Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Today Céline Dion turns 50. How times flies! This blogger has always preferred her French catalogue and picking up favorites from the last four decades isn't easy but here goes. The ones (of many) that havee had a secial meaning to me in some point of my life. In random order:

Congratulations to Eurovision 2016 winner Jamala who gave birth to a baby boy yesterday. The little prince is named Emir-Rahman. But no Eurovision without babies: this year's baby onboard is by German Michael Schulte. His girlfriend is expecting a baby girl. Congratulations as well! And lets not forget also Eurovision winner 2015 Måns Zelmerlöw is expecting a baby from his girlfriend.

This one we will only know in about six weeks. The winner of 2009 contest Alexander Rybak is trying a double in Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest. Fairytale holds the record of most votes under the old voting system - 387 vs Iceland's 218 and 16 times 12 points, 10 times 10 and 10 times 8! (He was equally overpoweering in the Norwegian national final btw) Rybak came to Eurovision through various talent shows, culture prizes for his violin playing and theater. After Eurovision he was busy performing all over Europe incuding the Nobel Prize ceremony, starring and writing music for films in Norway and Russia, dancing in the Swedish Stricty come Dancing , and keeping his career going also in nis native Belarus and in the Russian market, besides dubbing cartoon in Norwegian. All these years he's also been a regular guest in Eurovision related events and happenings. In 2013 he wrote I'm with you  (4th) for Annsofi Pettersen for the Norwegian national final, in 2015 f...

Johnny Logan, born as Seán Sherrard in Australia, moved back to Ireland at the age of 3 with his Irish born parents. Coming from a musical family he first tried to get to Eurovision in 1979 with Angie , placing 3rd.  The year after he was back with What's another year and won. Seven times 12 points gave him an easy won obver Germany's Katja Epstein who placed 2nd. (After being twice 3rd, must be frustrating!) He earned an UK #1 and a big hit all over Europe. Sadly his follow up singles flopped and he was soon considered a one hit wonder..... Meantime he wrote Terminal 3 for Linda Martin, the Eurovision 1984 runner up. In 1987 he decided to givee Eurovision another go as his career wasn't going anywhere. Hold me now won leaving Germany 2nd again, and he became the first ever double winner. It certaibly was worth returning, as his career also took another turn now and he got it going in Ireland and Germany, and kept it going elsewhere, too, even if those winners...

After being the first to choose their song and the last to reveal the Eurovision version here they have finally the video for Mall ....  Now who are we still expecting? Portugal and Ukraine? No news on Denmark, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia or The Netherlands videos in the making, are there?

Let's see now if his devoted fans will forgive him this, too. Jari Sillanpää was arrested at the Helsinki airport yesterday when returning from a long holiday in Thailand, where he has a holiday house. According Iltalehti he is still jailed by the police who will decide on arresting him on Wednesday. Police goes for "No comment" policy for the matter at this point but it is rumored it's part of the earlier arrest and investigation on the drug smuggling circle they now suspect him being part of. Last September he was arrested when driving in Helsinki under the effect of chrystal or methamphetamine. He didn't deny at any point and in the end was fined 23.790 euros. One can read in the report he admits having used chrystal for three years but not any other drugs and has showed no regret at any point. It is rumored he had also now drugs on him when arrested..... Update: It's confirmed he had drugs on him when arrested. He can only be very happy he wasn'...

Just 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti charmed first Italy by winning the talent contest Castrocaro 1963 and then Sanremo 1964 with her Non ho l'etá, and went on to charm the rest of Europe as well by winning the Eurovision song contest a few weeks later in Copenhagen.  She beat UK to second place by scoring 47 points vs. their 17, when over half the juries gave her full marks. The song sold over 4 million singles worldwide and launched her international career. She has had singles released in 120 countries! In Italy she enjoys fame and success participating in various festivals and Sanremo. She almost got back to the contest already in 1966 when she won Sanremo with Domenico Modugno and Dio come ti amo . Modugno decided to go himself back to the contest and came last....  (Such a shame as it is one of the best Italia entries ever, if you ask me! And Gigliola's version is much bettr anyways) In 1974 she was chosen to represent Italy again and the song is Si. Italy ...

Lys Assia, the first ever Eurovision song contest winner took part in the first three editions representing her native Switzerland (just like Corry Brokken did for the Netherlands).  However Lys holds the record of four entries as she sung both songs in 1956.  Das alte Karussell wasn't a hit, but Refrain won the whole thing. The year after she was back with L'enfant que j'étais finishing 8th and finally in 1958, third year in a row and she took Giorgio to the second place losing closely to France's Andre Claveau 27-24. Those two were real runaway favorites, as third placed Italy's Domenico Modugno's Volare only got 13 points.... Giorgio became a hit also in Italy and is played still today in its various cover versions and ... other things . Had it won, it could have changed Eurovision already before 1965 for more uptempo songs..... Maybe... Lys started her career as a dancer but switched to singing in early 1940's. In 1950's and 1960...

I was to publish Lys Assia today in the series of Eurovision winners - was it worth returning? but instead today we have the sad news of her passing away in the age of 94. Tonight we remember her with her winning song .... She was a true Eurovision fan til the end and one real Diva, in a positive way. Rest in peace, the legend lives on.... Les jours s'en sont allés  Et nous avons grandi L'amour nous a blessés Le temps nous a guéris Mais seule et sans printemps Je cours en vain les bois, les champs Dis, souviens-toi  Nos amours d'autrefois?

It's Friday and what's better to get into the weekend mood but Netta's Toy remix? Enjoy!

Anne-Marie David started with Eurovision in 1972 when she participated in the French selection with Un peu romantique , after doing a succesful Maria Magdalena in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.  She didn't win but the year after Luxembourg chose her and Tu te reconnaitrais and she took a close second victory in the row for the Grand Dutchy beating pre-contest favorites UK's Cliff Richard and Spain's Mocedades; they are finished within six points when David scored 129 points and Richard placed third with 123. Anne-Marie Davis became international star and toured the world and participated in various festivals from Tokyo to Vina del Mar, and ended up in Turkey of all places where she released songs even in Turkish and enjoyed fame and popularity.  In 1979 she was back, this time for France and her Je suis l'enfant soleil placed third. Again the top-3 was way ahead of the others but in the end she was 19 points behind the Israeli winners, a second win in...

Isabelle Aubret was a regular in the French Eurovision song contest selections. She first took part in 1961 with Le gars n'importe óu finishing second. The year after she was back with Un premiere amour  , won and went on to win also Eurovision song contest 1962. The ex-gymnastic had a great star for her career and all was going fine and she had hits and was also offered the leading role in the film Les parapluies de Cherbourg (that then went to Catherine Deneuve) but a car accident ended that. She had several operations and it took awhile before she was able to come back to business.  She made her comeback in the French selection 1968 with La source and won again, and finished 3rd in Eurovision behind Massiel and Cliff Richard. The song was a very daring one at the tme, dealing with rape..... But she didn't stop there and tried to get back to contest a few times: Oliver, Olivia in 1970 (2nd), Je te conneis déjà (6th in semifinal) in 1976 and finally France,...

Better late than never, here comes Armenia's video for Sevak Khanagyan's Qami , one of the finest songs this yeear if you ask this blogger. And the video fits perfectly with the mood of the song.... The last shot alone makes me want to visit Armenia.... Քամի, քամի Այդ ո՞ւր ես տարել տաք իմ հուշերը, Քամի, քամի Դու տո՛ւր ինձ թևեր, որ հետևեմ քեզ ՔամիԵս փակում եմ իմ աչքերը, Ու թվում է, թե տեսնում եմ Այն ուղին, որ դեպի քեզ է բերում

Now what can I say? Carola is one of my favorite artists, an ultimate Eurovision Diva and we go back a long time. Flashback summer 1983: I was spending summer at my aunt's in Sweden. And Sweden was all about Carola after her Melodifestivalen win (full marks from each and every jury - for the first and last time ever) and 3rd place in Eurovision (6,1 million Swedes watched her there!!!) with Främling   (fate is I was also in Sweden when the Mello took place and saw it live on tv. However then I was all for runner up Kikki Danielsson's Varför är kärleken röd ...) Her album was the best selling album in Sweden ever (over 1.000.000 copies). She was everywhere, including a Folketspark near Fagersta where I saw her live.  The tour broke all previous records in 24 out of 25 parks. The year after I saw her live in Finland. And again in the years to come . But then Carola, a controversial figure retired after 3-4 years of success and even an album with the BeeGees in the USA to...

Francesca Michielin has released Bolivia , already a third single off her latest album 2640 following Vulcano and Io non abito al mare . Great song and very inteeresting video.... your guess is as good as mine what it is all about...?!

Israel took a surprise and easy win in the Eurovision song contest 1978 (no matter what Jordanian television think) with their sixth participation, with Izhar Cohen & The Alphabeta group and their groovy and catchy A-ba-ni-bi . (However that nearly didn't happen as in the national final there was a tie with Belev echad by Chedva Amrani & Pilpel Lavan. Hmmm, who knows if they had sent that one instead...?) Six times 12 out of 19 possible, and 32 points lead on runner up Belgium. They also set the trend for the Israeli entries that continued well into the 1990's: lead singer and highly choreographed group with a catchy up tempo tune. Between 1978-1985 with six participation they scored two wins, two runner ups and 5th and 7th place. Not bad.  Incidently Izhar started this run and also ended it in 1985 when he returned with Olé, Olé! placing 5th. Again in white and white a vry energetic backing group. Today the participation is propably best remembered for the...

The winter is dragging on and spring is delayed, but Nina Zilli brings us some summer moods with her latest single 1xUnAttimo , that translates to One for a moment, with a very colorful video .  I'd love to be one with summer's heat for a moment....

Eurovision song contests 1956-58 have two artists in common, Swiss Lys Assia and Dutch Corry Brokken. Lys managed to win in 1956 but Corry only placed 7th (apparently) with Voorgoed voorbij .  But she was back the year after and won with Net als toen . She was a runaway winner with her 31 points vs runner up's 17. (Lys only scored 5 and placed 8th out of 10).  But Corry didn't stop there. She was back again for the third time in a row in 1958 as previous winner with Heel de wereld and got only one point and shared last place. This didn't have any effect in her succesful career in the 1950's and 1960's. She stopped her musical career and started studying law and became an attorney in late 1970's, after having presented the Eurovision song contest 1976 in The Hague. She was also the Dutch spokesperson in 1997 after a brief comeback to music business with an album Nooit geedacht in 1996 and performing live again. She died in 2016 at the age of 83. 

Every now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how did it go..... 19 years old Lena Meyer-Landrut came from nowhere and after winning the German national final in 2010 went on to win the Eurovision song contest as well with her Satellite . She wasn't quite a favorite but once the votes started rolling in she took a convincing surprise win over Turkey's maNga (246 vs 170) scoring top-3 from 18 countries including nine 12s.  Her album went to #1 in Germany and  Satellite charted all over Europe making it one of the most succesful Eurovision winners of recent years. Her momemtum carried all the way to the next year's contest when it was announced she would do the 50...

Every now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how did it go..... French theater, television and movie actor, comedian, imitator, author, singer and fashion designer for Dior, Jean-Claude Pascal (1927-1992) won the Eurovision song contest 1961 for Luxembourg with Nous les amoureux . The Croix de guerre awarded war hero was a popular star at the time, and later was awarded also Commendeur des Arts et des Lettres medal. He took an easy win beating UK to the second place with 31 points vs 24.  He released 17 albums between 1960-84, several tv-movie and tv-series, nearly 40 movies between 1949-73.  He was voted the most elegent man of France several times. In 1981 he w...

Les derniers seront les premiers , as Céline Dion sings and it's quite incredible that Albania releases their entry only now. The revamped and shortened Eurovision version I mean. Eugent Bushpepa won the national final already December 23 last year, and we haven't heard of Mall since. Today, as the very last Eurovision entry it was officially released. 

Every now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how did it go..... Niamh Kavanagh first came to Eurovision in 1993 giving Ireland the second of its third consegutive wins with In your eyes . Niamh was rather unknown back then even if she had already sung in The Commitments soundtrack but no doubt it one of the finest vocalists in the contest ever. She battled it with UK's Sonia until the end but secured a 23 point lead with seven 12s and votes from each and every country. In 2010 she was back with It's for you . Placing 9th in her semifinal (12 points from Switzerland and 10 from UK clearly saved her) she qualified for the final where she collected 25 points and ...

Every now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how did it go..... If Dana International became the first Eurovision winner not to make the final again, it was a close call for Charlotte Perrelli. To her luck in 2008-2009 there was the jury wildcard rule or only the top-9 of the semifinalists qualified for the final and the jury chose the 10th one. In 1999 Charlotte Nilsson won Melodifestivalen with Tusen och en natt , and thanks to the new rule of free language it became Take me to your heaven in Jerusalem and she beat Iceland's Selma with 17 points taking a somewhat surprise win. Conflicts with SVT caused her to stay out of Eurovision song contest in 2000, breaking ...

Eurovision.tv has uploaded the official videos of the Eurovision song contest 2018 entries on their channel on Youtube, and most of the entries also have had the live performance from the national final uploaded earlier as well. But what about the videos of the entries in the national broadcaster's and the artist's own channels? If we start summing up it gives a better picture, even if rather unfair to be honest: some entries, like Georgia, have only the Eurovision.tv one while others have been published here and there and everywhere in various official forms. This said, let's have a look anyways. Italy may not be doing so great on Eurovision.tv's channel but the official MetaMoroVEVO has nearly 14 million views and makes it the most watched entry this year by far.  Same goes for France's Madame Monsier and Spain's Alfred & Amaia; poor performance on Eurovision.tv but the videos have been watched in various other sites for over 7 and nearly 6 ...

Every now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how did it go..... Back in 1998 in Birmingham Israeli Dana International was the hot topic of the contest being the first ever transsexual and having angered the priests in her home country. She had tried to enter already in 1995 with Layla tov Eropa but then placed second in the national final, but in 1998 she was internally chosen. It was a close run and she won only with six points (172 vs UK's 166 and Malta's 165) but she became the winner of the first televoting era contest. If you look at the scoreboard those countries still using jury didn't quite support her. In 2008 she was back in contest, but as an author ...

I'm liking the sound of it. If Finns went all for heavy rock in Helsinki 2007 - that being the most succesful Finnish music genre abroad and besides, Finland has the most heavyrock bands per capita in the world - Portuguese are doing the same with their very own music genre: fado. Besides the reigning Eurovision winner Salvador Sobral also fado megastars Ana Moura and Mariza will perform in the final, and even together. For the first time. Ever.  Ana Moura (38) has beeen around for 15 years already. She has sung with The Rolling Stomes and late Prince travelled to Lisbon to work with her. Five albums to date (two #1's and 4 top-5). She has also collaborated with Italian Pacifico in Pioggio sul mio alfabeto .  Mariza (44) has sold over a million albums globally and continues to tour the world. After legendary Amália Rodrigues death Mariza explodes as her musical heiress and soon became the queen of new fado. She sung with Sting in the Athens Olympic games  H...

  Last but not least here comes Georgia's Iriao and their For you (Sheni gulitvis) . And it certainly is something else. Judge yourself by watching and listening the video below .-)

These are the lucky days of Eurovision fans as the videos and new versions drop like rain when the delegations are meeting in Lisbon and presenting their entries. Today we also have Moldova's entry, My lucky day by DoReDos in its video form. Enjoy!

  The French entry's video has been out there for already some time but now they have presented the three minutes Eurovision version and it works wonders. This song was one of the first selected but it has resisted against the competition nicely....

  Swiss entrant Zibbz have released the official video for their entry Stones . It seems to have been revamped, too? Quite interesting concept for the video....Have a look and listen:

  Bulgaria's Eurovision social media team is one of the most active, and they have been teasing us with the release until boredom and now when the song and artist is out it's like a little let down. This said, the song is produced by the same Symphonix team that is behind Austria's entry (and Bulgaria's 2nd and 4th placed entries last year and in 2016) and it production values and sound are better than any standard Eurovison entries from the Swedish factory. The song itself, well... hard to say yet. Makes me think of Vikings soundtrack... and sounds more like a cool interval act performance on the mysterious depressive side - and depressive (and angry) don't usually do so well...  Written by Bulgarian Borislav Milanov, American Trey Campbell with  Swedish Joachim Persson and Dag Lundberg, while the band is made of Bulgarian X Factor 2013 winner Xhana Bergendorff, Bulgarian singer/songwriter and frontman of two bands and even an actor Vlado "Vladdi" ...

  Lithuania has chosen favorite Ieva Zasimauskaité with her ballad When we're old for Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest. She surpriseed the audience in her winning reprise by singing in Lithuanian, but so did also guest star Saara Aalto in her Monsters . However Lithuania should go for the Lithuanian version as it sounded fab! Televotes: Jury votes: Final result: 1. Ieva Zasimauskaitè - When we're old (jury 10 + televote 12) 22 2. Jurgis Bruzga - 4love (12 + 7) 19 3. The Roop - Yes, I do (7 + 10) 17 4. Monika Marija - The truth (8 + 8) 16 5. Kotryna - That girl (6 + 6) 12 6. Paula - 1 2 3 (5 + 5) 10