Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

February 29 update: It is now confirmed. Oui oui! It seems France has revealed tonight (February 25) - unexpectacly and way ahead of time - their repressant in Stockholm 2016 Eurovision. It's apparently Amir Haddad, known for being finalist in The Voice. He's of Israeli, Tunisian, Moroccan and Spanish origin but born in France. He's entry is   J'ai cherché a bilingual pop anthem . He participated already in the Israeli Kokhav Nolad and released one album in 2011. The in 2013 he was in France and finished third in The Voice behind Kendji Girac and Maximilien Philippe. The news spread in the French media like fire but it seems there's no formal conrimation yet....

All as predicted, Justs (20.720 votes) won in the end even if second placed Catalepsia (18.914) was causing some heartbeats by getting too close during the voting.....MyRadiantU (6.651) third and Marta Ritova (5.041) with her solar panels on stage fourth.

YLE's heads of civil juries (among them Krista's bf on left, Jaana Pelkonen and Hanna Pakarinen behind the kid) Today, the day after, media and people dealing up with the surprise result (by some) of the #UMK16 final outcome. Cristal Snow has thanked his fans and says it's bitter. He has taken a bank loan to do #umk and it didn't maybe quite pay up. Saara Aalto is lamenting of unfair treatment by the Media civil jury that gave her a big flat zero. Mikael Saari has graciously kept silent except thanking his fans for this adventure - that gave him a second Fan Award by the Finnish Eurovision fans. And Sandhja is singing it away all over television and radio. It also seems people didn't understand how the televotes were made up as indeed, Roope and Krista didn't explain that to the television viewers. I didn't even think about it until I saw the rerun this afternoon as it's a familiar way of giving votes in Melodifestivalen among others, and even i...

Also Latvia's Supernova comes finally to an end. Four songs remaining. Justs is the big favorite and for once I agree with the masses. It's great, and I wasn't even a huge Amianata fan! I also like MyRadiantU and the other two are just for extra flavour here. It's Justs or nothing. Latvians would be fools to send anyone else.  Justs - Heartbeat Catalepsia - Damnation MyRadiantU - We will be stars Marta Ritova - Not from this world

February is coming to an end so are the national finals. This weekend we will get at least seven new entries, and other selections are still going on in Israel, Sweden and Lithuania. All this after having had the pleasure to discover the German and British entries in the last days (and maybe the French , too). And it's not over: during next week we will discover Armenia, Israel, Australia, Romania, Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, Poland and Russia! But let's enjoy this weekend and it's offerings first! This post will be updated while things happen so do come back and check the links. Have a lovely weekend! Saturday, February 26 18.40 Moldova - O melodie pentru Europa - FINAL Watch here - Read more here  and here 19.40 Hungary - A Dal - FINAL Watch here - Read more here  and here 20.00 Finland - #UMK16 - FINAL Watch here - Read more here , here , here , here   LIVE BLOG  and here 20.00 Slovenia - EMA 2016 - FINAL Watch here - Read...

Sandhja came and sung it away and blew off the competition and fan favorites and ended up with the ticket to Globen in May and the Eurovision song contest in Stockholm for Finland. International and Finnish fans are sour as their pets didn't win blaming the voting system. I say: Get real. This year the voting system was what it was and she finished first with the juries and third with televoting (Mikael was second in both and Saara first in televotes but third in jury votes, so it could have been either way). Sing it away and enjoy the ride! Sandhja Kuivalainen will be 25 in Stockholm. Her father is a Finn, and her mother Guyanan Indian. She's nurse like Sandhja in Jorvi hospital in Espoo. She says she was raised to be aware of her roots but feels she's just a regular girl from Espoo. Sandhja's roots are in India but her family was forced to go to work in Guyana and her musicality comes from her greatgrandmother who was a wedding and funeral singer. Every weeken...

Agnete took an easy win in the Norwegian Melodi grand prix tonight. Funny how her song and look is similar to Ylona's Blazing fire in #UMK16.... But that's another story. Ylona was amazing anyways, she should have been in the #UMK16 final. Anyways, this is co-written by Gabriel Alares, who also won in Modova tonight. He's becoming a regular Eurovision writer now. Last year he was co-writing the Russian runner-up and this year for example Krista Siegfrids' Melodifestivalen entry. And let's not forget Agnete is a MGP winner, the Nordic Junior Eurovision original version.... Check out the other top songs after the jump

ManuElla has won the Slovenian final with Red and blue . She beat Raiven with  Črno bel (Black and white) in the superfinal so it was all about colors tonight.They were chosen for the superfinal by a jury and then people televoted about these two. It was really really close: 3.865 votes for ManuElla and 3.738 for Raiven! Or 50,8% vs 49,2%! Happy little country tune over something more exciting. But all in all sadly a very medicore selection of songs, and the winner respects that perfectly.  Check out the other songs after the jump

One of the favorites, Lidia Isac won in Moldova tonight. She won televote and jury ranked her third - the exact opposite what happened to Sandhja in Finland btw - and won. Jury's favorite was Valeria Pasa but televoters ranked her only 6th. It was a very close run in the televotes: 8.362 for Lidia and 8.267 for DoReDos. (2.631 for Cristina so it was a two horse run). 96 votes more for DoReDos we would have had a 3-way tie on top! I don't know the Moldovan rules who would have won then....

After Finland more good news: Freddie won in Hungary :-) He beat Gergö Olah, Kállay Saunders band and Petruska in the superfinal. Oh wait, that was my top-4!!! :-) And I totally agree with the winner. Kállay Saunders Band somehow lost the momentum (and voice) after initial enthuasism. Gergö would have been propably a bit too exotic and Petruska just not strong enough. Hungary is once again reaching for the trophy big time.  Check out the other top videos after the jump

After a great night this blogger is very happy. Sandhja, a nurse from my hometown Espoo won ahead of fan favorites Saara Aalto, second again (LOL) and Mikael Saari left third this time.  Sandhja was and is amazing on stage, the song is very catchy and atypical for Finland. Now I'm looking forward to Stockholm with greater confidence and pride. Go Finland!

Finland has its #umk16 final tonight and the winner will be our 50th Eurovisison entry. Roope Salminen is hosting the show from Helsinki with 2013 entrant Krista Siegfrids and Eurovision 2007 hostess Jaana Pelkonen will be there, too. Eurovision 2006 winner Lordi is performing and celebrating the 10th anniversary of their win and also last year's participants Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät grace the show with their presence. For the first time for a very long time, or ever, the polls give no clue who will win. Pre-contest favorite Saara Aalto is not doing so well in the polls, and the fan favorites Mikael Saari (He won the Finnish fanclub's Fan Award again) and Annice & Kimmo don't seem to appeal to the masses, nor Tuuli. Eini is doing well with general puclic, critics love Sandhja and Barbe-Q-Barbies is picking up speed. Being the only rock entry will surely be an advantage when the masses start to vote tonight, same goes for Eini having the only song in Finnish. Cri...

YLE's competition, commercial television MTV3 has also run its poll about the #UMK16 entries for its website readers. And like everywhere else (except Finnish Eurovision fans who are all still listening Mikael Saari's previous entry it seems... see the chart at bottom) it's very tight. Anything can happen tonight! Follow my live blog tonight! Cristal Sow   16,98% Eini   16,64% Barbe-Q-Barbies   16,37% Saara Aalto   16,11% Sandhja   10,65% Annica & Kimmo   8,56% Mikael Saari   8,15% Tuuli Okkonen circa 3% Stella Chrisitine circa 3% Fans voting:

After three heats and two semifinals it's time for the A Dal final. Eight songs have made it this far thanks to jury and televoters. This time the jury picks up four songs to the superfinal, and then televoters alone pick up the winner among these. Biggest favorites seem to be Freddie, Kállay Saunders band and Petruska. If Hungarians feel ethnic vibe we have also Gergö Oláh to consider.... Either of these winning will put Hungary again in the winning battle. Below are the finalists in my order. I wil be very happy with any of the three first, fourth is fine, fifth is great on studio version but live was rather weak. The rest.... no way.  Freddie -  Pioneer Gergö Oláh -  Gyöz a jó Kalláy Saunders Band -  Who we are Petruska - Trouble in my mind Olivér Berkes & Andi Tóth -  Seven seas Mushu - Uncle Tom Parno Graszt -  Már nem szédulök André Vásáry - Why

Norway has its final tonight as well. Ten songs in the running. From irresistible Laika with to Moscow marching lesbians to chrystal clear musicalesque vocals in Traces , 60's girl pop in Stand up , summer hit sounding Feel da rush that will sound propably amazing when a bit tipsy and sunburned, mysterious  Afterglow , boyband pop of Anna Lee  in real Satin Cirkus style and Icebreaker that sounds first like a perfect package but is it in the end? Quite frankly I'd be very amused to see Laika winning, but I doubt that will happen so let it be Icebreaker or Anna Lee . Or even Feel da rush .  The Hungry Hearts feat. Lisa Dillan – Laika Stage Dolls – Into The Fire Stine Hole Ulla – Traces Makeda – Stand Up Pegasus – Anyway Freddy Kalas – Feel Da Rush Laila Samuels – Afterglow Elouiz – History Suite 16 – Anna Lee Agnete – Icebreaker

Moldova's O melodie pentru Europa 2016 comes to the final tonight. Sixteen songs survived the two semifinals earlier this week (here and here). There will be 50-50 televote and expert jury. I haven't really listened so much of these and have no real favorite so I'm only hoping they will pick up something decent.... and I don't mean something irresistible made in Sweden but something more authentic like Uzun.  Valentin Uzun - Mine Maxin Zavidia - La la love Doinita Gherman - Irresistibile Lidia Isac - Falling stars Big Flash Sound - Cand vrei Che-MD - Voda e cu noi Andrei Ionita & Onoffrei - Lie Cristina Pintilie & Alex Calancea band - Picture of love Nadia Mosneagu - Memories Rodica & Ivan Aculov - Stop lying Emilia Russu - I'm not the same Viola - In the name of love DoReDos - Funnyfolk Max Fall feat Vozniuc Dan & Molloy - Game lOVER Valeria Pasa - Save love Felicia Dunaf - You and me

Slovenian EMA 2016 final takes place tonight. Ten songs in the competition. First a jury will pick up two of them for the superfinal, then televoters will choose the one. I have only heard the short snippets so no further comment. Let the best one win! Two Eurovision veterans in the running, Nusa and Regina! Anja Bas – What If Anja Kotar – Too Cool D Base – Spet ziv ManuElla – Blue And Red Nusa Derenda – Tip Top Raiven – Crno bel Regina – Alive In Every Way San Di Ego – Brez tebe Sebastijan Lukovnjak – Tales Of Tomorrow Zan Sercic – Summer Story

Lithuania finally put the two categories together; those with their own songs and those that were given songs submitted. Two will be eliminated tonight, and eight will continue to the semifinal. Some day they will arrive to a conclusion.....  The Lithuanian jury has already voted, and Donny boy took the lead again, followed by Aiste and Erica while Ruta is losing ground. But we have to add the telvotes and the international jury votes and only then we will know... Catrinah - Be Free (7.) Ruslanas Kirilkinas - In wy world (6.) Milda Martinkenaite - If tomorrow never comes (9.) Erica Jennings - Leading me home (3.) Saulene Chlevickaite - Strong (10.) Aiste Pilvelyte - You Bet (2.) Valdas Lacko - Stay tonight (8.) Ruta Sciogolevaite - United (4.) Donny Montell - I’ve been waiting for this night (1.) Ieva Zasimauskaite - Life (5.)

Sweden's Melodifestivalen has reached the last semifinal before Second chance round and the final. Two big fan favorites here; Molly and Linda, one Eurovision veteran Martin and a couple of Melodifestivalen veterans: Dolly Style and Panetoz. After the leak fiasco with Molly's song all the others were published too for 24 hrs or something similarly stupid. Watching the rehearsal snippets it looks like Panetoz and Linda have just recycled their previous stagings if not the song, too, and Martin makes me only sing along to Whiter shade of pale.... I don't care who qualifies as I will hardly ever listen to any of these again but it would be kinda amusing if Martin and Frans would qualify. Or Eclipse just for the fun of it. Melodifestivalen 2016 has been a real Mehfestival.  Eclipse - Runaways 5th Dolly Style - Rollercoaster 2ND CHANCE Martin Stenmarck - Du tar mig tillbaks 6th Linda Bengtzing - Killer girl 7th Frans - If I were sorry FINAL Panetoz - Håll om mig ...

BBC hosted it's first national final since forever and six acts took the stage. No frills simple staging for everyone and a lot of weak vocals. In the end the best vocals were by Joe and Jack, and Karl did well, too, but the rest.... A bit surprisingly Joe and Jake then won it, too, with You're not alone. Here's a photogallery by EurovisionJack on the spot. Enjoy! Bianca didn't win Darline should have won..... ...Karl had good vaocals but meh song Matthew James was meh altogether Måns was there So was Katrina who was boombastic with her Love shine a light ! Moments before the results.... The End.