Erika Vikman returns and is The One to Beat this year. Fandom and public has waited for her return since Cicciolina didn't win in 2020 and she's been present in UMK multiple times in a way or another since: Opening act with Antti Tuisku in 2021 and 2024 interval act with Käärijä.
Eerika started her career in tango circuit, a very popular music genre in Finland, by winning Tangojunior in 2008. More talent shows followed and she also acted in tv drama series 2009-10. The year after she starred in a musical and in 2013 tried her luck in Idols placing seventh (ahead of her UMK veteran Zuhlke and international pop star Alma btw). Her big breakthrough came however in 2016 when she won Tangomarkkinat and was crowned the Tango Queen. The year after she starred in reality tv-series Iholla.
In 2020 she dropped her tango singer image and launched the raunchy slutty pop diva with usually double sensed lyrics and humor with Cicciolina winning the televote in UMK but the juries didn't buy her and placed her only 3rd and overall she came second. Later that year she was the Bee in Masked Singer and placed 3rd in the final. In 2022 she was one of the artists in Vain elämää, where artists get together to talk about themselves and cover each others songs.
Her romance with Danny (82) - one of the biggest Finnish stars since mid 1960's and last took part in the national selection in 2021, his 9th attempt - in 2016-2018 caused quite a gossip before they separated ways.
She has released her debut album in 2021 (#1) and ICH KOMME will be her 17th single. Four top-10 hits under belt including #1 with Käärijä she's ready to launch a new style apparently with the change of production team that is now ROOS+BERG aka none other than Chisu and her hubby Jori Sjöroos.
Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!
Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?
Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further? No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )
Eurovision song contest 2005 winner Helena Paparizou has been enjoying Top-5 hits every year since 2003 with the exception of 2010 and 2014, this latest one being already her 27th! And Haide is charting also in Bulgaria and Finland, of all places. The catchiness of her hits has changed less over the years than her face.... Here's the English version , below the Greek version.
Tim Schou has a pretty good solo career going since he left his friends in London. He's travelling the world and relesing songs and videos. The latest one is a great track and comes with a steamy video that kinda takes away from the song really. But who's complaining. If you got it, flaunt it. Enjoy the video below. This post coming after the other Dane, Rasmus Seebach as wishlist for Eurovision. To think about it, Tim would do nicely, too. Maybe he should give it another go?
Serbian Bojana Stamenov hasn't been having beauty sleeps while prepairing for Vienna. She has just released a new proper video replacing the previous fans featuring beauty video , right after she has given us Spanish ( El mundo bajo mis pies ) and French ( Le monde est à moi ) versions of the song! And an Autobahn remix that is kinda fabulous! Busy girl! PS. I still think the original Ceo svet je moj takes the prize! Oh WAIT! There's yet another version: Die ganze Welt is mein ! And that's something else ....
This is my maybe favourite song from Sanremo 2025. Brunori was a familiar name to be beforehand but I wasn't so familiar with his music but L'albero delle noci hit home with the first hearing. Great artist, beautiful melody and lyrics, no gimmicks. But I never believed he'd end up 3rd overall and I was even more surprised when he told he would do Eurovision without a moment of hesitation and actually wanted to win because of that! And along with Lucio Corsi a great new artist for me to discover and like! The video btw stars his family, wife and daughter.....
So it happened as I suspected: Nelli Matula scored the biggest radio hit from UMK2025 staying already at #1 for the 5th week when writing this. And no wonder, Hitaammin hautaan was also my favourite right away when released. As a song, not necessarily for Eurovision though even if I would be very happy if this was our entry as I am with Ich komme and would have been with Made of....
Malta offered some goodies this year. If the general fandom went for songs like Kant and Heaven sent I went for Għażliet and Qalb ma' Qalb instead. Where as the twins showed some lack of experience on stage good old Dario with his sparkle in the eye shone with Zeppi and did very well considering it was just a reserve song. And yes, I am very happy it made the line up, my favourite by far!
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