EUROVISION 2018 REVIEW: ITALY, SWITZERLAND, FRANCE, SPAIN

Italy - Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro -

Non mi avete fatto niente

Italy sends again the Sanremo winner and their platinum selling #1 manifest against terrorism Non mi avete fatto niente. Albanian born Ermal Meta (37) and Fabrizio Moro (43) both have very succesful and flourishing career already and both have been busy touring and promoting their respective albums after Sanremo skipping all Eurovision related pre-parties - so did Loreen, too, didn't she? I prefer the studio version to the live performance to be honest, when especially Moro goes a bit too shouty for my liking. Despite this one of the strongest songs by far this year with an interesting half spoken verses that turn into light folk rock a la Hop hop somerello, another song with apparent lightness with heavy lyrics. Italy will score another top-10 easily this year. If not, it'd be as unfair as Russia making the final again. Italy could also be fighting for victory in case the jury and televotes spread and differ to other entries, who knows? 10/10

Switzerland - ZiBBZ - Stones

If Italy sings against terrorism, the Swiss siblings Corinne (32) and Stee (31) Gfeller sing against bullying. The pulsing beat keeps the track together and it's energetic and strong, but we have the problem of an angry female singer. They never seem to work in Eurovision. Ask Hanna Pakarinen for example. Nothing wrong with her, it's just... well, we will see. Borderline qualifier for me, but I think Swiss might miss the final once again being in the 1st one.... 6/10

France - Madame Monsieur - Mercy

After terrorism and bullying here's another hot topic: emigration. Madame Emilie Satt (33) and Monsieur Jean-Karl Lucas met in 2008 and have been writing music ever since, from 2013 under the current name. Mercy has a backstory (and all the specualtions of the song being political are long forgotten), the arrangement is airy and modern, Emilie's vocals perfect and the song has maybe the catchiest refrain of all entries this year - at least it plays in my head day and night since weeks. I had a bit of a roller coaster start with this song; liking it, then a bit dismissing it and then slowly it climbed back to the top favorites while other songs were selected. The English and Spanish versions or the various remixes add nothing to the original French one that is perfect just the way it is. Their look in black is cool and it's all very French somehow. In a good way. Perfection. This should better Amir's 6th place and cement France's position as a Big one for real. 10/10

Spain - Amaia y Alfred - Tú cancion

Spain leaves the heavy themes to others and goes for the eternal one: Love. And in this case for a real life sweethearts and talent reality show finalists with a touch of Disney and La la landish atmosphere. And it works. Amaia Romero (19) won the show while Alfred Garcia (21) came 4th, but together they won the national selection. Both have previous less fortunate reality talent show experience. The song itself with me has the same story as France's. First I liked it, then I kinda forgot about it but sneakily it returned to my mind, played in my head and is now among my favorites. There's a danger it all gets too sugary and gets ruined on stage live, but if they keep it sweet and innocent celebrating the young love and they hold it together vocally and transmit real emotions this could go very far... sealed with a kiss.. 9/10

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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?

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!

Regina Lund - naked and censored

Regina Lund's new video Jag är osynlig was censored by Youtube only minutes after it had been uploaded. In the video she was playing a female Jesus who gets crusified in the end. "I was shocked!" she says. "There's nothing more naked in it as in every church! It's ok to have naked man hanging on the wall but my nakedness is too much on internet? ". Oh well, no comment. She's prepairing a new album Dare Regina Lund and we of course remember her from her Melodifestivalen 2007 adventure with Rainbow star .

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..... )

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

TIM SCHOU AND HIS NAKED GRAVITY

Tim Schou has a pretty good solo career going since he left his friends in London. He's travelling the world and relesing songs and videos. The latest one is a great track and comes with a steamy video that kinda takes away from the song really. But who's complaining. If you got it, flaunt it. Enjoy the video below. This post coming after the other Dane, Rasmus Seebach as wishlist for Eurovision. To think about it, Tim would do nicely, too. Maybe he should give it another go?

JEDWARD GETS NAKED FOR THE FANS

Well, almost. The boys celebrated their 650.000th follower on Twitter by being photographed fresh from shower as promised. It's not the first time they drop their clothes as you see here . Meanwhile their second album is nearly here and the title track Young love is hitting the charts....

GREECE: HELENA PAPARIZOU HITS AGAIN WITH HAIDE

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.

ITALY: ALICE 70 - PER ELISA

Alice's second Sanremo. No longer Alice Visconti, nor Carla Bissi but simply Alice. A song written by Alice herself with Franco Battiato and Giusto Pio. An usual song lacking a proper refrain, performed in an aggressive way by fierce looking Alice with wild hair. It was a real breakthrough. If the trio's first offering the year before for Italian hit waves was a hit this became a mega hit and international success that made her known not only in Italy but abroad as well. Such a shame Italy didn't participate in Eurovision that year (but her time would come) but then again, most likely they wouldn't have had sent Sanremo winner anyways. Number one hit in Italy, Top-5 in Austria and Switzerland, Top-20 in Germany. The song featured in her 4th album simply titled Alice, that was published abroad as Per Elisa with different styling. A new version of the song is included in Personal Jukebox album. Per Elisa Vuoi vedere che perderai anche me Per Elisa Non sai più distinguere

ITALY: ALICE 70 - NATA IERI

Alice - Nata ieri In 2012 Alice released her first studio album with new original songs in 14(fourteen!!!) years, Samsara . Among them a song Franco Battiato had written especially for her (Eri con me), a first since 1982!, a couple from Tiziano Ferro including this Nata ieri. The album included also three covers from Lucio Dalla, Giuni Russo and Califfi. Her fans had been waiting for this album and it entered the Italian charts straight at number 10. Se la vita è migliorata dopo ogni ferita, è grazie a te. Tra le grigie ceneri dei giorni neri, lì sono nata ieri. If life has improved after every wound, it is thanks to you. Among the gray ashes of the dark days, there I was born yesterday.

Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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