Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

As Carola's latest album hits #1 spot in Sweden it proves Carola is going strong. It is actually her 9th number one album! And if you thought she was at her career top in the beginning when Främling broke all the records think twice: six of those nine albums have been 2000's releases! And four of them are either Christmas or religious music and one is a compilation. And now a cover album. Here are her #1 albums: Främling (1983), Steg för steg (1984), Jul i Betlehem (1999), Sov på min arm (2001), Guld platina och passion (2003), Störst av allt (2005), Från nu till evighet (2006), I denna natt blir världen ny (2007), Elvis, Barbra och jag (2011)

Keith Mills, the Eurovision guru from All kinds of everything predicts Finland a top-5 placing along with United Kingdom, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Estonia and France! If you don't believe me watch yourself here .

Show your support and get your Paradise Oskar Da da dumb? t-shirt, pins and bags from here . There you can also buy his debut album Sunday songs that is released on May 4, 2011.

The press center is open. The technical rehearsals are on going in Esprit Arena. The delegations are arriving. The teams from various fan websites are in town and ready. Has it really already been a year??!! In the next two weeks I will do my daily round ups what's been going on with combined information from various blogs and websites as I am not there. You can also check 3minutes for updates as their team with Louis & co. are on the spot. Paradise Oskar and the Finnish team are flying in today and tomorrow they will have the first touch with the stage that looks rather nice as you can see here and here .

Eurovision song contest 2011 rehearsals will start tomorrow. At this point it is good to have a round up of the songs on video. Some countries have released music videos after the previews were sent to EBU, some have only the video available and one can only wonder what they come up with on stage. Here they are: POLAND - live - music video - English NORWAY - live - music video ALBANIA - live Albanese - music video ARMENIA - live - music video TURKEY - live - music video SERBIA - live - preview video - English video RUSSIA - live - music video SWITZERLAND - live - music video GEORGIA - live - music video FINLAND - live - preview - music video MALTA - live - music video SAN MARINO - live - music video CROATIA - live Croatian - live English - music video ICELAND - live Icelandic - music video HUNGARY - live - music video - Hungarian PORTUGAL - live - music video LITHUANIA - live AZERBAIJAN - preview - music video GREECE - live - music video B...

Veteran rockers Apulanta shot straight to #1 this week with Vääryyttä and Jennifer Lopez drops to #2 after 8 weeks on top with On the floor but her new single Papi enters already at #9.

Iceland has a different story to tell in Eurovision 2011. The usual plans changed when one of the finalist Sigurjón Sjonni Brink, aged 36, suddenly died only 12 days before the semifinal he was scheduled to perform of a brain haemorrhage caused by an aneurysm.. His wife and co-writer of the song  Thorunn needed urgently to decide how to go. She came to the conclusion with his friends that Sigurjón would have wanted the show go on. Six of his collegues joined forced and performed the song, it qualied for the final where it won easily the Icelandic final (25.449 votes against the fan favourite Jóhanna's Nótt with 18.506) Aftur heim become Coming home for D ü sseldorf and is performed by guitarist Vignir Snaer Vigfusson, drummer Benedikt Brynleifsson, piano player Palmi Sigurhjartarson, guitarist Gunnar Olason, bass player Hreimur Örn Heimisson and singer Matthias Matthiasson under name Sjonni's Friends. Gunnar, Vignir and Benedikt all have already Eurovision experience: Gunnar ...

For most of us finding and buying the Eurovision CD in a local recordstore is easy enough but not in Italy. The country may be back in contest and RAI is doing an effort but the record distributors are not warming up it seems. Fans are reporting all over Italy the shops are not having the CD and when asked -  if someone actually makes an effort to investigate the matter -  the result is "fuori catalogo", or "out of print". That concerns all the main chains (FNAC, Ricordi/Feltrinelli, Mondadori/Messaggerie Musicali). EMI, the distributor os the CD is not doing any effort to distribute it, and at the moment the only way is to order it online in Italy is frpm  Discoteca Laziale . (Which used to be MY recordstore in Rome the good old days when I lived in a walking distance from it and indeed that shop does have a great selection, helpful staff and in short: the best record store in Rome!)

The first Italian represant (not counting various Melonis and Meneguzzis...) in the Eurovision song contest of the 2000's Raphael Gualazzi has been busy lately with his concerts and promo gigs around Italy and beyond, including the recent ESC Party in London. Follia d'amore or Madness of love may be old news in Italy as he has released the follow up there, A three second breath .  In the pic above you have the cover of the before mentioned ESC song with it's pinkish line . ... It includes all three versions of the song.

Italian diva, legend and icon Raffaella Carrá is not only on the spotlight with her coming Eurovision presentation in Italy but also for the remix of her old hit A far l'amore comincia tu , now titled Far l'amore and remixed by the French guru Bob Sinclar. It is destined to become the hit of the summer in Italian clubs as everyone knows the original. Now they have also a video - without La Carrá - shot in Plastic, in Milan owned by Dolce & Gabbana who are also featured in the video. How many other celebritisies can you spot? It also features a rather typical Italian taxi ride.... :-) Now also the plans by Rai2 how they will treat Eurovision song contest final on May 14, 2011 have been clarified. They will have La Carrá presenting the show before it starts and then the show itself will be shown as it is (well, isn't that in the rules that one must show it as it is?) and during the interval and afterwords she will talk and comment about it with her guests in the studio i...

Not all Eurovision promo events take the same spotlight like the one in Amsterdam or the other one in Kyiv or are as succesful and big. Gent in Belgium was attended only by the artists from Latvia, Slovakia and Romania. I have no idea who organized it and how but apparently at least the guys from Musiqq and Hotel FM did also other promo gigs around Gent those days and Witloof Bay from Belgium joined them at some point. Don't know really what Twiins were up to? Anyways, Musiqq is giving final touches to their performance and on Friday April 29 will give a concert in Riga before heading off to Düsseldorf on May 3 with their team that includes besides the four backing singers the Head of delegation and the Head of press, once again the lovely Aija Medinika (rock it girl! xox)

Glen Vella has taken his bubbly personality to UK ESC party where she met Dana International and Nikki French amongst others and visited also Italy with a performance in Top of the Pops following Blue 's footsteps a few weeks ago. And before heading to D ü sseldorf he met his fans in Valletta signing his Cds.... Busy boy. But after all he's only got One life. ...

Some 200.000 people gathered in the main square of Kyiv to the farewell concert of Mika Newton before she heads to Düsseldorf. She had invited along Austria's Nadine Beiler , Moldova's Zdob si Zdub, Azerbaizan's Nikki and Eldar , Amaury Vassili from France and United Kingsom's Blue making this a real treat. The artists of course shared compliments and will meet again in Germany next week. Watch the artists perform in a beautiful city scenery here .

In this final part Paradise Oskar comments the last songs in the second semifinal and the Big5. read the first part here and the second part here . For the record, he doesn't believe in pre-contest favourite France's chances... FYR Macedonia: Nice eastern sound and Kalinka mood. Reminds me a bit of Moldova's Hora hora song a couple of years ago. Absolutely fantastic accordeon in c-part of the song. It's nice they send something that doesn't try to be Swedish or American but the melody is forgettable. And the intro doesn't help either. Israel: She can sing, at least on video. Credit to her she has written the song herself. If she does poorly she can only blame herself. The sound and the melody have been heard many times before and this isn't giving any credit to Israel. Hard to get the lyrics with this mix of Hebrew and English. Slovenia: Good singer, and the looks help, too. Do you know how old she is? The melody is a bit boring and the sound weird. Con...

Mind you, I used to hate Madonna. Never got into Like a virgin or Material girl . Then came Into the groove , still one of my all time favourite songs. Then I discovered  Dress you up and Angel and by the time True Blue album came out in 1986 I was a devoted fan and this album cemented by adoration for her. Some 25 years after I'm still a fan and religiously buy her albums and generally like them. But this album must have been the period of my ultimate fanhood with fantastic singles one after another: Live to tell (#1), Papa don't preach (#1), Open your heart (#1), True blue (#3) and finally La isla bonita (#4). And I'm not alone. The album has sold over 24 million copies to date, and went to #1 in 28 countries. And by the time her new single Like a prayer from the next album was premiered on MTV, on my birthday btw,  I remember being at home the MTV open waiting for it all day long until the video was shown late evening.... but that's another story!

Here it is, the parody video of the season: Dekel and Bastien's loving tribute to Eric Saade and Popular . Enjoy! UPDATE: They have made Ilta-Sanomat in Finland, too. Here . 

Paradise Oskar continues with his likes and dislikes, opinions and comments on the songs of the second semifinal. Read the first part here . The last part is coming tomorrow. Hungary: This makes you wanna dance instantly! Really modern, today's pop. Cascada meets Celine Dion. The chorus is really melodic and gets into your head. The song itself isn't that original but stays in your mind for its strong atmosphere. The lyrics are a bit lame, I wish she had sung about something more original. Portugal: Gives you a good mood, a happy protest song against something. I wish they had done something funnier than those signs, change cloathes with each other or something. Very theatral but not surprising. I don't get it all in the end. Lithuania: This is written by someone who really knows the art of songwriting, melodies and harmonies. Much more interresting than most. Excellent singer. But it's hard to listen til the end. The beginning is boring until the Disney gear kicks ...

Eurovision has a long history with insane song titles and lyrics. It all started very quickly when the songwriters realized they needed a hook that could be understood in all corners of Europe, in every language. So, put something that means nothing (or sounds in other languages like it means nothing even if in your language it does, like Oui, oui, oui, oui , Pomme, pomme, pomme   Bana bana or Qele qele ) and preferably repeat it over and over again until boredom or irritation and you were at least noticed. 1960's and 1970's were the golden era with this stuff when songs like Voi voi , Tipi-tii , Boum badaboum , Ring-dinge-ding , Tom tom tom and Daili dou were sent with variable success. Simple La, la la or Boom bang-a-bang and Ding-a-dong proved more popular. Yet by the critics Eurovision is just this; nonsense lyrics but then doesn't it just prove the fact they are memorable? The 1980's didn't count much on this strategy when one can only pick up Bem bom an...

Axel Ehnström aka Paradise Oskar (20) has listened this year's entries with Iltalehti and speaks out with his honest opinions. I have freely translated what he says and I think it's kind of refreshing he does it and doesn't just say nice words about everybody and every song as so many other artists do when asked. So, what does he really think of his competitors when there's a bit over a week before the start of rehearsals in Dusseldorf? Poland: You can dance to this. She has written the song herself which is a plus. Not very original and had she sung in English it would have been just one of the many.  Norway: This is so good and positive it's hard to say something negative. Happy lyrics and melody, no weird gimmicks that would put you off. But when heard many times becomes a bit irritating and no one understands the chorus in swahili. Albania: Exciting! Almost like progressive rock sound. And she surely can sing. But I didn't get the song. Eagle and freedom...

Remember the fantastic parody of Kuunkuiskaajat made by Dekel Ben Avi and Bastien Venturi last year? I mean this ! The guys are back with a new one for the 2011 edition. They're going to be Po pul ar ! Soon here. Here's a teaser !

Vår tid - Vårt land or Our time - Our land is a single recorded by some Finnish Swedish speaking artists  under name Artister för tolerans och öppenhet (Artists for tolerance and openness) including Paradise Oskar, Geir Rönning, Elin Blom,  Nina Lassander, Ville Pusa - all known from Eurovision or Euroviisut, Swedish Idol or MGP Nordic along with Fredrik Furu, Andre Linman, Redrama, Frida Andersson and Krista Siegfrieds. I don't know what's the purpose of this affair? Is it pro-Swedish language, that some feel is threatened in Finland after True Finns election thriumph? As you may know Finland is a bilingual but the talk of making Swedish voluntary instead of obligatory in the school goes on since forever, and the chance this happening is maybe bigger than ever now (yet very far becoming a reality, me thinks). Finland has had several songs in Swedish in the national Eurovision finals over the years but only once a song in Swedish has won ( Fri? in 1990) which surely wasn'...

Kuunkuiskaajat have not only met Axel aka Paradise Oskar and given him some good advice the past few days they have also listened the Eurovision 2011 songs and have said their opinion. They think the trend is much younger and poppier than last year, thanks to Lena? with the almost total absense of big power ballads and ethnic music. They also tell in YLE's inteview they have a new approach to Eurovision as they have been also checking out some national finals this year and not only the winners. Do we have real fans growing here? Anyways Johanna's favourites are Switzerland, Greece (if she can get it without the rap!) and Iceland. Her uptempo favourite is Ireland and she also mentions Italy. Susan then likes Cyprus best and goes also for Switzerland and also Belgium. They both agree that of  Big5 Germany, Italy and France have strong entries and very different ones from each other this year but Spain and UK don't impress them that much. The worst by far are Belarus and Port...

Not so long ago Blue took it all off for a Attitude photoshoot that surely didn't hurt their chances. Now Jedward follows with GT photoshoot and behind the scenes video you can see here . The fight is on. The Lipstick guys have also taken every possibility to badmouth the British veterans. But I think Blue are with a chance to win it all and wouldn't be suprised if Jedward would do the Irish turkey trick - their live vocal capacities are pretty much the same! Lipstick vs. I can ? Grown up muscle guys with voices  vs. skinny quite tunedeath teenage boys, who do you prefer?

Namely the bubbly girls will deliver the Finnish votes on May 14 in Eurovision so get ready for some giggles and a lot of laughter! You have been warned! Meanwhile, here they are on stage in Oslo where they just missed the final by lousy three points....

The concstruction of the stage is going on and on daily basis there are more pictures emerging and what we can see now it looks very promising I think. What do you think? More pics here .

Norway is doing well in polls this year but will the televoters go for it? A lot depends on Stella's vocals when it counts as they're rather limited, even said by herself. It's fun when you hear it but easily forgettable in the end. Anyways here's a video for the Haba-affair now. In a few weeks we will know if it will follow the footsteps of another Norwegian fan favourite, or Stella's twinsister some 20 years ago. With a very different results.

Paradise Oskar went to Slovakia last weekend and won an international choir contest with his choir Con Caronca from Oulunkylän Pop & Jazz conservatory. On the way home he stopped in Vienna for some interviews. That has been his only international promo after the concert in Amsterdam. This week he is doing some promo in Finland and maybe a visit to Sweden but then it's already off to Germany in less than two weeks. His album will be released on May 4, 2011 but he has also had time to do shoot a new video, that you can see in ILtalehti's website here .

Jaana Pelkonen, the lovely hostess of Eurovision 2007 in Helsinki as well as several Finnish national finals and YLE's commentator since Kyiv 2005 to Oslo 2010 has been elected to the new Finnish parliament in the election today. Her National Coalition Party also became the biggest party resisting the attack of True Finns. Jaana was running from Helsinki district and got  5.828 votes. She is already in the Helsinki city council and has been working as an assistant to a member of parliament previously. Congrats Jaana! I will update this tomorrow with exact numbers when the results have been confirmed.

Hanna Pakarinen has gone a long way from winning the very first Finnish Idols in 2004 to Eurovision song contest 2007 in homeground in Helsinki with Leave me alone and having a sort of a rebirth in Finnish last year with her success album Paperimiehen tytär with hits like the title track , Se yksi ainoa and Miehet . And as a treat here's her version of Un banc, un ambre, une rue in Finnish and acoustic. Congratulations Hanna!!!

It seems almost certain that Raffaella Carrà will give out the Italian votes in the Eurovision 2011 final. She is also hosting the show from the RAI studios in Rome for the occasion that is to relaunch the contest in Italy after 14 year's of absence. Rai5 will broadcast the semifinal 2 where Italians can vote while the final will be on Rai2. For San Marino the spokesperson is most likely Miodio's lead singer Nico Della Valle Miodio is the first and only Sammarinese entrant until this year when Senit tries to get to the final. San Marino's TV will broadcast all three shows on both digital and analogical channels that can be seen in some parts of Italy as well.

I know this is a compilation but it is the first Kate Bush album I bought and fell in love with her. I knew but didn't own some of the songs before of course, classics like Wuthering heights , Babooshka , Wow , The man with the child in his eyes and Running up that hill , all included in this greatest hits. Some of the other favourites of mine are December will be magic again and Cloudbusting but sadly they were not included so I had to find them elsewhere as this purchase made me search for her old albums and the ones to come after with songs like This woman's work and Deeper understanding . I lost her a bit since, also because since 1993 she has released only one album, Aerial in 2005. But now I'm ready to get all excited again as today she has released a new album Director's cut ! Or, actually it has remakes, new versions as they should have been of her songs from the 1989 and 1993 albums and it is very promising! Like this Deeper understanding 2011 . Shame the ...

After UK's Blue Malta's Glen Vella visits Italy and performs One life in Top of the Pops tv-show. Glen will stay in Italy for a few days and do some promo for himself. Which raises a question why? As he performs in the first semifinal that will not be seen in Italy and Italians cannot vote in. Or is he simply confident he will make it to the final? Or is he pleasing the Italian and Sammarinese jurors Riccardo Cocciante, Leonardo De Amicis and Carmen Lasorella whose votes turned Glen a winner in Malta instead of Richard Edwards with Finally .

Kate Ryan leaves her French affairs aside with the new album Electroshock to be released this summer. The first single Lovelife is out now.

Eric Saade has also released an official videoclip for his entry Popular . Dark and gloomy affair it is that surely doesn't make me like the song more or better. Rather the contrary. Besides it's so dark one can't really make out what's it about: Is it remake of West side story 's gangs or Michael Jackson's living deads from Thriller ? And as expected he has changed his dance crew for Germany in Malena Ernman fashion: out those who can't sing! And only one of the Melodifestivalen dancers made the cut it seems - there it was all so easy with play-back backing vocals, just like Malena. But he gets to bring his glass cage to break on stage, maybe that will take the attention from the lacking vocals?

You thought I had forgotten about the number ones? No. Jennifer Lopez sits firmly at #1 for the 7th week with On the floor followed by Lauri's Heavy at #2 and Sunrise Avenue's Hollywood Hills at #3.  In albums Foo Fighters drop Anna Abreu's new one from the top spot and Carola's combilation enters at #4.

Marion Rung has married in secret last Saturday. The new husband is 22 years her junior and likes to keep out of public eye. Her previous husband died in  2006. " You never know what's around the corner" she comments happily in today's Iltalehti. "Life is full of surprises !" Blogilkar congratulates!

If you thought the video we have seen so far with the guys on a rooftop over London was the official video you were wrong. The guys have made a new video and it's simple and effective with a wet ending - is that a hint for Eric Saade? They charmed the fans i Amsterdam and the gay audience with their Attitude photo shoot and are amongst the favourites to win according the bettings odds. I think UK is closer to the sixth win since 1997. BBC may have gotten it all right this time. Wouldn't it be nice if another Big5 country would win right after Germany? My bet is on UK, not France this year.

Dana International is finishing her video for Ding dong but a club remix has been released in meantime. The mix is by Vooz Brothers who has worked with Dana in the past as well. She's also doing some PR in Ireland this weekend.

The one and only Finnish gay men's choir Out N'loud will organize an official Eurovision happening in Helsinki on Saturday May 14, 2011. You can watch the final on megascreen in Kulttuuriareena Gloria in Pieni Roobertinkatu 12 in Helsinki along with out and loud people. The choir will also perform Eurovision songs to warm up the atmosphere so if you don't fancy watching it alone do join in! Fun starts at 8pm local time and tickets are 10 euros. More info here .

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports: Lucía Perez keeps on preparing her trip to Düsseldorf and the promotion of Que me quiten lo bailao . After a short trip to Zurich to make awarness among the Galizian population there, she has been in Granada before the football game Spain - Czech Republic, in the Moto GP in Jerez and in a couple or radio night shows, by night I mean 01:35AM and in a couple of morning TV-shows. However the impact in the media at this stage is below zero. Most of the Spanish people do not know about the song or the artist, and even some of them even think a ficticial duo called Lore y Macu from a Tele-5 TV Show, the same channel that tried to boicot Eurovision with Karmele and the Tsunami . Who to blame? TVE again; the national broadcaster's interest in the contest has been never lower, a situation that reminds the 80'. Lucia has not even moved to Madrid or Barcelona, she stays on Galicia and connects per telephone or via live conference when she is i...

Carola has released a remix by Adam Rickfors of her latest single Enough is enough (No more tears), here . This is of course a cover of Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer (here) off Carola's latest album, Barbra, Elvis och jag that entered the Swedish album charts at #2 and stays in the spot still. This Saturday she will hit the road for a couple of concerts and then she will be touring Sweden most of the October-December 2011.

Anna Eriksson's delayed conquer trip to Sweden finally took place and this morning she was interviewed by Nyhetsmorgon, watch it here . She also sung two of her songs, Garden of love and Mad girl's love song from her latest and 8th studio album but the first album in English, Garden of love released in Finland and Norway last year. The Norwegian edition includes also her duet with Seal, You get me . Now let's wait and see if she will repeat her huge success over the years in Finland also abroad...  I certainly hope so as she's a great singer, song writer and amazing live performer. And of course she is the OGAE Second chance contest winner in 2000 with Oot voimani mun .... She has also covered Sonja Lumme's Eläköön elämä but has declared she is not going to participate again in Euroviisut... Shame!

Paradise Oskar will release his debut album Sunday songs on May 4, 2011. He has written all the songs himself and now you can pre-order it here .  Here's the track listing: Da Da Dam, Jimmy’s Song, Sarah The Sparrow, Stupid Little Fool, Just Leave, Sunday Everyday, Miss Nobody, Dear Mother, The Invisible Ones

Eurovision.tv reports that Daniel Moyne, the composer of the French entry Sognu revealed a few days ago in a press conference that the song Maria was ment to be the French entry this year until they found out Vassily had sung it in concerts before September 2010 and therefor they had to find a new song. Bye bye Maria, welcome Sognu....  I think it all ended better....

It's official: Raffaella Carrà will host the Italian night of Eurovision song contest 2011 and the fans seem to be more than happy and delighted. La Carrà will surely attract a lot of attention and viewers and her aim is to re-present the Eurovision to Italians who in general have forgot all about it the past 14 years. And an introduction is needed to anyone who last saw the show in the 1990's as it has changed so much!  Raphael Gualazzi himself is also picking up a lot of support after the initial shock when he was chosen. Even more the fans are happy and satisfied as it seems the RAI bosses are serious about the affair this time and even La Carrá herself said something like "if Italy wins we will do something spectacular!" So, Italy is ready and willing to win again!  And it seems all the Italian GLBT sites have come Eurovision crazy as well. Stories about Dana International, Marija Serifovic, t.A.T.u, Sestre, Verka Serduchka and of course ABBA, Celine Dion, Olivia ...