Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Megara 11:11 From Benidormfest to Una voce per San Marino (and vice versa for Nebulossa) was the winning card for Megara, a Spanish alternative rock band who won last night ahead of Loredana Bertè and La Rua. I had a sneaky feeling La Rua was the pre-contest designed winner with a song co-written/produced by Dardust (who would then have had three entries in Malmö: Luxemburg, Italy and San Marino) until Loredana Bertè entered with the wildcard with her Sanremo song Pazza so she could "go to Sweden and annoy her ex-husband Björn Borg". Well, that's a reason like no other I guess. This said, I'm happy she didn't win. Mind you, I have nothing against her and I love some of her songs but I just think first of all the song wasn't good enough and secondly this La Bertè adoration in fandom has gotten a bit out of hand already. And most of all I think her winning  would have done nothing but harm to the credibility of UVPSM, the little it has managed to gain in the p...

The Eurovision 2024 wannabe host city Tampere that hosted already UMK2024 final isn't done with Eurovision yet. The arena will host a viewing party for Eurovision song contest 2024 on May 11, 2024.  But before the Eurovision final on mega screens there's a concert party with Eurovision winners Alexander Rybak and Emmelie De Forest  with Eurovision fan favorites Verka Serduchka and KEiiNO. And that's not all: local Eurovision stars Saara Aalto, Ami Aspelund, CatCat, Hanna Pakarinen, Marion Rung, Laura Voutilainen, Sara Siipola, Aksel Kankaanranta, Geir Rönning, Sandhja and Benjamin will join the fun by performing their respective entries.  This is first time something like this is organized in Finland in this magnitude. The ticket selling starts on February 26 and costs are from 39,60 to VIP tickets of 169,90. But where is Käärijä? And Lordi? Hopefully in Malmö! Can I already announce the Finnish jury votes come from there announced by Benjamin?

Una voce per San Marino 2024 gives a second chance to Loredana Bertè to get to Eurovision song contest in Malmö, Sweden, as she has declared her wish to go there and annoy her ex-husband Björn Borg in every possible way. SMRTV said they invited her due public demand and her before mentioned wish. The other artists had to apply unlike in previous years when they were invited. However, due to this fact it is yet uncertain La Bertè will be able to make it as she's already booked for gigs and promotion here and there and other work. The final decision will come in coming days when he's got her schedules sorted out. UPDATE 22.2.2024: Loredana Bertè confirmed with her Sanremo song Pazza Jalisse has tried to get back to Sanremo for almost three decades now without luck, and apparently also to Eurovision via San Marino and here they are finally. This blogger loved them back then and their debut album was fab. The material after that so and so. I hope they have something good to give us...

The Finnish Grammys or Emma Awards were handed out last night in Espoo Metro Areena and as expected Käärijä swept all but one award he was nominated and some more. The one that slipped away scandalously was the Public's award that Lauri Haav's fans fixed for him instead. About 99% of people watching where mouth open with Who?! This blogger was left moth open as well, I know the name but can't say I know any of his song though...even if I think I have featured him in my #FinPop series.  Käärijä won five awards: Artist of the Year, Best New Act, Export of the year and Song of the Year and The Most streamed Finnish song for his Eurovision runner up Cha cha cha. Obviously he also performed as the last act of the evening with a wonderful version of Cha cha cha with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.  The evening was full of UMK as in many categories UMK acts were nominated and Kuumaa won four awards as well: Most sold album of the Year, Album of the Year, Group of the Year, Pop o...

Angelina Mango won Sanremo 2024 and is set to represent Italy at the Eurovision song contest 2024 in Malmö with her La noia (Boredom). By winning Sanremo this soon 23-year-old talent managed to achieve what his father (or mother) never did despite being hugely popular and respected musician and singer. In a way at the time he changed Italian pop music the way Mahmood has been doing the past few years, bringing a new sound to charts and influence others.  Mango did seven Sanremos between 1985-2007 placing 5th, 6th and 7th at best. Strangely the songs that became his biggest Sanremo hits and among his biggest hits overall didn't do that well, 11th and 14th. He released 18 studio albums (two of them covers) debuting in 1976 with La mia ragazza è un gran caldo, but the three first albums didn't do so well even if his songs were so loved that legends like Mia Martini ( Se mi sfiori ) and Patty Pravo (Tu pioggia, io mattino and Sentirti ) wanted to cover them. Also Scialpi, at height...

The hugely successful and polar duo has left Sanremo after five years. Whoever follows them has to face a similar situation as UMK2024 artists had to do post-Käärijä. Nothing is good enough. Artic director and host Amadeus and co-host Fiorello, after celebrating Angelina Mango's victory on stage walked out of Teatro Ariston hand in hand, stepped into their Cinderella carriage with horses and drove to sunset, or as it was Sanremo final night to dawn. All that after scoring a record breaking 90,7% share in the viewing figures as nearly 9 million Italians were still clued to their tv-screens to see them off. Earlier in the evening they reached 18,259 million and 85% share at 01.56 when the Top-5 super finalists were announced. How can you beat that? And it's not only the viewing figures but his five years have also been hugely popular in charts as all those chart toppers, multi platinum selling singles prove. Mahmood winning in 2019 was a shock and a start of something new in the ...

  Angelina Mango beats Geolier and has won Sanremo 2024. And there's no reason to think she wouldn't go to Eurovision. The song is co-written and produced by Dardust, just like the Luxembourgian entry. 1.Angelina Mango 40,3%   (televote 16,1%/Media jury 1./Radio jury 1.) 2. Geolier  25,2% (televote 60,0%/ 4./ 5.)) 3.Annalisa 17,1% (televote 8,0%//2./2.)) 4.Ghali  10,5% (televote 8,3%/3./3.) 5.Irama  6,9% (televote 7,5%/5./4.) As expected Geolier score a huge televote. It seems the other two juries backed Angelina heavily. Angelina Mango won also The Lucio Dalla award (Press/Media award) and the Giancarlo Bigazzi award (Best composition) Mia Martini critics award went to Loredana Berté (Mia's sister btw) Award Sergio Bardotti (Bst lyrics) went to Fiorella Mannoia Premio Lunezia went to negramaro Award Enzo Jannacci (Best performance) went to Clara Strangely this year there were minimal changes during the first results (Nights 1-4) and the final night, many just...

Well. Well well well..... I must admit I said when this was released "Wait and see Finns will vote this to Malmö!" In between it looked quite, even very unlikely considering polls and streams and charts etc but here we are. Last with international juries (but Uk gave them 12!), first in televote they beat Sara Siipola to second place. To be honest, I never cared for the video but I had grown a little liking for the song and on stage it came alive and was just over the top in a good way. So I'm not angry nor sad, just amused.  As for the name, they said they have a name in  store if Ebu doesn't approve Windows95man. On the other hand it's a product no longer in market and therefor Yle for example can use it now and back in the 2017 New Year's celebration party where he performed.  Otherwise the show was a bit underwhelming. Käärijä and Erika Vikman totally stole the show, as did always lovely Katri Helena with her 1979 entry Katson sineen taivaan. I read Erika ...

There's pre-Käärijä and there's post-Käärijä and Finland is kinda having a post-Käärijä hangover now. Most everyone is complaining the songs aren't good. I always tell them go and check some other country's selection, Moldova for example and you see how great it is again. Seven songs, all good or very good in their own way. Maybe there isn't Cha cha cha in there but any song chosen will be better than quite a few others present in Malmö for sure. Then again, of course we want to find The One that would take us to final and do good. Only that we feel a bit spoiled right now. Still.  The show takes us away from Helsinki or Turku to Tampere and for the first time to a big arena (that sold out within minutes btw! The hype is real). Tampere, the Eurovision wannabe city. Had Käärijä won the Eurovision 2024 would take place there in Tampere in this arena instead of Malmö. But that's life. The show will be broascasted besides Yle1 television on their streaming channel A...

After last night's crowded Teatro Ariston with over 170 performers on stage and about 70 songs presented in one form or another and chaotic end of the show tonight it is back to normal. Last night again record breaking viewing figures: 67,8% share and 11.900.000 viewers! Meanwhile in Spotify Geolier is still #1 but Mahmood took over Annalisa and Irama passed Angelina Mango in Top-5. The most watched moment was Irama with Riccardo Cocciante (16,6 million). In TikTok the most used songs are Geolier (28.500 videos), Annalisa (21.700) and Loredana Bertè (5.400). All 30 songs have entered the Official Italian singles chart occupying the first 13 places, and all within the top-84. The Top-10 in order is:  1. Geolier, 2. Annalisa, 3. Mahmood, 4. Angelina Mango, 5. Irama, 6. Gazzelle, 7. The Kolors, 8. Loredana Bertè, 9. Emma, 10. Mr.Rain. Five songs are totday present in Spotify's Daily Top songs Global chart: #41 Mahmood (+10) 2.376.532 streams, #51 Geolier (+1) 2.197793, #82 (+6) An...

  Last nights highly enjoyable night with generally pretty good covers, some great moments (Angelina Mango, Mahmood, Alfa. Mr.Rain, Ricchi e Poveri etc) ended with audience in Teatro Ariston booing and whistling in disapprove when Geolier was revealed as the winner of the evening. A common Eurovision fan watching might wonder why and what happened? He's Napolitan and the music industry in Naples is its own empire, not mixing that much with the general Italian music scene. They have their own musical heritage, language even. They have superstars who aren't big outside Naples and its region. Geolier is a bit of a cross over artist like Gigi D'Alessio and late Pino Daniele. Then again, Napolitans tend to vote - or so it is accused - a Napoletan artist no matter what. A bit like in the 1980's/90's in Finland gypsies voted gypsy artists to victory in several singing competitions. Sometimes with merit, sometimes not. The same is happening now in Sanremo it seems. Televote...

As in previous years UMK 2024 is also a hit machine. The past three years the most streamed song in Finland has been an UMK entry, last year even Top-2 (and they are still in the Top-40 after one year!) It's funny to think just a few years ago the songs didn't chart at all, sometimes not even the winner and even longer ago some songs were not even recorded and/or released.  Here's how the songs have made in the Official singles Top-50 charts. As they were release one by one on different days and over two weeks chart period the positions enter gradually. Sara Siipola has featured the best here staying in Top-5 for three weeks already.  Cyan Kicks - Dancing with demons          14 . 21. Sexmane - Mania           4.   8. 15.  24. Sara Siipola - Paskana           19.  2.  4.  5. Jesse Markin - Glow           -  20 . -  -  Windowsman95 - No ru...

Tonight is the cover night. The artists perform songs of their choice with guest stars which means the Eurovision veterans Mahmood, Ricchi e Poveri, Emma, Il Volo will be joined by Francesco Gabbani, Umberto Tozzi, Fabrizio Moro and Ermal Meta (and tomorrow we will have Gigliola Cinquetti but that's another story). Previous years there's been some theme or era to choose songs from but this year Amadeus throw out all restrictions and therefor we have some insane (and unfair) efforts like Sangiovanni singing his Sanremo 2022 (!!!) entry, RengaNek singing a medley of their own songs ALONE. Ricchi e Poveri do their own songs BUT with Paola & Chiara, as does Alessandra Amoroso with Boombadash. Maninni wants to Fabnrizio Moro as he sings Non mi avete fatto niente with Ermal Meta. Fabrizio Moro is busy singing his songs with Il Tre. Rose Villain will do a medley of Gianna Nannini songs with Gianna Nannini while Alfa, Bnkr44, Irama, Clara, Mr.Rain, La Sad and Fred De Palma do a son...

The success continues. I know I am repeating myself but the fact is the third night scored 60,1% share, the second highest share second only to Pippo Baudo's 60,5% in 1995! 60,1% responds to 10.001.000 viewers in average. The first part of the show was watched by 13.243.000 and the second part (after 23.30) by 6.436.000. The most watched moment was when Mahmood was presenting Ghali at 00.08 (67,9%). Remarkable is that 70% of age group 25-34 was watching, and in general 74% of the female viewers.  The Sanremo 2024 Spotify Playlist was the most listened on on February 7 - globally! For the second day in a row, the 30 Sanremo songs occupy the whole Top-.30 of Italian Spotify Daily chart. Geolier stays at #1 but Mahmood takes over Annalisa as #2. Irama ¤3, Angelina Mango #5 and Gazzelle #6. In Youtube Mahmood takes over Angelina Mango as the most watched video.  Mahmood has also taken over Geolier in the Spotify Global chart at #51 (+28) with 2.112.626 daily streams. Geolier is at...

Tonight the remaining 15 acts will perform, presented by those they presented and who performed last night. That is one wonderful idea and is apparently liked by everyone, the artists included! The voting tonight is just like last night, 50-50 for the radios-televote.  Comedian, actress, tv-host and author Teresa Mannio will be co-hosting so this sounds like a step back in time compared to those excellent fresh unusual choices of past two night, Marco Mengoni and Giorgia.  And yes, there's a long list of guests: Russell Crowe (unless he has escaped if he saw the Travolta treatment last night), Eros Ramazzotti celebrating 40 years of Terra promessa, artists Gianni Morandi, Stefano Massini with Paolo Jannacci, actors Sabrina Ferilli and Edoardo leo promoting their new fictions. Bresh will perform on the loveboat and Paola & Chiara on the outside stage as well.  Loredana Bertè : Il Tre - Fragili 6 Alfa : Maninni - Spettacolare 8 Fred De Palma : Bnkr44 - Governo punk 7...