Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Serbia's Pesma za Evroviziju'25 came to an end tonight and went on apparently smoothly despite al the hassle around it, and Serbia's anti-corruption and student protests. Read more at the bottom of the page. Princ took home the victory with Mila after the voting were televotes and jury votes went all over the place. But I am pleased, Mila was one of my favorites even if I'm not fully convinced of its structure but it has its moments and sticks to your head. Good to have a rreal balcan ballad with melody among all the other entries we will have in Basel! Princ aka Stefan Zdravković (31) was already runner up in 2023 with Cvet za Istoka is also Serbian karate champion and a philologist by profession, graduated from the Department of Scandinavian Languages, Literature and Culture, Norwegian Language, at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. Princ sings, plays the guitar and drums. Since 2016, he has been the lead singer of the band Sisyphus. He has also done mu...

Last year Croatia's reserve song of Dora 2024 swept to victory and conquered Europe finishing second in Eurovision so HRT is facing YLE like pressure this year. YLE may have stumbled ( check out most streamed songs in Finland 2024 ) a bit in the end but Croatia is still riding high in hopes as a new record number of entries was submitted, 221, and these 24 made the cut - and four reserves, better keep eye on those, too, should someone withdraw or be disqualified or something! And indeed, two entries have been disqualified and two reserve entries enter the game, Swingers and Fenksta! Among the artists as usual some familiar names from Luka Nižetić to Marko Bošnjak and Eurovision 1995 veterans Magazin with 45 years of experience and career, but the lead singer has changed. And oui, there's a song i French in the mix.  There will be two semi-finals and the grand final on March 2, 2025.. Below is my usual first time hearing ranking. Nothing really bad here in my opinion and taste b...

Australia has revealed it has chosen internally Go-Jo with his song Milkshake man for Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel. He states: “The Milkshake Man’s purpose is to inspire people to embrace the loudest and proudest version of themselves, and I can’t think of a better place to share that message than the Eurovision stage! It’s an absolute dream come true to represent such a beautiful and diverse nation, and I've never been more excited to share my art and vision with the incredible Eurovision fans around the world!” Marty Zambotto (35) aka Go-Jo rose to a global fame and streaming platforms with his previous hit song Mrs.Hollywood. The Sydney based singer-songwriter, producer can play guitar and unicycle at the same time, has 1,4 million followers on TikTok and other social medias. He's been releasing music since 2016.  Enjoy below some of his previous songs:

Serbia's national final Pesma za Evroviziju returns in 2025 and goes on as usual: 30 songs in two semi-finals of 15 while eight from each will reach the grand final. The dates are February 25 and 26, and grand final on February 28, 2025. Two disqualifications after making the list public this year.... I did my usual first time listening ranking and sadly even Serbia kinda lets me down this year - nothing to get really exited about. Oh how I remember 2007 selection for example, so many goodies but when I heard Molitva I said to myself if this wins in Serbia it will win it all. And it did. Rightly so. Fantastic song. But since then music has changed overall all over the place: less melodies, emotion, heartfelt work instead of cold hard songwriting camp nonsense with fancy beats and sounds rather than real melodies. Or maybe I'm just old, I don't know.  Semi-final One - February 25, 2025 Bojana x David – Šesto čulo   ***  FINALIST Igor Simić – Ne mogu  ** Vampiri – Te...

Una voce per San Marino no more, it's San Marino song contest now. Also the original final date of February 22 has been postponed to March 8, 2025 with semi-final from 13th to 15th of February 2025. And behind all that a new deal with Italian broadcaster Rai that is the Big brother of SMRTV. And... the final was deemed too close to that of Sanremo so will that suggest there will be chances some Sanremo entries end up in San Marino Song contest line up like Loredana Bertè did last year? Time will tell.... The season started as usual with the endless selections and auditions rounds already in September. The submissions came from all across the globe from 48 countries (over 150 from Spain alone!), among them some usual ones but also again the previous Albanian Eurovision veteran, namely Besa. But not only as also Spanish Eurovision veteran, twice, Serafin Zubiri features in audition lists. As does Andrea Brosio, 3rd in The Voice of Finland 2017 and the winnner of All Stars season 2021...

After two semi-finals Iceland had its Söngvakeppnin final with six qualifiers from those. As a change to previous years there were no wild card and no super final round but only 50/50 jury/televote. One thing didn't change: All songs were performed in Icelandic in semi-finals but for the final they could choose either Icelandic or English version of the song or the version they intended to perform in Basel should they win. Read more here . Last year's winner (and also 2010 Eurovision veteran Hera Björk was a guste star with Finland's own Eurovision runner up Käärijä with Swedish Hooja. Final results (jury/televote): Væb - Róa ( 74 + 93) 167 Stebbi Jak - Set me free (57 + 85) 142 Júlí and Dísa - Fire (63 + 74) 137 Bjarni Arason -  Aðeins lengur (44 + 39) 83 Tinna -  Words (53 + 22) 74 Ágúst -  Like you (45 + 23) 68

As Olly has decided not to use his ticket to Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel after winning Sanremo with Balorda nostalgia the right and honor goes to runner up Lucio Corsi and maybe now it's time to say I'm pleased after all. I never quite connected with Balorda nostalgia and Olly without autotune... I'm not so sure how that would have sounded in the end. Lucio Corsi's song is very pleasant, his look memorable and all in all he provokes some sort of tenderness and will to like him. He's just Luco as he says, nothing less, nothing more. Lucio (31) may have been pretty unknown to great public and certainly not a household name before Sanremo, I for one had never ever heard of him before, but he's been doing music that mixes glamrock, fairytale themes and surreal lyrics since 2011 already. He has released four albums so far and the fifth one is coming in the end of March 2025. Add to EPs and eight singles, but 16 music videos.  On top of that he's been G...

It was in the air and now it's real: Olly doesn't go to Eurovision. He explains on his social medias:  "I've been asking myself and asking everyone's opinions for days, the answer is always the same: "in the end you have to do what you feel", because everyone knows how much it means to me to be myself, always. Well, I don't think you would be sad if I moved concerts for Eurovision, but I firmly believe that I need to connect with everything that is happening to me, before looking even further ahead, before continuing with my beloved live apprenticeship that I always talk about with infinite pride. I have therefore decided to give up the opportunity to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, with the awareness that it is one of those things that maybe only happen once in a lifetime. I thank those who voted for me and gave me the opportunity to have this privilege: I hope to see you soon at one of my concerts to reciprocate all the love I'm rece...

Portugal sticks to its already familiar selection system and Festival da Canção, A total of 633 submission were made for the open call songs and six were selected along with the 14 invited composers. As always, the composers have free hands to pick up an artist and a song. As usual there are two semi-final (on February 22 and March 1) and the grand final on March 8, 2025. The composers were announced early November and the artists and song titles later. Invited composers - who in most cases ended up performing themselves their song. It's good to hear Portugal still goes on its own path and musical style with very few exceptions to the rule. Then there's Henka milking the Käärijä/Bambie Thug thing - but I cenrtainly don't wish to hear a song like this from Portugal of all places -  and Emmy Curl going all musical while Bombazine takes us to nostalgic trip to 70's disco.  The voting in semi-finals is 50/50 jury/televote + one more added by televote only. A Cantadeira - Re...

In this page you can find all chosen artists and songs in respective posts and all the information on selection process and national finals.  Internal selections: September 2:   Cyprus: Theo Evan  March 11: December 11: Czech Republic: Adonxs   March 7: Kiss kiss goodbye December 19: the Netherlands - Claude February 27: C'est la vie January 30: Austria - JJ March 6: Wasted love January 30: France - Louane March 15: Sur le Mercure February 4: Azerbaijan - Mamagama February 19: Run with U February 25: Australia - Go-Jo February 25: Milkshake man March 5:  Zoë Më March 10: March 7: Remember Monday What the hell just happened? Georgia National finals: November 27: Montenegro   Montenegro2 Dobrodosli December 22: Albania , Shkodra Elektronika  Zjerm January 22: Israel    Yuval Raphael March 9: New day will rise January 25:  Luxemburg   Laura Thorn La poupée monte la son January 30: Greece   Klavdia  Asteromata February 1...