Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Eliot has released his entry Wake up  written by Pierre Dumoulin for Belgium in Eurovision song contest 2019. It's a midtempo pop ballad maybe missing a proper chorus, but it's atmospheric and pleasant to listen to and doesn't sound manufactured Eurovision song. Well done. I like it. 

After days of speculating and refusals from both runner up Freedom Jazz and third placed Kazka (and 4th placed Brunettes Shoot Blondes even before they were asked and apparently they never were) after the winner Maruv and negotiating with EBU Ukraine has decided to withdraw from Eurovision song contest 2019. They will however broadcast the shows as planned. One can suppose for 2020 they go for an internal selection or carefully selected artists..... if they will be there.  Should Russia win in 2019 and organize in 2020 UA:PBC confirmed they won't be there. 

Public broadcaster of Ukraine and singer MARUV did not sign an agreement on the participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Negotiations for the next candidate start tomorrow morning. Logicly it would be runner up Freedom Jazz, but also they have performed in Russia last year apparently..... same goes for 3rd placed Kazka. Update: UA:PBC to consult EBU lawyers to consider withdrawal from the contest before approaching other candidates. If decision will be taken to participate after all, the representative will be chosen among the Vidbir acts.  Update 2: Runner up Freedom Jazz has rejected the offer. Update 3: 3rd placd Kazka also rejected thee offer.... Update 4: Ukraine officially confirms withdrawel. However they will broadcast thee shows and hope to be back in 2020. UA:PBC statement: “The public broadcaster and  MARUV, who won the national selection for the Eurovision, did not agree on the terms of participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 ...

Those who said Mahmood's victory in Sanremo with Soldi was unfair and manipulated political effort and that people wouldn't buy it have been proven wrong greatly. Soldi has topped all streaming platforms from Spotify to iTunes and Apple Music and most importantly the official Italian singles charts and the radio play charts. Now it has reached platinum status. It's also #25 in Switzerland. His debut album Gioventú bruciata was released last Friday and is already selling gold . Meanwhile the video on Youtube has over 30,5 million views already. At the moment he's on promotion tour all around Italy meeting & greeting fans in music stores besides being on radio or tv almost daily in various programmes. 

Jurijus (Veklenko, 29) became third time lucky when he won the Lithuanian national final for Eurovision song contest after having tried already back in 2012 and 2014. His Run with the lions won both the jury and televotes. He's no newbie to Eurovision stage though, he was backing singer in 2015 .  Jurijus - Run with the Lions (jury 12 + televotes 12) 24 Monika Marija - Light On (10 + 10) 20 Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys - Mažulė (8 + 8) 16 Jurgis DID & Erica Jennings - Sing! (7 + 7) 14 Alen Chicco - Your Cure (6 + 6) 12 Henry & Tommy Modric - Neverpart (5 + 5) 10 Jurgis Brūzga - CTRL ALT DELETE (4 + 4) 8 Justina Budaitė-Junà - Strength of a Woman (3 + 3) 6 Ps . This must be the first time ever I see jury and televoters totally agree on everything!

Leonora (Colmor Jepsen, 20) has won the Danish Melodi Grand Prix 2019 and therefor represants her country in Tel Aviv Eurovision with Love is forever , a little happy tune that deeclares love is forever in several languages. She entered the super final after 50-50 televote-jury vote and scored 42% of the televotes in the second round. She's also is multiple Danish Junior Champion in ice skating. Is it only me or does she remind a lot of certain Emmelie? Leonora - Love is forever 42% Julie & Nina - League of light 35% Sigmund - Say my name 23%

The Ukraininian national final Vidbir 2019 for Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv had its heated moments when politics entered the judging and for example Maruv (or Hanna Korsun) was demanded an answer by Jamala what she will answer when she will asked if Crimea is part of Ukraine or not.... She answered that of course it is but looking painfully cornered and somewhat afraid. Despite her win her going actually to Tel Aviv in doubt until Ukrainian television confirms it as the national final wasn't staged by them. The winner is proposed to them as the entry and they can still say No and pick someone else.... Apparently Maruv has a planned tour and other apparances coming up in Russia and she's given 24h to cancel them all to be allowed to do Eurovision.... All this apart the jury placed her second and she won the televote beating Freedom Jazz as televoters placd them only third... Bang! Maruv - Siren Song (5+6) 11 Freedom Jazz - Cupidon (jury 6 + televote 4) 10 ...

Joci Papai has won A Dal, the Hungarian national selection for Eurovision song contest 2019 in Tel Aviv with his Az én apám . The song is an ethnic ballad and if it has similarities with his 2017 entry Origo it is still different enough to avoid the idea of repeating the same old. Origo was 2nd in its semi-final and 8th in the Grand Final.  The jury voted four songs to the super final wheree televoters chose the winner. He won both rounds.  Joci Pápai - Az én apám 26 Acoustic Planet - Nyári zápor 22 Bogi Nagy - Holnap 20 Bence Vavra - Szótlanság 16 Gergő Szekér - Madár, repülj! 12 The Middletonz - Roses 8 Fatal Error - Kulcs 8 Gergő Oláh - Hozzád bújnék 0

Ukraine is proving ónce again why it is an Eurovision superpower. Their national selection final offers us six songs that all could go easily to Eurovision and do well. There will be 50-50 televote-jury and while in the semi-finals the votes have spread evenly among the contestants, only Freedom Jazz took home full votes from televoters and jury.... Their song and performance is something else, bum bum bum! Housewife version of Verka  Serduchka meets girls gone wild on spring break. Yuko continues with the catchy tunes and way of singing that you either like or hate. Enter Maruv with hypnotic beat and horns. Bang! Brunettes Shoots Blondes offer something less immediate. Pre-contest favorite Kazka may have not delivered and featured as well as expected and the song lacks a hook coming after the three first bangers. Anna Maria last but not least with their most traditional song of this final.  My votes go to Freedom Jazz and Maruv, anything else would be a little disappoi...

The long A Dal 2019 in Hungary comes to end tonight. 30 songs have become after 3 heats and 2 semi-finals and one disqualification in the last minute eight. Petruska made it to the final from the first semi-final but was replaced this Monday by Gergö Oláh due plagiarism. Two Eurovision veterans in the line up: Joci Papai and Andras Kallay Saunders in The Middletonz who also bring the only song in English to the final the rest being in Hungarian. Acoustic Planet sings about summer showers, Gergö about hiding you, Bence about blindness, Szekér about flying birds, Bogi about tomorrow, Joci about his dad and Fatal Error about keys and The Middletonz of course about roses. Hungary has once again provided pretty solid final line up. Two rounds of voting. In the first one the jury will vote and the top-4 will enter the second round. My ideal top-4 would be Bence Vavra, The Middletonz, Gergö Szekér and Joci Papai and I wouldn't mind Papai winning again, but either of these four will d...

Denmark is having its 49th Melodi Grand prix tonight in Herning. Ten songs that will be voted 50-50 by jury and televote and top-3 going for the second round of voting until the winner is out. A lot of familiar names among the songwriters from Tim Schou to Lise Cabble to John Ballard and Laurell Barker. Lise has co-written three of the songs... More info here . Should Julie & Nina win as well as Jon Henrik in Sweden and KEiiNO in Norway we would have a real Northern exotism in Israel. Greenland will be already watching live this Danish final anyways.... Simone Emilie - Anywhere   LIVE Jasmin Gabay - Kiss Like This   LIVE Rasmus Faartoft - Hold My Breath   LIVE Marie Isabell - Dancing With You In My Heart   LIVE Sigmund - Say My Name   LIVE Humørekspressen - Dronning af baren  LIVE Julie & Nina - League Of Light   LIVE Teit Samsø - Step It Up   LIVE Leonora - Love Is Forever   LIVE Leeloo - That Vibe  ...

One of the marathon selections of this year (again) comes to an end. After four heats, two semifinals, several changes in the line up and 49 songs we have only eight left, two of them sung by Monika Marija until she withdraw one of them this week, and line up includes also two Eurovision veterans Jurgis DID of InCulto fame (2010) and his wife Erica Jennings of Skamp fame (2001) performing together. There's everything from jazzy groovers to angry female rappers and Turkish bazar humour.  Only two songs have scored full votes from both jury and televoters in each passage: Monika Marija's Light on and Jurijus' Run with the lions . Jurijus is also my favorite along with Monika Marija. But with Criminal , the song she withdraw, and now also Jurijus is propably facing a date related disqualification.... (Update: Case closed. He can participate) Henry & Tommy Modric - Neverpart Justina Budaitė-Junà - Strength of a Woman Monika Marija - Light On Jurgis Brūzga ...

Germany's much anticipated national final didn't quite deliver, did it? Good looking show and staging but they forgot the main thing: the songs. Typical songwriting camp products: forgettable, standards, "nice" but lacking all originality and soul. And then strangely thee song added to the line up later, put last to perform  that no one in thee fandom even noticed beforehand wins.... Just saying. Ok, kidding. My honest opinion is it's simply dead boring and screams a song that will finish 25th in May.... But what do I know? After all I didn't really like any of them.... S!sters are Carlotta Truman (20), already experience as kid star in Das Supertaleent 2009 and The Voice Kids 2014, and Laurita Spinelli (27), winner of Kiddy Talent 2002 and Eurovision winner Lena's backing singer. 1. S!sters - Sister (panel 6+jury 12 + televote 12) 30 2. Makeda - The day I loved you most (10 + 10 + 6) 26 3. Lilly Among Clouds - Surprise (8 + 7 + 10) 25 4. Aly...

Germany's Unser Lied für Israel final takes place tonight in Berlin with Eurovision winner 2010 Lena as guest star along with last year's Michael Schulte, Udo Lindenberg and Revolverheld. Six artists made it this far with later added Sisters to the line up - read more here . There will be a three-way voting system with televoters, international jury and a panel made of 100 Eurovision fans.  Aly Ryan - Wear your love BB Thomaz - Demons Gregor Hägele - Let me go Lilly Among Clouds - Surprise Linus Bruhn - Our city Makeda - The day I loved you most Sisters - Sister International jury votes Added 100 member jury's votes Final result after added televotes

Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman will have three songs the Finnish televoters and intrnational jury will vote for in the final of UMK2019 (Uuden musiikin kilpailu) in Logomo, Turku on March 2, 2019. The songs will be revealed on per week..... Here we go: Release me Superman Look away

Ester Peony is the surprise winner of the Romanian national final with her On a Sunday. Favorites Laura Bretan and Bella Santiago were left 2nd and 3rd, thanks to the jury, in televotes she was only 7th. Ester Peony - On a Sunday (jury 62+televote 3) 65 Bella Santiago - Army of Love (50+8) 58 Laura Bretan - Dear Father (48+12) 60 Linda Teodosiu - Renegades (36+  6) 42 Letiția Moisescu and Sensibil Balkan - Daina (35+5) 40 Vaida - Underground (28+7) 35 Trooper - Destin (19+10) 29 Olivier Kaye - Right Now (26+1) 27 Claudiu Mirea - We Are the Ones (19+0) 19 Aldo Blaga - Your Journey (10+4) 14 Dya and Lucian Colareza - Without You (Sin ti) (8+2) 10 Teodora Dinu - Skyscraper (7+0) 7

Tonight's Romania's turn to select its entry for Eurovision 2019. Two semi-finals have dropped half the songs voted by a jury (five finalists per semi) and televoters (one of the leftovers per semi).  The season hasn't been saved of scandals and withdrawels. First Eurovision veteran Dan Bittman decided to withdraw due conflicting schedules and was soon replaced by two wildcards (Bella Santiago and Linda Teodosiu) and that angered the ultimate Eurovision Diva extraordinaire MIHAI who in turn withdraw. Later also Xandra withdraw without giving a reason. MIHAI on the other hand then tried to apply for Moldova and Belarus it seems, but didn't show up in either, and apparently even tried to get a wildcard to Romanian selection again. Or so they say.... And finally Laura Bretan  (of America's Got Talent fame) caused a storm in a glass with her views about gays apparently. Olivier Kaye, Golden Stag 2018 1st prize from The Voice Belgium has a song written by Ovi aka ...

All according plan also in Latvia when Carousel wins ahead of Markus Riva who's left second again. Carousel is singer Sabīne Žuga and guitarist Mārcis Vasiļevskis The voting was jury + public diveded by various groups: televotes, internet, Spotify, Alfa. Markus Riva won the public vote but was left 5th with the jury. Carousel was jury's favorite and public's runner up..... 1. Carousel - That night (jury 1st + public 2nd) 3 2. Markus Riva - You make me crazy (5th+1st) 6 3. Laime Pilnīga - Awe (2nd + 5th) 7 4. Double Faced Eels - Fire (3rd + 4th) 7 5. Dziļi Violets feat. Kozmens -  Tautas dziesma (7th + 3rd) 10 6. Edgars Kreilins - Cherry absinthe (4th + 7th) 11 7. Samanta Tina - Cutting the wire (6th + 6th) 12 8. Aivo Oskis - Somebody's got my lover (8th + 8th) 16

Roko Blažević is yet another male artist for Tel Aviv, have we ever had so many compared to female artists? His song is The Dream and it's written by Eurovision veterans Jacques Houdek and Charlie Mason who has co-written songs like Rise like a Phoenix, Here for you and Beauty never lies . Check out full results and performances videos here and the Croatian version below:

Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl have won the Slovenian national final 2019 for Eurovision with their song Sebi . They beat Raiven in superfinal with 72,9% against 27,1%

Once again Estonians chose a Swede, who has no connection to the country nor speaks the language. Well, the song is written by Eurovision veteran Stig Rästa at least. After the first round of jury and televote Victor, Uku Suviste and Stefan made the superfinal - just like I predicted . However the support from televote at this point must have been already massive as the jury had him only at 9th, Uku 6th and Stefan a clear favorite.  Below are the results of first round. Top-3 went to Superfinal with televoting only: 1. Victor Crone — Storm (jury 2 + televote 12) 14 2. Uku Suviste — Pretty Little Liar (5+10) 15 3. Stefan — Without You (12+7) 19 4. Sissi — Strong (8+6) 14 5. Lumevärv ft. Inga — Milline päev (10+2) 12 6. Inger — Coming Home (1+8) 9 7. The Swingers, Tanja & Birgit — High Heels in the Neighbourhood (4+5) 9 8. Sandra Nurmsalu — Soovide puu (6+1) 7 9. Kerli Kivilaan — Cold Love (7+0) 7 10. Kadiah — Believe (3+3) 6 11. Synne Valtri ...

After two semi-final Latvia has cut the songs in half in number and we have eight songs competing tonight. There's apparently again the jury + televote + internet + spotify voting. Markus Riva is back with his 6th attempt, so is Samanta Tina and Edgars Kreilis. All in all this selection of songs is even more anonymous and forgettable than Eesti laul's for me. I don't really like any of these. Maybe the worst of them for me, Samanta will scream all the way to Tel Aviv, or will Riva get his ticket finally, with the weakest song presented so far? Or will it be Kozmens with their folk song that at least sticks out a bit and we get to hear Latvian as well but would be most likely labelled as a novelty act? Or maybe Carousel that is at least rather pleasant to listen to.... I have no idea, Latvians are rather unpredictable.  Markus Riva - You make me crazy   VIDEO ** Edgars Kreilis - Cherry absinthe VIDEO * Aivo Oskis - Somebody's got my lover VIDEO * Double ...

Estonia had its two semi-finals ( here and here ) in Tarto and now the show moves to Tallinn and Saku Suurhall with the 12 songs that made the cut. Two round for the voting: first 50-50 jury-televote to get the top-3 that will face another round of voting, this time only televote.  Among the finalists Eurovision veterans Sandra Nurmsalu, Tanja Mihhailova-Saar and Birgit (Õigemeel) Sarrap, Swedish Victor Crone with a song co-written by Stig Rästa, Eurovision winner Dave Benton's daughter Sissi and last year's runner up Vajé's Stefan, this time solo.  I have difficulty getting excited by any of these songs. Sandra would be classy but nothing we haven't heard yet, Crone is a bit disappointing, as is Stefan even though both are decent. Maybe it's Uku's year and we get some more testosteroni in Tel Aviv? His staging reminds of Conchita Wurst how it's aimed "let's let them listen first before they see you to avoid prejudgement" . I have a sof...

Poland has internally chosen Tulia for Eurovision song contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. This blogger welcomes the news with delight as it seems we will get something traditional and original with ethnic flavor instead of some bubble gum pop. Having listened a couple of their covers their sound is very familiar and comforting for my Carelian ears. In short: Polish Kuunkuiskaajat! The four girls (Joanna Sinkiewicz, Dominika Siepka, Patrycja Nowicka and Tulia Biczak) got together in 2017 and released last year their platinum selling debut album includng both covers and original songs, including Trawnik with Kasia Kowalska. Check out a coupl of their songs below. Their entry will be.... you guessed it: released later!

Just like it has beeen rumored already for weeks tonight it has been confirmed Kateerine Duska will represant Greece in Tel Aviv 2019 Eurovision. She's faily unknown and her style might mark a change in the Greek Eurovision style, we will find out on March 7 when the song she has written herself will be released. She was born in Montreal, Canada and has released her debut album in 2016.

Kobi Marimi (27), one of those you made the biggest impact with their first audition back in November has emerged as the winner of Hakovhav haba Eurovision 2019 after almost 40 episodes with ups and downs . We don't know his song yet but he surely has the voice and personality. This blogger was blown away already with his first audition with Sweet dreams , and his covers of Mad world , Fuego and Always are all fabulous. His voice and style maybe isn't everyone's cup of tea, but hopefully he is allowed to keep it and take the risk instead of going for too safe in Tel Aviv. His entry will be published later and yes, there might be additional shows aired to choose it. Maybe. 

Ultimo may say whatever he wants but Mahmood's Soldi hits #1 in Italian Spotify, iTunes, AppleMusic and enters Top40 in Global Spotify. And that's not all, he almost broke an all time Spotify record in Italy with 1.481.036 streams within 24 hours, only 118.217 shy of rappers Sfera Ebbasta and Ghali's record on May 4, 2018.  Not only Soldi enters the chart but also his previous tracks Gioventù bruciata (#23), Uramaki (#61), Anni '90 (#75), Milano Good vibes (#108), Asia occidentale (#130) and Mai figlio unico (#174), basicly all songs released by him so far.  Meanwhile Ultimo keeps burning bridges after his explosion and bad behaviour in the press conference post-festival where he basicly sent all the press to hell to fu*ck themselves and called Mahmood "that boy" and continued with insults in social media and didn't show up in Sunday's Domenica In , where most everyone was attented. For the first time ever the paper TV Sorrisi e Canzoni ...

Alessandro Mahmoud aka Mahmood (26) has won the 69th Sanremo festival and  represants Italy in the 2019 Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv Israel with his  Soldi . Confirmed in the press conference. The song includes also some lyrics in Arabic, as his father is Egyptian (and mother Sardinian). He got a ticket to the festival by winning Sanremo Giovani aka Newcomers in December. He started in X Factor 2012 but didn't go too far, and then Sanremo Newcomers 2016 but was left 4th behind likes of Francesco Gabbani and Ermal Meta. Since then he has started writing songs to others, including megahit Nero Bali for Michele Bravi and Elodie, and several songs on Marco Mengoni's latest platinum selling album. Check out his previous music videos: He has also co-written these great songs: Mahmoud 2013.... Amazing vocals already then!