Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

After the sort of regional mini semi-finals and added wildcard we have now also the internally preselected finalists so the line up is ready. Among the songwriters Tom Schou & Esben Svane of A Friend in London for Emil, Isam B co-wrote the 2012 entry Should've known better , Eurovision winning Lisa Cabble for Jasmin,  Beatboxer RoxortLoops was a member of Witloof Bay for Belgium in 2011. All in all rather un-Danish final I must say but still rather unimpressing. Most songs are "nice" as usual but maybe missing the proper hook or something to make it stand out. The staging will be once again rather crucial with live vocals. Who will make it then? With my first listening Jasmin Rose, Benjamin and Kenny were the only ones I cared to listen to the end.  Special mention to Den eneste goth i Vejle , a nice follow up to Fra Mols til Skagen .  Ben & Tan - Yes (East Denmark qualifier) *** Benjamin Kissi - Faith  *** Emil – Ville ønske jeg havde k...

  Australia decides in soon approaching and finally we have all the songs released. Ten artists have been chosen. The two night final will have 50-50 experts/televoters vote and last year's winner Kate Miller-Heidke, Eurovision runner up Dami Im, Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw and Junior Euroviison participant Jordan Anthony will also perform.  With quick listen through Vanessa Amorosi comes out as my favorite at this point, followed by Diana, Montaigne and Mitch..... Vanessa Amorosi - Lessons of love  **** Montaigne - Don't break me  *** Didirri - Raw stuff  ** Jaguar Jonze - Rabbit hole  * Casey Donovan - Proud  ** Mitch Tambo - Together  *** IOTA - Life  * Diana Rouvas - Can we make heaven  *** Jordan Ravi - Pushing stars  ** Jack Vidgen - I am king I am queen  *

    Catharina Zühlke is the best known name for the Eurovision fandom this year in UMK. She was the runner up in 2017 with Perfect villain and in Finland made a name already back in 2013 in Idols placing fifth. She's been full time singer and musician ever since despite not really scoring a major hit yet, nor has releasede an album yet. She's given us two EPs and a string of singles like Die again ,   Imaginary me , Doing Dubai and Closer ,

The song is finally out. To be honest I was hoping for something else, or better, or whatever. That Spain would really make it this time but this is quite generic and unoriginal and not very memorable, is it? Plus as much as I love falsettos there's always a huge risk to deliver them live, so.... well, I save my further judgement for the live performance. 

    Sansa aka Sannaliisa Ilkka (b.1980) may not ring a bell but she's been around for many years. She has opened for Bryan Adams in Hartwall Arena, worked with EDM artist Kaskade and her idols are Sia and Robyn. Three albums so far under her belt she has also written songs to other artists and has taken part in Tangomarkkinat new tango song writing contest. She also collaborated in Paradise Oskar's debut album back in 2011. It's been a bit quiet the past years but you can hear her vocals here , or here . Or here . And yes, she's an Eurovision fan.

  Armenia has selected the 12 finalists for Depi Evratesil 2020 out of 53 submissions. Their entries will be released next week on Youtube. As usual there's a lot of both local and diaspora talent present. Armenian Greek Athena Manokyan has a past in Junior Eurovision selections in Greece and X Factor UK, Armenian Canadian Miriam Baghdasaryan is French La Voix runner up. Junior Eurovision 2010 winner Vladimir Arzumanyan tries his luck now with the real thing. David Badalyan co-wrote last year's entry Walking out . 1. Աթենա Մանուկյան⠀/Athena Manokyan - Chains on you 2. TOKIONINE⠀(aka David Badalyan) - Save me 3. ERNA⠀- Life faces 4. Միրիամ Բաղդասարյան⠀/Miriam Baghdasaryan - Run away 5. Agop⠀- Butterflies 6. Կարինա EVN⠀/Karina EVN ⠀- Why? 7. Վլադիմիր Արզումանյան⠀/Vladimir Arzumanyan - What's going on mama 8. Հայկ Music⠀/Hayk Music - What it is to be in love 9. Արթուր Ալեք⠀/Arthur Aleq - Heaven 10. Գաբրիել Ջիգ⠀/Gabriel Jeeg - It's your turn 11. E...

It didn't long before the real Cicciolina or Ilona Staller found out of the Cicciolina hype in Finland and not only for Erika Vikman's UMK2020 entry. When Finnish Iltalehti contacted her for a comment she refused an interview but came up with a proposal that she could perform with Erika in Eurovision. Then she would give an interview. Erika and her team are obviously surprised but considering the wild idea along with many other ideas. Previously Erika had said she would invite Cicciolina to Rotterdam for a glass of champagne should she get that far. Cicciolina won't come cheap, that's for sure, but who knows if somehow she will be involved if Erika wins UMK2020. Meanwhile her entry has passed over 217.000 views on Yle Areena in three days and over 207.000 in Youtube and the song is fast climbing on Spotify charts has reached already #17 on Top-50. Cicciolina besides being a pornostar, a member of parliament, human and animal rights activist is also a performing s...

  F3M (pronounced however fem) are Viv, Baby O and MIARA and they want to be the  Spice Girls for the 2020s.. They describe themselves as walking jukeboxes and that's just all we know about them.... Their song leaked already last week but now it's officially released. 

Today in Rotterdam the allocation draw took place and now each country knows where they will be; first or second semi-final, and where in it - the first half or the second half. Makes also a huge difference to the stay time in Rotterdam.  For a change Finland is in the second semi-final and even in its second half! Somehow I feel rather positive about that. Finland has been drawn into the second semi-final only twice before (2013, 2014) and both times we qualified and even finished 11th, the best result since Lordi's win in 2014. Finland has been in the second half only four times before, too and has always reached the final (2008, 2009, 2014, 2018) Also, Finland has never been in the second semi-final's second half yet (correction: in 2014, yes but the producers put Finland to perform at number 8....) and under those facts does that mean a guaranteed final then? But on the other hand we already lost the hilarious fact that Italy could vote for Cicciolina should we sen...

  A shy giant Aksel Kankaanranta (22) came second in Voice of Finland 2017 and after that was featured in #1 hit Jättiläinen by Pyhimys, the most streamed song of 2018 and also The Song of the Year winner in Emma Gaala (Finnish Grammy). Otherwise he has no releases yet and has been working on his solo material since Voice. Now it's time to kick start his career in #UMK20 with Looking back . And that's all there is to know so far really.   

Belarus had its legendary auditions today for the Eurovision song contest and the rather surprising results are out. I have no idea what they are looking for this year but I can say already now I won't like it. These twelve made the cut: Анастасія Гламозда/Anastasiya Glamozda - Burning again Дар'я Хмяльніцкая/Darya Khmelnitskaya – On Fire AURA – Барані сваё  VAL – Да вiдна  Ангеліка Пушнова/Angelika Pushnova - True Love NAPOLI – Dоn’t let me down Саша Захарык/Sasha Zakharik - Rocky Road КейСи/KeyCi – Chili Pepper Ян Ярош/Yan Yaroche – Fire Анастасія Развадоўская/Anastasia Razvadovsky - Hello Chakras - La la ley Анастасія Малашкевіч/Anastasia Malashkevich - Invisible For further entertainment check out the auditions here  

    Erika Vikman (26) got noticed when she won the tango singing contest in 2016. Before being crowned the Tango Queen she participated in the contest in 2015 without success and also Idols in 2013 and won a junior tango contest in 2008. In between some television series acting, musicals, other talent shows. She has released a few singles between 2015-2017, but mainly she's been a household name for being Danny's girlfriend. Danny, the Finnish music legend is 77 and slowly Erika has started to look more and more his previous singing partner Armi Aavikko. Kinda creepy if you ask me. Lately she has done also various music programmes. Erika's career hasn't really kicked off yet, even if everybody seems to know her and agree she can sing . She clearly is wanting to get rid of the tango label but the competition in female pop field is very strong. Lately she seems to be aiming for the Finnish humor schlager field aimed for those "juntti" or yokels. The ...

  OMG, Ricchi e Poveri will reunite as a quartet for the first time since 1981 to celebrate their La prima cosa bella from 1970 in Sanremo 2020. As some of the readers might remember Ricchi e Poveri is the reason I started learning Italian, and that led me to living in Italy later and all things Italian. I am beyong excited! Ricchi e Poveri was formed in Genoa in 1967 (a very good year, btw) by Franco Gatti, Angela Brambati, Angelo Sotgiu and Marina Occhiena. The beforementioned La prima cosa bella was their first real success, placing 2nd in Sanremo. The year after another success and 2nd place with Che sarà , and in 1981 international megasuccess with Sará perche ti amo that only placed 5th though. They finally win in 1985 with Se m'innamoro . They have done 12 Sanremos in total between 1970 and 1992. Oh, and one Eurovision in 1978 with Questo amore .  Marina is forced out of the group by Angela in 1981 just before Sanremo, not without a proper fight and a l...

It seems that Cuban superstars from Havana's Alamar district Gente De Zona will be guest stars in Sanremo next month. For me the best reggaeton/Cubaton artists there are so I can't be but thrilled.  The duo made of Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcom has collected countless awards and dominated the charts in Latin America with their songs since their first collaboration with Enrique Iglesias ( Bailando , Bailando ) and hits with other artists have followed: Marc Antony ( La Gozadera , Traitora ), Los Del Rio ( Mas Macarena ), Jennifer Lopez ( Ni tu ni yo ), Kylie Minogue ( Stop me from falling ), Laura Pausini ( Nadie ha dicho ) and Il Volo ( Noche sin dia ) just to name a few. Under their own name we can add Si no vuelves and Te duele , besides countless collaborations as producer for the local stars. And their videos are often full of fabulous Cuban sceneries. Watch out twerking queen Lamborghini , the real ones are in town. Maybe they will remix you, too?

Rotterdam City hall will be hosting the host city insignia ceremonies along with the allocation draw next Tuesday, January 28, 2020. All three hosts of the show - Edsilia Rombley, Chatal Janzen and Jan Smit - will be present to host the event.  As usual fisrt it will be drawn in which semi-final the Big5 and the host nation will be voting (and broadcasting), the other countries divided in pots calculated by their historic voting patterns. The pots also act as a back up jury source in case a country's jury is disqualified (like Belarus last year) and apparently in case of San Marino's televotes? The number of pots has dropped to five instead of six. Australia now joins the Nordic nations, while Romania and Moldova are no longer in the same one.... The countries will draw which semi-final, and which part of it they will be performing. The full running order will be decided later once all the songs have been released.  Pot One Albania, Austria, Croatia, North Maced...

Belarus, one of the most troubled national selections usually didn't get a very good start this time around either: Out of 95 received 30 submissions were cut away immediately as they were from foreigners, something that was clearly forbidden in the rules this year - don't these people read the rules before submitting? - and additional ones not fullfilling the rules were thrown away so in the end they were 49. These 49 now will face the live streamed audition round next Monday, January 27. Always surely a fun watch! Among the acts once again NAPOLI (every year since 2014...), PROvokatsiya, AURA, Janet, Angelika Pushnova, Eurovision veteran Artem Mihalenko of 3+2 fame, Alen Hit, Alyona Gorbachova, Anastasya Malashkevich.... all the usual gang. 2morrow2late – Paradise Absolem Cloud – It’s ok Aleksey Shkrabo – Don’t Fear  ALEN HIT – #1 Problem  Alena Grand & Pasha Pashkevich – Can you feel Alyona Gorbachyova – Moments of love  Anastasiya Glamozda –...

    Tika Sévon Liljegren (27) won X Factor 2018 , mentored by Saara Aalto. She released her debut single Live and you learn and Yle made a four episode document of her life after the win, Tika - what happened after X Factor? (Tika - mitä tapahtui X Factorin jälkeen?) . Indeed, that's a question. She disappeared totally from the spotlight in between and it's kinda weird considering many think she's the best vocalist ever coming out of any talent shows along with Diandra. Anyways, we now learn she studied and became a painter. Not an artsy one but a wall painter kind of painter! Tika was adopted to Sweden when she was 1,5 years old. Her biological mother died while giving bi5rth and a year later her dad died in a flood. Her adopted family moved to Tammisaari, Finland where she has lived all her life before moving to Helsinki after X Factor.  In 2014 she took part in the Swedish Spårlöst (Find my family) reality where people search for their lost relatives and...

Moldova's O Melodie pentru Europa received 36 submissions this year and you can enjoy them in a recap below if you dare. You are in for a treat as every year with some folklore, summery beats and cheap kitch more than you can handle. Three Eurovision veterans are back at it: Pasha Parfany from 2012, Natalia Gordienko from 2006 and Geta Burlacu from 2008. Ever present Sasha Bognibov tries in vain again, and the rest is filled with familiar names from previous years from Che-MD to Diana Brescan and Maxim Zavidia, Valentin Uzum to Valeria Pasa.  This year however there won't be apparently a live show but live auditions only, and a jury alone will select the entry.  Rumors are the big money aka Kirkorov is behind Natalia's song, so..... Alexandru Cibotaru – Cine te-a facut să plîngi Angel Kiss – My Own Queen Angel Kiss – You Are My Dance Carolina Rakoviță – Dancing in the Sunrise Catarina Sandu – Die for You Che-MD ft. Irina Revenco – Adio Danny Cruise –...