Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Happy 2015, people! And a huge thank you to all of you who have followed me another year! 2014 was a special one!

Here it is again - propably the best way to countdown to a new year: #ESC250! Thirteen hours of Eurovision songs Twenty two songs from 2014 One hundred twenty four songs are more than 10 years old One country with 14, one with 15 entries Three thousand six hundred voters Twelve artists with more than one song Fifty two countries Fifty three years Forty four winners Listen:  escradio.com  31/12 11:00 CET See the results:  12points.tv/esc250 Follow #ESC250 on Twitter   (hoping to be Trending Topic again, like last year!!) PS. I will publish the full list just before midnight so please tune in at least in that point to see how the list looks like this year and if Loreen still keeps her #1 spot? 

Another year, another series of hits. Which songs made it to number one in the official Finnish charts? Checking out the list its very clear it has been a year of "ft." as the infamous featuring is featured in 11 out of 22 songs. None of the songs managed to stay more than 4 weeks on top but there were five of those four-weekers, even if two of them did that with separate weeks. Foreign songs beat the Finnish ones 12-10 and two of the Finnish ones were covers from Vain elämää reality series. The Finnish acts in bold .  Eminem ft. Rihanna - The monster (wk 1) Pitbull ft. Ke$ha - Timber (wks 2-3, 5-6) OneRepublic - Counting stars (wk 4) Tuomas Kauhanen ft. Mikko  - Pummilla Tallinnaan (wk 7) JVG ft. Anna Abreu - Huominen on huomenna (wks 8-11) Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne - Rather be (wks 12-14, 16) The Chainsmokers - #Selfie (wk 15) Calvin Harris - Summer (wks 17-18) David Guetta & Showtek ft. Vassy - Bad (wks 19-22) Kasmir - Vadelmaven...

Like last year I decided again look back and see who provided the soundtrack of my year 2014, or the albums I have listened and loved the most. One album stands above everything else for some many reasons, Valentina Monett a's Sensibilitá . I was able to follow its progress and shaping up, and then follow her to Copenhagen and experience such joy and happiness along with the team I will never forget. But also because it's a great album. Very variable in material but Valentina sings her way through the styles and songs with grace and dignity and shows what a talented vocalist and songwriter she is. Ralph Siegel has provided the Eurovision material including her entry Maybe and the other initial possibilities Guardami ancora , Il fiume and the title track , but Valentina explores other styles and rhythms in her own songs Il vento , Hotel , Per te , Molto di più .. An icing in the cake is A kiss , duet with Josh De Cadenex, one of the many guests on the album. This blogge...

She came, she conquered. Singing last in the line up tonight in Festivali i Këngës the winner of The Voice of Italy (that she won with 70% of the votes singing Adagio !) finally also triumphed at home and Elhaida Dani really brought in the sun as her song Diell  suggests. Elhaida (21) is used to winning. She won the Star Academy Albania in 2009, Sunčane Skale 2011's youth category in Montenegro, followed by wins in festivals in Romania and Bulgaria and finally her first participation in Festivali i Këngës 2011, then Top Fest 2012 in Albania and now she's off to Eurovision 2015 in Vienna! She has released singles Fjala e fundit (2008), Mijera vjet (2011), S'je me (2012), When love calls yourname (2013), Baciami e basta (2013) and one self titled EP so far.   Back to FiK. Elhaida scored six times full 12 points from the jurors, and once 10 so she was a clear favorite. Here below the scores, she ended up with 82 points.

Uuden musiikin kilpailu aka UMK 2015 is undergoing changes this year and while YLE has kept the information minimal so far we have digged out some news. The artists and their songs will be revealed on January 13, 2015 (also on webstream) and the very same day their music video presentations will start one by one on TV2. The first one airs on 13th at 18.55 and the last one on January 27 at 12.40. Besides that all the songs will be played on RadioSuomi on January 18 at 17.15. And yes, there will be 18 songs this time. The most propable solution I'm guessing is three semifinals with six songs each and six songs making the final.... maybe. The judges/tutors are history and only televoting will decide this time. 

Albanian Festivali i  Këngës  comes to an end tonight after two semifinals that gave us the 18 finalists. Who is your favorite? Albanian jury often has surprises in store for us so I'm not even trying to guess who's going to win tonight but I can say my favorites are all female..... You can watch the final luve tonight 20.45 CET here .  And no, Alexander Rybak isn't going to be there as expected and announced. Who would have thought he needed that break so immediately? 

Despite all sort of rumors - like Sergey Lazarev - the only more or less semiofficial announcement from Russia has been that the winner of The Voice will go for Russia in 2015. The season came to an end last night with 24-year-old Aleksandra Vorobyeva winning. Will she be confirmed as the one? We will find out soon. Meanwhile, enjoy her voice with Chandelier , You lost me , Listen ,  Лебединая верность

Festival i Kenges continues in Albania with the second semifinal tonight. Nine of tonight's songs will join the other nine chosen last night for tomorrow's grand final. Among the artists tonight is The Voice of Italy winner Elhaida Dani (pictured above). You can watch the show from 20.45 CET here .  Jozefina Simoni - Mendje trazi Altin Goçi -  Rock dhe për gjithë jetën Bojken Lako Band -  Të ndjëj Elhaida Dani -  Të kërkoj Kelly -  Nesë ti do Rezarta Smaja -  Më rrëmbe Aurora - Maria Ana Gromo -  Në koma Mjellma Berisha - Sot jetoj Emi Bogdo -  Një femër Agim Poshka -  Në rrugën tonë Xhjen & Enxhi Kumrija -  Njëri Gjergj Leka - Himn UPDATE: The qualifiers in bold. 

Alexander Rybak may be the overwhelming winner of Eurovision 2009 but his comeback to contest seems to be failing everywhere. He tried in Norway and Malta and nothing worked. He was supposed to win the Belarusian, his native, selection hands down but no... only 4th last night.  He has published a FB video being extremely disappointed:  "I went on tours in many places around the world and wherever Europeans said bad things about my homeland, Belarus, I defended it. I said it has a good system. And they say: "What kind of system? It 's all corrupt. "And I continued to defend it. But now I do not know what I'm defending. Every year I meet the Belarusian delegation and they tell me: "Sasha, please, write a song for us? What we have to do to win the Eurovision?". So I wrote a song, spent a lot of time, a lot of money. I found some very talented girls and I wrote a song on authentic and pure Belarus, as I see it. And the jury now rejected it. I also made...

Belarus has chosen and I could say "What did I say?". Uzari & Maimuna won the jury vote and came third in the televoting and another violin player goes to Vienna instead of Rybak (who didn't win the televoting either btw). Oh the irony!  Uzari was third time lucky and usually I have more or less liked his entries, but this one is the best of them and yes, it was my favorite out of these so I can't complain tonight. Here's Time . The televotes: 1. Muzzart     2862 2. Milki     2226 3. Uzari & Maimuna     1188 4. Napoli     1159 5. Beatris     939 6. Alexey Gross     917 7. Anastasia M.     710 8. Gunesh     531 9. Lis     424 10. Tasha Odi     408 11. Valeria S.     403 12. Rostany     373 13. Vitaly V.     268 14. Janette     200 15. Daria     193 Uzari has taken part also in 20...

The 53rd Festivali i    Këngës  starts tonight in Tirana and the winner will be the Albanian entry as usual in the Eurovision song contest 2015 in Vienna next May. Tonight the first semifinal. tomorrow the second and on Sunday the grand final. The show starts at 20.45 CET at Pallati Kongreseve and you can watch it live here .  Out of the 26 artists 16 have participated before with Saimir Braho the most participations (6), Agim Posha (5), Besiana Mehmeti (4). Six of last year's artists are back, including 3rd placed Sajmir Braho, and 4th placed Venera Lumani (pictured above) Enver Petrovci -  Të vranë bukuri Revolt Klan -  Më mungon Julian Gjojdeshi -  Himn jetës Sigi Bastri & Florent Abrashi - Eklips mbi oqean Marsela Çibukaj - S'muj Sajmir Braho - Kristal Kladji Musabelliu -  Vetëm të ti bësoj Erga Halilaj -  Ti s'më njeh Besiana Mehmeti & Shkodran Tolaj -  Kështjella Estela Brahimllari -  ...

Belarus is having its EuroFest final tonight. Alexander Rybak's Milki project is the one to beat, it seems. Wouldn't it be ironic if Uzari with his violin player would beat him? Anyways, there isn't much to write about; mediocre or simply bad songs, Belarusian "English" and propably the singer and/or the song will be changed anyways before mid-March if it isn't Milki, so I will stick to my Christmas relaxing instead of watching this..... Anyways, it starts at 8pm CET and you can watch it live here .  NAPOLI  –  My dreams Lis  –  Angel Daria  -   Love is my colour Gunesh  –  I believe in a miracle Yana Butskevich & Muzzart  –  Tolko tantsuy Valeria Sadovskaya  –  Summer love Rostany  –  Electric toys Janette  –  Supernova Alexey Gross  –  Stand as one Milki  –  Accent Uzari & Maimuna  -   Time Beatris  –  Fighter Vitaly Voronko  –...

Georgian television has published today the five artists who will battle it out for the ticket to Vienna 2015 Eurovision. Two female, two male and one band. Their songs will be presented on December 31 and then Georgian people will have two weeks to listen and vote for their favorites. These votes will be added to the international jury's votes in the final on January 14, 2015. Here they are, click their name for one of their non-Eurovision tracks: Misha Sulukhia Nina Sublati Eter Beriashvili Niutone Edvard Meison

EBU has confirmed finally today after months of speculation the participating countries in the 60th anniversary contest in Vienna next May. After Bulgaria finally said no it's 39 countries, two more than last edition in Copenhagen when Ukraine stays home  but Czech Republic makes a very unexpected comeback, and Serbia with Cyprus return after one year's absence.  There will be as usual two semifinals, 16 countries in the first one, 17 in the second one while the Big5 and the host country are already in the final, that will feature then 26 countries. The semifinal draw will take place in Vienna on January 26, 2015. EBU published today also a new general vignette, here . It puts on the spotlight the microphone trophy that has been used for some years now. Time will tell if it will become one day as legendary as the Golden palmtree with lions of Sanremo.... Big5+host country:  France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and Austria The other countries:  ...

Udo Jürgens saw Austria win Eurovision song contest again this May after 48 years since his victory back in 1966 with Merci chérie but he didn't live to see the contest take place in Vienna again next May. Udo, aged 80, passed away today. He was also supposed to feature in the interval act next May. Besides winning Eurovision with his third consecutive try he was a superstar in the German speaking world with over 800 songs to his credit and sales of over 100 million records. His career started in 1950 with Je t'aime and over the years his songs were covered by world famous artists who in turn made them hits, like Shirley Bassey, Matt Monro, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr.... He released over 60 albums since 1965, his latest one, Mitten in Leben , came out this year. Merci for your music, Udo. 

ORF has revealed today the hosts or rather hostesses for the Eurovision song contest 2015 in Vienna and it's a trio of ladies: Mirjam Weichselbraun, Alice Tumler and Arabella Kiesbauer . Conchita Wurst is hosting the Greenroom as she wished. That means the most obvious and expected host Andy Knoll was left bareassed outside.....

Lithuanian television has announced the names who will take place in their national election. Once again there will be the rather weird way of selectiong artists and song separaely and then trying to find the match made in heaven, or at least in Eurovision to send to Vienna 2015. The list is filled with familiar names from previous selections and even last year's runner up Mia and third placed Vaidas Baumila are trying again as is 4th placed Monika Linkyté. Also several The Voice of Lithuania participants are in the list.... Eurovizijos Nacionalinė Atranka will start on January 3, 2015 and after weekly shows on February 14 we will have the winning song, and the week later the winning compination song + artist who will take it to Vienna...... Liepa Mondeikaité Neringa Šiaudikytė Edgaras Lubys (Amberlife) Vilija Pilibaityté (Mia) Vaidas Baumila Monika Linkyté Reda Striškaitė Milita Daikeryté Jurgis Bruzga Wilma La Tadas Juodsnukis Rollikai

Softengine continues their success story with yet another single and video off their debut album We created the world . This time it's the piano driven ballad What if I? The video is so simple that only lead singer Topi Latukka is seen in it (and Henry's hands on piano most likely) but it fits perfectly with the song. Their previous singles are Something better , Yellow house and The sirens . In May the band scored the best placing in the Eurovision for Finland since Lordi's victory back in 2006 when they placed 11th. It's also one of the best placings for Finland ever in any way you look at it.

Georgian television has also made their plans known today. The song submission period ends this week and then a jury will pick up five songs. They will presented to the public on December 31, Then people will have time for two weeks to listen and vote for them. On January 14, 2015 the songs will be perfoemed live on a show where also an international jury will judge them and the combined votes of the 2-week public voting and the jury voting will give us the winner and the Georgian entry for Vienna 2015 Eurovision.  Georgia has sent an internally selected songs two years in a row with minor success. Maybe they will get back to their initial good placements with this method? 

Moldovan television has published today the submitted songs for O melodie pentru Europa. They received 68 and nine were eliminated as they didn't follow the rules. Also, this year they opened the selection for everyone and so some of the songs sent to Switzerland are trying their luck now here (why can't they stop this nonsense and do like in UMK, a song cannot take part in any other national final. This rule should apply everywhere, this blogger thinks!) Many familiar names are at it again from Doinita Gherman to Carolina Gorum,  Diana Brescan to Edict, Eduard Romanyuta, Glam Girls and British Kitty Brucknell, already a Swiss drop out. And yes, Sunstroke Project is back with two songs as well. You can listen all entries here .  These songs will be shortlisted to 24 after auditions in January in Chisinau and then we will have two semifinal and the final in the end of February.

The Spanish rumors are here now that Sanremo is out and in the open. TVE has so far been more silent than YLE what comes to the Eurovision news but we should know something more concrete in January. All indicates though for an internal choice once again and the three names TVE seem to be after this time are Diana Navarro, Edurne and Raúl Gómez.  Diana Navarro has been speculated for years and apparently she would be up for it declaring it would be an honor. She has also said Spain should bring its own sound to Eurovision and not rely on the Swedish pop in English. This blogger backs Ms Navarro in that all the way! She's been around since 2005 and mixes flamenco, Arabic influences and classical music in her music. Here's La paloma . Edurne , from Operacion Triunfo 2005 fame was first heavily tipped, with a Swedish penned song mind you, until it was all denied. But we know that means nothing. Wouldn't she want to do just that, promote the international album in Eurovi...

Conchita Wurst has really been #unstoppable after her Eurovision win with Rise like a Phoenix last May in Copenhagen. She has done the catwalk for Jean Paul Gaultier, visited United Nations and met its secretary general Ban-Ki Moon, performed in European Union in Bruxelles, done high fashion for Karl Lagerfeld, danced and sung in Crazy Horse in Paris, dubbed a Disney cartoon, recorded a charity single for Licht ins Dunkel, My lights ... and on top of that performed all over Europe, headline most every GayPride this summer and release a follow up single Heroes some time ago while working on the debut album every given chance. But now, she's off to Los Angeles and Hollywood and make an appearance in the Golden Globe awards and surely Hollywood will love her... who wouldn't? Maybe that will make way for her rumored Bond theme dreams as well?

Sanremo's Newcomers category, whatever it has been called over the years, was the talent show long before anyone even dreamed of various Idols, X Factors and Voices. Truth to be said, it may have lost a bit over the past few years when names like Eros Ramazzotti , Giorgia , Laura Pausini and Andrea Bocelli have not emerged from it and today's Marco Mengonis come from other formats. This year Sanremo has promised to bring the new talents in to the spotlight and prime time unlike the previous years when they have usually perfomed and been voted around 1am.... But through the hard times the category has served a passage to the main category and this year is not an exception. Eight of the 20 artists have started their career in Sanremo Newcomers, three of them winning it. All of them have returned to Sanremo multiple times since their debut, and Masini has also won the Big category in 2004 with Uomo volante . Here's the list: Marco Masini - Disperato - winner 1990 ...