Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Here it is finally. The last entry that was missing aproper video/live performance video, Bulgaria's Beautiful mess by Kristian Kostov. It's an interesting and pretty one, matching the music nicely, or rather the atmosphere. Now we are yet to see some live performance from him. Or Belgium for that matter, another favorite. I'm starting to think Bulgaria could be this year's Australia finishing in Top-3 after some vote split....

Italy has revealed it's team on stage in Kyiv's Eurovision. Italy is by far the biggest pre-contest favorite to win it by bookmakers and fans alike, maybe the biggest ever as far as I can remember. Not even Loreen's Euphoria was welcomed with such euphoria as Occidentali's Karma . Let's see if the good karma brings Italy its third victory.... Francesco Gabbani and his ape (choreographer and dancer Filippo Ranaldi ) will have four backing singers: Francesco's brother Filippo Gabbani . also co-writer of the song. Then there will be Chantal Saroldi aka Chanty, that one might remember from Sanremo 2015 Newcomers, Nausicaa Magarini , who has participated in both The Voice of Italy and Sanremo Giovani without much success but has toured with legendary, now retired Milva. And finally Daniele Sari , familiar from Italy's Got Talent and for his love for 50's music and rockabilly that he performs with his band all over Italy for example. 

We travel from Sweden to Latvia, and from Serbia to Israel in this year's Eurovision song contest semifinals. The production team has tried to make the best of the outcome of the allocation draw  that took place in January where the coutnries were divided into semifinals, and into their first or second half. And I think they did a pretty good job. I always thought Sweden is as obvious opener as Finland was last year. What could have been better last year than a happy cheerful uptempo invitation to sing it away? Nothing. If the staging then fall flat on stage, well... it's not SVT's fault. This year the TV audience will be amazed by the Swedish choreography that starts backstage and Robin enters the stage well into the song and engage in this Dressman advertising kind of staging. Fans and Swedes will know it, about 99% of the watchers in Europe wil see it for the first time. A great opener indeed. I was also hoping as late as possible slot for Finland and coming afte...

Pictured Spain's national flower carntion Spain's national final Objetivo Eurovision didn't lack drama. There was a share of it already in the online Eurocasting phase but the real drama came in the final where Manel and Mirela first finished with the same points (why this always happens in Spain?) and then the three judges decided on Manel, only that one of the judges maybe was a bit too close to Manel to be there in the first place. He re-performed his winning entry amongst booing and people walking out of the studio, and apparently even gave the finger to the audience at some point. The whole drama ended up even in the parliament.... But here he is. Not immensely supported by the heated Spanish fandom. Do it for your lover is written by Manel himself with Antonio Rayo Manel (21) shot to the fame from a local talent show, Catalunya Teen Star, where he earned a recording deal and released his first single in late 2014. Next year he was signed to Sony, released ...

Last year Amir took France back to Eurovision success and became himself one of the most succesful artists in France in 2016 with his hit album and Eurovision track J'ai cherché and follow up single On direit . The album also includes Oasis . Now it's time to hit another success with the title track of the album, Au coeur de moi . The video gives plenty of images if you happen to have a foot fetish. I don't but I know some you do.... Enjoy!

Pictured is Lithuania's national flower rue Fusedmarc won the 11 week long national selection process starting as an outsider but getting better results every time they performed (4th, 3rd, 1st). In the final they won both the televote and the jury vote resulting in a convincing win and leaving the fan favorites home. Their song Rain of revolution is written by Denis Zujev, Viktoria Ivanovskaja and Michail Levin. Fusedmarc is an alternative electric pop group with a strong visual image made of lead vocalist Viktorija Ivanovskaja, multi-instrumentalist Denis Zujev, and visual designer Stasys Žakas. Their debut album - and the only one so far it seems - was released in 2005 and earned them an award as the breakthrough artist of the year. Other awards have followed and they seem to be considered some kind of pioneers in what's fresh and new in music in Lithuania. Over the years they have performed all over Europe. The song is a strong contrast to how the band descri...

France is living some kind of Eurovision  fever after Amir's success last year and Alma is set to follow her friend's footsteps on the left side of the scoreboard for sure. And French fans can get their pop corn, 8 euro ticket and a souvenir postcard signed by Alma, sit back on cinema's comfortable chairs and enjoy the show on megascreen and great audio in the 39 CGR Cinema Multiplexes all over the country.  France is promoting this as the first ever "Eurovision in cinema" in the contest 62 years of history but that's not quite true. It's true in this dimension, of course, but some OGAE clubs have been watching the show in a proper cinema before.....

Pictured is Belarusian national flower Common flax NaviBand won the Belarusian national final on January 20. They won the juryvote but the televoters only placed them 5th but it was enough to secure their win ahead of Nuteki, who was just behind of them in both votes while the other votes spread all over the place.  NaviBand aka Arciom Lukjanienka (25) and Ksienija Žuk (26) already tried to get to Eurovision last year but finished 4th in the national final. Now they won and are quite popular in the pre-contest polls. They have been making music together for four years have just released their third album. All their music is performed in Belarusian language and this Eurovision entry makes no difference.  The song? Well, thankfully it's in native language and it's not some Mello reject. But it's shouty and not the right kind of shouty like Ruslana's Wild dances was. I'm not a fan. I know I'd like to like this a lot more than I do but I can't. I ...

Obrigazo Portugal, grazie Italia, köszönöm Magyarországon and дзякуй Беларусі!   Only four countries this year rely on their own national language: Portugal, Italy, Hungary and Belarus. France and Spain both have added English to their song and Croatia some Italian to the otherwise English mix.  That's quite a drop from 2013 when 17 songs were not in English, but then in 2014 the change came when only four did so (plus four mixed ones), in 2015 five (and two mixed ones) and last year three (and five mixed ones). I throw in an idea : When Eurovision has its 65th edition let's make it special: Bring back the language rule for one year. If United Kingdom or Ireland wins again, you can then drop it for good, the point is proven for once and for all. No excuses.  All this said 2017 could be the year when non English song will win for the first time since Helsinki 2007's Serbian Molitva ... Maybe.  *We can't forget that United Kingd...

Pictured is the Netherlands national flower tulip OG3NE aka the sister trio Lisa, Amy & Shelley Vol (aged 21-22) were internally chosen to represent The Netherlands this year. The song Lights and shadows was announced later, it's written by Rick Vol (their father) and Rory De Kievit.  The trio is no stranger to Eurovision as they already did the Junior Eurovision ten years ago. Later they made themselves known in The Voice of Holland that they won. They have released three albums, the latest released in fall 2016 hitting #1 in the Dutch charts.  The song is based on various harmonies with their voices and the girls sure can sing well together and have pretty voices. But the song is so 80's American nonsense, they could have done so much better I suppose. I'm bored already after the first chorus and it doesn't get any better and for me it's a very long three minutes. Uninteresting, boring, unoriginal and highly forgettable. With a good staging thi...

Francesco Gabbani's three official videos have gathered already over 80 million views already. The official video on Vevo is nearing 75 million, the live from Sanremo on eurovision.tv nearing 5,5 million and the 3 minutes Eurovision version on eurovision.tv is over 0,4 million. And the numbers keep growing every day.... one can only wonder what they are in May! And then there are dozens of parodies, covers, unofficial remixes and the videos from his live performance this weekend in Coca Cola Onstage awards, where he was invited to perform while fellow Eurovision stars Marco Mengoni and Emma picked up awards. While scimmia nuda balla ..... Meanwhile he has added new dates and cities to his summer tour in Italy  and tickets are selling fast.... 06/07 Fontaneto D'Agogna (NO) - Open Air Festival 16/07 Molfetta (BA) - Luci e suoni a Levante - Anfiteatro di Ponente 21/07 Firenze - MusArt Festival - Piazza della Santissima Annunziata 28/07 Palermo - Teatro di ...

Pictured the national flower of Croatia, iris Jacques Houdek (36) was internally chosen to represent his country with My friend , a song he co-wrote with Tony Roberth Malm, Siniša Reljić, Arjana Kunštek, Fabrizio Laucella and Ines Prajo. Željko, who likes to be called Jacques, is a familiar name in Eurovision world and in the Balcan area. He has studied in the Berklee Collage of Music in California, and in France, Italy and Greece. He has tried to get to Eurovision many times before failing to win the national final: 2002-2006 every year. Then again in 2011 when he lost in the final match to Daria Kinzer to sing Lahor/Celebrate . He has also tried his luck in the UK in Open Mic UK and X Factor. He has been recording artist since 2004 and has collected a pile of silver, gold and platinum discs. But music isn't his only interest. He has been involved in politics supporting conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and later supported a populist mayor candidate. Afterw...

Pictured above is also poppy, Albania's national flower Lindita Hamili (28) was the first chosen artist and song this year when she won the Festivali i Këngës on December 23, 2016 with clear numbers. She sung in Albanian of course, and it took months before  Botë was transformed into World , but this time the song hasn't gone major changes but the language, refreshed arrangement, mixing and fitting it into the 3 minutes rule. The song is written by Klodian Qafoku and Gerard Xhari. Lindita was born in Kosovo and has made her career through various talent shows from Albanian Idol to American Idol passing through local Top Fest that she has won twice, and other talent shows. Her first attempt in the Albanian selection was in 2009 and then again two year's ago finishing then third. She has released 15 singles since 2007 but no album yet.  The song is yet another ballad , like some would say. For once it makes no difference if it's in Albanese or in En...

Pictured khinkali, Georgian dubling in absense of any national flower Georgia was one of the first countries electing its represant and song this season. The national final on January 20, 2017 in Tbilisi featured 25 entries chosen from an open call, and the winner was chosen by international jury-televote. Singer, songwriter and actress Tako Gachechiladze (34) won with the self penned Keep the faith . She already almost got to Eurovision in 2009 being then part of the winning team Stephane & 3G with We don't wanna Put in , the song that was withdrawn/disqualified in the middle of the Russian-Georgian war and Putin being the prime minister at the time. She also participated in the national final in 2008 placing 10th. She kept the faith and is back now - again with some more or less hidden political statements, in the backdrop at least. The song is a typical Disney ballad with very American style motivated lyrics, apparently aimed at women to be strong, believe in ...

Valentina Monetta and Jimmie Wilson are in San Marino rehearsing and not only, Valentina has taken Jimmie around the tiny country showing him the sights. And of course they posed also under the already iconic poster of Miss Monetta anno 2014.  While rehearsing Ralph Siegel was present via Skype keeping eye on his latest couple.  Jimmie Wilson has posted a lot of photos on his Facebook , so be sure to follow him  as well as Valentina .  Have a look at SMRTV news piece on the couple (in Italian) here

Tulips that is. The new variery of tulips was presented and baptized by Jamala in the Flower Expo Ukraine ealier this week in the International Exhibition center, the very same that will host the Eurovision song contest in less than two months. The red and yellow beauty is created by the Dutch bulb specialists StoKolex. I think I want a bag of those for my garden...... I don't know why but Jamala and tulips made me think of this......

Pictured Russia's national flowe camomille In light of today's events I can as well publish this Russian review that was ment to be published in coming days along with the other  country reviews.  I haven't modified the text in any way, this is how it was ment to be published sometime next week.  Originally this was my number 42.... Russia chose internally Julia Samoylova with Flame is burning ending speculation whether they will participate at all. But the decision to send a singer in a wheelchair was met with disbelief and outrage abroad as it was seen as an attempt to stop booing and critizism. Then came the news Ukraine might ban her as she has performed in the annexed Crimea in 2015.... Headlines guaranteed and the political soap opera goes on.... And poor Julia in the middle of it all victimized. As that's the overal impression I get.  Julia (27) was born in Republic of Komi and started losing the function of her legs after an unsuccesful poliomyeli...

Several new agencies are reporting today that Ukraine’s security service has banned Russia’s contestant from this year’s Eurovision song contest because she performed in Crimea. Samoylova has toured in Russia-annexed Crimea without entering it by going through the border with the Ukrainian mainland. Under Ukrainian law, that allows authorities to block her entry into Ukraine. Ukrainian Security Service spokeswoman Olena Gitlanska said that the service has banned Samoylova from the country for three years “on the basis of information received about her violation of Ukrainian law”. Therefor she won't be able to participate in the Eurovision song contest in Kyiv in May. What about Armenian Artsvik? Russia calls the decision "cynical and unhuman". What about their decision to send her in the first place? Pure provocation. They also promise to boycott the future contests if the organizers don't stand up for the singer. Is that a promise? :-) UPDATE: EBU has jus...

Have you wondered how the magic was done in a few days short of the deadline for submitting the entries for the Eurovision song contest 2017 in Kyiv? Here's a Making of the Sammarinese entry featuring the backstage and insight to the project featuring comments from Valentina, Jimmie and others. Enjoy! And here's the final result:

The Sammarinese commentators Lia Fiorio and Gigi Restivo are making history this year by becoming the ones who have commentated the Eurovision song contest in Italian the most times beating all the Italian commentators and the legendary Swiss one, Giovanni Bertini, who did it 21 times from 1961 to 1983. Lia and Gigi has done it 24 times after this year's season is over, or rather all three nights the eight year's San Marino has taken part. And as an icing on the cake they will be also this year's spokespersons for the tiny nation!

Alessandro Capicchioni, Sammarinese hesd of delegation, tells eurofestivalnews EBU's Executive Supervisor has apologized how they have handled the proposed voting changes by San Marino ( or rather not considering them at all ). He says EBU and SMRTV are now talking and when both sides know what the other one thinks and expects some solution will be found in the end. The talks will continue in Kyiv and EBU has provised to consult and inform SMRTV for eventual changes in the future.  San Marino also candidated itself for the Reference group to look after the other small nations but as we know the three big ones were revoted in for another period. San Marino would have also stressed the economical side of the contest. The big countries and broadcasters manage but the small ones struggle and in the recent years the absenses have been caused just because of the economical problems. Small stations close while the big ones just adjust and make some cuts and survive...... Capicchio...

After several Sanremo artists, including Francesco Gabbani, released their entries as old good 7" limited edition vinyl single, the Eurovision song contest 2017 will be released on a limited edition, numbered box sets!  For the first time in history of the Eurovision Song Contest, we are presenting a Limited Collector’s Edition ESC 2017 Vinyl Box Set!  The box set gives you the chance to dive into the music and the artists from the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Here you get hours of entertainment, and for the first time ever you get the chance to listen to the Eurovision songs on your record player as all 43 songs come on 24-bit vinyl of the highest quality. If you prefer CD or download, that’s included too. The set also gives you the possibility to read all about the 43 artists, and dwell on gorgeous photos, while you flip through the beautiful coffee table book. Sounds cool , ha? Get it here.   Also the Bluray makes a return along with the usual CD and DV...

ITALY PORTUGAL HUNGARY MONTENEGRO SAN MARINO ESTONIA FRANCE SWEDEN BELGIUM FINLAND SWITZERLAND BULGARIA UNITED KINGDOM MACEDONIA AUSTRALIA AZERBAIJAN IRELAND MALTA SLOVENIA ISRAEL MOLDOVA ROMANIA NORWAY UKRAINE LATVIA ARMENIA CYPRUS AUSTRIA GREECE DENMARK SERBIA POLAND ICELAND CZECH REPUBLIC GERMANY SPAIN LITHUANIA BELARUS THE NETHERLANDS CROATIA ALBANIA RUSSIA GEORGIA

It's no secret last year's French participant Amir - who brought France back to success after an eternity - and this year's Alma are friends and have been working together since forever. Time will tell if she will better Amir's 6th place. And now they deliver us a lovely acoustic version of this year's entry Requiem . S'il vous plait.....

Eurovision bubble is something many artists tend to return, or at least try. This year again in various national finals we have several previous participants trying again, including winners. But the sad fact is that usually the comebacks aren't so succesful. Previous winners in recent years from Dana International to Niamh Kavanagh and Charlotte Perrelli have tried and failed. But sometimes it works, like Poli Genova last year. In May we will know how it will go for these lucky ones who are back at it: Omar Naber from Slovenia returns to Eurovision, and even to Kyiv where he represented his country for the first time in 2005. Back then he failed to make the final placing 12th in the semifinal. Koit Toome and Laura from Estonia have both represented their country separately in the past. Koit placed 12th in 1998 and Laura as a member of Suntribe also did Kyiv 2005 but the girlband failed to make the final placing only 20th in the semifinal. Moldova's Sunstroke Pr...

This year the Eurovision song contest is a very young one what comes to participants ages. Bulgaria's Kristian Koslov is the youngest, and the very first Eurovision song contest artist born in the 2000's. He just turned 17 on March 15. But the oldest one isn't old at all: San Marino's Valentina Monetta just turned 42 on the March 1 and seems to be the oldest of them all proving the fact age is just a number!  Divided in decades we have 2000's one, 1990's 22, 1980's 23 and 1970's two (Svala besides Valentina). * The most populated years are 1991 (Levina, Lucie Jones, Demy, Imri, Alex and Navi band's Ksienija)* and Carola won Eurovision song contest in Rome.... ... followed by 1989 (Hovig, Lindita, Julia, Dihaj, Jowst, Salvador)* with six each. Now no more existing Yogoslavia won the contest that year.... 1995 comes next with five artists born .(Timebelle's Emanuel and Miruna, O'G3NE's Shelley and Amy, Anja)  (*When wr...