Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Swiss Eurovision entrant Paolo Meneguzzi is returning with a new album this September and the first single has been just released, La vita cos'é he asks in a rather bad video.... The bits reminding of Jennifer Beals dancing in Flashdance are nice, but the rest... :-( Loreen is back, or back in time as she has finally released a video for My heart is refusing me , a song as old as her career.... Another stunning but very dark video, for my favorite Loreen track I guess. Great stuff! Hanna Pakarinen has released Olipa kerran elämä video, that is a very homely and very Finnish affair indeed.  Karaoke like. Russian Serebro from Helsinki 2007 Euovision is having another success in Italy and elsewhere with Mi mi mi . No comment. Other than it's annoyingly catchy.....

In our exlusive interviews n Malmö 2013 Finland's Krista Siegfrids mentioned The Rasmus as the one she would like to see represent Finland in Denmark 2014.  This is also been this blogger's wish for years already! However, recently the lead singer Lauri Ylönen said The Rasmus is about to take a break while he is to release a new album with his new band Amanda . This album was supposed to be his second solo album following the success of his debut.... Meanwhile The Rasmus has announced tour dates in Russia this fall! Things are a bit complicated here but The Rasmus/Lauri/Amadeus would a great choice anyways, but only a wish I guess as UMK 2014 will be here again.... But maybe could be at least involved in writing the song? He and his partner PMMP's Paula Vesala wrote for example Johanna Kurkela 's Rakkauslaulu . Anyways, The Rasmus is one of the most succesful Finnish bands abroad. In 2003 their In the shadows was the number one single in Europe that year. Othe...

The very first Estonian Eurovision artist, Silvi Vrait is no longer among us. Aged only 62, she died earlier today after a short illness. She was diagnosed with brain tumor in April 2013. This blogger feels very sad for this, as this year's entrant Birgit shared some very fond memories of working with her in our interview in Malmö 2013, and her death was a complete surprise. Here's Nagu merelaine .

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to represent their country next year in Denmark 2014. Cypriot Despina Olympiou had some hard time coming up with a suitable name "as everyone has done it already" but then she found it: Alkinoos Ioannidis .  Aikinoos a Cypriot singer, songwriter and musician. He wanted to become a drummer but as there were no teachers in Nicosia he settled for guitar instead. Studies of theater and philospohy followed in Athens later and at the age of 23 he released his debut album. Seven studio albums have followed along with a couple of live ones and a greatest hits compilation. He is known not to give interviews and appear on TV-shows and lets his music speak for himself in the concerts, so him doing Eurovision seems quite unlikely, but beautiful music he makes! He has toured all over the world from Madison Square Garden to St.Petersburg. His songs include Den mporo , Όσα η αγάπη ονειρεύε...

London calling Krista Siegfrids! She will be the guest star in the UK's Big Brother on Sunday July 7, 2013. She will perform Marry me in her wedding dress. Big Brother UK is already on it's 14th season and still very popular with an average viewers around 2 million per episode.  Eurovision has done good for her career also otherwise. In August she will be also starring in Stockholm Pride, and she will also visit popular kids and youth show Sommarlov. In Finland she will be on TV-screen weekly with The Voice Kids, where she is one of the coaches. But before all that she will be headlining the Helsinki Pride this Saturday in Helsinki.

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to see represent their country in Denmark 2014. Birgit was torn between Ott Lepland and Lenna Kuurmaa . She went for Lenna in the end. Maybe she will be back in Eestilaul and third time lucky? But maybe it's a bit too soon for the new mother (as you can judge from her Sinule video from this Februry) Lenna Kuurmaa is no stranger to Eurovision. She was part of Vanilla Ninja who took Switzerland to 8th place in Eurovision 2005 with Cool vibes . In 2003 they tried to win in Estonia with Club Kung-fu but the international jury put end to those hopes. In 2007 they tried again with Birds of peace but Vanilla Ninja's story had come to and end. In 2010 she was back as solo and Rapunzel and in 2012 with Mina jään , finishing second both times. She has released one album so far (2010) but numerous singles and songs, like a Finnish classic, cover of Juice Leskinen 's Eesti, Eesti ,...

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to represent their country next year in Denmark 2014. French Amandine Bourgeouis had no doubts, she'd like to send Zaz , because she's "very French". Indeed she is. A nice mix of French variery, jazz and acoustic soul, just like her biggest hit to date, Je veux . Zaz (or Isabelle Geffroy) is also a talented musicians playing violin and guitar, and her musical idols go from Vivaldi to Ella Fitzgerard . She also wrotes or co-wrotes her songs. In 2011 she won EBBA award (European Border Breakers Award) for emerging artists who have managed to gain success beyond their home country. Her debut album indeed charted in 11 countries reaching #1 in France, Belgium and Poland. In Germany, Greece, Russia and Czech Republic it stopped at #3. She gained 10 platinum discs for it and one diamond. She really got a banging start. After that she released a live album, and her second al...

Alice returned on stage in Milanesiana 2013 last night in Milan's Teatro dal Verme and the concert was also streamed live on internet. This blogger was overjoyed to see her live for the third time, even if this modern way following the real live gigs in Helsinki and Rome over the years. She released her first album with new material after 14 years last year, Samsara . Now she told she's willing to release another one for Christmas! Fantastic. She also presented a new song, that would be on it, Sonata n 29 by Shakespeare and the grand finale included Franco Battiato on stage singing a duet in Prospettiva Nevski , after remembering their I treni di Tozeur together and Battiato joking about their points and placement in Luxemburg - that wasn't exactly as good as they hoped for but the song's success afterwards made up for it.  This is the track list for last night: Un mondo a parte, Come il mare, Sonetto n 29, A'cchiù bella, Orientamento, Il sole nella pioggi...

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to see representing their country next year in Denmark 2014. The Queen of gipsies, Esma Rezdepova names two names, one of them being Adrijan Gadza , or Adrian Gaxha depending of the Albanian original writing or Macedonian one or a mixture of them both. He has released four albums to date, three in Albanian and one in Macedonian. Adrian is no stranger to Eurovision having already done it once, in 2008 with Tamara and Vrčak and Let me love you ( Vo Ime Na Ljubovta ). He's no stranger to Esma either, in 2006 they came 2nd in the national final with Ljubov e ! Recently he has had a megahit all over Balcans with Florian and  Ngjyra e kuqe , which indeed is great (and this said by this blogger who usually disliked child stars with passion!). His other hits include Nedopirliva , Toksicna , Ti tani , Jas i ti , Zarobena .... Could a dance/hip hop song be the key to success next year?

Some more songs I've been listening this week. John Mamann ft Kika has an insanely catchy summer vibe in their Love life . Beware! Azerbaijan's favorite son-in-law Emin goes for summer hit recipe as well in Amor . As a video bonus there is Miss Universe Olivia Culpo. All the incredients are there but... somehow something is missing, don't you think? Swedish Ola is hit in Italy with his I'm in love . The song was a hit in Sweden already last summer but now he's ready to conquer the world, without Melodifestivalen and Eurovision, it seems. Finally, another one wishing for a world domination is Finnish Diandra . She didn't win UMK but she won Idols, and is about to release her second album, the first single is Lost . She's got the voice and a song that wouldn't be out of place in any chart, but she desperately needs to sack her stylist! She's 18 for God's sake!

Tout le monde chant contre le cancer , amega charity event for cancer gathers together 50 artists, two nights each with 3 hours of entertainment takes place in France next month. Among artists several Eurovision veterans like Amandine Bourgeouis, Amaury Vassili, Patrick Fiori and Michele Torr . And there are several names this blogger would love to see on Eurovision stage sometime soon, like M Pokora - presenting his megasuccesful Robin Hood project -, Emmanuel Moire and Florent Mothe . Just to name a few. You can follow the event news here .

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to represent their country next year in Denmark 2014. Israel's Moran Mazor named her runner up this year, Ron Weinreich . For some reason this Eurovision adventure went under his name even if his band Siren was on stage in full as well. Indeed, Ron and Siren could be an interesting choice. This blogger liked a lot of their effort this year, Love is one . Excellent vocals and song that made completely forget the fact he's in wheelchair, after being injured in the second Lebanese war. The song was especially written for Kdam and Eurovision, adding a lot of middle eastern influences to their usual rock sound and indeed it worked. The expert jury put them to the first place, but the televote turned the tables to Moran in the end. They have released this year an EP Democrazy that includes even a cover of Rihanna 's Only girl in the world .... But there's also The real lif...

Anneli Saaristo represented Finland in Eurovision 1989 and as always, also this year before Eurovision in Malmö the veterans got their share of the spotlight, too, in various medias, and also La Saaristo wasinterviewed. She told that Eurovision was the highlight of her career. "Never before or after people and media have been so interested in me " she tells. Her participation was a lot critized before Lausanne, and ever her looks were thrown in by some saying she's just too ugly for Eurovision (if my memory serves right she sued and won). That all changed when she came home with Finland's best placing ever in Finnish. "When you have success, everyone is your friend. If you fail, you become a persona non grata. There are many examples. Just think about Paradise Oskar! Where did he disappear from media? And Pernilla Karlsson?! Timo Kojo still carried the nickname as Nolla-Kojo (Kojo, null points) after 31 years..." But she remembers her own trip with fondn...

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who they would like to see on Eurovision stage in Denmark 2014 for their country. Valentina Monetta named her friend Sara Jane Ghiotti , but apparently SMRTV has asked Valentina herself to do it for the third time in a row... Maybe there could be a duet with these two talented voices? Sara Jane Ghiotti, a Sammarinese doc isn't new to Eurovision, as she already took part in the internal pre-selection of the tiny country's debut in 2008 (won by Miodio ). Sara may not be a household name, but has a lot of experience performing live, just like Valentina, singing all from latin to chill out, pop to disco and jazz, Italian evergreens and performing as a duo, trio or quartet of her musicians. As Valentina states in the interview she hopes Sara would experience the same possibility she has and indeed, she would be a fine choice with that wonderful voice of hers: Stormy weather , Aquarela do Brasil , Engli...

Well, he popped up in a Finnish reality show where tourist are being extra stupid in Canary islands. He was showing them around Teror and its Sunday market (this blogger all of sudden wants to go there next time as I have skipped it like 5 times as utter waste of time...) and gets to explain what "coño" means ("coño is the woman thing") and calling one of the ladies a cow while getting lost in the woods....  That's what Ramón is up to these days. Watch yourself here (in Finnish only. Beware a limitless stupidity. By Finns, not Ramón) You may rather want to see this: Para llenarme de ti and the same live in Eurovision 2004

It is official now. The team will be back: Valentina Monetta as singer, Ralph Siegel as composer and Fabrizio Raggi as art director for San Marino in Eurovision 2014 according. The pre-contract has been signed this morning.... :-). She will this way also enter in the Eurovision history books with three consegutive entries and by the same author!

Four cities, or should I say towns? remains in the race for the Eurovision 2014 in Denmark. Aalborg withdraw in the last minute but we have the offerings of Copenhagen, Horsens, Herning and Fredericia.  Copenhagen remains the front runner thanks to its Parken , the venue of the (most horrible ever) Eurovision 2001. However, the size of the arena would most likely to be reduced this time from its 38.000 capacity. Copenhagen would also have enough of hotel rooms and other stuff required for hosting.... UPDATE: Copenhagen has proposed apparently to other options as well: Bella Center that has good transport connections and has already hosted MTV Music awards and has capacity of 20.000. Ballerup Super arena has a capasity of over 9.000 so it could be used as well... Boxen in Herning is suitable size (15.000) but the city itself lacks most everything else, but Århus next door could help with that. But will it all be a bit too complicated then?  Fredericia 's Messe C ...

Krista Siegfrids will get the Helsinki go ding dong when she headlines the Helsinki Pride 2013 main event in Vanha, the venue of Euroclub in Eurovision 2007 in the heart of Helsinki. LCMDF and Beverly Girl will share the stage with her while in the MiniDisco Finland's best drag queens will keep court. Cristal Snow and NikoLa will be the hosts.  After that Krista will bring her ding dong all over Finland for the rest of the year (full list here ). The gigs include before mentioned Helsinki Pride on June 29 after a Midsummer gig in Kalajoki on June 22. A month later she will be in Mariehamn, in Åland islands, and July 27 in her hometown Kaskinen. August 2 she's back in Helsinki, and again on September 21. She's also doing shows on various cruise boats between Helsinki, Stockholm, Turku and Tallinn, including M/S Silja Europa, M/S Viking Grace, M/S Viking XPRS.... And on August 31 she will onboard the Eurovision Cruise as well! Ding dong!

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to see representing their country in Denmark 2014. Hannah Mancini from Slovenia would like a come back. That of lovely Maja Keuc.  Maja Keuc did Eurovision 2011 with No one, originally Vanilija and scored Slovenia's best placing in the past 11 years. Since then this Talent runner up has released her debut album Indigo and several singles, including Zmorem , You're a tree and I'm a balloon , Get the party started , Go with the flow , Ta planet , Na pol poti , Krog , Ta čas , Tako lepo mi je . ... No doubt a great voice, pretty face and a lot of star quality. Maybe another go in Eurovision would be a good idea? UPDATE: Maja's answer to this post was "Never say never!" :-)

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to represent their country next year in Denmark. Armenian Gor Sujyan of Dorians had an interesting proposal: his sister Yeva Sujyan . He would come and do the backing vocals (just like he did alreeady for Eva Rivas ). Keep it in the family! Yeva Sujyan has gained some fame in her home country, especially after participating in the first season (2010-2011) of local X Factor where she came 6th. She has also been performing in rock clubs with her band but apparently is yet to break through big time. Eurovision could do that for her. She certainly has an interesting voice and personality. Here's Hallelujah , Anush , Adana massacre , Love is something and Rolling in the deep .

Dima Bilan is out again with a new album, his 8th already and the first single of it is Dotyanis ( Дотянись) which this blogger likes a lot. Rather apocalyptic video that I can't make any sense of though...  Also Anna Rossinelli and her boys are back with a new album and the new single Let it go, that is already a success in Switzerland. A simple colorful video and rather catchy song indeed. Eros Ramazzotti is having a break off his world tour and releases yet another single and video from his latest album Noi , this time the duet with Nicole Scherzinger , Fino all'estasi . Great stuff in every way!  And finally Dana International gets Loca for this summer and the song sounds very much like her early hits!

MTV Italy is having its Awards show tonight live from Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence and that on top is the view from the stage! Amazing, isn't it? Things only Italy can provide.... Oh, how I miss my second Italian hometown! Eri & Ale, ci vediamo da Eby's fra un'oretta!? Stay tuned for updates aka how many awards Marco Mengoni will pick up tonight! :-) UPDATE: Mengoni wins an award, Vigorsol Superman (whatever that is...) Here's his performance of Pronto a correre . And he wins also Artist Saga . (whatever that is....). Two wins out of three. Let's see if his #esercito will also win the best fan award....

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to represent their country next year in Denmark. Latvian PER gave us two names, and we start with Gustavo .  Gustavs Butelis, aka Gustavo is a 7 time Latvian Music award winner for his songs and videos, and has been making music since 1995 and being a DJ in clubs since 1997. He has also done some TV and is known also for extreme sports. he has released four albums, latest being Pilsētas portāls (2011). His songs and videos include Jau-tā-jums , Evita , Taisnā tiesa , No lūpām las , Mūsu soļi , Esi brīvs , Daudz laimes and Mainīt pasauli . Do you think hip hop and rap would be the key to success for Latvia? Listening his discography one can notice he has moved to somewhat more melodic songs with time, so maybe a nice collaboration with someone would do the trick?

Here it is. Something .  A very homemade video but... it's a video. The song still has it's something, a kind of charm I can't quite place but I want to like it for some reason. Maybe for those two shoes....

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked all the artists who would they like to represent their country next year in Denmark 2014. The series kicks off with the Spanish group El Sueño de Morfeo aka ESDM . They proposed two names, and we start with La Oreja De Van Gogh (should they do Eurovision as LOVG ?), the best selling and most influental pop band in Spain since Mecano . The band has been together since 1996 and started as students' cover band. Later they started writing their own songs and found Amaia Montero as the lead singer. The debut album came out two years later and their fame success soon spread to Latin America as well. In 2006 they released their fourth album Guapa, that became the best selling album of the year in Spain, besides winning several awards, including Latin Grammy. At this peak of success Amaia decided to leave the band and Leire Martinez took her place.  All their six studio albums have peaked at #1 in Spain, as well as...

It is finally here. Just like last year Loreen took her time to release the official video for her winning entry, so did Emmelie De Forest for her Only teardrops . And not only time issue is similar to last year's, it seems... Now we only miss Lithuania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Sweden, I think..... Meanwhile she is already promoting Hunter and prey from her debut album as well. 

Chisu has been the most played artist in the Finnish radios in 2012. Her songs were aired a total of 23.278 times - or there were 2-3 of her songs playing somewhere all the time - and she had three big hits besides the older ones still playing: Kohtalon oma (5.107 being the 2nd most played song of the year beated only by Loreen's Euphoria , 5.574), Tie (4.588) and Kolnas pyörä . Madonna was once again the most played foreign artist followed by Bruce Springsteen, Juha Tapio, late Michael Jackson, Nickelback, Rihanna, Eppu Normaali, Jenni Vartiainen and Bon Jovi. That's for all the radio stations. If we look at only the nationwide ones, Bruce and Michael has to do way to locals Laura Närhi and Samuli Edelmann in top-10.

Italian sisters Paola & Chiara has released a new single Divertiamoci (perche c'é feeling) and a new album Giugla , a sure sign of summer. Both the album and the single went straight to top-3 in Italian iTunes. Despite this Chiara has declared in a bit sour tune that this will propably be their last album. "No one has ever taken us seriously. We are treated like nobodys and our career laughed at even if we have sacrified  17 years to music. If we are in the cover of magazines, they sell. If we are in TV the audience go up. That means people like us. Yet, the business doesn't support us. No one else does dancepop in Italy and we can only wonder why..." Such a shame. They have won Sanremo newcomers in 1997, Festivalbar, Un disco per l'Estate,  released 8 studio albums, a few EPs, a greatest hits albums, international album versions (singing in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Hebrew and in the latest one also in Chinese!). Both have also done some solo...

Italian Eurovision 2011 runner up Raphael Gualazzi goes on strong with his international career in his specific genre and he has released another very nice song indeed, Don't call my name . Summer groove! And on top of that a nice display of lamp shades, something this blogger used to design in the past.... Spanish Bebe will be performing this summer in Helsinki and she's perfect music for summer nights, Mi guapo for example. Can we get her for Eurovision 2014, please? Cheek , the Finnish rapper continues with his megasuccess by covering Taikapeili 's superhit Jossu and featuring another one who has delivered a few summer hits, Jukka Poika . How could they go wrong? They didn't, this is the summer hit 2014 in Finland! Swedish Danny Saucedo has found a new video to show some skin and a rather plasticky summer hit wannabe, Todo el mundo . Love the retro coloring though!

Well, actually not. A very nice window indeed. Shame they overcharge most everything eurovisionary. But I have all those vinyl compilations anyway! :-) Except the one on top right.... Who else has them?

Marco Mengoni is having a little break from his tour at the moment it surely doesn't mean he's having a holiday. A couple of days ago he was in Rome's Foro Italico and picked up two Wind Music Awards besides performing , and shortly he will be in Florence's Piazzale Michelangelo for MTV Music Awards (June 15, 2013) where he most likely will pick up an award or two as well. But the big news is that in between he will be in Milan and in studio to record Spanish versions of his songs, so Latin America and Spain, get ready for Mengomania! The Italian tour continues on July 4, 2013 from Trento, and continues until mid-October.

Marco Mengoni has finished the first leg of his triumphant L'essenziale tour , and the single and Eurovision entry has sold double platinum. And the album #prontoacorrere has gone platinum as well. Tonight he is one of the hottest names in Wind Musis Awards in Rome's Foro Italico stadium. The other possible names receiving awards tonight include Claudio Baglioni, Modá, Renzo Rubino (awarded for WMA Next generation 2013 award), Biagio Antonacci, Emma Marrone, Gianna Nannini, Ligabue, Tiziano Ferro, Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini, Alessandra Amoroso, Giorgia.... the cream of Italian pop music scene for sure. Marco Mengoni was awarded both for the single L'essenziale and his album #prontoacorrere . :-) He also performed Pronto a correre .

Here again some new videos. UMK 2013 finalist Last Panda has released a new song and video, featuring... errr, panda! The girl's gone wild . It follows nicely the genre we already know and the intro feature their UMK entry.... Another link to UMK 2013 comes in POPUP 's video Ikuisuus , that features Mikael Saari . And not only, in the intro they joke that this cetain mentioned person "would be now in Malmö if he only kept his jumper".... Nice touch! This a cappella group features also beatboxer Felix Zenger . Spanish Eurovision veteram David Civera has released a new one, too. Me ha robado el corazon is a nice mix of summer dance music. Another Eurovision veteran, Blue , is back with a new song Without you . Will they manage to breathe some life into their career? Curiously the guys never feature together in this video but only separately. A nice song anyways.