Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Saara Aalto is maybe the best known name (along with Eini) in this year's #UMK2016. The eternal runner up (Talent 2007, Euroviisut 2011, The Voice 2012) is looking for a revenge with her new #Nofear2016 campaign. She has been singing with José Carreras and Andrea Bocelli in China and has dubbed Frozen in Finnish as Anna. She has released two solo studio albums, one Christmas album and one digitally released album in Chinese. And recently a duet album with Tango ing Teemu Roivainen. She was dating him until they broke up in 2013 after nine years together and Saara came out with her newlyfound girlfriend. Saara and Teemu still perform together in joint projects. S he's after the ticket to Eurovision big time as it is a well known fact she's a huge Eurovision fan.  12/20

Hungary's A dal continues tonight with the second heat. Once again the judges + App send five acts straight to the next stage, and from the losers televoters will save another one. Previous winner András Kállay Saunders is back with his band, as are familiar names from previous selections from Karmapolis to Gergö and fan favorite Passed. A bit bland semi this one. Gergö brings some nice ethnic vibe to it, Group'n'Swing come useless cabaret, Karmapolis is good with its atmospheric entry that makes me think of Police and Sting for some reason, and Passed is again enjoyable. But Kállay Saunders rules.  Passed –  Driftin’   34 (televote) Gergő Oláh –  Győz a jó   39 Laci Gáspár –  Love and bass   37 André Vásáry – Why   39 Karmapolis & Böbe Szécsi – Hold on to   36 Kállay Saunders Band –  Who we are   41 Group’n’Swing –  Szeretni fáj    31 Anna Patai –  Colors    32 Maszkura és a ...

Lithuania continues its search for Eurovision and tonight the qualifiers from shows 1 and 2 are against each other. The Lithuanian jury that voted already at the recording of the show confirmed the previous winners Ruta and Donny as top contenders but the international jury votes and the televote will be crucial to sort out who drops out. Up to eight acts will continue after tonight.  Ruta Sciogolevaite - United   22 Donny Montell - I’ve Been Waiting for This Night   22 Erica Jennings - Leading Me Home   16 Catrinah -  Be Free   14 Istvan Kvik & Ellada - Please Don’t Cry   12 Valdas Lacko -  Stay Tonight   11 Egle Jakstyte - Let Me Show You   10 Petunija -  Tomorrow   9 Behind the Moon - Did It All   6 Alice Way - Hero   4

Marco Mengoni's success story continues today with Parole in circolo , second single of the second part of his latest album concept. As announced the video takes off where the previous one Ti ho voluto bene veramente  (almost 27 million views as we speak) left us and watching the video you can already see hints of the things to come I guess.... in the next video and single release of course!

The nominees for the best video. The winner will be voted by the public in this category. Four out of ten are also nominated for the best song.... Among them UKM host Roope Salminen, tongue twisitng SAARA, JVG and now also JVG's VilleGalle in another video....  And way too much Finnish humour rap here, too. Thank heavens there's Chisu at least!

The Finnish Grammy, Emma, will be handed out once again in March. The nominees are out and here are the ones for the Best Song. The industry has been taken over by humour rap. Sigh. Do you agree? Who is your favorite? Among them we have Sanni and JVG from Vain elämää series, Stig from UMK, and also Roope Salminen, the UMK host last year and also this year. And the tongue twisting SAARA.

Emma has released already third single off her latest album Adesso , and this time it's Io di te non ho paura (I am not afraid of you) and it's against all violence, physical and psygolocigal, against women. Directed by Luisa Carnevale it features also actor Francesco Arca, who also appeared in the latest James Bond movie Spectre. Enjoy!

Željko Joksimović has released a new, self titled album, his first in six years and Zvezda (Star) is the latest single off it following a couple of other singles/videos released recently. It's once again a very catchy one, with beautiful melody and arrangement that grows to the climax. It looks like in 2016 he won't be involved in the Eurovision song contest..... maybe. 

Sanremo songs haven't even been heard - except by selected journalists - but the betting is in full swing and the speculation who will win the festival (and go to Eurovision 2016!) heats up. As said the selected journalists were invited as usual by Carlo Conti to pre-listen the songs so they can have a better idea when writing about them when the festival starts. No cell phones or anything allowed, of course, and also this year everyone's been good and followed the rules. They are allowed to write their impressions and of course they did and based on this fans and Italians in general have formed already some opinions and expectations.  Quite a few are saying Lorenzo Fragola will walk it. But in the betting the new duo by Amici winner Deborah Iurato and Sanremo newcomers winner last year, Giovanni Caccamo takes the prize. Both from Sicily, as is Mr Strawberry Lorenzo as well btw. It is also said Fragola has his song ready for Eurovision and in English. Caccamo is eager for ...

Congolese born French rapper Maître Gims joins Sir Elton John and Ellio Goulding as Sanremo 2016 festival's foreign guest stars. He follows Stromae to the Italian charts with songs in French, something that doesn't happen too often in the closeted Italian domestic market for songs in any other language but Italian and English. Est-ce que tu m'aimes? he asks and Italians say Oui, oui, oui . Sanremo gig will surely boost his sales with the album  Mon cœur avait raison , the single is already a hit. This blogger likes :-)

Ukraine has revealed the 18 names that are competing in the national final to be held once again after last year's unfortunate and forced withdrawel as they were busy with other more important things. But they are back and ready to kick some ass. The line up includes some heavuweighters like Anastasia Prykhodko who sung for Russia in Moscow 2009. Today she's not very friendly with Russia it seems..... Jamala has also kissed and made up and is back in the national selection, as are NeAngely and Victoria Petryk, who already had success in JESC and has tried already to step into the big one. Then we have Brunettes Shoot Blondes who released that amazing video Knock knock knock last year - I never knew they came from Ukraine! Eurovision 2004 winner Ruslana and Eurovision 2007 runner up Verka Serduchka, or rather Andrei Danilko are in the jury. This looks very promising! The semifinals are on February 6 and 13, and the grand final on February 21. SunSay Jamala The Hardkis...

What would the national selection season be without a review by Peter Clancy, already a Blogilkar tradition! He reviews the songs in the Finnish national selection #UMK2016. First semifinals, then the final once the finalists are out and later on this spring also the Eurovision song contest entries as well. Hopefully! Here is the Semifinal one of #UMK2016. Enjoy! Saara Aalto - No Fear I love the opening, and like Saara's voice. Very warm. There's a nice buildup to some kind of neo-Chinese type music, the flow is continually broken though and unfortunately it doesn't do it for me. In the middle I had hope that something would change, but unfortunately it lead nowhere and ends nowhere (points: 3 out of 5 ) qualifies Mikko Herranen - Evil Tone Don't get the point of the driving given that he's blind .. Go figure … I don't particularily like his voice and the lyrics are a bit haphazzard - almost a mistake. This could be characterised by being one bi...

Germany had asked to vote in the second semifinal, and thus Sweden was allocated in the first one, Israel had asked to be in the second semifinal.

The symbol consists of a variety of sparkling seeds, which are combined into one unit. - The symbol carries with it a lot and you can interpret it in different ways, but the idea was to start from a dandelion was something we liked. Most people can relate to it. It has an enormous growth potential, it is widespread across Europe and it can move, says Lotta Loosme, Communications Manager for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016. The idea generation process reverts to the original idea of ​​the Eurovision Song Contest, which was born in a post-war in the 1950s. Meanwhile the new technical possibilities, where it is now going to send out a signal with sound and moving image that people in different countries could gather for. The idea then was born to fill this signal with a unifying message, with singing and artistry, and affirming European diversity. - We want to bring with us all the nice keynote that Eurovision is based on - it was important then and is just as important now, sa...

More guest have been announced for the coming 66th Sanemo festival. Sanremo winner 2001 Elisa will be there to present her new work and return to singing in English, No hero . Ellie Goulding will be bringing her worldwide success to Teatro Ariston as well, and Sir Elton John will grace the event his present. Let's see if he uses it to promote the ongoing demostrtions in Italy for equal rights #Svegliatitalia. .....

As usual the Thirsday night in Sanremo festival  is dedicated to covers of Italian classics by the Big artists and here are the songs they are performing. And yes, Patty Pravo will cover herself ! And fabulous Dolcenera doing equally fabulous Nada's fantastic Amore disperato , one of my Italian favorites of all times! Annalisa doing Nannini. Noemi doing La Berté. Rocco wants to do the American. Arisa with Cuore! Can't wait! This cover's night might seem useless for some but it can be crucial. Marco Mengoni cemented his victory with his teary eyed cover of Luigi Tenco's Ciao amore ciao , and last year Nek scored a hit with Mina's Se telefonando , maybe even bigger one than his second placed entry..... So, it's ont only a filler and entertainment but can be serious business. Dolcenera for example has already included her cover to the re-isssue of her latest album to be released on February 12.  Patty Pravo - Tutt'al piú ( Patty Pravo ) Clementino - ...

The Eurovision song contest 2002 runner up Ira Losco has won the Malta's national selection tonight.She was the big favorite from the start as fans have been waiting for her comeback for years and years and over the years she has become one of the most succesful Maltese singers at home andabroad. Her song Chameleon (Invincible) needs though q bit of a revamp, me thinks. And most of all all new staging as this one's as bad as any other in the Maltese selection this year. Apparently she scored 40% of the televote followed by Christabelle and tonight's well deserved surprise Brooke. Brooke was also many juror's favorite and also franklin scored so well with them he pushed ahead of Christabelle in the end. Maxine came 5th so I got all right except Franklin in the top-5. 1. Chameleon (Invincible) - Ira Losco   68 2. Golden - Brooke   58 3. Little Love - Franklin Calleja   44 4. Kingdom - Christabelle Borg   38 5. Young Love - Maxine Pace   36 6. Alive...

After last night's semifinal where Stefan Galea, Domenique Azzopardi, Dario Mifsud Bonnici, Sarah Chrystal, Danica Muscat and Ira Losco's second song were voted out the other 14 continue the race for Stockholm 2016 Eurovision song contest. Ira Losco is the front runner, even more so now when the second song is out of the picture. Or could last year's runner up Christabelle beat her? Or the newcomer Brooke? Corazon, whose performance was as messy as Ira's? (Generally this year's #MESC has been the worst styled, staged and choreographed ever! What were they thinking?! Most entries are totally ruined by bad staging, or lack of styling or whatsoever.....) Or will young love conquer all? Watch here from 20.45 CET All Around The World - Deborah C Little Love - Franklin Calleja Under The Sun - Daniel Testa Golden - Brooke Flashing Lights - Raquel Galdes Kingdom - Christabelle Borg Falling Glass - Corazon (Mizzi) Fire Burn - Dominic The Flame - Je...

Lithuania continues its selection and this time it's the artists and the songs selected among the submitted entries. From this heat 10 will move forward and only the last two will be eliminated. As always there's the Lithuanian expert jury, televoters and the international jury.  National selection veteram Aiste Pilvelyte is back for the 9th time. At least. She first took part in 1999, then 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2007 she already reached 4rd place with Emotional fire, then both 2008 and 2010 she was 2nd with Troy on fire and Melancholia. She was back again in 2014 but was kicked out already in the second show, and now in 2016 she is firmly moving on to the next step with her song. Isn't it time she wins? Aiste Pilvelyte - You Bet Ruslanas Kirilkinas - In My World Ieva Zasimauskaite - Life (Not That Beautiful) Milda Martinkenaitė - If Tomorrow Never Comes Berta Timinskaite - Stars in a Rainbow Saulene Chlevickaite - Strong 4 Roses - Butterfly Neringa Siaudi...

Hungary will start its search for the song for Eurovision song contest 2016 in Stockholm tonight. Six out of ten acts will be voted for the next round. One can vote via A Dal app, or from the official website. My clear favorite is Freddie, not only in this heat but to win it all really. The others I would send forward are in no particular order ByTheWay, Mushu, Odett, Reni Tolvai and Jázmin Török. But I think Petra will squeeze in as well..... maybe even Fatima..... As in previous years the top-5 by the jury + App will qualify for the next stage, and then one from the remaining ones by televote . In the case of tie Jázmin and Reni the jury chose Reni. Watch here from 19.40 CET Odett – Stardust   34 Fatima Mohamed – Ott leszek   30 ByTheWay – Free To Fly   31 Mushu – Uncle Tom   36 Jázmin Török – Power Of Love   35 Benji – Kötéltánc   39 Egy Másik Zenekar – Kéne közös kép   36 Petra Veres Kovács – Singing Peace   32 Fre...

France is selecting internally and now it looks like the people in charge are testing a bit, so to speak. Both Head of Delegation Edoardo Grassi and the Director of Entertainment on France2 Nathalie André have published the song and video on social medias praising it. Sasha, a newbie in the business couldn't ask a better start for her career but to have all Eurovision fans searching for her.  And guess what? The song's just a bit over 3 minutes, modern, bilingual (as wished by France2 already ages ago). And more importantly - it's a good one. I say Mais oui. Oui, oui, oui!

As predicted, Ivan (Aleksandr Ivanov) won the Belarusian Eurofest. he's Belarusian-Russian and last year already represented Russian in the INtervision song contest.  1. IVAN (Aleksandr Ivanov) - Help You Fly   23.167 2. NAPOLI - My Universe   22.399 3. Kirill Ermakov - Running To The Sun   13.555 4. NAVI - Гэта зямля (This Land)   5.423 5. Aleksey Gross - Flame   3.202 6. Anastasia Malashkevich - Pray For Love   2.680 7. THE EM - Turn Around   2.164 8. Valeria Sadovskaya - Not Alone   1.322 9. Radiovolna - Radiowave   805 10. Sasha Zakharik - Glory Night   727

Belarus is having its final tonight. Alexey Gross with his pompous anthemic power ballad and Kirill Ermakov, already familiar name from JESC, have emerged as pre-contest favorites. Alexandr Ivanov seem to have some following too, and it wouldn't be the first time Belarus sends a blond long haired simil-rocker. The EM has something going on and could be worked into something. Anastasiya would follow the trend of screaming ladies with heavy beats but it's not all that bad really.... Nicely 90's.  Napoli goes all sugary Disney. Yuk. Quite a few jazzy flirty elevator music pieces are included in the very bland line up. Not forgetting the strong Russian accents :-) You can watch it live from 20.00 CET at eurovision.tv Alexey Gross - Flame   studio Sasha Zakharik - Glory night   studio Valeria Sadovskaya - Not alone   studio Radiovolna - Radiowave (Ne shodi s uma)   studio The EM - Turn around   studio Navi - Gyeta zyamlya (This land)   st...

Malta is having its semifinal tonight. Twenty songs made it through out of 153 submitted. Fourteen of them will make it to the final tomorrow, and the winner of course travels all the way to Stockholm and Eurovision song contest 2016. It seems there's not much competition as everyone takes granted Ira Losco wins. With Chameleon . Let's wait and see...  You can listen to all entries here . Watch here tonight at 20.45 CET Chameleon (Invincible)  - Ira Losco Falling Glass  - Corazon (Mizzi) Light Up My Life  - Stefan Galea Empty Hearted  - Domenique Azzopardi I Love You  - Dario Mifsud Bonnici Under The Sun  - Daniel Testa The Flame  - Jessika Alive - Jasmine Abela Flashing Lights  - Raquel Galdes Golden  - Brooke Lighthouse  - Kimberley Cortis Right Here With You  - Sarah Crystal Frontline  - Danica Muscat Kingdom  - Christabelle Borg Little Love  - Franklin Calleja Fire Burn  - Domini...

Next Monday the allocation draw will take place in Stockholm's City Hall at 11.15 CET. Alexandra Pascalidou and Jovan Radomir will host the show. You can watch it live on eurovision.tv First there will be a draw to see in which semifinal the Big5 and Sweden will vote.  In the first semifinal there will 18 countries, in the second 19. There will be also a draw for the first or the second part of the semifinal for each country. Pot 1: Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia,  Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina Pot 2: Denmark, Finland, Norway,  Iceland, Estonia, Latvia Pot 3: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,  Georgia, Russia, Ukraine Pot 4: Belgium, Cyprus, Greece,  Australia, Netherlands, Bulgaria Pot 5: Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ireland,  Malta, Poland, San Marino Pot 6: Austria, Hungary, Moldova, Romania,  Switzerland, Israel (pre-assigned to the 2nd semifinal)

ÖRF has published all the #WSFÖ final songs on their website and you can listen to them by clicking the titles below. Anti-war song, wild card winner, groovy beats, modern beats, a bit of Brazil, German The Voice wannabes, power ballad, ex-boyband singer, a bit of Lebanon, a bit of Philippines, a bit of Sri Lanka... and not one Swedish songwriter in sight! In general the boys beat the girls, except ZOË who's pretty wonderful and the only song not in English. But it's not German either but French! Besides her my early favourites are Sankil, Vincent and Orry..... AzRaH - The one Bella Wagner - Weapons down Céline Roscheck & Farina Miss - Sky is the limit Elly - I'll be around (Bounce) Lia - Runaway LiZZA - Psycho Orry Jackson - Pieces in a puzzle Sankil Jones - One more sound Vincent Bueno - All we need is that love ZOË - Loin d'ici

Freddy Kalas has found himself in a trouble soon after his participation with Happy rush was published. It seems the chorus is a bit too similar to a song five years ago he was involved in. Fredrik Auke aka Freddy Kalas was close to being disqualified but then the emergency meeting by NRK MGP team allowed him to participate but he must find another song. More details are expected tomorrow. At the same time MGP boss Jan Fredik Karlsen denied this was a promotion move to attract more attention..... 

The Sanremo 2016 festival is already the 66th Festival della canzone Italiana This year there are two real veterans: Enrico Ruggeri participates for the 10th time (since 1980) and Patty Pravo for the 9th time (since 1970) Nine out of 20 Big participants have participated in the X Factor or Amici reality shows searching for new talents: Deborah Iurato (Amici 2013-14 winner), Francesca Michielin (XF winner 2011), Valerio Scanu , Noemi , Dear Jack , Alessio Bernabei , Lorenzo Fragola (XF winner 2014), Annalisa , Giovanni Caccamo . No one from The Voice is there but at least lat year's winner Fabio Curto submitted a song (see below) Alessio Bernabei competes against his ex-band Dear Jack , but it's not the first time a similar duel happens: In 2002 we had Franceso Renga against his ex-band Timoria, and in 20015 Antonella Ruggiero against Matia Bazar Quite a few artists have made public their submission and not being taken to the festival. Scialpi and Marco...