Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Belgium has revealed its artists for the Eurovision song contest 2018 in Lisbon, being the very first one doing so and it's Laura Groeseneken. She's 27 year old singer-songwriter and keyboard player.

  Reigning Eurovision champion RTP has chosen the composers for the national selection Festival da Canção 2018. Just like this year, after their relaunched the contest, they have chosen composers to come up with a song, who can choose the artist for the song. This year Luisa Sobral was chosen, she wrote Amar pelos dois and chose her brother Salvador to sing it and the rest is history. This blogger is very excited to see Diogo Piçarra in the list, an Eurovision wish for years already. Now fingers crossed he decides to perform his own song! Other names are from Eurovision veteram Josè Cid to rapper Capicua.  Salvador and Luisa also had a chance to pick up one and chose Janeiro, and Onis was selected through a radio selection amongst new composers without any releases so far, Serrado and Dias were picked among the 346 open submission for any Portuguese or authors living in Portugal. Overall the demand was so high RTP in the end picked up 26 composers instead o...

Cyprus returns to national final format after milking dry the last one staged in 2015. Then  the winner Giannis Karagiannis went to Eurovision, as did 3rd placed Minus One the year after, and 4th placed Hovig this year! And what about the runner up Panagiotis Kufogiannis ? Well, he went on to win X Factor Greece this summer! Quite a cast! So, for the Eurovision 2018 they will once again stage a talent search where Cypriots and anyone with Cypriot origins is welcome to take part.  The song for Lisbon 2018 will be written and produced by Alex P. aka Alex Papaconstantinou, who is no stranger to Eurovision having already co-written/produced  Always (Azerbaijan 2009), Yassou Maria (Greece 2007), La la love (Cyprus 2012) as well as some songs to worldwide stars like Marc Anthony's Grammy winning   Vivir mi vida , Enrique Iglesias' Billboard #1 I like how it feels and Jennifer Lopez's Live it up , but also this forgotten favorite from Melodifestivalen, Ro...

Fashion Icon. That's not what comes to mind when thinking of Céline Dion really is it? Icon perhaps but certainly not fashion one. But weird things happen and the somewhat glumsy, glum and ordinary looking housewife with a lot of money but no style kind of Céline has transformed herself this year. Six months after the death of her husband she hired Law Roach has her stylist. Roach says she has no fear and they both don't care what people think. The restyling has also helped Dion in her grieving process and rebooting her career. Like it or dislike it, she won't go unnoticed anymore. Watch out Lady Gaga, there's a new crazy in town! Check out below some of her styles over the past few months that have sent Vogue and the fashion world into frenzy.      Below Céline as we used to know her..... ;-p

  Michele Bravi has released already third single and video of his latest album, Diamanti. Beware, the chorus is a real earworm! Alexia returns with Fragile fermo immagine . It's the third single of her latest album. Isn't it time she returns to Sanremo (and does Eurovision?)  Giusy Ferreri with Federico Zampaglione deliver L'Amore mi perseguita . Another great track from this artists I may have negletted over the years. This latest album is a HIT. Fantastic track. And congrats Giusy, a fresh mother of Beatrice, born September 10 L'Estate sta finendo, or Summer is ending . Yes indeed. And Francesco Guasti has made a cover of this Righeira cover , featuring the original singer Johnson Righeira . Maybe not as boombastic as the original but with the same melancholy..... 

Francesco Gabbani released limited vinyl edition of Pachidermi e pappagalli Saade has a photo shoot before Så mycket bättre stars airing Robin Stjernberg looking fashionable in his new neighbourhood Faniello bros having a good times As are Nathan and Miruna Miruna also looks gorgeous in the sun as does Kurt Calleja in gorgeous Maltese setting and Imri in Thailand and Lindita in US and Måns Z in Santorini and Joci.... errr..... ok In other news Helena P promotes Bioten Lordi shows the incredients for the 9th stuido album Isaiah got his first car Kristian met the unnameble   La Zilli relaxed before the release of a new single Omar got a doggy fan Hovig has a pose with pots and Levina sums up this past week. Have a good one!

  It's been widely reported the Portuguese Eurovision song contest 2017 winner Salvador Sobral had to put his career on hold and concentrate on his health problems late this summer. Now the news are getting worse: After his initial stay in hospital he was able to go back home, but these past few days he had to be urgently readmitted to the Santa Cruz hospital near Lisbon and is currently in intensive care. It is also said he can only have three visitors a day, and only one person at the time and his condition "very delicate". His health problems were first evident during the Portuguese national selection, and in between the semifinal and the final he already had another operation and visit to the hospital. After his win he did no promotion whatsoever, and with the special permit from EBU did not attend the first technical rehearsals (instead her sister and writer of his song took his place on stage) and made his first appearance in Kyiv only at the Red Carpet and W...

  So it seems. According Italian media but still waiting or the official confirmation. Besides being the Artistic Director Claudio Baglioni will also be hosting the 68th festival of Sanremo in February. But he won't be alone but will have a different co-host(s) every night, and most likely they all will return for the Grand final.  If I have some doubts about Baglioni as Artistic Director - makes me think that his musical taste and line of selection will be more like: "Al Banos in, Baby Ks out" - but I hope he will surprise me and have a valid and varied cast of old and new artists, very popular and some less popular ones to create a nice mix of ballads and uptempo.  To follow up Carlo Conti's three succesful years won't be easy. Not only did Conti present a string of hits and worthy Eurovision entries (nothing has been officially yet said about the Sanremo winner once again going to Eurovision, but Rai has confirmed Lisbon 2018), he also managed to inc...

Mikko Leppilampi, the host of Eurovision song contest 2007  in Helsinki, turns 39 today. Congratulations! Mikko shot to the fame when he landed his first movie role back in 2003 and besides getting the lead role he also won Jussi award aka the Finnish Oscar for it. In the next years he did 9 more films and a musical before he landed the hosting role in the 2007 Eurovision song contest next to Jaana Pelkonen. Since then he has done 17 more films, acted in seven tv-series, released an album as a singer, and hosted a variety of top tv-series from Dancing with stars to various top award and gala evenings, and countless visits to other series either as a host or a guest. In one word: he's been on screen ever since! Even in ads....

Amir has released the video for his latest, and first offering from his second album Addictions to be released on October 27. États d'amour musically continues the familiar Amir sound from his first album and is catchy as catchy can be. The video literally goes through various states and seasons of love as he moves in with his fiancee. The story goes through emotions with an artistic choreography....  Maybe he isn't the greatest dancer but he's adorable anyways  and the song's another goodie .-) Here's also the Making of video....

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.11 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. JVG came to success in 2011 with Häissä , a song that topped all various charts and was easily the biggest hit of summer 2011. Since then they have released five albums and 14 Top-5 singles and have won five Emma (aka Finnish Grammys) awards. Their latest album Popkorni was released this month without any pre-advertising or information and as a digital one only. It occupied the whole Spotify Top-10 i...

As an Eurovision fan travelling to a new Eurovision country is always also an adventure to the local record stores - if they only exist anymore. I was in Prague last week and they do have several stores left but....  not so much for a collector of this genre... The only Eurovision artists I saw were Kabát and Karel Gott. But then again, Kabát was all over the place; streets full of their tour ads and their CDs in every shop. The band's been together since 1983 and still seem to be the Czechia's finest and most popular rock band, filling stadiums and arenas. Their Mala dama deserved so much more in Helsinki 2007! Karel Gott is still very popular, at the tender age of 78, it seems. He has released dozens of albums since his Eurovision (for Austria) in 1968. He has already retired twice but seems to come back due to the popular demand again and again.   The Golden Voice of Prague joined forces with rock band No Name this summer for Kto dokáže for example..... and his ...

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.10 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. Vesala is singer-songwriter, actress and playwriter, started in hugely popular PMMP before going solo, writes hit songs to other artists as well and Lauri's ex-wife and mother of his kid. Past few years it seems everything she touches turns into a success and she's got her shelves full of awards to prove it. This week it was revealed she has written the Finnish version of  hit musical Mamma M...