Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Hungarian A Dal's second semi finished moments ago and we have six more qualifiers for the semifinals. As usual five were saved by the jury and televote, and one more from the remaining ones by televote only. For once I have to totally agree with the results.  Ádám Szabó – Give Me Your Love – 46  Gergő Oláh – A Tükör Előtt – 41  Ív – Fire – 38  Panktastic! – Kicsi A Világ, De Nagy Világ! –  38 Gyula Éliás Jr. ft. Fourtissimo – Run To You – 36 New Level Empire - Homelights - 34 (saved by the televote) Leader Rising - Löjetek fel - 36 Heni Dér - Ébreztö - 34 Saci & Böbe Szécsi - Our time - 34 Chances - The night - 31

Lithuania continued its Eurovizija and two more artists were eliminated tonight: Liepa Mondeikaité and Neringa Šiaudikyté. Earlier this week two songs, Factory heart and Es tut mir leid were eliminated from the race as well. One day this will come to an end.... Vaidas Baumila (02-01-05-06-02 Edgaras Lybus (04-03-02-03-04 Monika Linkyte (09-05-01-05-03 Mia (05-04-07-01-01 Jurgis Bruzga (07-09-09-04-05 06. Liepa Mondeikaite (06-07-03-02-07 eliminated) 07. Neringa Siaudikyte (10-11-08-07-08 eliminated) 08.Tadas Juodsnukis (01-02-04-08-eliminated) 09. Milita Daikeryte (03-08-06- 00 withdraw)* 10. Reda Striskaite (08-06-10 eliminated) 11. Wilma La (12-10-11 eliminated) 12. Rollikai (11-eliminated)

Melanie Rene has won the Swiss national final moments ago. Time to shine ? For me this goes to the same category as the two warriors.... What's it with female singers and these mid-tempo dark songs? 1. Mélanie René – Time to Shine 2. Timebelle – Singing About Love 3. Licia Chery – Fly 4. Andy McSean – Hey Now 5. Tiziana – Only Human 6. Deborah Bough – Take Me Back to 23 Also Conchita was there singing Rise like a Phoenix

#UMK15 kicks off officially tonight at 19.40 CET when the two hour long preview megamarathon will be aired. The videos of each song have been showed the past two weeks on YLE2 between here and there, the songs have been played on radio and many of them have been included on various radio stations playlists and some of them have even iCharted. Tonight they will be judged by a panel that is made of Cristal Snow, Toni Wirtanen, Hanna-Riikka Siitonen and Iisa and the whole is hosted by Aino Töllinen. Next Saturday the serious business starts..... (It should be also viewable abroad here ) UPDATE: Here are the results: Shava - Ostarilla (35 points) "Original, real joy of doing their thing. Don't turn into a joke!" Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät (34 points) "Autenthic. Real. Touching" Satin Circus (31 points) "Works. real pop song. Video helps it" Pihka ja Myrsky (29 points) "Very good, but is it for Eurovision?" Vilikasper Kanth...

Kukat kauniit or Pretty flowers is the name of a new CatCat album to be releaed later this spring. It's a move away from their uptempo songs, like their unforgettable Bye bye baby in Eurovision 1994. The sisters have continued their career all these years and this is their fifth studio album. They have also released a couple of official compilations and one Christmas album. Listen to their new single off the album here: Kukat kauniit Did you know Katja was one of the originally chosen members of Six4One ?

Solju comes way up North and is a mother and daughter duo, Ulla and Hilda and they started this Solju project only last year, but Ulla has a long career already. She was also a member of famous group Angelin tytöt . Hilda has been involved in many projects. They both work to save and give joik a new breath of life. They both like culture and art in general, and for example make their scene wardrobe, with a clear Sami inspiration of course. Their entry Hold your colours also talks about that and united traditional joik and modern urban music. The song may not have been written for them (read the story here ) but they certainly have made it their now. An indigenous musical duo that consists of mother and daughter Jack: Stunning. Hold Your Colours has a beautiful message and I personally would like to see Solju represent Finland.. but I don't think it will happen. If they perform it well, they might make the top three. You never really know what will happen until the songs...

Hungarian A Dal continues with the second semifinal. Once again five entries will be sent to the semifinal by the jury and one of the remaining ones will be sent by the televoters. Some familiar names in this heat, too, trying their luck for the Eurovision glory. And again very hard to predict who will make it; no real standouts but solid good ones one after another..... Adam Szabo – Give Me Your Love Chances – The Night Oláh Gergő - A Tükör előtt Gyula Elias feat. Fourtissimo – Run To You Dér Heni - Ébresztő Iv – Fire Leander Rising - Lőjetek fel New Level Empire – Homelight Pankastic! - Kicsi a világ, de nagy világ Szécsi Saci & Szécsi Böbe - Our Time

Heidi started singing at the age of 3 and broke through by winning the title of Tango Queen in 2013 in Tangomarkkinat, Finland's biggest music festival that has given us several national final participants in the past from Jari Sillanpää to Arja Koriseva, Amadeus, Marko Maunuksela and Heidi Kyrö, just to name a few. Many have tried to cross over from tango to pop, but so far only Sillanpää has really succeed in that. Heidi loves sports, feeling good mentally and physically and loving besides music. Bon voyage is a different kind of love song, about letting go and still loving, full of good energy and positivity.  Jack: Bon voyage somehow reminds me of Norway's entry in 2007 and we all know what happened there. A non qualification in Eurovision. I fear Finland would have the same fate if they sent this song to Vienna. 2/5   Timo: And now we go into the Finnish schlager music world. That's something we haven't yet heard in this contest and Heidi seems t...

It's going to be busy for Conchita Wurst with the national final season in full swing all over Europe for the Vienna 2015 Eurovision song contest. She will be performing in the Swiss final next Saturday and recently it was also confirmed she will be in the Swedish final on March 14. Today the much awaited news came she's been confirmed for Sanremo festival as well on its second night on February 11. To finalize this may have been helped also my her visit to Massimo Giletti's talkshow L'Arena on January 4 and a Twitter initiative with hashtag #ConchitaSanremo2015 . She will be most likely performing Heroes in Sanremo. Update: You can also add now Germany in the list. She will be performing in the national final on March 5 - and we can't forget she already did Malta last November!

Last week ago ORF revealed the stage design for Vienna 2015 Eurovision ( here )  but now several other stage designs are out in the open. On top you can see that of Sanremo 2015.  Then we have that of Swedish Melodifestivalen and that of Latvian Supernova and an interesting looking one for the Danish DMGP.  Which one is your favorite?

Angelo De Nile travels throuth time and space and was born in Ninive 2768 years ago. Right. Actually it's a project by Kimmo Blom, currently also in the Voice of Finland, and already in national Eurovision selection as a member of Boys of the Band in 2010. He's a history freak and as Angelo promises to bring the big names from the past alive again, so get ready! Behind his song are guys from some hardrock bands like Leverage and Urban Tale. His incarnation as significant men from the past will provide us a spectacular soundtrack in the future, should he have success with this. Maybe. His hero is Marcus Aurelius and if he could do whatever he'd sneek into Vatican museums at night and spend the night with the masterpieces. All for victory then? Being an emperor in a real world isn't always easy....  Jack: Angelo de Nile's song is rather dramatic but boring at the same time, if that's possible. It wouldn't sound out of place in a theatre production b...

Switzerland chooses its entry for neighbouring Vienna 2015 Eurovision this Saturday. Six songs are left in the race after the usual lenghty 3-way selection process. Conchita Wurst will be there. But how are the songs? My favourites are Timebelle and Andy. Licia is in with a chance, too, I think. If any of those three wins I'm pretty satisfied, even if none of them is really great unfortunately.... Timebelle - Singing about love / live Quite nice, she's got a memorable voice. This song is somehow Swiss, which is a bonus in this case. Rather catchy. Maybe I will wake up singing my love, I mean this tomorrow, who knows?  Mélanie René - Time to shine / live Sounds like a demo, need a remix badly. This will be eaten alive by the various warriors if selected. Similar in style but only worse and without energy. Tiziana - Only human / live She sounds actually better in the live version. The song's nice, she's got a good voice. But that's all. Not very mem...

#umk15 is not letting the foreign fans easy with names and songtitles and this must be the worst of them. Now all you try to pronounce or even spell it right. Ok, anyways. The band has been more or less formed already in the highschool, first as a punkband and for fun, but from 2003 a bit more seriously. The current line up has been together since 2012. They got the record companies interested in them from the start but since have moved from one to another and finally landing on Warner. They have only released three albums so far and without really breaking it big after all. They describe their music as modern, romantic and Finnish suitable for late nights and early mornings after. If they should win the song stays in Finnish and indeed they say at least they would have a name and song's name (not) to remember or Särkyneiden sydänten kulmilla (translates to Around broken hearts neighbourhoods).... Their fourth album will be released in February. Btw, remember Hukka and Mama fro...

Lordi released their latest album Scare Force One for Halloween 2014 and now they will hit the road again in Europe. But not in Finland. Their tour manager tells there are no suitable venues in Finland for them; they can't do small  rock clubs and are just too expensive with their stage show and pyros. They were supposed to kick off the tour in Jyväskylä's BeatCon fair but the fair's sponsors withdraw the last minute and its music part had to be cancelled altogether. In Europe Lordi is still selling well and filling clubs - and paid what they are worth.  As for the record sales their latest three albums Scare Force One (2014), To Beast or not to Beast (2013) and Babez for Breakfast (2010) have features equal. "Of course the sales don't match the sales of Hard Rock Hallelujah times" says Sony's Sami Rikala in today's Metro, "but it would be very unrealistic to think they would be." The figures are good enough to keep releasing new Lord...

Grande amore (Great love) is the title of the song that Il Volo (The Flight) takes to Sanremo. The trio of Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble emerged in 2009 from Ti lascio una canzone , the very same kids singing contest that has given us also Junior Eurovision stars Michele Perniola and Anita Simoncini who will be representing San Marino in Eurovision 2015, as well as Maltese and Italian Junior Eurovision winners 2013-2014 Gaia Gauchi and Vincenzo Cantiello, and this year's Federica Falzon for Malta. Il Volo were in Sanremo for the first time in 2010 but only as guests. Since then they have made it big abroad, especially in Americas. Sanremo is their attempt to make themselves known again in their home country. "We are not anymore the three little tenors, in fact only Piero is a tenor. Gianluca is bariton and Ignazio has a more pop voice. Our genre is opera pop, something that only Andrea Bocelli does these days" they tell. "We will release...

Ida Bois presents self written Kumbaya . She's 26-year-old mother of three and has released already three albums (but this blogger is afraid no one has ever heard of them) and she's also a master skateboarder (in fact they have already a skateboarding match planned with Vilikasper) and church goer. She likes to read historic novels and just can't stop writing music. Her musical style is very flexible, in fact she says she's being influenced always of the music around her and in charts. Only one thing remain solid: her piano. And pop. She may have been more rock or basic pop but now she's getting more EDM/folktronika vibe in hernew songs. She also has always cloathes in freezer. She always freezes new cloathing. And should she win, Kumbaya will stay in Finnish in Vienna.  Jack: I think this song is fabulous. It has a great beat and I really hope she will do well. Ida deserves to qualify for the final - I'm looking forward to seeing her perform it live. L...

Aikuinen (or Pekka Eronen) may not be a household name but he has written lyrics to other artists (Haloo Helsinki and Irina just to name a couple) so far and then he "had songs that were unsuitable for anyone else so I had to sing myself" as he puts it. He is also known as a movie critic. Writing music is a way of living for him, he would go nuts without it. His debut single Partajaana (liberally translates to Bearded Jane) got minor attention and he plans to go on with this kind of music that is melancholy but nice to dance to. If he wins he will bring that bearded single of his to Conchita Wurst, she'd propably appreciate it. But for #umk15 he offers us a drink called Kyynelten lahti (Bay of tears) Jack: Now I can completely understand that some people won't like this but I think it's cute. The video-clip is hilarious, weird and intriguing. I can't understand word and I know the song sounds rather dated although I do like it. I can't help myself...

Vienna city hall hosted the allocation draw (you can rewatch it here ) and now we know who's where and which part. The final running order will be decided later on.  Also the Big5 and Austria were drawn into semifinals they will broadcast and vote in. Except Germany that had asked and granted to do so in semifinal two. We also got to know Herr Niedermeyer from Digame, aka The Cheeky Frozen man.....

Tomorrow the Vienna edition 2015 kicks off officially when the Host city insignia exchange takes place in Vienna with the Mayors of Vienna and Copenhagen. This tradition started from Helsinki 2007 actually. But another thing takes more attention and is more interesting: the allocation draw! The first semifinal will have 16 countries and the second 17. Besides that the countries will be drawn into first or second half of the semifinal. The final running order will be determinated with this draw later when all the songs have been selected and presented to delegations in mid March in Vienna. Andi Knoll and Kati Bellowitsch will host the ceremony. There are five pots: Pot 1: Albania, Macedonia, Montenegrro, Slovenia, Switzerland, Serbia, Malta Pot 2: Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Latvia Pot 3: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Russia, Armenia, Lithuania Pot 4: Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, San Marino Pot 5: Hungary, Moldova...

Siru Airistola is the latest The Voice of Finland winner last April. Since then she has released two singles ( Sä et kulu pois and Kaksi naista )and is currently working on her debut album. She has done also musicals and operas and studies musical theater. She is yet to breakthrough though so let's see if UMK will finish what The Voice started. She says her music is soul influenced pop with big emotions, and her entry Mustelmat (Bruises) is about being imperfect and accepting it. Or is it about domestic violance? Three songs that have made her are Lara Fabian's Adagio (in Italian ), Alicia Keys' Fallin' and Eva Cassidy's Over the rainbow . Without them she wouldn't be here now.  Timo : Siru has a strong voice that makes me listen to her. She even made me think about the lyrics and what they are all about and I'm not so sure I really got the point but then that's nothing new for me. I kinda liked this even if the main thing or the melody remain...

The first Hungarian heat was presented tonight and once again the level of the songs is very high. Hungary is so going to win Eurovision very time soon. Tonight the jury and voters had hard time to pick up the qualifiers and as you can see in the points it was very even. The jury had to pick up two of the three songs with 37 points for the next step and unfortunately Balazs Farkas Jenser was left out and didn't survive the televote for the remaining act as Timi Antak emerged as viewers' favorite from there. This blogger doesn't entirely agree with the result but then there were just too many god ones! Passed - Mesmerize   43 Vera Toth - Gyemant   39 Bogi - World Of Violence   38 Balazs Farkas Jenser - Liar   37 Gabi Szucs - Ugysem felejtesz el   37 Karmapolis - The Time Is Now   37 Gergo Szakacs – Ösz utca   33 Timi Antak - Woke Up This Way   33 MDC - Maniac   31 Bori Magyar - Lead Me To Heaven   29 *qual...

Tonight Lithuania showed nothing is for sure and taken granted in Eurovision. Tadas, who won the first heat and was onsidered a possible winner along with Vaidas Baumila got eliminated already. And looking at the scoreboard the past two weeks it's not going so great for Vaidas either. Milita Daikeryte withdraw from the race earlier this week due illness. There's no telling how this will end.... Vaidas Baumila (02-01-05-06 Edgaras Lybus (04-03-02-03 Monika Linkyte (09-05-01-05 Mia (05-04-07-01 Liepa Mondeikaite (06-07-03-02 Jurgis Bruzga (07-09-09-04 Neringa Siaudikyte (10-11-08-07 08.Tadas Juodsnukis (01-02-04-08-eliminated) 09. Milita Daikeryte (03-08-06- 00 withdraw)* 10. Reda Striskaite (08-06-10 eliminated) 11. Wilma La (12-10-11 eliminated) 12. Rollikai (11-eliminated)

DR was supposed to reveal the artists and songs only next Monday but they have leaked from a CD-release - just like in Finland #umk15 songs. Familiar names among the songwriters, like Thomas G:son, Marcos Ubeda and Lise Cabble. Among the artists we have two backing singers for Basim, Andy and Marcel, and Anne G from Junior Eurovision 2003. All this will be confirmed on Monday, with audios. I've heard them and there's some very interesting ones..... 1. Tina & René – Mi Amore 2. Anne Garegaard – Suitcase 3. Babou – Manjama 4. Cecilie Alexandra – Hotel A 5. Anti Social Media – The Way You Are 6. Julie Bjerre – Tæt På Mine Drømme 7. Andy Roda – Love Is Love 8. Sara Sukurani – Love Me Love Me 9. Marcel & Soulman Group – Når Veje Krydses 10. World Of Girls – Summer Without You

Marco Mengoni's new album Parole in circolo was released a bit over a week ago but it has already sold gold in Italy. The first single Guerriero meanwhile has been certified double platinum and its video has been viewed over 11 million times. His success hasn't but grown since his Sanremo 2013 win and Eurovision song contest later that spring. At the moment his already recording the follow up album, the second part of this project to be released later this year. He will be also touring Italy in May, starting from Mantova May 5 and ending in Conegliano on May 23 for now. The tour is selling well and selling out, he already had to add an extra concert in Milan! His new album has been playing non-stop in this household for a few days now and it's very good. Not one bad song, any of them could stand out as a single. The production and sound is very similar to the latest Giorgia album, which is only a good thing. :-)

Selected media has had a chance to listen to the songs in Sanremo 2015 and we have some reports. Some are gaining pre-favorite status, and some information on songs have been released. Like all but three are about love. One talks about a person trapped in a body of wrong sex (Grazia di Michele & Mauro Coruzzi). Most are typically songs for/from Sanremo, only one rapper being different (Moreno). Some say Il Volo will win, go to Eurovision and win in Vienna, too, while some give them very little hopeto break through, their song being way too traditional (What about Vincenzo Cantiello in Junior Eurovision then?). Apparently they also sing in more pop style than opera this time on verge of being banal and kitchy. Also Lara Fabian seems to bring something very traditional but no one seems to believe in her chances. The Italian OGAE voted Malika their favorite artist for Eurovision out of these and it seems she's delivering something good as she's mentioned as one to watch o...

Shava takes us to a mall with Ostarilla .  The group has been together since 2004 but only a few years ago they have moved from private settings to public when they realized the world needs bhangra music in Finnish. Since then they have been spreading the bhangra virus besides Finland also abroad, from Iceland to Vancouver and New York. They love to eat and confess being addicted to coffee and chai. Their aim is to spread some happiness and show that bhangra is something that unites suburbian nomads from Bombay to East-Helsinki. They are also the only bhangra group in the world singing in Finnish.  Timo: Ok, now we go to Bollywood. I have to say they have selected very different songs this year. All in all this isn't so special, could have been better but it's interesting anyhow 2/5 Jack : Shava are bringing Bollywood to Finland's Eurovision selection it seems. I do actually really like their song because it's different. However I don't think it'...