Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  After Eurovision break here comes some new #Finpop tunes including Chisu who's quitting her solo career and yet another radio banger from ex-Satin Circus Olli Halonen. Enjoy! Chisu - Mun kulta Överi - Zidane  Pamela - Ei täs mitään häviä Olli Halonen - Suomen kesä

The national languages have made great comeback post-covid. If in 2019 the only non-English songs on top were Italy second and Iceland 10th, in 2021 the whole Top-3 was non-English but also 5th. This year the trend continued with the winner and 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th place. Even 11th! And even the 2nd if we could United Kingdom that did sung in its own language. Three out of last five winners have been non-English songs while all but Ukrainian ones (2004 and 2016) partly, and Serbian 2007 winner have been non-English since Israel' Diva back in 1998 before the free language rule. Otherwise it's been pretty much on Italy's shoulders since their comeback in 2011. As an old school Eurovision fan I can't be but very happy about this and wish more and more countries would take the chance to send something in their own language for a change, or even bring that national language rule back! And those mixed versions like Portugal and Croatia this year are always a welcome co...

The Ukrainian Eurovision song contest 2022 winner Kalush Orchestra is returning to front and other military and humanitarian services to help and support their nation under Russian bombardment and war right after returning home today. Instead of going on international tour promoting their entry and all that usual stuff. They have declared that all the profits from their winning entry Stefania will be handed over to organisations that help people and provide arms to the fighters against Russian aggressors. But that's not all. They are going to auction the Eurovision crystal microphone to raise funds for before mentioned aids. Now it's your chance to get this unique piece AND help suffering people in Ukraine. Meanwhile stream Stefania . Over and over again! Deatils about the auction and how to participate and donate here.

Ukraine received the incredible 28 times 12 points, 8 times 10 points, 2 times 8 (North Macedonia, Malta) points and once 7 points (Serbia) or 431 out of 468. That is certainly something that won't be repeated very easily. The European television audience really felt a need to support Ukraine and all I can say to that is Slava Ukraini! But the juries supported Ukraine as well. Poland, Moldova, Latvia, Romania and Lithuania gave them 12 points and Germany, Iceland and France 10 points, and they got 192 points in total, placing fourth after United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain.  What comes to the separate voting results by juries versus televotes it's remarkable how different they are. They totally agreed only on Spain (3rd) and less than five place difference on Armenia, Italy, Ukraine, UK, Sweden, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic and the very bottom ones. Moldova has a difference of 18 places, and big differences also for Portugal, Norway, Australia, Azerbaijan and Switzerland.  An...

Laura Pausini, a global superstar, was the hostess of the Eurovision song contest 2022 and in true Italian aka Sanremo style her outfits were designed by top design houses, one per every evening. More outfits were displayed in her grand final opening number. She also caused a bit of a commotion when in the final she disappeared from screens and left Alessandro Cattelan and Mika alone during the voting.  She had a drop of blood pressure and had to rest for about 20 minutes. This adds to Italian stars with unlucky moments in this week after Il Volo's Gianluca had to perform on video being in Covid-19 guarantee, and Måneskin's Damiano performing clearly in pain due to an ankle injury... But let's check Laura's looks! In the first semi-final she wore Valentino I wasn't so sure about her make up and hairdo though Second semi-final was all about Alberta Ferretti Her make up and hairdo improved a bit And finally the final was pure Versace And finally she started to look li...

After Ukraine's win at Eurovision song contest the president Zelenskiy congratulated the winners on Instagram and welcomed everyone back to Ukraine next year. Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe! Next year Ukraine will host Eurovision! For the third time in its history. And I believe - not the last.We will do our best to one day host the participants and guests of Eurovision in Ukrainian Mariupol. Free, peaceful, rebuilt! Thank you for winning @ Kalush.official and everyone who voted for us! I am sure that our victorious chord in the battle with the enemy is not far off. Glory to Ukraine! This is all we hope and pray for but at the moment it looks very unlikely. The Eurovision 2023 preparations should start as soon as tomorrow as usual but the thought it beautiful and will lift the spirits, I hope, of those still wrapped there under Russian bombardments and fire. The fact that Mariupol maybe didn't have a suitable arena etc even before war to start with m...

The Eurovision song contest final is over and we have a winner: Ukraine! Some random thoughts: The show went on smoothly despite a few wrong camera angles, spotlights and impromptu nonsense from the hosts to cover up some time while the stage wasn't ready.  Most artists did really save their beast for tonight, including Italy, Romania, Armenia, Germany, Belgium and Greece.... No one really did badly which is always wonderful. Italy, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Finland, Serbia and Spain really got the arena wild. Laura's opening number was a real wardrobe gimmick extravaganza she did a pretty good job with Cattelan and Mika.  Ankle injured Damiano and Måneskin came and sung but I was more thrilled for Gigliola Cinquetti to be honest.  The voting...... well, the juries were all over the place really! And the juries are supposed to be professional but they just vote their neighbors worse than locals....And Martin gave so many votes like no one ever before, wtf? And as expecte...

Who will it be? Will it be Ukraine after all or despite all will they not win? Is it Sweden? Italy doing a double? Spain? My bet is United Kingdom if it's not Ukraine. I would like to believe it's not Ukraine but if it is it's all fine, I like the song and performance and it would be anyways one of my favorites this year. Then again I would hand over the trophy to Italy and be super happy, it is after my favorite song this year. Sweden's win would be a huge let down for me, and Spain just isn't strong enough song wise even if Chanel herself is a real star and a winner.  Norway was a joint winner with UK in my own Home Poll but I don't think it's a winner come Sunday early hours. I had a strong feeling about the Netherlands when it was released but somehow it hasn't convinced me on stage after all which is a shame. Fan favorites Poland and Serbia won't have the European wide appeal to win either I think so I suppose it really is between those who hav...

Last night the dreams and hopes were crushed for additional eight acts and most notably for Achille Lauro under Sammarinese flag. It will be interesting to see if he was 11th or lower, and if so can we just think he would have qualified if Italy could have voted in this semi? This said let's have a look at their social media comments and how they took it, and their performances. Enjoy! After making a bit of a fool of himself during the show when joining the hosts he has set his mind already to other things: Like proposing his boyfriend who said Yes! See you on tour! Brooke published a teary video but no worries, she's moving on to bigger things!

The results are in and another ten acts made it to the grand final on Saturday tonight. From my prediction only Georgia and San Marino didn't make it. Both performances will live on forever as Eurovision performance craziness and weird stuff but such stuff I adored. If the first semi-final went by without any visible technical hic ups this second one had several but nothing major. Laura Pausini had slightly better make up and hair but still a far cry from her natural pretty look and I keep asking myself Why? Perche???? Most everyone will draw second half as there are only 2-3 places left in the first half, lol Belgium draw second half, Czech Republic first..... Azerbaijan second half, Poland second half. Finland first half (sigh....) Estonia second half, Australia second half.... Sweden second half, Romania first half. And finally Serbia second half.  Check out the acts that made the final below and their performances:

Here we go again. I got only seven right in the first semi-final but eight out of my wish list so maybe I should have listened more my heart than my mind, but let's see how it goes tonight. This is even more difficult tonight as both Finland and San Marino are in it, and for obvious reasons I want them both in the final and even if I do believe they both will do it there's always a little uncertainty lurking around.... In fact I feel a bit like Achille on his bull.....  Strangely this one feels even more difficult than the first one as it seems my mind and heart are even more divided.As of the usual qualifiers Azerbaijan, Malta and Australia in my books don't deserve it this time. Azerbaijan has a very good singer but the song is just meh, unoriginal and heard a million times before. Even more so is Malta and sadly Emma doesn't sound so good live of what I have heard. Then Australia... well, I'm a bit tired of these personal struggle tell all stories (same goes for ...

Last night seven acts had to say goodbye to their dreams and hopes for the Eurovision glory, some of them expected, some not so much. Below are some comments by the artists published post-show in social medias while the others have kept silent so far..... Enjoy the videos once more!

After a wonderful show with no technical hick ups or whatsoever, perfectly in time the first semi-final is over in Turin's PalaOlimpico. Now all you haters shut the f*ck up and apologize!  The stand out moment was as expected Diodato's Fai rumore. Switzerland drew 1st half for the final, as did Armenia. Iceland got 2nd half, as did Lithuania! Portugal drew 1st half, and so did Norway... Greece got 2nd half, Ukraine first. Moldova's train stops at 2nd half and finally Netherlands ... 1st half. The finalists are: :

It's time. Every year this is hard, some years harder than the others but this year takes the prize. Out of 17 semi-final one entries each one is a possible qualifier, except Denmark, in either my prediction or in my own preference list. It's also harder than usual as I haven't been following that closely and haven't seen too many videos as usual and most performances are still a mystery to me on stage. Let's see better. I would say Ukraine, the Netherlands, Greece, Norway and Armenia are sure qualifiers. with Moldova and Portugal quite surely doing it. That's seven.Then we have Albania, Latvia and Lithuania that are fan favorites, but will juries and televoters fall for them? Albania is shouty show number with questionable rhythm changes and might end up way too chaotic for a general viewers. Besides history has proven angry ladies don't do well at Eurovision. Latvia is fun and colorful and great audience pleaser in the arena but does it work on telly? Lith...

The Eurovision fandom is getting all stressed up these days and no wonder! But Eurovision veteran Marco Mengoni has released a little piece of advice: No stress!

  Now that was something else! The corridor shots in Reggia di Venaria, Torino were such beauty that I hope they are actually used for something during the shows. I would have used them for postcards for sure! Enjoy!