Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Before all the fans start moaning about the ticket prices for Eurovision let's have a look what the tickets to Sanremo festival cost. Maybe you'll be happy with whatever EBU and NTU offer after.... The single night tickets cost either 100 or 180 euro depending which part of the Teatro Ariston you are seated. That's for the first four nights; the final costs 320 and 660 euro. But to get these you should line up in the box office at the theater day by day.... If you want to buy the full five day package that's 672 or 1 290 euros. And no funny business with the tickets as they are all printed out with your name and date and place of birth, and you need to prove your identity with the ticket so you can't just give it to someone else once you have it.  The ticket sales start here on January 10, 2017 if you are tempted..... But remember the number of tickets is very limited as the theater is filled with industry people, RAI people, people from Sanremo town...

Teddy Scholten, the 1959 Eurovision song contest winner with Een beetje for the Netherlands has died at the age of 83.  She's the fifth Eurovision winner to pass away after Grethe Ingman (1963), Jean Claude Pascal (1961), Frida Boccara (1969) and André Claveau (1958).

After last night's elimination of Toto Cutugno, Nino D'Angelo and Pupo & co 12 songs are in the running at this point. Tonight they will perform again and the jury will again drop two of them and the ten remaining songs will go directly to the fourth night. Five of the Nuova Generazione will also perform and only two of them will go on to the final on Friday night. The jury is 50% musicians of the orchestra in Teatro Ariston and 50% televote. Queen Rania of Jordania, actress Michelle Rodriguez, group of three tenors Gianluca, Ignazio and Piero will also perform. And on top of all that the dancers from Moulin Rouge de Paris will be there... The first night of the festival was watched by in average by some 11 million Italians or 45% share and generally seems to getting a good critic. The show even ended before 1 o'clock at night! Susan Boyle charmed and Dita von Teese teased and several names are mentioned as a possible winner so the race is still open. Tonight's Nuo...

Eurovision makes a round of news in Italy again when Pippo Baudo (host of 13 Sanremos being also the musical director of most of them) in a talk show furiously attacks Eurovision praising Sanremo. He also proved he is completely out of touch with the reality of Eurovision saying "it has no success. It is just trash made for German TV!" when we can compare Sanremo to Eurovision: last year Sanremo was broadcasted live besides Italy only in Albania and Kosovo, while Eurovision gathered 122 million viewers all around the world. Alexander Rybak entered top-10 in iTunes in most European countries hitting number one in several. He even entered the Italian one. Who has heard the winning song from Sanremo 2009 raise your hand now! No one. Thought so. He also insist of calling it "Eurocanzone" or Eurosong while the commonly known name in Italy for Eurovision is Eurofestival. Then he goes on telling "German TV produces only programmes for idiots" One can only think t...

Enrico Ruggeri has taken a new step in his career. He is hosting a TV-series in Italia1 channel about mysteries. The first episode dealed with the end of the world, aliens (with an interview of a woman who claims she was kidnapped by the them) and Egyptian mummies. In the second he dealed amogst others afterlife.... More absurd paranormal and supernatural things and mysteries of all sorts in forthcoming six episodes... I rather listen to his winning Sanremo entry, also titled Mistero .

Samantha Fox is back with a new single Tomorrow and a new album is coming, too. She gained fame as page 3 girl and huge booms, turned into a singer and scored 3 top-10 hits in 1986-1988: Touch me , Do ya do ya and Nothing's gonna stop me now , and made it big also with a Dusty Springfield cover I only wanna be with you . She has already participated in the UK selection in 1995 with Go for the heart as a girlband Sox, and also teamed up with Melodifestivalen participant Gunther in a remake of Touch me in 2004. Other twists of career include coming out as lesbian (actually in Finland it was when it was discovered in sauna with her female manager and... well, never mind!) and new born Christian. Her latest album, release is from 2005 when Angel with an attitude was released in Canada. She has also had time to do a Bollywood movie and various reality TV shows like Celebrity Wife swap. In the making is also a Blondie cover Call me with another star with boobs and 80's rival ...

BOB has been playing together since 2008 but the various members have been palying together or separately in different bands since 1998. The members are Kimmo Blom (vocals), Pekka Rautio (guitars), Teijo Jämsä (drums) and Janne Antikainen, whose parents Jarkko & Laura sung for Finland in ESC 1969! Teijo Jämsä also has Eurovision connection: he played with Russian Natalia Podolskaya in ESC 2005. For me they are completely unknown as a band.

Matia Bazar won Sanremo for the 2nd time with their 10th participation with Messaggio d'amore but as the band has been through several member changes including the lead singer only the drummer Giancarlo Golzi is left from the original and Eurovision band back in 1979. The singer in this period was Silvia Mezzanotte following Antonella Ruggiero and Laura Valente. The real revelation is however Alexia, the runner up with her Dimmi come (there's also an English version Don't you know ). She followed Spagna's steps and switched from europop in English to pop in Italian with a success and one can only note she was completely wasted singing that europop: she has a huge voice! And would have been such a great Eurovision act as well being already well known all over Europe if Matia Bazar for some reason wasn't willing to do a bis. Ex-Eurovision artists Fausto Leali and Enrigo Ruggeri did well being 4th and 5th. Also Alessandro Safina was there. I have always thought h...

Antonino takes the main award in the Golden Stag or Cerbul de Aur. He is the winner of 2005 edition of Amici, an Idol like talent show in Italy. The Marker from Romania came second and Ovi from Norway third. Ovi we remember of course from the Norvegian Eurovision national final this year. Glen Vella from Malta won the jury's award. The other Eurovision artists like Laura from Finland and Roberto Meloni from Latvia return home empty handed. Watch the videos . here. And here is Laura performing The Balcan girls , the Romanian entry this year. 

The biggest stars in Italy have united in to record a song called Domani (Tomorrow) . All profits go to save the culture in Abruzzo region through Salviamo la cultura in Abruzzo organisation, distroyed by the earthquake earlier this year. The song was recorded on April 21 in Milan. More charity events to support and help the people of Abruzzo are planned, including all female cast concert organized by Laura Pausini in San Siro stadium in Milan this summer. Here's the list of the artists taking part on this record: Afterhours, Niccolò Agliardi, Albano , Alioscia, Malika Ayane, Claudio Baglioni, Franco Battiato , Baustelle, Samuele Bersani, Bluvertigo, Caparezza, Luca Carboni, Caterina Caselli, Carmen Consoli, Cesare Cremonini, Vittorio Cosma, Dolcenera, Elio e le Storie Tese, Elisa, Niccolò Fabi, Fabri Fibra, Giusy Ferreri, Tiziano Ferro, Eugenio Finardi, Frankie Hi Energy, Giorgia, Gianluca Grignani, J.Ax, Jovanotti, Ligabue, Mango, Gianni Maroccolo, Marracash, Gianni Morandi , Mo...

Also on March 29 the most confusing Eurovision night was held, in 1969 in Teatro Real in Madrid. France, Spain, the Netherlands and United Kingdom all ended up with 18 points and as there were no rules for the situation they were all winners, to the disbelief of the presenters and audience present. Later this caused a lot of talk and discontent and in 1970 many countries stayed home as a protest and the rules were changed that there could never again be joint winners. Eurovision was in serious trouble and crisis. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7iD7K2lQZU , http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sifsSxlPuc, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFrpVKZ683M , http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG57O5kFkv8

Iva Zanicchi (68) returns to Sanremo as a singer for the 10th time. In 1969 she represented Italy in Eurovision with Due grosse lacrime bianche (13.) and she's also the female singer who has won Sanremo most times (3). She has toured South America, given concert in Madison Square Garden in New York, she was the first Italian singer to tour Soviet Union, she has written two books, hosted TV shows and is since May 2008 a member of European Parliament. 1965 I tuoi anni piú belli (-) 1966 La notte del addio (7.) 1967 Non pensare a me (1.) 1968 Per vivere (-) 1969 Zingara (1.) 1970 L'arca di Noé (3.) 1974 Ciao cara come stai? (1.) 1984 Chi (mi dará) (9.) 2003 Fossi un tango (20.) 2009 Ti voglio senza amore (?) Besides singer she has been involved in Sanremo also in 1977 with Arrivederci padre (guest star), in 1979 with Pronto 113 (guest star), 2000 in quality jury and 2005 as critic. Watch her in Eurovision 1969 in Madrid here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gIiGg--8Tw