Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Another year has passed and sadly we have once again lost some of the Eurovision family along the way.  Jahn Teigen (1949-2020), three times representing Norway ( 1978 , 1982 , 1983 ) and record breaking 15 national final entries, including this forgotten beauty, his last one. My heart is my home .  Ljiljana Petrović (1939-2020) was a Serbian singer representing Yogoslavia in 1961 .  Pearl Carr (1921-2020) represented with her husband Teddy Johnsson the UK in 1959 .  Ossi Runne (1927-2020), the conductor legend conducted the orchestra for Finland a total of 22 times between 1966 and 1989 . Besides that he also wrote the 1966 entry and was Yle's commentator in 1981 and 1990.  Agathonas Iakovidis (1955-2020) represented Greece in 2013 with Koza Mostra.  Ulla Pia  Nielsen (1945-2020) represented Denmark in 1966 . Bill Martin (1938-2020), Scottish Eurovision winning author for UK's first win Puppet on a string  in 1967, as well as runne...

As usual, Albania gives us the first entry for the Eurovision song contest of the season as the 59th Festivali i Këngës was held over three days just before Christmas. Only that this time it was outside and without public. That didn't stop the Albanian television giving us great looking show with a pretty stage in Sheshi Italia with a modern touch when backing tracks were used instead of the traditional live orchestra. Out of 25 entries 18 made the final and each song was performed in two versions; one of them being unplugged version.  Anxhela Peristeri (34) won the contest with her Karma , a song with strong ethnic sound and apparently the song will stay in Albanian also in Rotterdam, hooray for that! She first participated in the festival already back in 2001 without success, but has placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the past few years in the other big Albanian festival, Kënga Magjike. And here's the unplugged version, which I actually prefer: Check out all videos and results HERE

The final to choose the six finalist of Sanremo Giovani 2021 and revelation of the two AreaSanremo finalists who earned the ticket to the festival took place last Thursday. Hu got full points from the in studio panel and shared the first place with Wrongonyou but the televoters didn't warm up to her who placed her second to last! On the other hand I Desideri won the televote (Viva Napoli!) but the jury placed them last and it was Ciao e arrivederci for the brothers. The third set of votes came from the commission and were not public but one can suppose they are in line with the studio panel.  Greta Zuccoli - Ogni cosa sa di te (panel 28 + televote 11,98%)  11,68% Folcast - Scopriti (28 + 11,81)  11,62% Gaudiano - Polvere da sparo (29 + 10,71)  11,38% Avincola - Goal! (24 + 10,64)  10,72% Wrongonyou - Lezioni di volo (30 +7,26)  10,33% Davide Shorty - Regina (25 + 13,55)  9,95% Hu - Occhi Niagara (30 + 5,80)  9,83% I Desideri - Lo stesso ciel...

  Last night during the Sanremo Giovani final the main category's artists and their song titles were announced by the artists themselves who were all but one (Orietta Berti) present in the the venue Casinò di Sanremo. Among them two previous Eurovision entrants (Ermal Meta and Francesca Michielin), three previous winners (Ermal Meta, Arisa and Francesco Renga) and a total of 14 debutants - that must be a modern times record! On the other hand Orietta Berti is in Sanremo for the 12th time, even if it's been long 29 years since her last time! Fan favorite Annalisa is on her 5th festival, Renga on his 7th. Last year's scandalous Bugo returns solo this time on his 2nd festival, while Ermal Meta is on his 5th and third among Big but he has written countless entries for other artists before concentrating on his solo career. Fasma moves from last year's Newcomers among Big thanks to his success over the last year (unlike the eventual winner leo Gassmann), Ghemon returns for th...

  Sanremo Giovani will take place tonight and by the end of the evening we will know the lucky ones who will get to the stage of Teatro Ariston in March, including the two from AreaSanremo selection. And that's not all: also all the 26 Big artists will be revealed tonight along with their song titles. And they all will be also present in the studio! I'm team Gaudiano, Folcast e Greta.  M.e.r.l.o.t - Sette volte Wrongonyou - Lezioni di volo Greta Zuccoli - Ogni cosa sa di te Le Larve - Musicaeroplano Gaudiano - Polvere di sparo I Desideri - Lo stesso cielo Hu - Occhi Niagara Avincola - Goal! Folcast - Scopriti Davide Shorty - Regina

San Marino may be small and tiny, but it has big dreams. And one big dream of hope is here to enjoy. A song that unites the musical talents of its population including all native Sammarinese Eurovision artists Valentina Monetta, Anita Simoncini and Miodio . Miodio's front man Nico Della Valle is also behind the project and the song. The other ones are  Elu (Luca Partisani, Elisa Mafry Massari), Sara Jane Ghiotti, Monica Hill, Irol Mc, Moghe, Miodio Paolo Macina and Francesco Sancisi of Miodio, Piermatteo Carattoni, Alessandra Busignani, Francesco Zao Zazzi, Paolo Beccari and Fabrizio Pregnolato . Dream a little dream with the ones from the world's oldest republic and enjoy the lovely video below:

Covid or no covid, some things never change. Like guessing the Sanremo Big artists beforehand and the rumor mill has really heated up these days before the announcement on next Thursday, December 17 during the Sanremo Giovani final. Just having a quick look at the media in recent days over 50 names have been mentioned as probably or even sure, while there are only 20 places, unless once again the number will be increased to a few more "due demand". Amadeus has declared he got around 300 submissions and most likely he has contacted some personally asking them to join the party. This said, for the first time maybe ever there are several names mentioned I have never heard before! Does it mean I have fallen out of the Italian music scene? Or that he's aiming for the more alternative, less known names throwing in a good number of random rappers I don't care to follow? We'll see. As usual the male names are dominating the scene and the ladies are outnumbered. And then t...

Senhit's #freakytriptoRotterdam reaches already its sixth stop, this time with Salvador Sobral's Amar pelos dois featuring words of wisdom from Michael Jackson, black Madonna handing over black baby Jesus to gay couple, tenor Jordi Galán and Luca Tommassini's visual magic and choreography and of course merry Christmas wishes. Enjoy! Check out the previous ones below: Rise like a phoenix Congratulations Ding-A-Dong Everyway that I can Cheesecake

Updating the national selection results and other informations as they happen. ALBANIA Festivali i Këngës 59  December 17-19, 2020                            Agim Poshka - Vendi im                          Anxhela Peristeri - Karma - WINNER -                           Devis Xherahu - Peng                          Mirud - Nëse vdes                          Enxhi Nasufi - Njësoj                          Era Rusi - Zjarri im                          Eri...