March 5, 2011 with 50-50 televote and jury. Homens da Luta took an early lead but the others catched up quickly and indeed it's a very close call with less than a thousend votes separating the 2nd and 12th. The final will be ineteresting.... 01. Homens da Luta – A Luta é Alegria (17.374 votes) 02. Wanda Stuart – Chegar à tua Voz (14.394 votes) 03. Inês Bernardo – Deixa o meu Lugar (14.105 votes) 04. Ricardo Sousa – O Mar o Vento e as Estrelas (14.062 votes) 05. Filipa Ruas – Tensão (14.058 votes) 06. 7 Saias – Embalo do Coração (14.056 votes) 07. Carla Moreno – Sobrevivo (13.868 votes) 08. Henrique Feist – Quase a Voar (13.844 votes) 09. Nuno Norte – São os Barcos de Lisboa (13.817 votes) 10. Rui Andrade – Em Nome do Amor (13.656 votes) 11. Tânia Tavares – Se esse Dia Chegar (13.592 votes) 12. Axel – Boom Boom Yeah (13.448 votes...

I will be blogging live as usual from the Euroviisut 2011 third semifinal. It's the last one and features a couple of fan favourites and in the end also YLE's wildcard will be revealed. If the fans are right Stala & So featuring ex-Lordi member will win hands down tonight followed by Tommi Soidinmäki whose song is written by Eurovision veteran Petri Laaksonen (1985, 1987) and Saara Aalto (check her music video here ) would be the third qualifier. She qualified from the open internet selection. Sami Hintsanen doesn't convince the fans but he has a lot of fans himself because of his TV-show so who knows?. And Eveliina Määttä is unknown and may well remain such after tonight as well. I'm all for Stala & So tonight, my only favourite.But as we learned last week everything can change live. But I think the wildcard is Jimi Constantine's. Join me tonight at 20.00 CET

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports :   Update for Destino Eurovision The first images of the stage for Destino Eurovision can be seen already in the TVE site, they also gave us the list of the participants and even some of the songs they will be performing and surprisingly it is not that bad. Tonight at 22.15 Auryn, Baltanás, Da igual, David Sancho, Gio, Guadiana, Las Miranda, Lucía Pérez, María López, Paula Marengo, Roima Durán y Sunami will be on stage looking for the first five tickets to the next round. Roima Durán and Gio will perform the same song as they did in their auditions, Wild Dances and Satellite , TVE stated in their website both are performing such a personal version of the songs and even Gio is adding a small rap to Satellite , both also get good praise a more than two lines in the Spanish public televisio website...isn't that suspicious? Baltanas will perform Fairytale , two songs will be performed in French; Guadiana - Ne Partez pas sans Moi and Pa...

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports:   Last news! TVE waiting for a joker call TVE is keeps on complicating the seek for the Spanish Eurovision song for Düsseldorf. They had inserted an add on the website calling for jokers. Those who has interest to represent Spain needed to call to the number 913 464 293 or 913 469 127 if they are interested in representing Spain in the next Eurovision Song Contest. To make it even cheaper they deadline for receiving calls was yesterday 12.00AM. Is that a joke? The producers and organized had big hopes on someons to call. During the press conference held on Wednesday they stated: We really hope that someone will call within the next days, so far no one has called yet (how? if the deadline is Thursday 27th) The current Director of contents and programs from TVE added. We are really suprised that no one had even asked about the songs or called ! (I am also surprised she hoping people to call to a number instead of them calling artists)....

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports: The final details for the Spanish pre-selection were presented to the media in a press conference. Spain goes back a similar process as in 2007 when NASH got their ticket to Helsinki, however this looks still a mess for me. The public TV-channel will (apparently, remember what happened two years ago) provide four galas in the next forthcoming Fridays, starting tonight at 22,15. The 24 artist will be divided in two semifinals where they will perform classics from the Spanish history of Eurovision or absolute #1 from the contest and this is where this got scary. What is a #1 for TVE? Song that won the contest? Or songs that hit the charts? This seems not fair to me since it is not the same to perform Congratulations as to perform Bandido or Modlitva . Either the performers picked their own song or this has been assigned to them (which I suspect) has not been clearly communicated; nevetheless TVE stated  that everybody is really excit...

Britney Spears stayed at number one only for one week and is replaced by humour act Petri Nygård singing about the joys of alcohol in Selvä päivä . I think we will have a new number one next week, too. Or I hope so! In albums Jenni Vartiainen returns on top!

Franco Battiato (66)  is having a pause from his own recording career but he appears regularly lately in albums of other people. He did Il tempo stesso with Tiziano Ferro, Svegliami domani with Cinzia Fontana, La strada with Franco Renga, La stagione dell'amore with Mango, then we have Versus, Carmen Consoli, Milva....  "I'm asked all the time and I'm too soft. If they keep asking eventually I say yes " he tells.  Soon we will see him in Sanremo. "Luca Madonia is a dear boy. He so wanted to go to Sanremo, I don't know why,  and Morandi & Mazzi who pick up the songs for the festival told me it would be much easier if I was involved. So I picked up L'Alieno amongst the songs Luca offered me and sent it. But I enter the song only after three minutes! I don't feel I'm competing but just helping a friend who's in competition. I feel quite like the alien as the song suggests there. I think I will have more fun conducting the orchestra o...

FYR Macedonia has announced the names for 2011 and amongst them we have some familiar national final names like always. FYR Macedonia will be one of the countless countries having its final on February 26, 2011. Izveduvač - Naslov Na Pesna Riste Tevdovski - Ne Se Menuva Ljubovta Zdravka Mirčevska - Ludost Ile Spasov - Tura Si Olivera Gorgovska - Na Kraj Natalija Slaveva - Ne Mi Trebaš Boban Mojsovski - Te Krade Toj Goran Kargov - Lažeš Deka Ne Ne Boli Emilija Gievska - Paranoja Offside - Sekon Dej Vlatko Ilievski - Rusinka Angelina Stojanoska - Znaeš Li Skipi i Trajzi - Ostavi Politika I Projačaj Ton Martin Srbinovski - Ram Tam Tam Filip Jordanovski - Sekogaš Nekoj Proveke Vredi Ivan Jovanov - Kockar Lidija Kočovska - Bažji Patek Dule i Koki - Neka E So Pomin Nade Talevska - Vo Mojot Svet Imaš Dom Vodolija - Ne Vrakaj Se

France just has announced its Eurovision artists for 2011 and I'm still speechless. They would have so much to offer like these NRJ Music award winners like Joyce Jonathan , the newcomer of the year. Or Jenifer , the female artist of the year beating names like Shy'm and Mylène Farmer . Or the male artist of the year M Pokora . Or Christophe Mae , David Guetta . Or Christophe Willem . Emmanuel Moire . Or almost anybody.... Mind you the opera guy could turn out to be great but I'm a bit sceptical.... And of course the purpose of this post was just to showcase some of my favourite French singers :-)

Toše Proeski remains in the headlines in FYR Macedonia, and not only. The president of the Balcan country honored him recently with a medal for his work for the Macedonian culture and his humanitary work in UNICEF. Also a memorial museum for him has been opened. Tose represanted FYR Macedonia in Eurovision 2004 with Life and was to do so again in 2008 but his sudden death in a car crash in late 2007 put stop to those plans. He was working on a new album in English back then and that album The hardest thing was released in 2008 scoring #1 hit all over Balcans with the titkle track. The same happened when in 2010 single Jos uvijek sanjam da smo zajedno was released. Now in 2011 two unreleased cover tracks have been made public: Light of my life and Can you feel the love tonight .

Mārtiņš Freimanis, the Latvian Eurovision star died today. He was taken to the Infectology Centre of Latvia last week with severe respiratory inflamation. He was only 33 and follows Sjónni Brink, the Icelandic singer who died recently at only 36. I hope this 2011 season will prove wrong the old saying about twos and threes.... He represanted Latvia in the homeground in 2003 as part of F.L.Y and also wrote the more succesful entry in 2005 .

France surely surprised us this time again. Amaury Vassili? Oh dear.... I have always hated with passion all these fake Italian tenors (with the exception of Josh Groban) and when I saw Vassili in Finnish TV last summer I switcehd channel in about 20 seconds. Let Italians do the Italian arias, or at least learn to sing them in proper Italian (like Josh Groban for example). Never in a million years I would have thought he would next time come to my attention in Eurovision! I have no words....

The status of Big4, or Big5 as it is now when Italy returned has divided the fans and public alike ever since its introduction in 1998. It all started when in 1996 there were suddenly 30 countries wanting to take part in Eurovision but the show could handle only 23. So, an audio semifinal was held and all of sudden Germany's entry was left out. Germans were outraged as the song was seen as a favourite - and indeed it might have done well if it made it to Oslo 1996. EBU was troubled as it's biggest economical contributor at the time was out. Finns on the other hand were very surprised we made it through the semi (and eventually came last in oslo but that's another story). Anyways, it was Leon's technopop Blauer Planet - the only German entry that has been left home in the history,  making 1996 the only year when Germany haven't been present. That's a record.I think he would have done well in Oslo.... if he ever got that far. And Leon? He tried again in the Germa...

A busy weekend ahead. On Friday we have the third and last semifinal in Finland and the first gala in Spain. Saturday the trio of Norway, Iceland and Croatia continue with their semifinals. On Sunday we will find out who of the newcomers made it all the way to teatro Ariston in Sanremo and in Belgium the radio selection starts. But most importantly we will have another entry chosen: The Netherlands. 3JS was internally chosen to represant the orange nation this year and they have penned five songs to choose from. The voting will be 50% televote and 50% jury made of René Froger, Daniël Dekker, Annemieke Schollaardt, Eric van Tijn and Hind. 01. Vecht nooit Alleen (Never Fight Alone) 02. Ga Dan Niet (Don’t Go Then) 03. De Stroom (The Stream) 04. Toen Ik Jou Vergat (When I Forgot You) 05. Weelderig Waardeloos (Luxuriously Worthless) You can listen a bit of each song here .

Estonia has once again the most alternative national final. The 20 songs this year either don't include bubbly europop nor schlager but all sorts of weird stuff. And unlike the other years none of the songs emerges as a favourite for me this time. If I have to pick up one that would be Ithaka Maria 's Hopa´pa-rei! If performed well live this could become something rather catchy and dangerous, in Shakira kind of way.... Tiiu Kiik is also interesting as well as Söpruse Puiestee & Merili Varik. Listen to all songs here .Estonia is one of the six (so far) countries choosing their song on February 26, 2011. Rolf Roosalu (Rolf Junior) -   All & now Victoria   -   Baby had you Noorkuu   -   Be my Saturday night Jana Kask   -   Don't want anything Ithaka Maria   -   Hoppa-pa-rei! Outloudz   - I wanna meet Bob Dylan Meister ja Mari   -   Unemati Uku Suviste   -   Jagatud öö Elmayonesa   -   Kes...

This year Finland celebrates its 50th anniversary in the Eurovision song contest and for the occasion YLE2 is not only broadcasting the three semifinals and the final, but a documentary on the 50 rough years in the contest on Saturday February 5, a week before the final.  But YLE's Teema channel will beat its sister in that. On April 30 a brandnew Australian documentary The Secret history of the Eurovision song contest will be broadcasted (repeated in two parts on May 10 and 17). Marion Rung, Kojo and Mr Lordi have collaborated to this programme. On April 30 YLE Teema will also re-broadcast the Eurovision song contest 2006 from Athens when Lordi won it for us. But that's not all. On April 26 we will see again the Finnish national final of 1973 , won by Marion Rung and then bringing us the best placement until then and until Lordi´s win, 6th. Along with that an interview with conductor Ossi Runne. A week later on May 3 we will have a chance to see again the 1974 national final...

Carola has digitaslly released the second single off her coming Barbra/Elvis album (release March 23, 2011). It's Suspicious minds by Elvis Presley, following Barbra Streisand's Woman in love released last year. Besides this album in autumn 2011 her gospel concert in Circus in 1994 will see the release in both CD and DVD.

Nicola Della Valle aka Niko, the lead singer of Sammarinese band Miodio sat down with Blogilkar for an interview talking about the band’s past, present and future, Sanremo and Eurovision . It’s finally here, your debut album! Tell us a bit about it. Avantgarde is a result of six long years of experiences and feelings. It’s an album that includes different faces and changing colours. It’s electro-pop that hides a deep soul, sometimes fragile and delicate, sometimes cutting and aggressive. We have taken care of every little detail and I have to say the result is all that we expected and more. Every detail has been tought carefully and we have worked hard in studio, and Avantgarde became a modern pop album – easy to listen to but not calculated and stupid. The cover sleeve is designed by Andrea Zonzini, a young neo-pop artist who has really captured the essence of our sound. It’s a simple image but a leaves strong impact. It’s exactly what we wanted. I invite all the readers and fans t...

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports: Spain is not being clear with their intentions and selection formula but TVE finally announced the names of the 24 artist bidding to represent Spain in Düsseldorf, although my previous scepticism, once I watched and heard the auditions the options could have been worse and it is still too early to judge since the selected songs have not been auditioned yet. TVE is not giving any hints about what they are looking for, taking in consideration the different kind of artists selected. Newbies, old classics, one hit wonders, popstars as much as duets, groups, crooners, nostalgics, flamenco pop, r&b, international voices (what does exactly mean?), (apparently) black voices and even a boy band. As I said All Kinds of Everything . It is not even clear if the jokers are still to come or all already there as TVE is highliting among the finalists "some of the artist are already known from our viewers like Alazán, the singer Esmeralda Grao a...

TRM has selected 60 songs from over 90 sent in - listen here - and 25 will make it to the national final on February 26, 2011 after a jury has heard and seem them live. Amongst them Zdob si Zdub with So lucky . Will they be lucky enough to make it again, without the granny? And there are many familiar names listed, too. Like Natalia Barbu ! One of the nicest persons in Helsinki 2007.... Adriana Volonsenso - I can win the game, Alex Belenki – Keep Me Strong, Aluzia – Rămii, Anastasia Denisiuc – What are you want from me, Anișoara Balmuș – You and I, Alexandru Șaptefrați – Сон, Aurel Chirtoaca – Inca indragostit, Boris Cavali & Cristina Croitoru – Break it up, Ionel Calalb – Mama, Carolina Gorum & Mircea Gutu – True Love, Constantinova – Insane, Corina Cuniuc – Si tac, Cristi Cuculescu – Don’t give up, Dana Marchitan – Lucky you, lucky me, Daniliuc Veaceslav & Andrei Hadjiu – Summer is following, Danu Boian – I don’t now, Diana Staver – Love Song, Doinita Gherman – Viata, ...

Not only Norway and Iceland are doing wonderful Eurovision things tonight, also Croatia starts its elimination rounds tonight - lenghty system explained here - and tonight we have the first 12 acts and only six of them will move on to the next level. Fun starts 20.20 CET here .  The 12 are in tonight: Artemija Stanic, Damir Kedzo, Ivana Brkasic, Tina Vukov, Miro Tomic, Mila Soldatic, Valentina Briski, Jelena Vanjek, Sabrina Hebiri, Mario Sambrailo, Dora Benc and veteran Jacques Houdek.  Update:  And the show goes on for Damir Kenzo, Miro Tomic, Dora Benc, Jacques Houdek, Sabrina Hebiri and ... err, the sixth one will be announced next week? Ok.... Update 2: HRT announced the day after that there has been problems with the v ote and actually Jelena Vanjek qualifies to the next step instead of Damir Kenzo....

Iceland continues its search for the Eurovision perfection and in this heat we have also  lovely Yohanna, who came second in Eurovision 2009 behind Alexander Rybak and indeed she's got yet another fine ballad and should qualify easily. As I got it all wrong last week I say no more about the others except Matthias and Erlan deserve a special mention for their crazy song! Listen to all songs here . Update: I'm on fire tonight, got the both qualifiers right! :-) Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir - Nótt -> FINAL Bryndís Ásmundsdóttir - Segðu mér Kristján Gíslason & Íslenzka sveitin - Þessi þrá Rakel Mjöll Leifsdóttir - Beint á ská Matthías Matthíasson & Erla Björg Káradóttir - Eldgos -> FINAL