Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Douwe Bob has released a follow up for his fortunate Eurovision entry off the Fool Bar album, How lucky we are . And indeed, we are lucky there's Douwe doing these laid back pop country tracks that give such good vibes....  Sadly I can't say the same about the video (or maybe I just miss the humour in it?) but I can slow down, keep listening the song and not watch the video..... 

Let the whole world wait, as  Пусть весь мир подождёт translates from Russian version of You are the only one . I can only make ut words like vulcani and prostata . Not sure I want to know the rest of the lyrics.... Oh, I miss the days everyone had to sing in their own language!

Lordi's career and the 10th anniversary of the 2006 Eurovision song contest win is collected together in a special exhibition in Helsinki's Jätkäsaari, at Weird Antiques , the coolest antique shop in town (more about them at the bottom of this post). Here you can see their Eurovision trophy and props used in Athens as well as their masks and outfits over the years, original paintings for record sleeves by Mr Lordi, more props and stuff used on their various tours and performances. It gives you a funny feeling to stare at his hats and the props, seen in action in Athens and painted in one's memory with an everlasting mark. Magic!  The Finland hat worn by Mr Lordi in Athens and Awa's mask in Athens  The Eurovision 2006 glass trophy! Broken by Finnair who refused to have it in the cabin and it had to be cargoed home. Shame shame on you! The Lappish four winds hat worn by Mr Lordi in Athens  Mr Lordi's wings for Hard rock hallelujah  The firewor...

With the first lines of the song I could swear it's Franco Battiato's new summer hit but no, it's Raphael Gualazzi who returns with the summer of John Wayne, L'estate di John Wayne . Catchy summery feel good song and probably his poppiest offering since Madness of love, or actually this one is way more pop than that was. And it's fabulously fantastic! Love love love! As the video is blocked - at least for Finland (why Raphael why?) - you can listen and watch the lovely video here . Oh, and that's not all. He's about to release his new album Love life peace on September 23, 2016.

Back to the original plan. Or rather the original date as the original plan was to have two finalists but instead we have three. First the chosen one was ment to be out today, after EBU had inspected the plans and venues, but no. This blogger thinks it's more due to the fact that none of the bids is strong enough rather than they are all so great it's hard to choose. Don't get me wrong, I totally back the Ukrainian hosting and believe they can host a wonderful event, but each bid seems to have something wrong or at least not quite there. If only we could take the best parts of each of them ... UPDATE: Surprise! The date hasn't been confirmed. The decision could take still a week or two. That only indicates there are valid problems to be solved in all three bids. Infrastructure and security are among main issues to be solved. Plus arenas in ALL cities....   Dnipro seems to have it all right for the venue and the rest; arena, press center and Euroclub all to...

UPDATE: The annoucement has been postboned to the original date of August 1, 2016. Over the decades since 1956 we have had 53 different venues hosting the Eurovision song contest, from prestigious old concert halls to imperial palace's concert hall to insignificant TV studios, especially bult arenas to excisting congress centers. So many different venues in size and style that only one thing may be common to them: they all had a roof. (Even if built for the occasion.) Only seven venues have had the honor to host it twice, and one - yes, Ireland again! - three times and even twice in a row. If Kiev's Palace of Sports will be chosen it will be the 9th multi host. We should know next Wednesday..... 1959 + 1961; Palais des Festivals et des Congres - Cannes, France 1962 + 1966: Villa Louvigny - Luxembourg 1973 + 1984: Grand Theatre de la Ville de Luxembourg - Luxembourg 1976 + 1980: Nederlands Congresgebouw - The Hague, the Netherlands 1979 + 1999: In...

We already know Carola has been several times in Greece, and in the island of Kos especially helping the incoming refugees. She has also helped those who have managed to make their way to Sweden by giving them shelter in her home. She had met those 10 Iraqi and Ugandan christian refugees in Kos and given them her address telling them to look her up if they get to Sweden. One day they were at her door and true to her word she welcomed them to her house.  Now she tells it hasn't all been so easy.  Once she got in trouble by trying to stop some people stealing the incoming boat's engine. Long story short she  managed to get it back from thieves and they got very angry at her. She jumped to her car and was driving away with eight refugees through the village seeking help from the local police. Instead she and those Pakistani refugees were all jailed! The thieves in question who hunted her all the way to the station blamed Carola for taking money from the refugees to he...

Surprise! Instead of two finalists we have three! EBU will check out these three and the final decision will be announced noon on July 27. Kyiv Palace of Sports (capacity 9800). Hosted ESC 2005 and JESC 2009. Needs major renovation. Needs to deal with the World Ice Hockey championships who are not planning to move away. Let's see how this ends. NSC Olympiyskiy stadium will host the EuroClub and the press center. Eurovision Village will feature all regions of Ukraine and be in Troiska Square near the NSC Olympiyskiy. All these three locations are very close. The Red Carpet will take place at Sofiyska Square , that will be also one of the fan zone with Kontraktova, Mikhailivieska, Poshtova and beforementioned Troiska square. Closing party at the museum complex Mystetskyi Arsenal . Dnipro The most political bid with motto "Dnipro, a city that stopped the Russian spring". DniproEuroArena aka Meteor (capacity of 9.500) Press center and Euroclub ...

Alice and Franco Battiato have been touring all over Italy this year with their completely sold out tour that will end July 30 in the famous Greek theater of Taormina in Sicily. Now when the second leg of the tour - after an early summer break - is in full swing it is announced there will be also a live album - and most likely also a DVD - of the tour to be released later this year. But that is not all: Alice slipped in an interview there have been also talk about a joint studio album with new material to be recorded some time in the future. How cool would that be?! Their musical history is very much linked to each other with some duets and Alice covering many Battiato songs and songs Battiato has written for her over the deecades. But a duet album would be something new and oh, so awesome! But more certain seems a new album by Alice to be recorded next. It seems to be a very personal cover album of songs that have ment much to her in her life. Whatever it is, it's worth ...

It's been a busy year for last year's Eurovision song contest viewer's favorite Il Volo from Italy. After winning the televote - but placing only 3rd, a fate shared by Sergey Lazarev this year - they have been touring the world and selling a lot of records. In short, after winning Sanremo 2015 with Grande amore they released an EP that sold triple platinum while the single sold platinum. During the Christmas time their old Christmas album hit the charts and sold gold. Their follow up album released September last year sold doube platinum. And that Italy alone. But they are not stopping here. They have announced the new album will see the light in the end of September 2016, and the ticket sales for their yet another Verona di Arena concert in May 2017 are going well. Now let's see if the album features again covers or new material!?

Tomorrow, Wednesday July 20, 2016 the battle of the cities will start big time. In a live broadcast of the public work meeting hosted and co-produced by Tim Miroshnychenko that will air from 17.30 CET on radio and television as well as here and on Youtube, possibly with an English commentator. The six candidate cities - Kiev, Lviv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kherson and Odessa - will present their bids, in most cases by their mayors, and press, experts and viewers may comment and participate in the process. Live links will be taken to the cities in question and all sort of things like that.  When Kiev hosted the Eurovision song contest 2005 following Ruslana's win in Istanbul, it was the only option. In 12 years Ukraine has grown and developed, and hosted various international big scale events over the years and thus has more to choose from.  But the fun won't end with this broadcast. The Ukrainian Eurovision 2017 project will continue its open and public work with live broadc...

Sergey Lazarev has released a follow up to this Eurovision song contest 3rd placed You are the only one. It seems he's been to Greece to shoot the video.... Another track that is pleasant radio pop but totally absent of any originality. He's better than these songs he's doing lately....

The youngest ever Tango King in Finland, Amadeus (Lundberg) has gone a long way after his win back in 2009. The year after he got a free pass to Euroviisut, the Finnish national final for the Eurovision and he presenter Anastacia, that followed nicely his debut single Matador . He released his debut album and after his reign was over went on touring all over tango circuit. Two years ago he released with Riku Niemi Orchestra an album with covers of classics with new songs, and in 2015 another one. The succesful series is completed now with a third one, that is basicly only covers of Italian classics, including Volare and Si from Eurovision song contest plus songs like Il Mondo that has been recently covered also by Il Volo. Listen the album here .  Volare has been of course covered about a zillion times so that's no news and more like a yawn, but it's not everyday you get a new Si cover. His voice fits the song nicely and the arrangement is rather simple dance oriented (...

A total of 23 national OGAE clubs have submitted their entry from a national final to the OGAE Second Chance, the longest running OGAE competition (since 1987). A lot of runner ups, but also other choices by the fans, like Italy that picks up Patty Pravo (68) who placed only 6th in Sanremo.  Italy won last year with Sanremo's runner up Nek and Fatti avanti amore and therefor organizes this year's contest. The club members are voting their favorites during this summer and by sometime late summer/fall we should have a winner. If this blogger picked up the entries out of these 23 there would be maybe 7 only.... I would have went for different songs :-) But that's the beauty of Eurovision. We agree to disagree on everything :-) Below is the Youtube playlist for all the entries.  Belgium: Tom Frantzis – I’m not lost (2nd) Belarus: NAPOLI – My universe (2nd) Ukraine: The Hardkiss – Helpless (2nd) Albania: Besa Krasniqi – Liroje zemrën (unplaced) Malta: Brooke –...

First news from the Italian riviera of flowers. The 67th Sanremo festival will take place on February 7 to 11, 2017 and the host will be for the third year in a row Carlo Conti, hoping to triple his success with the ratings and praise. Maybe he will be even third time lucky and make his dream of having Laura Pausini as his co-hostess true? Time will tell. Anyways, by now she has also proved she can carry a live tv show, be a hostess, comedienne and singer all at once after her success with Laura & Paola show on Raiuno with Paola Cortellesi. In 2016 he got her only as a guest....  For the rest it seems there won't me any major changes in the formet. Area Sanremo has already started the selection for the two newcomers that will reach the stage of Teatro Ariston, and the rest will come in due time. Also, if and how Sanremo will once again give us the Italian entry for the 2017 Eurovision song contest in Ukraine. This year the winners Stadio opten out in favor of the runner up...

Well, she's never been away really but she's back to the charts and even with a Top-10 hit! Miks ei (Why not) is going up on download charts, number 6 this week on its fourth week, and in Radioplay Top-100 she's at number 9 on its 8th week. We have to go back to 2007 to find her a Top-10 radio hit Rakkautta ei piiloon saa and the same year she had also Timanttinen tähti in Top-20.  But as said, she's not been away fromthe music business or the spotlight after her 2002 Eurovision adventure at all. She has released seven albums (and two compilations) since, been the Idols judge, dubbed half a dozen Disney movies, done countless stage shows and cabaret revues, musicals, music theater.... She has done a number of television reality or talent shows like Dancing with stars (finishing second behind Antti Tuisku), Sirkus (she won), Tähdet tähdet  (she was runner up behind Waltteri Torikka).... And yes, she did also try to get to Eurovision again in 2007 with Take a ch...

(Lviv) NTU has received six bids to host the Eurovision song contest 2017 in Ukraine, altogether six different cities and seven arenas. The NTU working group will now review the proposals and ideas before they will be officially presented, and by July 22 they should have picked up two cities and venues for the final selection and the announcement where it will be should be done in a press conference on August 1 after the committee, NTU and EBU have carefully considered both the final bids. (Dnipro) Official bids where and how by Dnipro , Kherson  and Odessa  are yet to be made public, but Kharkiv comes forward with Metalist Oblast Sports Comples (capacity of 40.000), but it lacks the roof that must be constructed before it is usable for the Eurovision.  (Kiev) Kiev proposes Palace of Sports (capacity 10.000), the very venue of 2005 Eurovision song contest. Their problem is it is now considered dated and too small, plus it will be hosting part of the Ic...