Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Here it is, Paolo Meneguzzi's new video, single and title track of the new album, Fragile . When I first started listening I was like "oh no, one of these similrap  things.... but then the chorus kicked in and I liked in. And then I had to listen to it again. And again... Great stuff!

In Italy they have this very popular Tale e quale TV-show on RAI1 were a number of singers/actors each week practice and then imitate in a live show other singers. This season among the ones we have for example Gigliola Cinquetti who has done already another Eurovision legend, Domenico Modugno . She's done also Milva so far. But the real surprise has been Mietta who we know as a dark husky voiced pop singer, winner of OGAE Song contest 1990 and has delivered some great tracks in Sanremo over the years ( Baciami adesso and Fare l'amore for example). The first week she did Ornella Vanoni , then Donna Summer and this week Maria Callas! And who thought she could sing like that???  Mietta won the second show as Donna Summer and came third in the third one as Maria Calla s while Gigiloa Cinquetti won that one as Gianna Nannini ! Next week Mietta will do Jennifer Lopes while Gigilola will be Gloria Gaynor! You can follow the progress of the show here . 

Good news for the Patricia Kaas fans in Finland. She'll be back in May! Her new world tour Kaas chante Piaf will see her in Finland for four concerts! May 1, 2013 in Turku's Logomo, May 2 and 3, 2013 in Helsinki's Finlandiatalo and finally May 5, 2013 in Tampere's Tampere-talo. Get your tickets here .  She's to release her new album based on Edith Piaf's classics in November and the first single Hymne à l'amour is already out,  Stay tuned for more news later when it's nearer to the release date. 

DR received a record breaking 692 songs for their national final 2013. Among the hopefuls Brinck, who's Believe again in 2009 would have deserved so much more (Once again I repeat, when I like the Danish entry it does not so good, when I don't like them they end up in top-5. Go figure...) and has become one of the most covered Eurovision songs internationally of the recent year. Will he make it better? The other known name to have sent in songs in Muri & Mario, a duo of rapping singing guys that have the habit of dropping into their songs words and phrases in rather challenging Italian, or listen to  Hun tog min guitar , Mio amore , Tysind stykker , På netdate fandt vi sammen , Cosa del amor and if you speak Italian you know what I mean. However, this put aside, there's something about them that I like. And so do the Danes, they have scored big in the charts with these songs! Will they end up crossing the  Øresund to Malmö 2013?

Interesting news come from Luxembourg. RTL is running a TV ad for a casting show and apparently the winner will go to Malmö 2013! The clip uses as the background the so far last Luxembourgian entry in the Eurovision, Modern Times with Donne-moi une chance . They also run a countdown to Malmö 2013. Why would they advertise a show they're not going to be in? What is going on? Is Luxembourg coming back after all? You can watch the advertising around 15 minutes into this .  Now wouldn't that be great? :-) Let's wait and see! :-) Luxembourg is one of the most successful Eurovision countries and one of its founding ones. Five victories including classics like Après toi , Tu te reconnaitras and Poupée de cire, poupée de son and singers like Nana Mouskouri, Michele Torr, Ireen Sheer, Baccara, Plastic Bertrand and Lara Fabian singing for them they could again bring some great songs and/or big names to the contest. Update: Lol, it looks like it's just a sitcom c...

MTV3 restarted Syksyn Sävel contest last year after a long break (1968-2001) and it was won by Jari Sillanpää . Now this old competitor of Euroviisut but with much more hit potential and commercial output returns again with several familiar and popular names. Among them Laura Voutilainen and Euroviisut veterans Aikakone and Marita Taavitsainen (also previous Syksyn Sävel winner ). Mariska is rather hot name in the business and charts right now and so is Jesse Kaikuranta who's had a string of radio hits after his The Voice of Finland participation (he finished in top-4). And Yö is one of the biggest bands in Finland ever so with their fan base it might be a safe bet to predict their victory? Tuuli is the female "teen sensation", a response to immensaly popular Robin ... The final will be held in Helsinki on November 17, 2012. Mariska: Kuolema on kalamies Yölintu: Appelsiinilehtoon Yö: Syyt syntyjen Tuuli: Enää ei oo kiire Topi Saha: Pappi, lukkari, talonpoik...

All isn't what it seems but Giorgia's success with her latest album has been visibly stunning in Italy. The first single Il mio giorno migliore was a bit summer hit and in the end sold over 30.000 copies and certified platinum. The follow up È l'amore che conta was on the radios late summer and early fall and sold over 15.000 copies and earned her a gold disc. Then came the duet Inevitable with Eros Ramazzotti was the soundtrack of the wintertime, selling also over 15.000 and another gold disc. Fourth single Dove sei is on the market now, while the album Dietro le apparenze went platinum for Christmas with over 60.000 copies sold, and the 13th most sold album in Italy in 2011. And then yeat another single and video, Tu mi porti su ... On top of that a succesful tour....and now ladies and gentlemen, Giorgia will return to the OGAE Video contest with È l'amore che conta after being third in the 2011 edition with Il mio giorno migliore . Can she better it?

Tonight Nina Zilli will film her new music video ín the streets of Genoa for her song Una notte . Two days ago there was a casting for the roles in the video, among them a transvestite and a prostitute and dozens of her fans lined up to have a moment of glory next to her as they will not be paid for their adventures but I guess no one cares really. Most of the hopefuls that turned up for audition were gay and lesbian, many couples in theirs 20s, 30s and some in their 40s confirming Nina's status as a gay icon. The video will be directed by Fabio Jansen and will tell Nina's travels in "the city that breathes quietly and slowly and its solitary souls". Can't wait to see it!

Happy birthday Alice!  She turns 58 today, believe it or not! Her new album Samsara sits nicely at #1 in digital downloads 7digital.it  and she's doing PR in Italy while preparing for a tour first in Italy, then in Europe. By clicking that #1 slot in the charts you can listen snippets of all the songs in her album. meanwhile here's pretty fantastic, self penned Orientamento . Update 27.9.2012: In the official FIMI charts of the physical sales she enters the chart at #10!                               And her new website is finally online, too. Here . 

UMK aka Uuden musiikin kilpailu, ex-Euroviisut has taken a step forward. The period of sending your demos ended last week and now YLE has made public they received 470 of them and the quality of them being "clearly better and higher both musically and technically" than in 2012.  There seems to be countless strong female voices and dance music. But there's also schlager, Finpop, indie rock, 80's heavy, hip hop, country, blues, power ballads and metal.  behind the demos you can find "true veterans, brightest stars of the moment and fresh new talents" (didn't they say the same last year and at least all the brightest stars of the moment didn't even make the top-40. Just  wondering). Now the jury made of professionals will listen and select the songs for the next step.....

That's the question in TROS and in the Netherlands this season. It all started in July when she announced TROS has rejected her proposal with a killer song (her words) to represent the country in Malmö 2013. Since then the fight has been going on and who know when will we know the outcome of this all? Apparently the negotiations go on after all there's a chance we will see her in Malmö after all. Or then not.  The only thing I knew about her personally is her international hit Nobody's wife that was pretty awesome at the time, that is in 1997. And a top-10 hit in Finland, Sweden, Norway, too, for example. Since then she has released eight studio albums, each of them being #1 in the Netherlands with the exception of Graduated fool that stopped at #3 in 2003. She has also scored 13 top-10 hits in the Netherlands over the years: Nobody's wife (#2), R U kidding me (#2), Michel (#3), Girl (#2), Lost (#2), One world (#4), I don't wanna hurt (#4),...

The national selections are going on or starting up in various countries and I won't be reporting of all of them before there is some solid interesting things to tell. However, today's news is that Azerbaijan is sticking to its selection method. It has brought them success, and most of all leaves the door open to the broadcaster to pick up basically whoever they want in the end, or even pair them up, and most importantly go and buy the song elsewhere after filling a lot of TV-time for all autumn-winter. After all, only their debut entry was an Azeri written song, the rest coming from Sweden. Now, that the contest is in Sweden, would they look elsewhere? I don't think so..... If you have scored four top-5 places with them in past four years.... The only excitement comes from from guessing if it's Stefan Örn and Sandra Bjurman AGAIN? Not that I'm pleased or agree...

Nina Zilli has been touring Italy all summer until mid September. Now she's apparently having a well deserved rest but at least on October 27, 2012 she will be performing for a little gig in TIM store in Rome, for more information read here . Recently she also posed for photographer Toni Thorimbert for these fantastic photos you see here showing a rockier Nina. You may want to click the name and see the others as well! Last but not least already in July her third single of the platinum selling album L'amore è femmina was released, the opening track Per le strade , that was also considered for Eurovision, apparently. 

Now this is a surprise and a weird one, PSY's Gangnam style   (강남스타일) hits the number one in the Finnish chart this week as its debut. Must be the first South Korean artist in the charts, mind you at #1! Well, there's always a first for everything, right? And the other news is Loreen's out of Top-20 finally, after 27 weeks. Her visit here didn't give the single no more boost....

Remember the earthquake in Italy this May? 190 towns and villages suffered in six different Italian provinces; Bologna, Modena, Ferrara, Reggio Emilia, Mantova and Rovigo causing damage of 13,2 billion euros.  Today the big charity concert will be held to collect money for those in need and reconstruction of the area, especially the schools for 140.000 students who were left without proper school buildings. 150.000 tickets have been sold, eight special trains from all over Italy bring people to the venue in Reggio Emilia, SKY will broadcast the concert plus interviews with the artists on its channels and most every local radio station has united in collaboration to broadcast the concert live, too.  The gates opened at 9am and the concert is due to start at 8pm. The artists are: Biagio Antonacci, Claudio Baglioni, Elisa, Tiziano Ferro, Giorgia, Jovanotti, Ligabue, Liftiba, Fiorella Mannoia, Negramaro, Nomadi, Renato Zero and Zucchero . Unfortunately Laura Paus...

Most Eurovision fans know Vesa-Matti Loiri only for his last place in Eurovision 1980 with Huilumies . But in Finland this man in a legend. Actor, athlete, comedian and singer he has been conquering the audiences in movie theaters, TV, clubs and arenas already for 50 years. His acting career started in 1962's movie Pojat that gave him the Finnish Oscar, Jussi. Later he concentrated on sports playing football, winning Finnish championship in a handball team and did boxing in the national league as well. All this while doing the Theater school and working at YLE's radio theater. Soon after finishing the theater school he worked at the Helsinki city theater.  Here are his incredible career highlights in short: His comedic skills were first displayed in 1966's TV hit Hanski .  His recording career started in 1966.  His first starring role in a movie came in 1969 and first solo album in 1971.  He played in national football league in 1972.  The ye...

Alice's new album Samsara has been hitting the various download charts in top placings (#2 in 7digital, #3 in iTunes pop and #8 in Amazon for example at least) and we can expect a good placing in the FIMI official charts as well. It seems like this is becoming her biggest success since 1985's Gioielli rubati ! There has been some distribution problems at least on the day of release but hopefully they've now been sorted out. The fans have welcomed the album with open arms as well as the critic praising it as one of the best albums of 2012 and definitely worth the wait and continuing her level of style and quality. Here is a trailer for the album, and here are the both Tiziano Ferro penned songs: Nata ieri and Cambio casa .  To support the album she will be meeting and greeting the fans in various FNAC stores: 25.9 Verona (6pm) 26.9 Torino centro (6pm) 27.9 Milano (6pm) 29.9 Firenze (4pm) She will be touring 2012-2013 Italy first, Europe after. Here ar...

Anywhere else 2.549 songs sent to the national final would be a huge amount but in Sweden it's actually the lowest since 2002! And a drop of 936 since last year. But maybe it only means those unlucky ones that have sent their songs year after year, again and again have finally decided to give up? Or did simply Thomas G:son give up after winning, too, and didn't send in his usual about a zillion songs? :-) Seriously, all that matters here of course is the quality, not the quantity like in many other things in life, too.  Now the SVT jury will pick up 16 songs for the semifinals, one of them at least must come from the so called amateur selection (647 songs in total). Svensktoppen selection winner Terese Fredenwal has already her place secured and the remaining 15 places will be filled by SVT as they please; among the songs sent in or by inviting artists and songwriters directly to make the usual 32 semifinalists. The song titles and their writers will be publis...

I'm free is the title of Eurovision 2011 winner Eldar Qasimov's new single following the ballad  Birlikdə nəhayət released after Running scared . A famous DJ Aligee is involved in this production and without him the song might sound like this . It's his attempt to free himself known only as an Eurovision winner and one hit wonder. He's been busy also as TV-host - including co-hosting the Baku 2012 edition - and he is starring also in a movie directed by Julian Gusman to be released later this year.  Considering he's the voice of the duo Ell/Nikki one can only hope him better success than Nigar Jamal has had with her solo career that seems to have crushed already!

While in Finland last week Loreen performed both Euphoria and My heart is refusing me in a live charity gala Elämä lapselle in Hartwall Arena. Besides that she also spoke about her new album saying we should "expect the unexpected" "People will be surprised, especially those who think it will be filled with cheap copies of Euphoria. It'll be dark, different" She also found a connection between herself, ABBA and Lordi: "It's all about being real. People sense the artificial. No one forced Lordi to wear those masks, that's just how they are. Same goes for me. I didn't have money to train my voice or use studio gimmicks so I have to learn using my voice myself. You can hear the Moroccan heritage in it, in the way I use my voice, in its color." She also says she has learned a lot of music business the past few months: "In Sweden we live in a bubble and it's all different elsewhere. My life's been very hectic since Eurovisi...

The French know how to make great charity singles. Often in these cases with dozens of singers the song itself may get lost and the voices just don't blend together well but this Je reprends ma route flows away like a real song and is very good. Besides it's collecting money for charity and children it features Eurovision names like Marie Myriam, Anggun and Gerard Lenorman along with M.Pokora, Jenifer, Emmanuel Moire, Lââm and Julie Zenatti just to name a few. More information here . 

Today's the day. Alice finally releases an album with new songs, her first of that kind since 1998! While you read this I'm walking the streets of Catania in Sicily in search for a record store and the CD.... Judging the pre-release hype it shouldn't be too difficult but then it's Italy and you never know :-) Wish me luck! I hope it will follow the magic of Caponord (1980), Alice (1981), Azimut (1982), Falsi allarmi (1983), Park Hotel (1986), Il sole nella pioggia (1986), Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi (1992), Charade (1995) and Exit (1998)... and I'm pretty sure it will! Update : Alice's Samsara was nowhere to be found in catania on September 18, the day of release. "It will come tomorrow. Maybe" said one store, "It should have arrived but it's not here" said another... A very sad and disappointed visitor left the town in the evening and the country in the early morning after....

I'm having  little holiday and won't be updating for a week or so. Please do join me again next week! :-)

Lena's star quality may have come down to dust with her new single called Stardust . It's the title track from her forthcoming third album due to be released in October 2012.  Is it good? Not really, in my books. Instead of being an uplifting sing-a-long I guess it's intended to be it just sounds like she's whining about something.... But that's me. I guess her fans will like it anyways....

Last week's number one resisted only one week and Will.i.am ft. Eva Simons with This is love climbs to the top spot.  Loreen resists still at #13. 

Those who know me also know I/we have to thank/blame Ricchi e Poveri for my interest in the Italian language and the fact I speak it today. It all started in 1981 with Sará perche ti amo but that's not the point now as they are back! After thirteen years they have been back to recording studio  and we have new album coming out, a few new songs and new versions of their biggest hits like Come vorrei , Voulez vous dancer , Mamma Maria , Piccolo amore , Acapulco , Sanremo 1985 winner Se m'innamoro ... They can celebrate 45 years of career and over 20 million records sold Angela, Franco and Angelo are back, back, back! :-) The new single and title of the album is Perdutamente amore . Unfortunately their underrated Eurovision entry Questo amore didn't get a makeover...

Alice's new album Samsara , her new with new material since 1998 will be out next week and now you can hear snippets in Amazon here . Seems to be very, very nice :-). There's also a special version of Tiziano Ferro penned Cambio casa remixed by Michele Canova, who has worked with Ferro, Eros Ramazzotti, Giorgia, Jovanotti, Biagio Antonacci and Giusy Ferreri, just to name a few!

Nina Badric released the Pointer Sisters cover I'm so excited already back in 1998 with the most dubious video. Who had the idea of urinals and Nina checking the guys out and all that? Check it out here . But now it's 2012, Nina has been to Eurovision with the beautiful Nebo  (and should have done so much better!) but she's still excited as you can see and hear here . The new video is less dubious and seems to be an Italian production. This said she sounds much better in 2012 but nothing beats the energy of the original , one of my all time set-me-into-the-party-mood songs.....

The new Friends Arena will be officially opened on October 27, 2012 with a huge concert before being the host for the Melodifestivalen 2013 for example - but not the Eurovision song contest 2013 as we know. The list of the artists is long from The Hives to Tommy Körberg, from Roxette to Agnes and Norrköpings symfoniorkester but the most interesting names might be Loreen and Danny Saucedo. Will the arena be its name worth? :-) Shall there be a cat fight in front of 67.500 people?

The duo Filip Hammar (37) and Fredrik Wiginsson (39) were voted the best male TV-hosts in Sweden in the annual Kristallen Gala (and picking up another two awards). The best TV-hostess award went to Gina Dirawi (21) and now the Eurovision 2013 producer Martin Österdahl has stated they would fit in nicely with the Eurovision 2013.... "Besides Dirawi knows what it would be like after hosting Melodifestivalen" he said "and I think the guys have what it takes, too" . Gina also commented afterwards "of course I would love to do it. Everyone wants to do it. I don't think anyone would say no to it!" Have we found the presenters?

Martin Stenmarck of Las Vegas fame is taking a new step in his career as he's to play one of the main roles in a new Swedish romantic comedy, described as a "Swedish Notting Hill" that includes also Sarah Dawn Finer in one of the roles. "I'm 40 and this is like a dream" the feature film debutante confesses. His music career he released his 7th album Kaffe på Everest in 2011 and his latest single is  Tonight's the night , also from 2011.  

Pet Shop Boys continue their Eurovision talk. Neil Tennant said in a BBC interview: "British artists - Elton John or David Bowie - have not traditionally wanted to do it because they think it looks too crass. But now reality television is possibly even more crass than Eurovision. So I think the winner of X Factor should represent Britain. The timing is perfect. And you will get the A&R input, either good or bad, that goes with that. The BBC have asked us a couple of times if we'd be interested in writing a song for Britain's entry. Our feeling about it was that if we had the right song then we wouldn't be embarrassed in giving it to them." Read the whole thing here . Well, their new album is coming out and all publicity is good but words like Eurovision, crass and embarrassment don't go very nicely together in a fan's vocabulary...   Despite that, if you wish to have a prelisten to their new album   Elysium you can do so here tonight a...

Paolo Meneguzzi is back in full swing with his parallel careers. His touring Italy, has released another album for the South American market titled Mi mision with the single to go along with it and in Europe he's to release a new album with new songs titled Fragile, just like his tour and the latest single.  You can catch him for free next Saturday in Florence, in Piazza del Carmine along with Paolo Vallesi and Neri Marcorè. You can hear Musica  for example, but it looks like Era stupendo is not in the set.... Why am I not surprised?

You thought I had forgotten about the Finnish number ones, didn't you? But no. The number one spot has been taken by JVG ft Raappana's Kran turismo for 12 weeks! The whole summer basically. During the summer the date of releasing the weekly official also changed so here we are on Monday informing you that we have a new number one, Brädi's Lämpöö . Yes, we go on with Finn reggae hip hop rap.... or whatever it is. Loreen also finally drops out of Top-10 after 25 weeks to #12. Maybe she will climb up-up-up again after her visit here on September 12?

Now you can. Anni-Frid Lyngstad, aka ABBA-Frida will auction this September 11, 2012 some 70 dresses, accessories and shoes, most of them real designer stuff in Stockholm. Among the goodies the red mink fur she wore in the Chiquitita video. And also a Chanel dress she wore in 2004 when she performed with Deep Purple's John Lord in Cologne in 2004. "They are just dresses she has grown out of and thinks are too pretty to be left hanging in the closet" says her agent Görel Hanser. The fans are already getting excited especially in Germany and the UK and the prices are expected to go very high due the interest. 

Sometimes one song has a life that continues for years. That's a case of Lauris Reiniks - familiar name from Eurovision - from Latvia. His  Es skrienu was released already in 2010 and went on to become the best selling song in Latvia that year, and the album of the same title won the award for the best pop album. The song also become the first ever Baltic video to reach over one million views on Youtube, but for its Lithuanian version of the song,  Aš bėgu . In 2011 this version wins the song of the year award in Lithuania. In 2011 he also releases a Lithuanian adaption of his album, followed by the Estonian one, Ma jooksen . Meanwhile in Latvia the album goes gold and he wins Radiohit of the year award for the song. The German version Ich renne was also hit in Germany and included on several compilation hit albums. Also versions in Italian ( Correrò da te ), Russian ( Я бегу ), English ( I will run ), Turkish ( Koşuyorum ) and recently released French version Je cou...

I knew it. I have always thought it's just a matter of time (even if their time is slowly and sadly passing by) but Pet Shop Boys have been already asked not once but twice by BBC to write (and not perform?) the UK entry for the Eurovision! And judging Neil Tennant's words it's something they are still considering once the right song comes along. All this was revealed in an interview where the boys talked about their new album Elysium out this month and the new single Winner . Neil tells: "The song was written during and after the Take That tour last year. Every night we would leave the stadium and Take That would come on singing this song they had called “ The Greatest Day ”. Chris said, "Why don’t we try writing a mid-tempo anthem?" We finished it off in the autumn, but the truth of the matter is that, from my perspective, I was thinking about the Eurovision Song Contest. The BBC have twice asked us to write the Eurovision entry for Britain and ...