FINLAND: ARTISTS WE SHOULD HAVE IN #UMK18 IF ONLY... Vol.11: JVG, JANNA, JESSE KAIKURANTA, LAURA NÄRHI

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 in the next 24 hrs... Listen to Tarkenee (below), Tuulisii, Matti & Teppo, Takajeejee, Voitolla yöhön, Huominen on huomenna

Janna's parents are well known musicians, and her mother Maarit an Euroviisut veteran. Her first releases were in English and published in Asia and Europe as well, but the only trace of that career on Youtube is her last single Strip down. Four years later she came back in Finnish and scored a megahit with Sä et ole hullu (below). Läpinäkyvää, Tytöt lähtee tanssimaan, Paljon onnee and Anna mä puhallan have followed. Sadly she's lately been more in public thanks to her short and stormy marriage and nasty divorce....

Jesse Kaikuranta was one of the biggest success stories from the first edition of The Voice, even if he didn't win. #1 debut single Vie minut kotiin (below) and #1 platinum album followed. Two albums later and other songs like Järjetön rakkaus, Näytän sulle rannan, Minä ja hän, Vielä yksi laulu. his star may not be shining so brightly anymore and UMK could be a relaunch for his talent. Even if I recall him saying he's not interested in Eurovision.... Never say never :-)

Laura Närhi became famous as the lead singer of Kemopetrol. They released five albums between 2000-2011. Laura has released two solo albums and five Top-10 singles: Tämä on totta, Mä annan sut pois (below), #1 Hetken tie on kevyt, Tuhlari and Siskoni. Check out also Supersankari, She's one of those "unknown known ones" and could use a platform like UMK to make her a household name....

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SONGS OF THE YEAR 2015: #5 KRISTA SIEGFRIDS - ON & OFF

Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!

ESC 2016 WISH LIST: MARGARET FOR POLAND

Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?

ESC 2016 BELARUS: NAKED WITH WOLVES?

Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further? No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )

ESC 2015 SERBIA: BOJANA GOES POLYGLOT AND RELEASES A NEW VIDEO AND REMIX

Serbian Bojana Stamenov hasn't been having beauty sleeps while prepairing for Vienna. She has just released a new proper video replacing the previous fans featuring beauty video , right after she has given us Spanish ( El mundo bajo mis pies ) and French ( Le monde est à moi ) versions of the song! And an Autobahn remix that is kinda fabulous! Busy girl! PS. I still think the original Ceo svet je moj takes the prize! Oh WAIT! There's yet another version: Die ganze Welt is mein ! And that's something else ....

CAROLA'S BOOBS STEAL THE SHOW, SVT APOLOGIES

Update! Another thing got Swedes talking last night: Carola's boobs when she was giving away an award. This is not the first time her boombs cause headlines; her misfortunate adventures in the 80's in Japan wer explained with her boobs being too big for Japanese market. Ok.... Or was it the song ? Anyways, Carola apologies and says she thinks the dress is stylish and elegant (even her friends said so) and she's a mature woman in her 40s, not a 16-year-old girl and looks like one. The Swedish Oscars, Guldbagge awards were given out last night. Carola was there as a guest star to sing Barbra Streisand's The way we were when honoring the movie stars who passed away during 2012. However, the cameras were too much on Carola, not on the stars showed in photos in the background and that upset many viewers as that part of the show was to celebrate them, not Carola. Oh well... The producer of the show tells in Aftonbladet the part of the show was made the sam...

Boobs for summer: Samantha vs Sabrina!

The old rivals have put their bras (or the lack of them) in peace and entered the studios together to record Blondie's boombastic Call me . Life could be worse.....

UK: Naked Blue

The boys of Blue have posed nude again. This time for the Attitude magazine's annual Naked issue and they are also in the cover. Watch the video of the shooting here . Band member Duncan, who is bi-sexual, recently told The Daily Star : “We are getting our kit off for Attitude magazine like the McFly boys did. I’m up for showing everything off. I’m happy enough about the size of my manhood. ” Extra media attention won't hurt their changes in Germany to win it for the UK for the first time since 1997... They will and they can!

EUROVISION 2026: ITALY AND UNITED KINGDOM REVIEW

I wasn't planning on doing personal reviews this year either but here we go after all. Truth to be said I have listened the entries 0-2 times before sitting down now to comment them. Let's go! The usual Blogilkar's home jury will reunite later and the results revealed in due time. meanwhile, my thoughts and comments on the entries of Eurovision song contest series is right here. And I saved my beloved Italy and the my biggest surprise of the season to last. Enjoy! Italy - Sal Da Vinci - Per sempre si ***** Oh Sal. I'm so happy he's back on top, a Sanremo winner finally, having the success he merited already in the mid 1990's! Tjis song may be corny and old fashioned but there's the charm. This year especially with so many weird strange songs that aren't really songs in the true meaning of the word. This is. A proper melody, proper lyrics, performed with emotion and passion and flawless vocals. Could you ask for more? And yes, there is a remix coming ...

FRANCE: LINH - J'AVOUE

As I'm off to France for some well deserved holidays and will get back to this blog afterwards I will feature a song a day. From France as my travelling tradition goes. By my favorite French singers bien sur. Enjoy!

Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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