Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

I'll be in London for the BBC's celebration of the 60 years of Eurovision..... First of all to enjoy the show, have fun and meet and greet a lot of friends and part of the San Marino 2014 team.... Stay tuned for news, gossip and hopefully photos..... :-)

The rehearsal schedule has been published for the 2015 Eurovision song contest in Vienna. It is good to know there's so much more than just the rehearsal on stage than most fans and press see in the monitors or in the arena if it's an open rehearsal. This year again the first rehearsals are with closed doors to let the artists and their team to work in peace and quiet, and not have the media attacking every thing they do as often in this phase various options are still being tried out for the camera shots, lights and even the staging in general before they decided how to proceed.

The first Eurovision song contest took place on May 24, 1956 in Lugano. Now 60 years later the 60th edition will be held on May 23, finishing on early hour of May 24 in most of Europe. The oldest participant this year is Finland's Pertti Kurikka, born on Boxing day the very same year 1956. He's 43 years older than the youngest artist this year, San Marino's Anita Simoncini who turns 16 just six weeks before the final in Vienna. The funny thing is the oldest one does punk, the youngest...  well, schlager.

And here we have the running order for the second semifinal, drafted out by ORF and blessed by EBu with the same criteria as the first semifinal . 1. Lithuania - Monika Linkyté & Vaidas Baumila - This time 2. Ireland - Molly Sterling - Playing with numbers 3. San Marino - Michele Perniola & Anita Simoncini - Chain of lights 4. Montenegro - Knez - Adio 5. Malta - Ambar - Warrior 6. Norway - Mørland & Debrah Scarlett - A monster like me 7. Portugal - Leonor Andrade - Há um mar que nos separa 8. Czech Republic - Marta Jandová & Václav Noid Bárta - Hope never dies 9. Israel - Nadav Guedj - Golden boy 10. Latvia - Aminata - Love injected 11. Azerbaijan - Elnur Huseynov - Hour of the wolf 12. Iceland - Maria Olafs - Unbroken 13. Sweden - Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes 14. Switzerland - Mélanie René - Time to shine 15. Cyprus - John Karayiannis - One thing I should have done 16. Slovenia - Maraaya - Here for you 17. Poland - Monika Kuszy...

Today the running orders for the semifinals has been made public. All put together by ORF and blessed by EBU, taking in consideration various topics: song's tempo, female or male, duo or group, special effects and props (that we don't know of yet but they do) and all sort of things. Based of course on the fact the first or second half of the semifinal was drawn earlier. So here goes: The first semifinal: 1. Moldova - Eduard Romanyuta - I want your love 2. Armenia - Genealogy - Face the shadow 3. Belgium - Loïc Nottet- Rhythm Inside 4. Netherlands - Trijntje Oosterhuis - Walk along 5. Finland - Pertti Kurikan nimipäivät - Aina mun pitää 6. Greece - Maria Elena Kyriakou - One last breath 7. Estonia - Stig Rästa & Elina Born - Goodbye to yesterday 8. Macedonia - Daniel Kajmakoski - Autumn leaves 9. Serbia - Bojana Stamenov - Beauty never lies 10. Hungary - Boggie - Wars for nothing 11. Belarus - Uzari & Maimuna - Time 12. Russia - Polina Gagari...

Franco Battiato turns 70 today ( Tanti auguri, Franco! ) but he's artistically as active as ever. Not so much physically at this very moment after he fell in a concert last week in Bari and suffered a femur fracture. It sure is annoying and will take time to heal but he already looks to the future. He has no plans to celebrate his birthday in his house in Milo in the shadow of Etna vulcano in Sicily, but says there are friends around and they will gather together with him anyways. Despite the accident he says he has a good karma and his future looks very bright and big things are on the way yet.

The line of merchandise is ready and available next week in the official eurovision shop here . There are the usual t-shirts, mugs, pins, iPhone covers and all the rest, and as a new thing (I think...) the luggage tag that I think is a very nice addition to the line! And how could you live without an Vienna 2015 pillow?!  The CD including all the 40 songs will be physically released on April 17 in some markets (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Benelux) and April 20 in the rest of Europe. The digital release to download is a week before but only for the whole album. You can only purchese separate tracks after the physical CD has been released. The CD includes the official Eurovision 3 minute and/or bilingual versions of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Romania and Greece that haven't been (mostly) available to purchase yet. Update: The DVD will be released on June 22 including as usual the three shows and some bnus material. 

Il Volo announced their summer tour in Italy just before Sanremo and even opening the ticket sales and one date looked very strange: Arena di Verona on May 21! ( More here ). Arena di Verona is a very important stage and now after winning Sanremo and having been conformed the Italian entrants in Vienna 2015 Eurovision with Grande amore , the date has been postponed to September 21. Who knows if they will walk on that stage as Eurovision winners then? You can buy tickets here . Meanwhile their video is nearing 10 million views in less than two weeks! Here are their confrmed dates on Il Volo - Live tour 2015 so far ( with new added dates Feb 28) (new dates added March 22) June 12 - Locarno (Switzerland), Piazza Grande June 22 - Rome, Auditorium Parco della musica                                 June 23 - Rome, Auditorium Parco della musica June 24 - Rome, Auditorium Parco della musica July 1...

Tomorrow evening SMRTV will have a special edition of Serenissima - The Smallest, The Youngest where they talk about their Eurovision 2015 adventure tomorrow night at 21.00 CET. You can watch it online here . Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola are of course present and interviewed but not only: they will answers questions sent by you! All you need to do is record a video by any mobile device (such as your smartphone or pads) send you question to eurovision@sanmarinortv.sm in the highest quality possible by noon tomorrow. The show will be of course in Italian but the questions section will be also in English so it will be a lot of fun for everyone!

Exciting news! Remember the annual Eurovision Top-250 voting, the biggest Eurovision voting there is? With the marathon broadcast from n.o 250 to n.o 1 on New Year's Eve? It goes to television now! Jan Geerts will be hosting a total of six shows on OUTtv starting next Wednesday, each with a special theme that you can see below with the broadcast dates.  OUTtv will also be the first European TV channel to present a TV show on the official stage of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. Before the stage will be moved from The Netherlands to Vienna, OUTtv was able to make a deal that they can use the stage for each episode to host the ‘European Top 250’. In case you can't see OUTtv don't worry, all the episodes will be on Youtube after they have been broadcasted. Aren't you excited yet??? Episode 1: sexy and seducing (25/3 on OUTtv) Episode 2: hot guys (1/4 on OUTtv) Episode 3: special outfits (8/4 on OUTtv) Episode 4: different music styles (15/4 on OUTt...

And today also the very last entry has been revealed with audio only, the video should premiere this weekend. Knez for Montenegro was the very first artist announced for Eurovision 2015 and has the very last song to be heard.   Adio is written by Željko Joksimović and you can really hear it. In a good way. I'm a sucker for his style and obviously like this one a lot, too. This is his 5th Eurovision entry and his worst placing so far is 6th, the Serbian entry at home in Belgrade 2008 Eurovision. Will he keep his awesome track record with Knez?

The HoDs or Head of delegations are meeting in Vienna and handing in their entries and deciding on some things, and most of all getting to know each other's entries, visiting the venue Wiener Stadthalle and the Euroclub venue Ottakringer Brauerei (opens only May 17 but before that there will be six theme parties in six different venues) and talking about their stage shows with ORF. It has been also revealed the basketball pitch will be the press conference area, and the handball pitch the press center. The Vienna transport and museums will be for free if you have an accreditation.  Some things have been decided: The 2016 contest should take place on May 10, 12 and 14, wherever it will be. The date won't be confirmed until the new host is known etc. This year for example the dates were changed by ORF. Austria has been drawn to perform at number 14 in the final. The other countries in the final will be sorted out by the producers after they have drawn their first or ...

After the leak yesterday night today San Marino has officially presented their entry with the video for Chain of lights . If you are interested you can see a longer version of it here with some backstage photos and the lyrics of the song. The video has been shot in various places around province of Molise in southern Italy, in regions of Campobasso and Isernia.  The singers at 16 are young and fresh but the writers are real Eurovision veterans. The song is once again penned by Ralph Siegel with the lyrics by John O'Flynn aka Bernd Meinunger. This is Bernd's 19th Eurovision entry, and Ralph's 23rd. This is also Siegel's fourth consegutive entry for San Marino and they have done better every year and finally qualifying for the final for the very first time (for any microstate) last year. Will Michele and Anita better Valentina Monetta's 24th place in the final last year with Maybe ? Maybe or maybe not, what do you think? 

Australia has released its entry for Eurovision 2015 in Vienna. Instead of taking a song from his latest album as expected Guy Sebastian has been so inspired by the Euroadventure he wrote a new song Tonight again for the occasion   when he had a couple of days off last week. It's soulful r'n'b effort that showcases his vocals and yes, it gives a lot of freedom for a stage show. Australia has all it takes to do very well in Vienna.....

The songs are coming out now in the final rush, here comes Russia. A million voices is sung by Polina Gagarina. And yes, it's another ballad.  And let's see how Polina will be treated in Vienna. Boos are so last season. But then, the song isn't that good, is it?

Also Albania revealed it's entry I'm alive , the substitute to Djell that was withdrawn by the author a few weeks ago. And it's totally something different and maybe it's good. I'm alive  is quite modern sort of pop song, quite American and Elhaida gets to use her voice quite a bit. Hopefully it also works live. 

Back in November SMRTV announced "the youngest duo in the Eurovision history" will represent them in Vienna 2015 Eurovision. Junior Eurovision veterans (that word used very lightly here) Michele Perniola (16) and Anita Simoncini (will turn 16 in mid-April) will sing together Chain of lights.  The faith is this year also Ireland and Israel send 16-year-olds, both of them younger than Perniola but the youngest duo status remains and Anita is still the youngest of them all.  Chain of lights was presented, or a snippet of it, in SMRTV's news tonight. Tomorrow the official presentation in the head of delegations meeting in Vienna and on both eurovision.tv and smtvsanmarino.sm with all the information on the writers and the rest. Ok, full song leaked here 

As rumoured ever since he won the Voice of Turkey Elnur Huseynov has been confirmed  for Azerbaijan with Hour of the wolf, a ballad written by an international team. Elnur is no stranger to Eurovision having represented Azerbaijan with Samir at its denut back in 2008 and scoring 8th place.The video for the song will be presented tomorrow but meanwhile you can listen to it here . This blogger thinks its one of the better ballads this year and I am pleased to see Elnur back. 

And the last national final is over. After Swedish heroes Norway has chosen monsters or Mørland & Debrah Scarlett with A Monster like me .  The superfinal included Tor & Bettan with All over the world, superfavorites Mørland & Debrah Scarlett with A Monster Like Me, another superfavorite Staysman & Lazz with En godt stekt pizza and Erland Bratland with Thunderstruck. So, a very variable top-4. Sweden must make changes to its act before Vienna for sure (those backing vocals at least) but Norway would have been a real trouble with several acts, as there were so many people on stage with even superfinal acts Tor & Bettan and Staysman & Lazz. 

Måns Zelmerlöw won hands down the Swedish final with a total of 288 points against Jon Henrik's 139. Nine out of 11 international juries gave him full marks and he also got twice the amout of televotes as the runner up. Heroes is a combination of a good artist, great staging and a catchy tune. No doubt one of the best songs this year in Vienna. Eric Saade only managed 5th when both juries and televote placed him 4th and Hasse passed him by one point :-) That must sting a bit! Another big loser Magnus Carlsson.... 1. Måns Zelmerlöw 288 ( int.jury+televote 122+166) 2. Jon Henrik Fjällgren 139 (51+88) 3. Mariette 102 (74+28) 4. Hasse Andersson 78 (10+68) 5. Eric saade 77 (48+29) 6. Linus Svenning 59 (41+18) 7. Isa 56 (38+18) 8. Samir & Victor 49 (29+20) 9. Magnus carlsson 28 (10+18) 10. JTR 25 (21+4) 11. Jessica Andersson 23 (15+8) 12. Dinah Nah 22 (14+8)

The Makemakes has won the Austrian national selection for Vienna 2015 Eurovision with I am yours . It won both the international jury vote and the first round televotes, and then also the second round televotes where they beat Dawa that was also second in the televotes in the first round but only third with the international jury. This blogger is happy, it was also my clear favorite in the end :-) ÖRF has revealed further detail on televotes. The Makemakes won the first round with 51,15% of the votes! DAWA scored 14,35%, Zoe and Folkshilfe very close with 11,32% and 11,31%, JSB got 8,92% and Celina Ann only 2,94%. In the second round The Makemakes beat DAWA 78-22. First round results: (total international jury+televotes) 1. The Makemakes 107 - 12+12=24 2. Dawa 79 - 8+10=18 3. Zoe 103 - 10+8=18 4. Folkshilfe 67 - 7+7=14 5. Johann Sebastian Bass 64 - 6+6=12 6. Celina Ann 60 - 5+5+=10

Carola's Det bästa av mig tour landed helsinki's Kulttuuritalo last night. The venue was sold out and when I looked aroud the crowd before the concert I thought this is going to be one dull evening - mostly middle aged couples. Mostly Finnish speaking. A very few Eurovision fans (those that you see everywhere) and even fewer young people. But how wrong I was! Carola entered the stage with the Orup version of Främling before moving on to Tell me this night is over and by third song, Gatorna tillhör oss she had the audience on their feet, eating from her hand and dancing around. I have never witnessed so many middle aged Finns letting their inner teenager out that way. When she continued with her hits from the early 1980's like Tommy tycker om mig and Mickey I noticed I wasn't the only one knowing stil all the lyrics by heart. Even she noticed that something special was going on and commented from stage "I see this is going to be a very interesting evening!...

Norway has its final this Saturday as well. No semis but only one final, with live orchestra. The songs have been out for ages by now and there are favorites, Mørland & Scarlett mostly by the foreign fans while Norwegians seem to go crazy for the pizza song.  Erlend opens the show looking like male version of Conchita. The song must have looked perfect on paper but in reality it's not going anywhere. Raylee goes all American and in the genre I can't stand. Veterans Tor & Bettan mix schlager with the Disney sugary power ballad. This could have been nominated for Oscar some 20-30 years ago. Jenny offers us the Norwegian take on the female sung midtempo screamy song with heavy beats. Enough! Ira is just annoying noise mostly, the song never gets going. Contrazt gives us good old schlager. This could have been a favorite back in 1990 or so. Perfection in its genre. Marie sounds very Norwegian with her crystal clear voice. The song is nice. I like it. Staysman ...

That golden boy Nadav Guedj in the pic is 16. I wonder how he will look when he's actually 26 or even 36..... I'm not sure I want to know. Anyways, Israel presented its entry Golden boy tonight as well. By the rumors some were expecting the uptempo number to save this year's dance moves in Euroclub but instead.... What to say, "mamas" sung here and there like a real Italian mammone would. There's a bit of ethno sounds and it is somehow catchy and ... well.... I need to digest this a bit. And what to make about the lyrics: You know that my love is bigger,  I'm a golden boy Come here to enjoy I'm the king of fun,  And before I leave, l et me show you Tel Aviv

Today finally Armenia released their song Don't deny and the sixth artist in the line up. And yes, it's all very political between the lines. And very clever - you can't really finger point anything but it's all there. Let's see if this storm in a glass will become a hurricane. Turkey isn't participating anyways, so....  I find the song a huge let down. A standard Disney ballad with only gimmick being the singers. Six4One anyone? It isn't any better than that I'm afraid. I take no sides nor think about the politics when saying that. But the message could easily turn against them depending how the various commentators and media pick on it. But that won't stop the diaspora all over Europe to vote for it as usual.  The sixth member is Inga Arshakyan as rumoured from the beginning and this is a return to the Eurovision stage she already shared with her sister in 2009. The other members are French Armenian Essai Altounian (Europe), Tamar Kaprelian (...

Sweden, the most anticipated national selection by many, comes to an end this Saturday, giving us one of the very last songs for the Vienna 2015 line up. This season in Sweden has been dominated by young male artists and it would be quite a shock if one of them won't win it in the end. As the final is getting nearer all the pressure is building on Måns Z. Let's see if he will be third time lucky! Samir & Victor propably has a big local hit in their hands but Eurovision? No way. Good opener but that's all it is, one would not even notice it's actually in the competition.... JTR , another act with some following I suppose, next. Another useless filler in the line up. Medicore boyband stuff. Totally uninteresting. Dinah Nah trusts good old la, la, la and it's an okeyish uptempo number. Unfortunately Dinah herself is the weakest link in it with her flat voice and moves. Jon Henrik , first of the favorites offers a screen full of Lappish and Sami exotism (tha...

Austria selects is own represant and follow up to Conchita Wurst this Friday. Six acts made it to the final and none of them is very Eurovisionesque. The hosts feel no pressure I guess and are ready to risk a bit, which is always refreshing. Dawa has an acoustic sounding simple "folk" song. It's kinda cute and nice, but is it strong enough? Johan Sebastian Bass isn't nice and cute but more like in-your-face kind of a song. Retro groove and crazy sounding opera singers as backing. A look to match and to remember. This would we bold and surely would stand out in the Vienna line up. Celina Ann is the Austrian Nina Zilli lookalike but that's where the similarities end. The song falls to the "nice" category. Nice only won't take you very far unfortunately. The Makemakes have the quality of making me listen to them and drop everything I am doing. Capturing. Beautiful. A song that I don't want to fast forward Yet I'm not crazy for it, but it...

Also Belgium has released the audio of their entry Rhythm inside by Loïc Nottet. It's certainly something different and stands out among all the female ballads and duets we have this year.... This blogger yet needs to digest it a bit before decided which way it goes.... And here's the video !

The audio of Hope never dies , the Czech entry in the Eurovision 2015 by Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta has been released today ahead of the video release tomorrow. All I can say this is the entry Finland should have sent. It reminds me of The Rasmus, HIM, Nightwish.... the genre Finns do best. if only... It will be curious to see how's the visuals in video and how the staging will be... Meanwhile I just have to listen this again... and again.... Welcome to the final for the first time, Czech Republic, the break has done you good!

Russia has revealed its cards. Polina Gagarina will sing for them in Vienna, apparently the song is Secret poison written by the usual team of Kirkorov, Kontopoulos & co. Polina lived her early life in Greece and has the usual past in talent reality like Star factory 2 that she won, New Wave festival in Jurmala, winning Golden Grammophone contest twice as well as other awards and nominations along the way. The song should premiere in March 15.

Poland has chosen Monika Kuszyńska with In the name of love . The rumor mill is telling Doda had a fight with the Polish television bosses about something and was dismissed the last moment. Enter Monika who has a long if not very succesful career behind her and her ballad is one of the best this year. So far at least.  Monika started her career as a singer in a band Varius Manx. Back in 2006 the band had a car accident, in which Monika remained paralyzed from waist down and she uses wheelchair. This hasn't stopped her from doing music and she released her debut album in 2012. Now she's off to Vienna to steal a bit of the spotlight from likes of PKN. At least she has a song to sing, and a voice to sing it!

Sweden has never won the Eurovision song contest with a male solo artist but this year they are really trying. The final next Saturday (along with the one in Norway) is the last of the season 2015 and it is filled with muscled guys who seem to love parade half naked showing off. Some of them can also sing and perform, some... well, a bit less so. The main contenders seem to be Måns Zelmerlöv and Eric Saade . Then there's  Jon Henrik Fjällgren to shake the things a bit. Let's see who wins that fight. It seems both Måns and Eric need to beat Jon first, but then also each other to win.  Samir Badran and Victor Frisk are also ready for the battle even if they had to make it through the second chance round. They know how to pose but that's just about all it is about... Barking dogs don't bite. Samir also challenges Linus Svenning  with the tattoo department. Linus can deliver, we know that, but Samir ... well, he gives great poses. And what about th...

Quite incredible, the only song I tipped for victory did win for once, lol. Voltaj with  De la capăt won both televote and the jury vote. Apparently and sadly they will sing the song in Vienna in English as All over again . Luminita Anghel came second and seemed very unamused. During the show I also picked CEJ as my second favorite and the only other song I liked, well performed no fuss song. Here's the live performance . The song also has an important theme: to bring all those Romanians working abroad to come back to their children in Romania they left behind....

Leonor Andrade has won the Portuguese final of Festival da Canção with Há  Um mar que nos separa . One good news for this night of disasters of various types. The real disaster is Yola Dinis didn't even make the top-3 but Leonor was my second favorite so have to be happy for that little at least. Leonor's song is not bad, it could well be sung by any Italian female singer in fashion, from Emma to Amoroso and Pausini. Tt only needs a better arrangement and a little bit of necessary oomph.  Teresa Radamento and  Gonçalo Tavares made the superfinal as well. 

And they may well be but I'm not in love with them. The whole concept is rather boring. Original - in Eurovision circuit yes, not elsewhere - but still heard a million times before, and often better. And what's it with another duo?? Has Europe gone crazy? On the positive note, it's not a ballad..... Still in love with you . 

No stopping Il Volo. They have officially become Unicef Italy's Goodwill ambassadors and following the gold status of the single Grande Amore this week also their EP Sanremo Grande amore has been certified gold. Both are topping the official Italian charts as well. The video is close to 13 million views already. Il Volo has been taking part in Unicef's activities for years already, including Unicef Andrey Hepburn Society Ball in Houston , Texas in 2013 and 100% vacciamoli tutti event in Naples last year as well as another one in Venice to help African children in need.

Yet another weekend with Eurovision. Portugal will have its final tonight, Romania tomorrow. Tonight also United Kingdom will reveal its song and it's also the second chance round in Sweden. And next week in the ultimate rush we will we hearing new entries almost daily basis! I'll update the news asap as always. Enjoy the weekend! Saturday, March 7, 2015 Portugal - Festival da Canção - FINAL 22.00 CET - Watch here - Read more here United Kingdom - Song presentation  22.25 CET - Watch here   (22.40) Sweden - Melodifestivalen - Andra chansen 20.00 CET - Watch here - Read more here Sunday, March 8, 2015 Romania -  Selecției naționale - FINAL 22.30 CET - Watch here - Read more here