Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The tiniest of them all once again had the biggest and longest national selection of them all. San Marino's 3rd edition of  Una voce per San Marino started in October 2023 and ended February 24, 2024 and was won by Spanish group Megara. Over 700 submissions from 31 countries were received and after countless auditions we had five semifinals plus second chance round before the final with added Big artists and even one AI song.... If someone had patience and managed to keep up with it all - good for you! Megara is a group from Madrid founded in 2015. Their music is described fucksia rock, or alternative metal. Kenzy Loevett is the colorful lead singer.  Other members are Tio Rober Bueno (electric guitar), Vitti Crocutta (bass) and Raphaela Tacce (drums). They released their debut EP back in 2015 followed by an album in 2016 and another one in 2018.  Four years later they released their third one and in 2023 they took part in Benidormfest with Arcadia placing 4th. They tried...

  Croatia's HRT organized as usual the national final Dora and chose 24 entries for the semifinals. Then Zsa Zsa decided to withdraw first of four back up entries got a chance to compete. That was Baby Lasagna who became a fan favorite and went viral on social medias and then stormed to victory the same way Käärijä did in Finland in 2023: That is with a massive support and huge lead to the runner up. Similarities with Käärijä didn't stop here as many saw a lot in common with the staging. Even Käärijä commented the matter but graciously said if there's something it doesn't bother him at all and the song is great and wished Baby Lasagna good luck in Malmö! Baby Lasagna or Marko Purišić (28) is a Croatian singer-songwriter and producer. His musical career started in band Manntra as guitarist. With them he had his first Dora experience in 2019 when they finished 4th with In the Shadows . In 2022 he co-wrote several tracks on Mono Inc's album that reached number one in G...

Serbia had its national final Pesma za Evroviziju '24 for Eurovision song contest 2024 over a week as a three nights affair from February 27 to March 2, 2024. Teya Dora won with Ramonda over other favorites Breskvica who won the televote with seemingly controversial nationalistic lyrics, and Zorja. Teya Dora (31) or Teodora Pavloska (Теодора Павловска) is a Serbian singer-songwriter and producer. She started studying music in Belgrad and earned a scholarship to Berklee Collage to Boston (yes, another one! I wonder how many Eurovision artists have studied there over the years?!?)  One of her schoolmates there was Charlie Puth. After graduating she lived in New York as a songwriter. After returning to Serbia she wrote songs to other artists before making her singer debut with Da na meni je in 2019.  Last year she went viral in TikTok with Džanum, that gained 75 million views on Youtube, over 100 million streams on Spotify and peaked at #4 in the Spotidy Global Daily chart....

  One of the most troubled national selections this year was Iceland's Söngvakeppnin 2024. In surface it all went as usual: two semifinals with songs in Icelandic and then the final with free language rule. The most hulabaloo was around Bashar Murad, a Palestinian singer-songwriter who competed with a song co-written by Hatari member (The infamous Free Palestine flag episode in Eurovision) and the fact that Iceland and Rúv didn't confirm the participation in Malmö until the very last minute. In the end Hera Björk pulled a surprise win - it may or may not been orchestrated as an anti-Murad act.... Looking it all from afar it seemed at times the whole affair had taken Söngvakeppnin in hostage. Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir (51) is of course a very familiar name in Eurovision circuit. In 2010 she placed  unfairly only 19th in Eurovision with quite fantastic Je ne sais pourquoi, You may have spotted her also in the Icelandic backing group several times. Add a few national final p...

RTP organized Festival da Canção as usual (already the 58th time in 60 years) with the already familiar concept: 14  invited songwriters who got free hands with six entries from an open call, that received 809 songs! This time it was won by Iolanda and her Grito after winning the jury vote and placing 2nd in the televotes. Iolanda Costa (29) is Portuguese singer-songwriter. Her musical career started already in 2008 with talent show Uma canção para ti. In 2012 she tried Idols, again not reaching the finals. In 2014 she tried The Voice of Portugal, failing to impress the judges. In 2022 she was a co-song writer to Blacci's entry Mar no fim in Festival da Canção. During the Covid-19 pandemic she wrote her debut EP that was released last year and finally earned a ticket to the festival.  In between she has released a couple of those EP songs as singles.  So, what do I think? Usually I'm aboard the Portuguese entries but this hasn't quite clicked with me yet. Is it...

  Sweden is the host country for Eurovision song contest 2024 and they're represented by ...  Norwegians. So there isn't one Swedish artist competing. Oh the irony! But as usual there's no lack of Swedish songwriters, choreographers and etc in Malmö 2024. Marcus & Martinus will perform Unforgettable, a song that was clear to win Melodifestivalen with its easily most ambitious staging and camerawork of all entries. So, all went according to SVT's plans.  Marcus and Martinus Gunnarsen (22) are identical Norwegian twins. They were child stars and teenage heartthrobs causing hysteria also abroad, like Finland, before growing up and concentrating on building their adult career in Sweden. In 2012 they won the Melodi Grand Prix Junior with To dråper vann and scored their first Top-10 hit. Three years later they released their debut album and scored a string of hits in Norway and Sweden. Second album in 2016 spread the success to Finland, Denmark and Poland. Third album cam...