Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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This season I did an editorial choice not to do any interviews for various reasons, but there's one I just had to do: my main girl Valentina Monetta, the Sammarinese representative for the third year in a row. The young girl using social network almost emerged from the crisalide last year as a woman but this year, maybe, she will shine like a a pearl in the shell in Copenhagen! What does she think about her past, present and future? And what does kite surfing mean to her? Would she rather hang out with Nina, Raphael or Marco? Find it all out here: Valentina, here you are again. What's up? It's good, I'm happy and I go forward, doing what I love the most in life and if I have this ability and luck, I owe it to Eurovision.   To begin with, let's go back in time. Valentina in 2004. Where was she and what she was doing, what she dreamed about? In 2004, I was working, dating a police officer and in the evenings I trasformed as a singer .. Well, now let...

Latvia's Aarzemnieki is fronted by German Jöran Steinhauer. He already has Eurovision national final experience from 2008 with Axiina . After a succesful farewell to Latvian lat last year with Paldies Latiņam! this year he and his foreigners have a Cake to bake . Robert : Latvia, in fact, made me angry. Wrong song won! Not that the winning song of Aarzemnieki is not cute but when you have a super song in your preselection which is also nr 1 in the charts, how can you as a nation not vote for it? It beats me. With Dons and Pedeja vestule , Latvia even had a chance to win the whole thing. However, I predict Cake to bake to go to the final also. YES final. Blogilkar: Aarzemnieki wasn't my favorite either but somehow I wasn't at all surprised it won. I suspect it will do much better than any fan polls and betting odds indicate. I had several favorites in Latvia, including Dons. MyRadiantU and Mad Show Boys (even if they were rather chaotic live and didn't eve...

Valentina Monetta is releasing her third album titled Sensibilità next week digitally. The physical album release is due in early May.  Fifteen new songs including her Eurovision 2014 entry Maybe (Forse) that comes also in Italian and radio versions, title track Sensibilitá (also in English and hip hop version) and already released duet A kiss with Joshua de Cadenex featuring also Corale San Marino choir. Other guests include her brother Vincenzo Monetta, Banda Militare della Repubbica di San Marino, Of Course Big Band, Mirco Moroncelli and Sarah Jane Ghiotti, a very possible future represant in the Eurovision. Listen snippets here .  

Valentina, ancora qui. Come va? Benissimo, sono contenta e vado avanti, ma facendo quello che più amo nella vita e se ho questa capacità e fortuna, lo devo anche all’Eurofestival. Per iniziare, torniamo indietro nel tempo. Dove era Valentina nel 2004 e di cosa faceva, cosa sognava? Nel 2004 facevo l’operaia, stavo con un poliziotto e la sera mi trasformavo in una cantante ... Bene, ora andiamo invece al futuro. Valentina nel 2024? Bella domanda!! Forse avrò’ 2 figli e un compagno Pigmalione. Forse produrrò me stessa e altri talenti, una cosa è certa che canterò ancora! Torniamo al presente. Presto sarai sia all'Eurovision in Concert che al London Eurovision Party un'altra volta. Quale significato hanno questi due eventi dei fans per te? E’ fantastico, in entrambe le occasioni mi sono sentita amata tantissimo e questo ovviamente fa sempre molto piacere, Lo spero anche questa volta. Cosa ti aspetti di piú a Copenaghen? Sei stata all...

I must admit I never really cared so much of Freaky Fortune and their RiskyKidd. But this fantastic Eurovision medley changed it all. After hearing this, seeing them perform it I want to like them! Can I say their likability did #RiseUp like 200%? Enjoy this dose of fabulousness here . Running scared never sounded this good.....

Iceland chose No prejudice by Pollapönk. The song comes with a message but is hidden under a comedy act so it may be lost to European audiences, despite its change of language from Enga fordóma . In Iceland the band is liked by kids and adults alike, has won awards for their work against prejudices and they have a long history in various bands and combinations as mucisians. The line up is Haraldur Freyr Gislason, Heidar Orn Kristjansson, Arnar Thor Gislason and Gudni Finnsson. Backing singers are Snæbjörn Ragnarsson ( of metal band Skálmöld) and a Member of Icelandic Parliament Óttar Proppé. Robert: Although I kinda like the winning song of the Islandic preselection by Pollapönk, I totally fell for Guðbjörg Magnúsdóttir 's Aðeins ætluð þér but what happened here? It totally came last!!!! Yes, it is a traditional schlager song but hey, what is wrong with that in 2014?:) Am I getting old fashioned here? Or did it get last because it was written by Swedish comppsers? No fina...

Andràs Kállay-Saunders is yet another third time lucky in this years Eurovision with Running . His previous attemps ( I love you 2012, My baby 2013) made him known and last year he was already a runner up with #1 hit in Hungary with his entry. He's a New York born son of an American soul singer and a Hungarian model. His father started from Detroit and planted the Motown sound to his son, something this blogger has loved already for years. In 2011 András moved to Hungary to be close to his ill granny, saw the ad for the local Idols like talent show and the rest is history! Robert: Dal, the Hungarian preselection was less interesting for me this year. Previous years, there were many more good quality songs to be found to my taste and Kedvesem of last year was an absolute topper for me. However, Hungary managed to choose the best song of their preselection this year. I like it and expect it to do very well. YES final. Blogilkar: Once again the Hungarian Dal was a very goo...

Kaliningrad born Tanja (Tatiana Mihhailova, 30) isn't a new comer to Eesti laul as she already was a runner up back in 2002 with NightLight Duo and Another country song and took part again in 2003 . Since then she has become a household name and much admired person in theater, musicals and TV-shows. Several bands, talent shows and international festivals later she lands Copenhagen 2014 with partly self-penned Amazing . Robert: Like previous years, a very interesting preselection in Estonia. I like many songs of this Eesti laul like Maiken , Sandra Nurmsalu, Lauri Pihlap, Körsikud, Lenna Kuurmaa and MiaMee but in the end Traffic's song Fur Elise is the best for me. The winning song by Tanja is not at all appreciated by me. No final. Blogilkar :  I have to admit I didn't pay much attention to this among the Eesti laul semifinalists. The dancing & singing performance seemed a bit akward and yes, a bit Loreen-ish. The Estonian final was full of worthy songs, ...

Belgium chose Axel Hirsoux (32). He has taken part in several talent shows since 2001 and finally hit gold in the Belgian national selection Eurosong . He's got a great voice, no doubt and this blogger liked his efforts a lot in the selection process. When his entry Mother was revealed, I was less enthuastic....But I seem to be in minority as he is one of the main favorites to win this year.... Robert: There was no better song for me in the disappointing Belgian selection this year. Therefor I chose Axel's song but certainly not because I love it so much. I see that he can attract a lot of votes with his voice, song and presentation and maybe win the whole thing, but in the end we won't understand anymore why we voted for him because the song gets irritating quickly I'm afraid.  Blogilkar: I agree with my bicycling reporter Robert what he said about the song. Plus I have to admit I find the lyrics so cheesy I can't take them seriously. (Maybe I have some i...

Douze points, twelve points is a new Dutch book about Eurovision by Geert Willems. It was presented this Sunday in the city of Nijmegen. My bicycling reporter Robert was present in the party - and is present in the book as well! You can whine and make fun of the Eurovision Song Contest but in The Netherlands (and many other countries) it is a national public entertainment. The final in May last year was the most-watched television broadcast of 2013. The song festival phenomenon deserves serious consideration. Therefore Geert Willems, a journalist of the newspaper "De Gelderlander" came up with the idea to write a serious book about the contest.  Prejudices around and about the festival are rarely based on facts . Douze points , twelve points will change this ! Willems writes about how the festival has played a role in the unification of Europe, the relations between East and West and how the festival plays an important role in the emancipation of the g...

Azerbaijan had a long selection process Böyük Səhnə and Dilara emerged as the winner being third time lucky to represent her country in Eurovision. Nothing wrong with that, she's got a lovely voice. Then the Azeri TV did the usual and went shopping for the song abroad and once again it comes from Sweden. Start a fire . Aren't there any musicians and authors among those over 9 million Azeris? Shame on you! Robert : Disappointing entry for Azerbaijan. Look for some further! No final to my taste. Blogilkar : With first hearing I thought this is good and maybe the best Azeri entry since Drip Drop , but more I hear it less I care about it. She's good, but the song is bland, going nowhere, heard before (even as an Azeri entry), uninspired and uninteresting. The only attempt to be original is the fire in the title. This little effort does not deserve a place in the final....

The Danish televiion people have finally made up their minds and here are the running orders for the semifinals. Some interesting choices there.... Semifinal one - May 6, 2014: 1. Armenia - Aram Mp3 - Not alone 2. Latvia - Aarzemnieki - Cake To Bake 3. Estonia - Tanja - Amazing 4. Sweden - Sanna Nielsen - Undo 5. Iceland - Pollapönk - No prejudice 6. Albania - Hersi - One night's anger 7. Russia - Tolmachevy Sisters - Shine 8. Azerbaijan - Dilara Kazimova - Start a fire 9. Ucraine - Maria Yaremchuk - Tick-Tock 10. Belgium - Axel Hirsoux - Mother 11. Moldova - Cristina Scarlat - Wild soul 12. San Marino - Valentina Monetta - Maybe (Forse) 13. Portugal - Suzy - Quero ser tua 14. Netherlands - The Common Linnets - Calm after the storm 15. Montenegro - Sergej Ćetković - Moj Svijet 16. Hungary - Kállay-Saunders - Running Semifinal two - May 8, 2014: 1. Malta - Firelight - Coming home 2. Israel - Mei Finegold - Same heart 3. Norway - ...

Aram Mp3 (Aram Sargsyan, 30), a wellknown media person in his home country was chosen to represent Armenia internally. He is a singer-songwriter, actor, comedian, showman... you name it! (And apparently a homo- and transphobic*) He came up with a touching ballad Not alone that builts up towards the end and won instantly over both Eurovision fans and bookmakers and is currently the #1 favorite to win in May (*Update: Let's see if this has some effect on polls...) Robert : Ok song chosen internally for Armenia this year. Interesting composition. In final? Yes. Blogilkar : I must admit I was taken by this the first moment I heard it, which was a  cellphone video from a concert. When the official version came out I was even ore convinced. Maybe not an Eurovison winner but a very strong and worthy runner up? In final: Yes!!!

Hersi (Herciana Matmuja, 24) won the Albanese Festivali i Këngës with Zemërimi i një nate , that is now revamped to One night's anger . This was her fifth attempt to win the contest. She has a dual career going on with pop music and classical music with studies in Rome, Italy. Her entry somewhat embraces both of them and it isn't the easiest piece of cake this year to digest.  Robert: After listening to all the preselection songs in Albania, I was disapponted with the quality of songs and can only conclude they selected the best among the worst. Hersi's song isn't among my favorites this year. No final . Blogilkar : I don't totally agree with by bicycling reporter Robert. I think there were a few goodies in the Albanese selection, and I never saw Hersi coming and winning it. Somehow I can't get a grip of the song at all. I would have sent Venera Lumani & Lindi Islami with Natë e pare or Blerina Brako with Mikja ime instead. No final for Albania t...

Valentina Monetta has released also Forse , the Italian version video for her Eurovision 2014 entry Maybe (Forse) .  Which one do you prefer? Her new album Sensibilità will be released in early May 2014....

We are now entering the apparently slow month between the national finals and start of the contest in Copenhagen in the end of April with rehearsals and all the rest. Instead behind the scenes it's all crazy for the delegations with preparations, rehearsals, promotion, interviews, recording albums, mixes..... And soon there will be the two important promotion events as well, Eurovision in Concert and London Eurovision.... But back to Copenhagen: The head of delegation meeting was earlier this week in Copenhagen and finally the last entries were presented, too. As for the offcial news the premilinary dates for the Eurovision number 60 in 2015 have been set to May 12, 14 and 16 . The host country draw its position in the final and picked up a very nice 23 out of 26. The positions for the semifinals will be revealed by DR later this month. The HoDs also got a sneak peek of the stage and some described it huge, ”Moscow huge”, so good bye to the intimacy of Malmö 2013...

Softengine, that will fly the Finnish flag in the second semifinal in Copenhagen 2014 Eurovision has also released their music video for Something better . Curiously the live performance from the Finnish UMK final has been uploaded on eurovision.tv. This video may or may not give an idea how it will be staged in May....

Today finally also Austria unveiled its entry. Conchita Wurtz will sing Rise like a Phoenix in Copenhagen 2014 Eurovision.  I guess we were expecting an uptempo disco anthem, instead we get a melodic ballad, very musical style. But who's complaining? Now place your bets how many points he gets from Russia..... Update: Here's the live performance . 

It seems the Russian entry, sung by the Tolmachevy Twins is titled Shine . As much as originality as is the writing team: Philip Kirkorov, Dimitris Kontopoulos, Gerard James Borg, John Ballard and Ralph Charlie. Makes me wonder once again do these people have anything else in their career going but writing Eurovision songs to any random countries that accepts them? Were they the only ones desperate enough to shine on Eurovision stage in this delicate situation once again, despite all? This said I hope the Russian song will get a fair treatment but I suspect there will be a lot of booing and voting boycotts, no matter what. And in a way it's right (even if it isn't). Meanwhile let's have the other Shines the past five years: Shine1 , Shine2 , Shine3 . Shine4 .

Belgium had some goodies to choose from and they went for this? Mother ,  it would have been rather horrid in Sanremo 1984 and even cheesier in Eurovision 2014. Anyways, Axel is a great singer, no doubt about that, but I just dislike the song (or rather the text) with passion. Can't help it. Maybe my relation with mother is a bit confused, but... no. And no further comment. Ruslana was there and made a statement of today's fixed voting in Ucraine and Crimea. No further comment on that either. International jury votes:   Final result:

The national selection season is coming to an end. This weekend the last four national selections and Azerbaijan will reveal its song Sunday as well. Then we have only Austria left for Tuesday release. The one big question mark remains Russia?! .... Saturday, March 15, 201 4 Norway - Final - MGP 2014 19.55 CET - Webcast - read more - Moldova - Final - O melodie pentru Europe 2014 19.00 CET - Webcast - read more - Portugal - Final -  Festival da Canção 23.15 CET - Webcast - read more - Sunday, March 16, 2014 Belgium - Final - Eurosong 2014 20.30 CET - Webcast - read more - Azerbaijan - Song presentation 17.30 CET - Webcast - 

Portugal entertained us tilmthe early hours with their 50th anniversary show in Eurovision. Sadly most every previous entry presented in one way or the other during the night was better than any of the songs in competition tonight. This blogger wishes nothing more than a Portuguese win in Eurovision but it is not going to happen in 2014 either. The final was like a 1982 final, time stood still. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the songs weren't that good. Or rather original. One reason is some of them were written by the usual writers who seem to send their songs to anyone who will accept them hoping for a spot in the national selection. Unfortunately two of these made the top-3.... Leaving Zana out. But all is good in the end as Suzy won leaving them home :-). Hooray Portugal for choosing a local product! 1. Suzy 41,56% - Quero ser tua     2. Catarina Pereira 23,58% - Mea culpa 3. Rui Andrade 14,56% - Ao te encontro

Norway also selected their entry tonight. There was a Golden Final with the top four and strangely the four I thought did make the final, even if for me there was only one worthy winner: Carl Espen. It's different, touching, authenthic and special the way Marija Serifovic was. I remember hearing Molitva for the first time among the Serbian semifinalists back then and thought " if this wins here, it'll win the whole thing" . I got the same feeling hearing Silent storm 's snippet. And yes, it won :-) Carl Espen - Silent storm   Linnea Dale - High hopes   Mo - Heal   Knut Kippersund Nesdal - Taste of you

So, it happened. Boris Covali didn't win this time either when Cristina Scarlat snapped the victory from him helped by the jury with Wild soul. Televotes: Jury votes:

In June 2013 San Marino RTV announced that Valentina Monetta had been asked to perform for the third time in a row for San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen.   The Story started right after Malmö: Carlo Romeo, Director General of San Marino RTV, was so disappointed of the totally unexpected Semi-final result that he asked Valentina Monetta right after Malmö 2013 if she would perform and try it again for a third time in Denmark 2014. After serious and long consideration, Valentina and her producer Ralph Siegel agreed to give their best and take part one more time. In July Ralph Siegel and Mauro Balestri started to write another song for Valentina and she was invited to record the demos in Forte dei Marmi, Italy, at the end of August. One month later Ralph Siegel finally recorded seven songs with Valentina in his studio in Munich. In the meanwhile, Valentina Monetta also wrote and produced 9 songs in San Marino with a little help of her many mu...