Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Moldova's O Melodie pentru Europa - or whatever it is called this year -  2020 final takes place tonight. There will be both televoters and a jury voting to determinate the winner. I have already ranked the songs here so no much more to add in that field. Sum-sum-summer of love all the way! Denis Midone – Like a champion Natalia Gordienko – Prison Geta Burlacu – Răspunde Viorela Moraru – Remedy Valentin Uzun & Irina Kovalsky – Moldovița Lavinia Rusu – Touch Dima Jelezoglo – Do it slow Dianna Rotaru – Dale dale Pasha Parfeny – My wine Live Beat – Love me now Pașa Valeria – It’s time Maria Ciolac – Our home Sasha Letty – Summer of love Irina Kit – Chain reaction Petronela Donciu & Andreea Portărescu – We will be legend Lanjeron – Hi five Julia Ilienko ft. Dar Mishel – Tears Catarina Sandu – Die for you Alexandru Cibotaru – Cine te-a facut să plângi Maxim Zavidia – Take control

Estonia's Eesti laul 2020 seems to be suffering the Melodifestivalen syndrome: bigger you get less interesting and original you become. Eesti laul used to be wild and exciting, now it's just kinda meh collection of radio friendly middle of the road pop songs and many of them wannabe sad boys with acoustic feel. Who should I go for? Stefan maybe, or Uku whose song is almost there but doesn't really fly after all? Egert who maybe is the most original of these boys.... I have a soft spot for Synne and can't forget my ever favorite Laura but like Uku her song doesn't really get going ever. And only makes me think of another Janne Hyöty's song, the Finnish runner up in 2004 A little crazy by Anna Stenlund... There will be two rounds of voting, first with 50-50 televote-jury, and Top-3 gets to the second round with televoting only.  Below are their semi-final performances and the music videos are a click away under the title. Inger - Only dream ** R...

Iceland's Sögvakeppnin 2020 comes to a happy end tonight. Four of the finalists have decided to switch into English for the final and eventually for the Eurovision song contest should they win. Daði og Gagnamagnið has created some worldwide online buzz for his entry overtaking Iva's position as the front runner. I still hopelessly stand by the wildcard Nina, she's got one of the finest pop tunes in the while Eurovision 2020 season.  Ísold & Helga - Meet me halfway  ** Daði & Gagnamagnið - Think about things  ** Nína - Echo Iva - Oculis Videre Dimma - Almyrkvi

Croatia is having it's national selection for Eurovision song contest 2020 in Rotterdam tonight. There will be televote with ten regional juries choosing the winner. In a Sanremo manner the songs will be premiered only live so no idea what's in store for us.... Elis Lovrić – Jušto Bojan Jambrošić – Više od riječi Edi Abazi – Coming Home Zdenka Kovačiček – Love, Love, Love Alen Vitasović & Božidarka Marija Čerina – Da se ne zatare Đana – One Aklea Neon – Zovi ju mama Nikola Marjanović – Let’s Forgive Lorenzo feat. Dino Purić & Reper iz sobe – Vrati se iz Irske Marin Jurić Čivro – Naivno Lorena Bućan – Drowning Indira – You Will Never Break My Heart Jure Brkljača – Hajde nazovi me! Colonia – Zidina Mia Negovetić – When It Comes To You Damir Kedžo – Divlji vjetre

Serbia is having a three night Beovizija 2020 from February 28 to March 1 to find their entry for the Eurovision song contest 2020 in Rotterdam, a mini Sanremo if you like. As usual there are some big names taking part like a succesful girl group Hurricane inclusing Eurovision veteran  Sanja Vučić (2016), Ivana Nikolić and Ksenija Knežević who is Knez's (2015) daughter and backing singer . Neda Ukraden (69), a big name from the 70s and 80s who has refound fame and success and multiple talent shows winner Bane Mojićević, Bora Dugić who was Jelena Tomašević's flautist at home in ESC 2008 while Ana Milenković and Sanja Bogosavljević both were Beauty Queens aka Marija Šerifović’s backing vocalists when she won in Helsinki 2007. Add a few returning artists and composers (incl. ESC winner Vladimir Graić) plus Thea Devy who claims her entry made it to top-3 in Austria's internal selection (but as we know now they chose Vincent Bueno instead).  There...

Belarus is next in line to have its national final for the Eurovision song contest 2020 in Rotterdam tonight. Twelve acts made it through the legendary live auditions and tonight a 50-50 jury-televote will determinate the outcome. Among the artists several familiar names like NAPOLI trying again for the who knows how many times but not as many as AURA, who reaches a total of 12. Anastasiya is back as well.  Glamozda and Pushnova shine above the others with their opposite mood songs with VAL's pop tune for me among these efforts. Zakharik's kinda fun and Yarosh sticks put being the only male with his piano ballad that sounds like off from some movie. Imagine some love scene in a park and again the closing titles running.... Or will AURA finally make it? I wouldn't mind. I guess. There will be 50-50 televote-jury this time.  NAPOLI — Don’t Let Me Down  * Sasha Zakharik — Rocky Road  *** Anastasiya Malashkevich — Invisible  ** CHAKRAS — La-ley-la ...

  Israel's ever lasting talent show (read more here and here ) to find the artists for Eurovision song contest 2020 ended a month ago and Eden Alene (19) was crowned the winner. A search for songs was launched and now she has four songs to choose from. It will be done by a professional jury (50%), judging panel (10%) and televote (40%). Amog the songwriters Eurovision winning composer ( Toy ) Doron Medalie with fabulous Idan Raichel, And quite a fabulous selection of songs they have for her. Rakata is great (not so sure if it really fits her though), Roots kinda funny and my least favorite here, Savior has a weird structure but I listened it till the end with great interest not getting at least bored and Feker libi is my favorite.  Roots  *** (Nathan Goshen, Stav Beger) Feker libi  ***** (Doron Medalie, Idan Raichel) Savior in the Sound  **** (Oren Emanuel, Talia Londoner, Uri Avni) Rakata  **** (Gal Jo Cohen, Eyal Ishay, Zlil...

If France goes to Eurovision with the usual Swedish songwriters Germany follows suit with Bulgarian-Austrian Boris Milanov and even the singer, 22-year-old Ben Dolic is Slovenian. Makes me wonder..... after all the German and French music industries are among the biggest ones in Europe and yet they can't find local names?  Anuways, Benjamin or Ben Dolic's been around already ten years starting from Slovenia's Got talent in 2009 and has even tried to get to Eurovision back in 2016 as a member of D Base in 2016. Since then he moved to Switzerland with his family and on to Germany where he finished second in The Voice of Germany.  The song is a radio friendly pop tune and what makes the difference is his androgynous voice. 

The song and artist leaked already yesterday but this morning it has been confirmed: It's James Newman for the United Kingdom in the Eurovision song contest 2020 in Rotterdam with his song My last breath . Better known so far as a songwriter with two UK #1s, a BRIT award, a Grammy nomination and multiple platinum records under his belt for acts like his brother John Newman, Rudimental, Calvin Harris, Little Mix, Jess Glynne he now steps to the spotlight as a singer, too. So far he has been providing vocals to acts like Armin Van Buuren as a featuring. This isn't his first Eurovision having co-written the Irish entry Dying to try in 2017. My last breath is co-written by Adan Argyle, Ed Drewett and Iain James who already won Eurovision 2011 with Running scared for Azerbaijan.....

Samanta Tina (or Samanta Pojakova, 30) finally made it. After six times in the Latvian national selection for Eurovision plus additional two times in the Lithuanaina one and several other festivals  and Lithuanain Voice in her CV. Over a dozen singles released since 2012 - most of them said contest participations - she's finally getting to Eurovision. Checking back her songs one notes she sings in Latvian, English and Russian and the songs in English tend to be more up beat and pop, while in Latvian more ballady. Same goes for her looks: in English a fashion pop diva while in Latvian a girl next door looks reign mostly.....

Indie pop-rock group The Roop is riding high in the pre-contest charts with On fire and could be aiming for the best Lithuanian finish in the Eurovision song contest so far? Anyways, this blogger loved already their first try in 2018 with Yes, I do that finished 3rd in the national final. The band made of Vaidotas Valiukevičius (vocals), Robertas Baranauskas (drums) and Mantas Banišauskas (guitar) was formed in 2014 and has released two albums and one Ep along with a string of singles so far. All three guys have been involved in music a lot longer though.

Today Sunday it was Poland's time to choose their entry. Three artists made it to the final via Szansa na sukces and 17-year-old last year's The Voice of Poland winner Alicja got full marks from both the jury and televoters with her song Empires that premiered in the show. The other two artists had made their songs available before. In vain. They also sung another Eurovision song from the past) Empires still needs some fine tuning but it's pretty wonderful tune.  Alicja Szemplińska - Empires ( Euphoria /Loreen) (jury 5 + televote 5) 10 Albert Černý (Lake Malawi) - Lucy ( Fairytale /Alexander Rybak) (3 + 3) 6 Kasia Dereń - Count on me (Ufaj mi) ( Satellite /Lena) (1 + 1) 2

Last night also Ukraine had the final of Vidbir and both the jury and televoters determined the winner in 50-50 manner and for a change they both totally agreed. Solovey (aka Nightingale) by Go_A was the winner with their original song that mixes modern pop with more traditional way of singing. To me it sounds like Carelian weeping women chants.  Go_A was founded by multi-instrumentalist Taras Shevshenko in 2012 and the members have changed many times ever since. Today the lead singer is Kateryna Pavlenko, Ivan Grigoryak the guitarist. The band has participated in many festivals home and abroadand has won awards here and there and released a few records.  Check out all last night's performances here: Go_A - Solovey (jury 6 + televote 6) 12 Krutь - 99 (5 + 4) 9 Khayat - Call for love (4 + 5) 9 Tvorchi - Bonfire (2 + 3) 5 David Axelrod - Horizon (3 + 2) 5 Jerry Heil - Vegan (1 + 1) 2

Slovenia's Eurovision 2020 entry was decided last night in EMA 2020 final. In the first round a jury of previous Eurovison entrants Darja Švajger (1995 and 1999), Nuša Derenda (2001) and Maja Keuc (2011) chose two songs for the superfinal. Then televoters alone voted out the winner. Like this: Ana Soklič - Voda   5.035 (54%) Lina Kuduzović - Man like u  4.369 (46%) Ana Soklič (36) has studied music since childhood and been performing live releasing a single every now and then. The major spotlight came last year when she won tewo awards in the Slovenian music festival Slovenska popevka: Best performance and Best song. She's also a song writer and has written Voda herself with Bojan Simončič. The snippet released beforehand didn't really do any favours for Voda. Hearing it live with Ana's convincing performance made all the difference. It's good.  Check out all the performances below: Simon Vadnjal - Nisi sam Saška - Še kar lovim t...

Poland is experiencing a new way of choosing their entry and after three heats with only the winner getting the ticket to the final we have contestants tonight, one of them Albert Černý with his Lake Malawi who represanted Czech Republic last year. Their entry is co-written by three Eurovision veterans: JOWST from Norway, Cesar Sampson from Austria and Lasse Piirainen (Norme John) from Finland. On top of that it is dedicated to last year's hostess in Tel Aviv, Lucy Ayoub! How weird is that? Albert Černý (Lake Malawi) - Lucy Kasia Dereń - Ufaj mi Alicja Szemplińska - ?

Internally chosen Roxen will perform all five entries in Selecția Națională 2020 on March 1, 2020 and there will be 50-50 televote -jury to determinate the winner and Romania's entry in Rotterdam Eurovision. Five songs written in some fashoionable writing camp and you can hear it. Rather anonymous stuff without real soul, compromises. All written to suit her and therefor all quite similar. The one that stands out a bit is Cherry red but even that maybe needs a revamp and stellar staging and performance and if a far cry from originality. And indeed it has a different writing team (Theea Miculescu, Sebastian Barac, Marcel Botezan, Costel Dominteanu) while the other songs are written in various combos by Ionuț Armas, Viky Red, Breyan Isaac, Alex Cotoi, Julie Frost, and Minelli.  Colors ** Alcohol you ** Cherry red *** Beautiful disaster * Storm *

Slovenia has its EMA 2020 final tonight. Twelve acts are competing and in the first round a panel of three members will select two songs to the final round where televoters will pick up the winner and the one going to Rotterdam 2020 Eurovision. Ten songs were selected by a jury among the 74 submissions while two were selected through a lenghty EMA Frés selection (Saška and Parvani Violet) for new fresh artists under 26 and maximum three published songs under their belt. Among the artists Tinkara (ESC 2014) and Lina (JESC 2015) and Božidar who has good old Eurovision Yogoslavia experience from the 80's. The songs haven't been released in full (when writing this at least) so can't and won't judge them better. Imset sounds the most interesting perhaps.  Simon Vadnjal – Nisi sam Saška – Še kar lovim tvoj Gaja Prestor – Verjamem vase Ana Soklič – Voda Inmate – The Salt Manca Berlec – Večnos Tinkara Kovač – Forever Božidar Wolfand Wolf – Maybe So...

Ukraine has had its two semi-finals and this Saturday is the grand final of Vidbir 2020 with six qualified songs. So far the selecting process has been without major scandals and hick ups - let's hope it continues that way! I don't know if the new rules exclusing anyone with anything to do with Russia but this is the poorest Ukrainian national selection for years. Krutь and Jerry Heil are nonsense, Go-A reaches out for my Slavic Carelian heritage deep in my soul but not really moving me enough. Axel offers a standard cliché. Khayat falls flat down on his face live (should he win he will lose it against The Roop 10-0) and Tvorchi is just useless. Whoever wins in Ukraine won't be anywhere near my top favorites, that's for sure already now. I hope it's Go-A though.  Krutь - 99  ** Jerry Heil - Vegan * Go-A - Solovey *** David Axelrod - Horizon ** Khayat - Call For Love ** Tvorchi - Bonfire * Had Cloudless qualified for the final...

Jessica Alyssa Cerro (24) aka Montaigne is true Australian mix with Argentinian, Spanish, Filippino and French in her heritage. She started with music in her teenage years and soon chose Montaigne as her artists name in honor of 16th centery French philosopher and esseyist Michel de Montaigne.  She released her first single and EP in 2014 and has released two albums since with a string of singles, her Eurovision 2020 entry being the 10th. On top of that she's been featured and/or provided vocals to several other songs, including Australia's #2 hit single 1955 , that was also nominated for the Song of the Year and Best Video awards in ARIA music awards. Montaigne won the award as Breakthrough artist herself and was nominated for the Best Female artist. But now four years later she's represanting Australia in the Eurovision with her Don't break me . 

Tom Leeb (30) has just started his career as a recording artist being better known as an actor and comedian. He's a son of a famous comedian Michel Leeb and journalist Béatrice Malicet and also his sister  Fanny is a singer. Tom started his career on theater stage at the age of  13. In his early 20s he spent five years in New York studying acting, music and singing. Since then he has starred in nine feature films, eight short films, three tv-series, done some more theater and entertained people with Kevin Levy as comedy duo Kevin et Tom.  He debuts as a recording artist in March 2018 with Are we too late and his debut album Recollection  was released in 2019. And out of the blue he flies the French flag in Rotterdam's Eurovision song contest 2020 with a song written by the usual Swedes Thomas G:son, Peter Boström and last year's entrant John Lundvik. French Eurovision veteran Amir is among the lyricists of this bilingual song. The song came first and Tom...

Benny Cristo or Ben Ben Cristóvão (32) has been around over ten years after making himself known in 2009 in talent show Superstar. Son of an Angolan father and Czech mother and brother to stand up comedian Bianca, Ben is also a medal winning athlete in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and even before that in snowboarding.  In his musical career he has released three albums, three EPs and 20 singles including his latest, the Eurovision 2020 entry Kemama .

It may be quite safe to say already at this point that Hooverphonic will be maybe this Eurovision season's most seasoned act. Formed in 1995 they have released ten studio albums, a few live albums and compilations and their Eurovision 2020 entry is their 46th single release. Alex Callier and Raymond Geerts have been in the band from the beginning but these days Luka Cruysberghs is already the sixth lead singer. Funny fact: Madame Monsieur's Emilie Satt is guest vocalist in Badaboum.