Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Last week the voting for the #ESC250, the one and only annual Eurovision charts, ended. All over 4000 votes were counted and here are some facts: - 47 countries made it to the TOP250 (including two countries that do not exist anymore as such). Which countries do you think did not make it? - There are songs from 48 editions of the contest that made it. - There are 36 winning songs in the list - The songs on position 122 and 123 have the same title, but in a different language. - There are 61 songs in this years charts that weren't in last year's, that includes songs from 2012 of course, but also some older ones... The ESC250 is organised by  12points.tv , in cooperation with OGAE, Songfestivalweblog, INFE, escradio, belgovision and ilkar.blogspot. The countdown starts at 11 CET at escradio . Before midnight and new year we will know who's the number one! Is it still Lane moje? Congrats to Loreen for winning this voting, too. Another first...

Just when you thought you had wrapped up the year with 2013 entrants here comes Georgia and announces its artists. It's another duo and it's another Sopho! After Sopho Khalvasi in 2007, Sopho Nizharadze in 2010 and Sopho Toroshelidze (of Eldrine) in 2011 here comes Sopho Gelovani in duet with Nodiko Tatishvili.  Nodiko was a child star in his country and later won local Idols in 2009 and later continued his vocal studies in London. Meantime he has collected festival experience and awards in Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Belarus and Georgia. Also Sopho started by winning local kid's competition and has continued winning awards here and there (Georgia, Armenia, Russia) and has studied in St. Petersburg. She came second in local Idols 2010.  Listen to him here and here . He's even here . And Sopho takes on Matia Bazar classic Vacanze Romane here . More of her here  and here . And here they are together. 

Diandra Flores (18) is the big pre-contest favorite to win UMK 2013 and the only name one can consider big among the artist, or at least a household name in Finland. Her entry is Colliding into you and it's written by Patrik Sarin, Leri Leskinen and Sharon Vaughn, who has co-written Jedward's Waterline and also Release me by Agnes. Diandra or Didi herself shot to fame from Idols 2012 where by most critics she really didn't have any competition to challenge her. Her father comes from Chile that explains her name, and she suffers from synesthesia, meaning she sees the music as colors and shapes! She started with violin at age of six, later won a kid's singing competition and her talent has caught also the eye of American vocal couch David Lee Brewer who took her under his wings a few months ago and she flew to Berlin to work with him. His previous students include Didi's idol Beyoncè. She is also a devoted fan of Lady Gaga. Her debut album ...

Rautakoura (Iron fist) has already released five albums and is currently working on the sixth one but has remained rather unknown. Their song Ilmalaivalla is written by the band. Maybe the acoustic mix of bluegrass, blues, folk, pop and roots music isn't exactly the easiest way to stardom in Finland but the ex-Ambassador of the United States spotted them on the street and invited to play in his farewell party! The band comes from Helsinki and the members are Juho Häme, Lauri Häme, Matti Mikkelä and Aleksi Pyysalo. None of them has studied music and are having completely non-musical day jobs. They have played a lot on streets and consider themselves as a street band. They say that if the first prize is a cruise to Sweden and free hotel breakfasts, that's a good enough reason to take part!  What did the jurors say? Tomi Saarinen: I think this hits the right place and time. This kind of stuff is hot all over the world right now. It's kind of anti-dance sound. The...

Vain elämää dominates still the charts and another song from the show hits the #1 spot before the end of 2012. This time it's Erin covering Cheek's Mitä tänne jää . This is their live  duet version and Cheek's original .  There are still six songs from the show in Top-20 plus last week's #1 one by Cheek & Jonne Aaron, both from the show but the song isn't. The album is firmly at the #2 after becoming the most sold album in Finland of the 2000's selling already 6xplatinum. The follow up album takes the #1 spot this week!  Meanwhile the stars of the show Katri Helena, Jari Sillanpää, Erin, Cheek, Neumann, Kaija Koo and Jonne Aaron have given sold out concerts in Barona Arena in Helsinki on December 28 and 30, 2012. The tickets sold out in less than an hour....

I just posted about the perfeume K by Patricia Kaas but she's not the only Eurovision star to have a perfume. Dima Bilan has released dB Decibel in collaboration with Azzaro. The promotion for the perfume uses his video  Lovi moi cvetnye sny .  This isn't his first perfume, he has already released Excite by Oriflame. This time they used his song Lady for the advertising, that was apparently his second choice for Eurovision along with Believe . 

Patricia Kaas has launched her own perfume K that she had been developing for a year. So be sure the wear it when you go and see her on her coming world tour where she sings the songs of Edith Piaf. The tour kicks of from Monaco on January 12, 2013 and continues to France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland (four dates: Turku May 1, Helsinki May 2-3, Tampere May 5), Romania and so on...)

Another country manages to announce their artists before the end of the year, Macedonia. The internal selection fell on a very interesting couple, Esma Redzepova and Vlatko Lozanoski. Esma is the queen of gypsy music and well known for her humanity work that made her twice a Nobel Peace award nominee. Vlatko is no stranger to Eurovision followers and today one of leading pop singers in Macedonia. This blogger has tipped him for Eurovision already for several years so can't be but happy! The song will be also selected internally and presented by the end of February. Meanwhile you can enjoy some songs by them here: Nema den, nema nokj , Breathe in love ,  Sonce ne me gree , Djelem djelem, Devla , Moj dilbere , Caje sukarije

Ilari Hämäläinen (34) has a long CV in various bands including Siberian Jay, Naked, Kengurumeininki and Rock'n roll Sensation. He has also been in the bands of Idols Pete Parkkonen and Katri Ylander, composed a few musicals and starred in another ones like Hair, Grease and Rent. No wonder as he likes to sing, dance and act.  He was a big Europe fan as kid (and you can still see it). He says he was a nice guy and that was nice enough poodle rock and not bad like Kiss and others. He wants to be part of the second wave of Finnosh rock and wants to bring some glitter and freshness into it. He has written his song Sytytä mut vaan (Just fire me up) himself and it's his very first song in Finnish!  What did the jurors say? Toni Wirtanen: Really cheeky! I have never heard such corny lyrics. On the other hand if he has the courage to sing stuff like this it can't be wrong. At least he's got confidence!  Redrama: He must be a man with sense of humor.... Tomi Saa...

Mikael Saari (24) comes from Lahti, gets inspired by indie folk and duck feeding grannies. He asked Santa Claus to bring him a vacuum cleaner and this blogger hopes he did get it. He studies musical theater and stars in Hair at the moment in Lahti City theater. He's also a member of Circus showband so he keeps himself busy! He has written his entry himself. He hopes people will hear how beautiful the melody and the arrangement are and also the text, that can touch everybody. He hopes one day he has a song that someone in the street will come and stop him and say: I listen to your song every night before going to bed, it's just so good! What did the jurors say? Tomi Saarinen: This is a big song, I felt a bit overrun by it. Maybe the text could have had more layers to it... Redrama: Very classical but yet fresh. Grand piano, strings... dramatic. But I also think it should have something more to it, a little bit of hope perhaps? Aija Puurtinen: Piano arrangement w...

Dima Bilan is apparently not content with his flowering career in Russia as Dima Bilan or is he just too busy being the X Factor judge? Either way, he has put his alter ego (or should we say his real self?) Vitya Belan (Dima is born as Viktor Belan) into work and the first single Fairy world is here to all of to see. An album is in the making as well and apparently Dima/Vitya has written all the songs himself.... Maybe he will send little Vitya to Eurovision as well?

Iina Salin (27) is from Mikkeli but lives now in Helsinki, a singer, musician, vocal coach and music teacher. She also sings in Emma Salokoski Voices and was also a finalist in UMO's new talent contest earlier this year. And now she chose UMK instead of The Voice so that she can sing her own song. She likes soul and dance music and lists Madonna as one of her favorites along with Aretha Franklin but feels most confortable singing disco and pop songs. Coffee and chocolate keeps this energetic woman going.  What did the judges say? Toni Wirtanen: I must give credit that she comes in with the chorus, the strongest part of the song.  Aija Puurtinen: Very strong start indeed. Tomi Saarinen : Best in this clearly is the singer. You can hear she's been doing it a lot. Redrama : Even if the chorus is very strong I don't think it comes out strong enough. I would make it even stronger as now the beat is the same all through the song.  Toni: With better...

UMK or Uuden musiikin kilpailu or ex-Euroviisut kicks off tonight officially with a presentation program that you can also watch in YLE Areena (in Finland only). In this program the 12 chosen once are shortly presented and you can hear their songs in the background and also the jury is presented and their thoughts about these songs. A short look back to last year - or rather Stig's moderate success and Pernilla's already forgotten win. There's nothing else to tell about the 2012 edition I'm afraid. In the program there are also some songs and presentation videos of the weird stuff that didn't make the cut. You may find some of them in Youtube but the ones in YLE's page are once again visibly only in Finland (and it may be a good thing after all....). Next week the jury will meet the contestants for the first time and they will perform for them in the studio and the contest really starts.... Stay tuned. 

Last Panda is a rock band from Oulu but all the guys originate from Kemi, even further north in Lapland. They declae they represent proudly the whole of northern Finland!  The band is Henry Ossian, HC Knuuti, Laze, Aapo Väinämö and Matt. The song is written by Henry Tikkanen, Aapo Immonen and arranged by Last Panda. They grew up together and went to same schools so besides music they also share long friendship. They had done the demo and decided to send it to UMK to get some feedback from professionals, as in today's Finland there's no way for small bands to get noticed when suitable TV-programs are missing at the moment. Except now there's UMK where you have at least a chance to get some feedback and maybe even notoriety. The band is ready to break it big and dreams of living of what they love the most: music. They also want to look like a band on stage and think about their look. The black eye make up is no glamrock inspired thing but refers to panda ...

They are finally back, Blue. The new album Roulette will be released in the end of January 2013 and the first single is Hurt lovers , that's also on a German Schlussmacher movie soundtrack. The album includes collaborations with names like RedOne, Ne-Yo and Bruno Mars. Obviously it also includes their Eurovision song I can . This is band's fourth studio album and it's been ten years since the release of the previous one.

It's time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas once again! And you are more numerous than ever! It's been euphoric year with more hits, more readers, more followers in Facebook and Twitter than ever before. I really appreciate every visit you make, every comment you make and am thrilled day after day how many people visit me. Thank you! A special thank you to my man in Baku 2012, Robert! I hope we will relive it all  again in Malmö 2013! So once again, have a Merry Christmas! Hyvää joulua and Buon Natale!

Zlata did it this time with a song that didn't quite open to me with the first listening I must say. I just loved her The Kukuscha in 2011 selection won by Mika Newton ahead of Zlata and Jamala not without controversy. Now Zlata brings Gravity to Malmö 2012 with her choir of strong voices backing her.  01. Zlata Ognevich – Gravity 40 02. Dasha Medova – Don’t Want To Be Alone 37 03. Eduard Romanyuta – Get Real With My Heart 33 04. Mary Yaremchuk – Imagine 30 04. Tetyana Shyrko – Feeling Like A Sir 30 06. Alina Grosu – Let Go 29 07. Dmytro Yaremchuk – Mamo 28 08. RealIvanna – You Gave Me Everything 27 08. DiO.filmy – Medlyak 27 10. Olena Korneva – You’ll Be The Winner Forever 25 10. Emotion – Saviour 25 12. Gvozdivchanka – Naletily Gusenyata 22 13. Inesh – Delayu Shag 18 14. Ana Stesia – Dare To Change 16 15. Triniti – Belym Po Belomu 14 15. Dmytro Skalozubov – Davno 14 15. Marietta – Wonder 14 18. Angelia – Love Is Life 12 19. Ma...

Even Ukraine is rushing to get its song selected before New Year's and instead of these lengthy selections of many countries they apparently had the song submission until December 21, the songs were out in the open the day after and ... yes, that was yesterday! Today's the final and like Belgium it's not a prime time show but starts at 10.40 CET. Who knows when it ends and how, and will the winner actually win and if the song is the song... As usual many of the songs proposed can't be Eurovision entries as they have been released in some form prior to September 1, 2012 and therefor I have left all the song titles out of this list. Time will tell. Some familiar names among the participants like Zlata Cuccoo Ognevich and Eduard Romanyuta but apparently it's all laid out for 17-year-old Alina Grosu to win... And you can watch it all on eurovision.tv.  01. Oksana Pekun and Maxim Novitskiy 02. Mariya Yaremchuk 03. Marietta 04. Dmitry Yaremchuk  05. Inesh...

So they won it, Adrian Lulgjuraj &  Bledar Sejko with Identitet as I warned in my previous post written while I watched the national selection. Definitely a song that works well with a big orchestra but how will it work with sing back and maybe in English? Time will tell. But once again Albania chose what they like and not what they think will do well in Eurovision, which is the whole point of the contest like Fik (and Sanremo and even Melodifestivalen). Anjeza Shahini came second and Hersi Matmuja third.... I can already see from the comments most fans won't like this (like they didn't like Rona last year) but I think it's pretty good! 01. Adrian Lulgjuraj &  Bledar Sejko – Identitet  74 02. Anjeza Shahini – Love 62 03. Hersi Matmuja – Kush ta dha këtë emër? 48 04. Kejsi Tola – S’jemi më atje 42 05. Merland Kademi – Këtu fillon parajsa 40 06. Flaka Krelani – Tek ti në shpirt 39 07. Rezarta Smaja – Ti? 36 08. Bojken Lako – Lo...

The show is on and I'm really enjoying it. The live orchestra sounds wonderful, the stage is good, the hostess wears something weird (and so does many of the other ladies....) and it's a real festival feeling! I liked Ardian Bujupi a lot, less Valon Shehu even if it wasn't bad either and really liked Merland Kademi. Makes me think of Avion Travel and some Icelandic singer.... Kelly was great again but Rezarta Smaja did wonders with her song that borrows a bit from No Doubt but it only gives it a nice flavor. Loved it! She was followed another great song and performance by Kejsi Tola. LYNX followed and wasn't bad at all, then Hersi Matmuja and finally I was able to say "ehm, no".Rosela Gjylbegu started slowly but just got better when the song progressed. Another great one! Flaka Krelani next, apparently one of the favourites. Her song wasn't bad either but I wasn't convinced. However she was applauded back to the stage. Vesa Luma followed...