Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Eurovision song contest 2005 winner Helena Paparizou has been enjoying Top-5 hits every year since 2003 with the exception of 2010 and 2014, this latest one being already her 27th! And Haide is charting also in Bulgaria and Finland, of all places. The catchiness of her hits has changed less over the years than her face....  Here's the English version , below the Greek version. 

It may be officially summer season in Finland as of tomorrow but when the termometer shows +8 and it's cloudy and rainy one needs something else to get into the mood. Like Mandinga's (of Zaleilah fame, ESC 2012) Besame , with its tropical sound and laid back atmosphere and most of all sunny video full of tropics! Enjoy!

Fan favorite Margaret asks What you do? with her latest video that goes all videogameish. And is it shot in Malta? That almost looks like late Azur Window but it's just a lookalike that Malta among others have. The song? It's another very catchy one with all the already familiar Margaret incredients. 

Jamala's Eurovision song contest 2017 final interval act may have been signed by the bare assed prankster but no such worries on her video for I believe in u. And she's really on top of the things as the video was shot in... Portugal! 

RTP was surprisingly quickly to announce Lisbon and MEO Arena as the venue for the Eurovision song contest 2018. What an anticlimax, wasn't it? Even if it's still pretty much clear that's the only possible and suitable one, soon enough Portuguese may have realized some drama and suspence was expected and useful to keep the project in media for the months to come so... first enter Faro and Guimarães, even if they don't meet the major requirements like a suitable arena and international airport but still want to be involved in the bidding process for the fun of it.  Portugal's second city Porto quickly said  não, obrigado , but seems now willing to enter the game through Europarque in Santa Maria da Feira, some 25 kms from the city. The multi use conference center has a paviglion of 11.000 capacity. Let the televovela "EuroHost 2018" begin..... 

In the Eurovision bubble there are names that are being mentioned every year (from Dima Bilan to Tarkan when Turkey was still participating) as possible entrants, and eventually some of them actually do it, like Hare Skaat, or Sergey Lazarev last year and Demy and OG3NE this year. In the Netherlands there's also another name circulating already for years and has been dragged to the rumor mill already again: Alain Clark.  Alain (38) is a soul pop singer, songwriter and producer. He has released five studio albums since 2004 and is currently working on the next one. All but the debut one have been top-5 in the Netherlands and he has scored also eight Top-20 hits over the years.  His comment to these rumors? "I'm always ready for Eurovision. They have my number....." Well, this blogger hopes he gets the call.... finally. 

Salvador Sobral might be the jazzy singer who did win Eurovision but Italy's Raphael Gualazzi, the runner up in 2011 is the one who has managed to make it an international career. And after last year's summer hit L'Estate di John Wayne he's again flirting heavily with pop for the summer: La fine del mondo is just that: summer pop song. It's off his international release of Love. Life. Peace. album.  Gualazzi is also touring Italy all summer with his tour and various (jazz) festivals.

The secret is out. The June 2 international release by Marco Mengoni is a Sondr remix of Onde, from the EP of same name. The physical release date is June 16 while the lyrics video release date is June 9.  Onde is a track from his multiplatinum selling album Marco Mengoni Live and remixed by London based Sondr, who have previously worked with Lana Del Rey, Meghan Trainor and Ed Sheeran, just to name a few.  The Onde EP includes remixed by Sondr, Filatov&Karas, Tim Bell and Ndpc, plus the original track that you can hear below:

Besides the possible participation of Julia Samoylova for Russia also some other artists are making themselves available for the contest next year. In Greece Stereo Soul, who were considered also this year but lost to Demy in the last minute are putting themselves forward again asking their fans on social medias to support them.  In Serbia it was revealed Tijana Bogicevic was only the fourth option for the broadcaster after Aleksandra Radović, Jelena Tomašević and Ivana Peters. Aleksandra claimed she's too busy (and some suggest she asked too much money as well) but she's kinda open for the idea to do it in 2018 while Jelena said she's not for the time being ready for all that hassle again, and Ivana, who already was asked in 2016 still can't be flying due to health problems. She did write the Serbian entry last year and would be willing to do it again in 2018. It's still only May, this is going to be interesting. And we can't forget Valentina Monet...

Marco Mengoni was supposed to have a long break "to clear his ideas", as he announced in February but it seems the ideas are clear already. Last night he promised international news soon in his victory speech as the Best male artist in TimMTV Music awards Italy (he got his 11th and 12th award btw), and today he published in his social medias the date June 2 and "new sounds are coming", hinting from New York where he is now that a new single may be published.  His international career so far included one album in Spanihs for the Spanish and Latin market, a duet with Grace Capristo for the German edition of his album and of course his latest tour that took him to Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Luxembourg, Vienna and Warzaw among others. One thing is sure: his next gigs are international festivals:  July 21 in Zurich, August 13 in Zofingen and August 29 in Bochum. 

This week sour grapes comes from Croatian Jacques Houdek. He's been complaining with media the other ex-Yogo juries didn't give him enough points, not being "my friend" and the lack of their support costing him even a better final placement. According him the lack of support is due to the fact are just bitter he was the only one who made it to the final. In one word: jealousy. Ok..... ... but no worries. He has been awarded some trophy somewhere as the Best singer..... Sunstroke Project caused a media storm at home when they rushed to Moscow first instead of home, and even kissed the hand of sacked Julia Samaylova. It's worth remembering two of the guys are of Moldovan Russian minority and not so well seen in Moldova. Especially when they refer to speak Russian instead of (broken) Romanian/Moldovan....  Kristian Kostov is "Finally back at home!". Moscow that is. So much for Bulgaria...... .Isaiah's European promo tour contnued ...

Eurovision veterans Marco Mengoni and Emma were awarded as the Best male and Best female singer in Italy when Francesco Gabbani presented the Tim MTV Music awards in Rome's Piazza del Popolo.  Sadly both were absent - Emma in another channel with Amici final and Mengoni still having his holidays and break from the show m´business somewhere in the world, but he promised an international surprise shortly in his video message. Maybe the workaholic is already ready to return? The final match was won by Michele Bravi as the Best Performance beating Francesco Gabbani himself.  Benji & Fede was voted the Best band and the Web star award, Marco Mengoni won also Best fan award and Ermal Meta got the Best new artist award... after 12 years in spotlight.....

It's been quiet since Eurovision 2016 and Frans despite winning Melodifestivalen and scoring another top-5 for Sweden. He has now released a new song Liar but we have to wait for his album still some time. Being the young schoolboy he is he has been trying to balance between school and music and says his focus is now in summer holidays from school to record his album and then next fall and winter study hard to graduate next June. After that he will fully focus on his blossoming career. Wise kid. And wise parents and team. Well done. Meanwhile here is Liar . A simple song showcasing his voice and emotions. But why am I thinking of Bette Davis eyes ...?

Tonight's the night of Francesco Gabbani's debut as a show host as he presents the Tim MTV Music Awards 2017 live from Piazza del Popolo in Rome. He will also perform with another Eurovision veteran Nina Zilli who has just made a comeback with a new single , Sanremo 2017 revelations Michele Bravi and Paola Turci, Fabri Fibra, Samuel, Levante, Sanremo newcomers winner Lele, Elodie and Gabry Ponte feat. Danti.  Manchester is in everyone's mind but he has stated: "Manchester has been so sad and an absolutely unjustifiable situation, but the fact that we will be out in the square on May 27 is the demonstration that we will continue to have the sense of freedom to share the joy and emotions of music!" Besides hosting and performing Gabbani is also nominated as the Best Male artist along with another Eurovision veteran Marco Mengoni, Tiziano Ferro and Michele Bravi. Two more Eurovision stars are nominated for the Best Female artist; Emma and Francesca Michiel...

The Eurovision song contest 1981 winner Bucks Fizz who may not call themselves Bucks Fizz for legal reasons anymore even if everyone does so anyways, are reunited and in the studio recording new material with producer Mike Stock  of Stock-Aitken-Waterman fame and the new album will be released in September as The Fizz.   Read more here . Can't wait! And below are some of this blogger's favorite Bucks Fizz hits.....

Also Nina Zilli is feeling the summer as her new single is very summery reggae inspired tune. This is her first release since 2015 and anticipated a new album. Hooray!

A curious details was revealed by Sunrise Avenue's Samu Haber in the popular Vain elämää show, where artists spend a week together and every night cover each others songs between stories of their career and life. On Samu's night Laura Voutilainen had picked Forever yours to cover and Samu told: "After Lordi won Eurovision in 2006, we were writing a song to Hanna Pakarinen for Eurovision and the demo sounded pretty much like Forever yours. When I played it to the record company people telling this would be on our second album's first single they insisted we record it and it was added to the debut album's special Gold version instead." So, if the record label didn't like the song so much it could have been one of the two Hanna Pakarinen songs in Euroviisut 2007 and propably Finland's entry as well at home in Helsinki 2007. Hanna never recorded it, of course, but Laura Voutilainen gave an outstanding performance of it in the show first solo,...

Eurovision song contest 2008 winner Dima Bilan keeps on releasing new songs and here comes the latest, Labyrinth (Лабиринты). It's another highly enjoyable Bilan track and his 36th official single already but the first one of 2017. 

Alexander Rybak is having a very productive perios! After the quite wonderful covers of both 1944 and Amar pelos dois he has released Looking my way with Norwegian EDM artist Philip Cecil and while his violin is there it's a bit different sounding affair and his singing is new and fresh. And extremely catchy! Well done!

Amir has teamed up with American OneRepubic for their French version of No vacancy , who already have released the Spanish one with Colombian singer Sebastian Yatra . Amir fits in like a glove and there's no reason to believe this wouldn't become a huge summer hit...... Dansons!

We all know the girls of CatCat are bubbly and sweet but now they are that literally: they have launched their very own dry apple cider with strawberry flavour! Perfect for those endless white summer nights when sun never sets and music never stops and you just don't want to say bye bye baby, baby goodbye ..... If in Helsinki, get yours from a lovely special shop Pien in the heart of Helsinki by Tuomas and Erkki in Ateneuminkuja between Stockmann and the railway station. 

  ... because there has been some different system for qualification in use..... If the Eurovision song contest semi-final qualifiers were very straight forward with top-10 qualifying from 2010 onwards, before it was a different story. In 2009 only the Top-9 qualified while the 10th qualifier was chosen by a jury, to a criteria only known to themselves. And they surely used their power with variable success..... In the first semifinal the qualifier would have been Macedonia's Next Time  (10th) with  Nešto što kje ostane. The jury decided to skip also the 11th one, Montenegro's  Andrea Demirović 's Just get out of my life and lifted to the final instead Finland's Waldo's People  (12th) and Lose control , that then placed second to last, 24th, in the final. Of course as a Finn I was happy for the sudden turn of the things :-) In the second semifinal it was ever more cruel: the jury chose Croatia's Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea with Lijepa tena th...

  This year it  happened to Georgia and Serbia. The dreadful 11th place in the semi-final. As for Georgia it was pretty clear with 16 points missing but Serbia lost only with 3 points, and Switzerland was only 4 points away from a possible qualification. Let's have a look at the closest miss outs over the past years. The 2011 edition was very close with three songs one point shy of qualification, while in 2016 the qualifiers were more than clear with a huge margin to the 11th ones in the semi-finals. Bulgaria 2012 - Sofi Marinova - Love unlimited The only tie so far with Norway that qualified having been voted by 11 countries, while Bulgaria only by ten. So Norway qualified for the final and Bulgaria was left out.... Malta 2011 -  Glen Vella - One life -1 point (placing 11th in the first semi-final) Armenia 2011 - Emmy - Boom boom  -1 point (placing 12th in the first semi-final, tie with points with Glen Vella) Belgium 2011 - Withloof Bay ...

Milla Jovovich apparently was in negotiations to host the Eurovision song contest 2017 - just like Lady Gaga to perform as interval act - but the deal wasn't made in the end. Money. It's always about the money, isn't it? Milla, a worldfamous model and actress was born in Kyiv in 1975, then Soviet Union as daughter of a Russian actress and a Serbian father. She however spent her childhood in Moscow and the family immigrated to London for political reasons in 1980, and moved on to Los Angeles soon after. Milla has declared she feels more Russian than Ukrainian, having only born there but spending her early years in Moscow, so in this light it seems a bit unlikely Ukrainians would have chosen her at this time and place of the world so I label this "only rumors".... Wasn't she rumored also in 2008 as a host for the Belgrade Eurovision?

EBU has released today data of the viewing figures for the Eurovision song contest 2017 held in Kyiv, Ukraine earlier this month. A drop was expected as Russia decided not to broadcast it but the drop is less than this blogger expected so who needs Russia anyways? The audience share remained the same as last year, 36,2% in the 42 markets of the competing countries. That's more than a double of the usual Saturday night prime-time share in these countries. The online viewers more than doubled from 2016. Over six million viewers in 233 territories watched the shows on official Youtube channel and a total of 8,5 million on-demand. (Does that make it 196.500.000 viewers?) The viewing figures broke records in both winner Portugal and runner up Bulgaria. Italy also did its best result since rejoining the contest in 2011. Host country Ukraine also did the highest figures in eight years. The highest share was once again registered in Iceland: 98%! In general the Eurovision song c...

The thing happened again this year. Like every year. Italians outrage for the neighbouring vote from Greece to Cyprus and vice versa for example, but at the same time they expect and demand votes from San Marino for Italy and yet themselves usually forget to vote San Marino (when they can). This year this war was taken to another level. San Marino's wikipedia page was altered right after for example, social medias were filled with hate and dislike towards the microstate and its jury was crucified. San Marino's vote was found nauseating, someone wished Italy cut their power supply for 48 hours to make all their food go rotten, someone wanted to tear the country down and make it a parking lot, someone didn't want to share his oxygen with Sammarinese, they wanted to build a wall around it, flush them down the toilet, move the country to Portugal.... have a military invasion to occupy them.... the list is endless.  So much that Sammarinese couldn't take it as humor any...

Now this is just a rumor that got out now nd most likely untrue, but it's a fun one. Last year Stockholm got Justin Timberlake to perform for free apparently in exchange of the television audience of 200 miliion at the Eurovision song contest final. The purists didn't like it, and indeed what does he have to do with Eurovision, especially as he didn't even know what it was prior taking the stage really? Like as if Sweden didn't have world stars of their own to show..... But that aside, this year it could maybe have been Lady Gaga. To claim that is Jamala's manager Igor Tarnapolsky who gossips he heard it from Eurovision 2017 producer Stuart Barlow himself...  Anyways, it fall down to Lady Gaga's "free" performance as she demanded a rider of 100.000-200.000 dollars to make her spectacular performance. One can only wonder what she would have given us with that money....  certainly she would have fitted Eurovision a bit better than Mr Timberlake ...

So damn beautiful, that's what oh so many said when they first laid eyes on Jimmie when he was announced as Valentina Monetta's partner in crime for Eurovision song contest 2017 adventure. The spirits of the night may have failed to qualify, but their spirits kept on high and now it's time for Jimmie to release his solo album. Titled So damn beautiful . in fact. A total of 13 songs (incl. Viva forever , Model of the world  and The color red)  to showcase his voice, including one featuring also Marcin Patrzalek.  iTunes Google Play