Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Once again one amateur gets a ticket to Melodifestivalen semifinals and this year it is Kalle Johansson. This 17-year-old emerged as the winner of Svensktoppen Nästa and therefor won the ticket to Sweden's national selection for Eurovision and could travel all the way to Vienna. His winning song is  Den där Dan , but of course Christer Björkman & co will find him another song and the guy will propably go through a major make over during next winter.  Kalle will be the third Svesktoppen Nästa winner in the Melodifestivalen. In 2013 Therese Fredenwall came 5th in her semifinal and in 2014 Eko came last in their semifinal. Maybe Kalle will be third time lucky to make it to the final? 

Conchita Wurst started her press conference in Finland this afternoon - after posing for each and every photographer very kindly - stating she thought Finland was the clichè: Freezing cold. Instead the sun is shining and she loves it. It's her first time in Finland and the press conference in her hotel had also many journalists from Russia and Estonia attending. She tells about her inspirations (Celine Dion and her parents among others) and her busy schedule since she won the Eurovision song contest in Copenhagen this May. It's like a hop on-hop off - today in Finland, tomorrow somewhere else. She doesn't really know any Finnish artists yet but tomorrow she will meet the top artists sharing the stage with her in Serena Pop & Rock Festival in Espoo and maybe she will be inspired by some of them, too... Then she is asked about her home life and she states home is where the wig is in the corner, where it's just Tom being lazy. And does she cook? No, she orders he...

Once again OGAE Finland is organising the Eurovision Cruise  on September 6-7. This is already the 5th annual edition and the event gathered last year 2000 fans from Finland and abroad to enjoy among others Valentina Monetta , Krista Siegfrids and Marion Rung performing aboard. This time they have got Eurovision winner Charlotte Perrelli , Finland's entrants this year, Softengine , UK's 2000 entrant Nikki French to perform along with hosts CatCat ! And there's more, check out the FB page for further information.  But that's not all. The fun for fans starts already the night before (September 5) at Hercules with the 28th Eurovision Fanclub night (more info here ). DJ Ohrmeister will be there and it's an excellent kick off to meet again your friends and enjoy some Eurovision. Before that there's a warm up dinner at Manala restaurant. But there's still more. Before the real cruise on September 6 you can enjoy aboard m/s Emma some Helsinki sightse...

Emmelie De Forest, Eurovision song contest 2013 winner with Teardrops has released another single off her worthcoming second album, Drunk tonight , that follows Rainmaker , that was a kind of theme song for the Eurovision 2014 in Denmark and that she performed in the final as well. Drunk tonight has a beautiful video and the song itself has a quiet charm that may take some listenings to open fully. At the same time it brings nothing new to her repertoir but follows the musical path she has taken, that includes also Hunter and prey . Time will tell how far she will get on this path.....

The Netherlands have taken the spotlight in this pre-new season gossip mill of the artist game for 2015 Eurovision song contest. First Alain Clark was put forward as almost certain name but now comes also Dotan. AvroTros only comments there are several names (at least three) in the game and it's up to the artists themselves if they wish to make it known beforehand, AvroTros will only announce the selected one in due time. Back to Dotan. He's a 27-year-old Amsterdam based singer-songwriter. He released his debut album back in 2011 to minor success, but the follow up 7 layers this year has been a #2 success including chart topper Home and the first single Fall . His manager didn't deny - nor confirm - the proposal.  One thing seems to be sure: the Netherlands is going after another quality, semi-acoustic affair. 

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with Valentina Monetta before and after the concert in San Marino on August 5, 2014. A concert where she presented songs from her latest album Sensibilità . An album where Valentina was able to express herself in a more personal way including songs composed by herself in collaboration with other authors, including her brother Vincenzo ( Viaggio samba , this blogger's personal favorite). An intimate concert in the magical setting of Piazza della Libertà under (almost) full moon, with intense and original interpretations of rearranged Chrysalis and Maybe and a lot of what she does best: jazzy stuff. But it's not all spotlights and glitter in the tiny intense, somewhat closeted reality of the microstate of San Marino, a small jewel of the Italian peninsula, as we spoke over a pleasant lunch and the post-concert gathering in the historic center, or during an afternoon at the beach on the Adriatic Coast (where her video for May...

It seems the Netherlands have chosen. This time it should be singer, producer and musician Alain Clark (35). His first album came out back in 2004 without much of a success. Change to sing in English produced a triple platinum Live it out three years later. Since then three more top-3 albums of his groovy soul, latest this year, Walk with me . His biggest hits are This ain't gonna work ,  Father & Friend and Back in my world .  If this turns out true, like the main newspaper De Telegraaf suggests this morning the Netherlands continue their string of serious artist with a real career. Apparently Alain has tried an international career before without too much of a success, but Eurovision could change all that..... This isn't his first adventure to the Eurovision world. In 2012 he co-wrote Ivan Peroti's  Take me as I am and came 3rd. 

Remember UMK 2013? Mikael Saari and his We should be trough finished second and was a huge fan favorite both home and abroad. Many were expecting an imminent album release and all that but now Mikael tells he was negotiating with several record companies but they all wanted him to sing in Finnish. He instead thinks he expresses himself better in English and so, nothing came of it.... "I can't write a kind of music the commercial companies are searching for" he states. For himself that is, he is more than willing to write pop songs in Finnish for other artists. But today he says in an interview by Etelä-Suomen Sanomat he's very happy with his life; he's finishing his studies by Christmas this year, he sings, performs, writes and is living his dream as he puts it.  He has been doing musicals since UMK. He's headlining the new musical Poika Mancini in Oulu this fall. Earlier he was doing West Side Story and Pieni lemmenleikki (based on Eurovision songs)...

While I was holidaying Vienna and its Wiener Stadthalle was confirmed as the host city for the 2015 Eurovision song contest. And indeed it seems like a perfect fit. Vienna itself is more than suitable to host the 60th anniversary edition giving it maybe a bit imperial touch - the historic palaces and all that fabulous bling bling seems to be only 2-3 kms away from the venue. Sissi would approve I'm sure, Conchita for sure does. She thinks it'll be a bit over the top as Vienna is a bit over the top when needed. And with Eurovision over the top fabulousness goes very well!  Wiener Stadhalle was designed by architect Roland Rainer, built in the 1950's and opened in 1958. It was expanded in 1974 with a public swimming pool - time will tell if that will be engaged with the Eurovision activities (foam party anyone?). The contest will take place in the D Hall but the complex includes various other halls of different sizes so it seems the press center (Halle F?) and the rest w...

And finally we also have a visitor from Kosovo! Actually I'm a bit surprised I didn't have it already... A huge welcome, whoever you are! That brings the Flagcounter flags up to 217 already..... Anyone in North Korea? ;-p