Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

And after Moldova here comes Slovenia! ManuElla enjoys some camper life in her video for Blue and red . Her garderobe for Stockholm also gets a good airing outside before being packed up......

Better late than never, here is the video for the Moldovan entry Falling stars . Lidia Isac gets into some interstellar affair. Colorful and just enough weird to keep you watching and wondering what ws it all about.....Let's see if the Montenegrin astronauts will make a comeback on stage in Stockholm?

The past two weeks I have been publishing reviews by Blogilkar's little review 6-pack incuding a Brit, an Irish living in Belgium, a Dutch, an Italian living in Sweden and a German living in the UK besides me, a Finn. Together we have some 175 years of Eurovision experience, inside and outside the bubble, as  simple fans, or involved in all the process of selecting and promoting an entry, as an avid collector and knowing the Eurovision history by heart. As a blogger, record collector..... you name it. We have done it. And keep doing it. We gave out our point as how we felt the songs, not based on how we think they will do in Stockholm.  With our votes all Big5+Sweden would be firmly in the final for a change, and even four of them in top-7! The first semifinal is stronger for us, as even three songs get higher scores than the last qualifier from semifinal two (Norway).  We gave out a total of 13 full ten points (Italy, Austria and France got two each) We gave o...

Sandhja releases her second album Freedom venture today. It follows the debut Gold that was released in May 2014. The new album has ten songs, including obviously her Eurovision entry Sing it away and the first single off the album, My bass , released earlier this year.  Tonight's the release party at DTM in Helsinki.  Get yours here or here Her new single is Love me high

Marco Mengoni's concept videos continue. After Ti ho voluto bene veramente (#1 in Italy) and Parole in circolo , off the triple platinum #1 album Le cose che non ho , here comes Solo due satellite. His long journey and the story in videos continue.... and is left with intriguing finish.... How the story will go on and develop? What is the next single? Meanwhile he has kicked off his new sold out tour.....

Last but not least, the last three entries of the season.... UNITED KINGDOM - JOE AND JAKE - YOU'RE NOT ALONE (Matt Schwartz, Justin J Benson, S. Kanes) UK has its first national final since forever and two guys who met while doing The Voice UK won. Blogilkar: Joa and Jake were easily the best live singers in the UK national final. The song sounded ok back then but now among the other 41 it gets a bit lost. I like it when I hear it but have hard time remembering it other times. 6,5 Jack:  I wasn't a massive fan of Joe and Jake's song prior to the British national final, however after watching them live, the song did grow on me. The chorus is ridiculously catchy and they're both cute. As a Brit, I really hope they will do well and give us an amazing performance on the night. Don't let us down, boys!! 8 Peter:  Generally one of the better songs from the U.K. of the last few years, but the style is still a bit dated, it reminds me of a boyband song fro...

Not everyone is welcomed in Eurovision song contest..... Or at least don't bring your flag if you are coming from one of these: Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabach, Basque, Islamic State, Crimea, Palestine, People's Republic of Donetsk, Northern Cyprus, Transnistria. As approved by the ESC Reference Group in April 2016.  You can and are welcome to bring your official national flag if you are from any of the participating countries, or countries that have recently taken pasrt like Turkey, Portugal and Romania.  Rainbow and EU flags are being tolerated, if they are not used intentionally to make any politcial staement during the show.  Read more here , to check out also allowed sizes fo flags. Follow up: It didn't take long to Basque and Kosovo among others to react to this list. In Spain that matter ended up in the parliament and EBU had to release a statement soon after. As it turns out, the published document was a draft of the EBU’s policy that wasn’t yet read...

True to the idea of her song No degree of separation , inspired by the infamous six degrees of separation, Francesca and her team will arrive in Stockholm by bus, stopping in six cities on the way. She will kick of on Friday 29 from her hometown Bassabo del Grappa . Next stop Vienna , then Warzaw , Berlin and finally Copenhagen before Stockholm . On the way she will be having her pockets full of seeds she will leave to people on the road to share and grow, the idea that will be also the theme of her staging in Stockholm.  She has arrived to cold, cold Vienna.... In Austria she met with Zoe and they even sung together.... And she's in Warzaw. Got a nice balloon, too!

Four strong male artists in this one, all of them favorites for the win. LATVIA - JUSTS - HEARTBEAT ((Aminata Savadogo) Last year's Aminata wrote Justs Sirmais a song that became one of the favorites to win it all in Stockholm, even before he won the national final in Latvia. Blogilkar : I really liked this when I heard it for the first time, but it has lost a bit of its appeal since. However, it's the first hearing that counts and Latvia should do very well this year. It's quite similar to their entry last year, Aminata all over it it but sung by Justs it makes it very different though. He's easy on the eye, has a great voice and the song is quite original. More of a play with sounds and production than melody but it works. 8,5 Jack:  Aminata is Latvia's savour! She achieves one of their best ever results in Vienna and is set to do very well with Heartbeat, sung by the beautiful Justs. Riga 2017? 9 Peter:  Good opening, catches attention, a solid ...

It took some time but it's finally here: the ice cool video for Icebreaker. After seeing it it rather evident where she got that megaflu that made her promotion in Europe and cancel Eurovision in Concert and whatever was planned for her. Hopefully she's fully covered and in top form next week! (This makes me think of the old Finnish previews, like this one. Or this one. Let it snow!)

Or rather songs that create mashups inside your head when singing them to yourself when sitting in a train or so.... This couple is another one that gets mixed up in my head. Israel's entry this year, Hovi Star's Made of stars turns into the winning song of 2007 Eurovision in Helsinki, Marija Serifovic's Molitva ...... Made of stars Silver fragments falling We are made of stars Molitva, kao žar na mojim usnama je, Molitva, mesto reči samo ime tvoje.

This is simply awesome! Well done!

Another foursome of female voices. SPAIN - BAREI - SAY YAY! (Barei, Ruben Villanueva & Victor Pua) Barei won the Spanish national final, and caused a major local storm as her song has no words in Spanish. Blogilkar: I like this. I would have preferred a song in Spanish with a Spanish feeling to it, but Barei is very captivating and I even like her silly dance moves. Irresistible in a way. I don't think this song will be remembered in 10 years time but it's a good addition to the line up. 9 Jack:  Spain is singing in English for the first time ever - and even though it caused some drama - I think Barei is set to give Spain their best result for years. Say Yay is incredibly catchy and she's also good live. I wanna go to Spain in 2017!! Hurray! 10 Peter: Great entrance, and very catchy number - wow - what a great time we would have at Eurovision in 2017 if it was in Spain !! For me I would love to see Spain with, but not sure it will happen. It's the on...

"Kuunkuiskaajat's 8 year journey has been full of joy and laughter, bubbles, friendship and unforgettavle moments. This is a good place to end our journey and Revitty rakkaus will be our beautiful farewell album, that will live on. Thank you for all these years and moments. Without you there wouldn't be us and this album. Let Revitty rakkaus take flight and keep singing this beautiful story!" With this surprising announcement Kuunkuiskaajat is no longer. This will be their second and last album. It was a long long time in the making. Their latest single Unelmaa (Dream) was released earlier this year and has been doing well in the radios. Buy your copy here . 

Update: Säpo, the Swedish secret services have met with the Eurovision organizers. Eurovision song contest could be a very likely target for an attack. But so is the King's birthday in coming days. Or anything else.  Last night the Swedish media caught up with the news that Stockholm is under threat of ISIS terrorist attack threat. The Swedish security services has got the information from Iraqi security service. Apparently 7-8 ISIS terrorists have made their way to Sweden, with plans to carry out terrorist act(s) against civil population. Swedish security services have already travelled to Iraq to find out more information. Swedish police and task forces are in full alert but the national threat alert is still at level 3 (out of 5). Interior minister Anders Ygeman goes with "No comment" and continues the Secret Services will comment the matter.  Linda Widmark, press secretary of the national police department NOA, said on Tuesday morning: - There is an increas...

Globen is so packed with tehcnical gear that it has sunk already 3,5 cms! Or so SVT claims.  Johan Bernhagen, show's producer says there's no need to worry though, and "You can never have too much". Lights will be in major role this year and it's going to be rock'n roll meets Eurovision.  220 people will be working on a live show, 40 people only to get stage ready between songs and 172 trucks full of equipment. The stage alone weights 65 tons. Check out the impressive numbers below: 143 meters of cables 14 follow spot operators 45 lighting operators 900 square meters of LED 12 HDQ 40 projectors, the world’s largest projectors 37 video operators 134 speakers 64 microphones 7 sound desks 32 sound operators 30 fire effects 30 pyro firing positions, 24 of them built into the stage 6 smoke machines 109 tons of rigging in the ceiling 350 points of rigging 1397 meters of truss 10 power generators 15 kilometers of power cable...

Nordic four in this post. DENMARK - LIGHTHOUSE X - SOLDIERS OF LOVE (Søren Bregendel, Johannes Nymark, Martin Skriver, Sebastian Owens, Daniel Durn, Katrine Klith Andersen) Lighthouse X emerged as surprise winners in the Danish national final. Last two times when the contest has been in Sweden Denmark has won. This time the polls aren't backing this, but then - The Olsen Brothers never were taken into consideration either.... Blogilkar: For some reason I like this. It's very catchy and one of the most played songs in my ehad this season. It's nothing original, the lyrics are rather corny and cliché but everything works fine. Most likely Denmark won't do a triple, but then this could be a song no one hates and telelvoters like when hearing it the first time so it could end up scoring votes from everywhere. Who knows? 8 Jack:  Not the best, not the worst.. it's just kinda there. Nice, radio friendly but I don't think they'll set the scoreboard o...

This is maybe the most unfortunate group of songs. MOLDOVA - LIDIA ISAC - FALLING STARS (Gabriel Alares, Sebastian Lestapier, Ellen Berg, Leonid Gutkin) Lidia won the very mediocre Moldovan national final, with a song partly Made in Sweden. Blogilkar: How generic and unmemorable can you get? This is kinda ok when you hear the studio version, but live it has been painful so far everytime I have heard it. Unoriginal in every way 100%. 4 Jack:  I have to admit Falling Stars is a bit of a guilty pleasure. I doubt Moldova will make the final and there's a chance this will be a car crash on stage, but I just can't help but enjoy this song when I listen. 6 Peter:  Personally I'm not such a big fan of Lidia's voice, it doesn't captivate me. But I do like the typical Eurovision chorus which is pretty good - the only reservation I have is if this is a memorable song - so far I don't think so. 5,5  Robert: OMG, this is such a Melodifestivalen song. Heard t...