Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winner s. Massimo Ranieri (70) got his first shot at Eurovision thanks to winning Canzonissima and his L'Amore é un attimo placed 5th out of 18.  Read about him and  his less fortunate second time here .  Sanremo was won by Nicola Di Bari with Il cuore é uno zingaro , but he had to wait another year for Eurovision though. 

Markku Ato (67) has been awarded this year's Iskelmä-Finlandia, aka the most prestigious award for the "schlager"  music. Aro is still very active touring Finland and entertaining people with his songs and making them to dance. His most succesful years were the 1970's what comes to recording amd making hits but his absense from the charts doesn't mean he hasn't been working:  "This is the first award I ever get. I have had ups and downs in my career but I have never been out of gigs. I have always kept high profile live and have been on the road with my a´band all these decades. People want to hit the dance floor and dance. That's still the real thing, where you can meet real people. It's not all online and in social medias. Ending the career will be difficult. I have spent sleepless nights thinking how to do it with grace. Maybe I will never stop singing but continue doing private gigs and concerts, instead of touring the dance halls...

Markku Aro turns 67 today, congratulations! Markku was a teenage hearthtrob back in the day when he represented Finland in the Eurovision 1971 with Tie uuteen päivään with Koivistolaiset. He also scored a nice 8th place (out of 18).  He has releaed over 20 albums and he's still touring and performing regularly. His gig calendar has nearly 30 gigs between February and April 2017. Way to go, Markku!

Hanna Pakarinen is releasing her new album Synnyin elän kuolen (I was born I live I die) next September 9 and it's a cover album of late Carola's songs (not the Swedish one but the Finnish one). Carola scored hits also with covers back in the day and one of the biggest ones was the Eurovision 1971 winner Un banc, un armbre, une rue for Monaco and it is the second single off the album, titled in Finnish  Penkki, puu ja puistotie . The first single was Herrojen kanssa pellonlaidassa . But before that her fans have a chance to relisten all the songs she has ever recorded solo (with the new album they are already 77) live on webstream and Periscope on her Facebook page every Tuesday. All new acoustic live versions with guitarist Jaakko Kääriäinen. 

April 3, 1971 Dublin's Gaiety Theater hosted the 16th Eurovision song contest. 18 countries were taking part when Austria, Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden returned from their protest withdrawel the year before, and Malta debuted. That year's new thing was the previews; each country was required to show them. Belgium had a lot of drama when singer Nicole of Nicole & Hugo fell ill days before the final and were quickly replaced by Lily Castel & Jacques Raymond - something that is strictly forbidden in the rules these days. I guess today the artist would be just drugged enough to go and try to sing for 3 minutes and that's it. Kortisone shots anyone? Monaco scored their first and only win - and declined to host the year after - with a 100% French act. Séverine even claims she never set foot in Monaco, but that's not quite true. Her winning entry is a real evergreen. Séverine covered it in four languages and it was covered in many other languages, the Fin...

Pyhä Unplugged has become a very popular music event since it's debut in 1998. Over the years dozens of front line artists have performed their own songs and covers with the Pyhä houseband SYY. Now for the first time they will also release an album due September 14. Amongst the artists we have Paula Koivuniemi, Irina, Laura Voutilainen-Pave Maijanen duo and Hanna Pakarinen. And the good news is one of the two songs Hanna has recorded for the album is none other than Penkki, puu ja puistotie aka Un banc, un ambre, une rue or the Eurovision 1971 winner for Monaco.

Katja Ebstein (66) holds a record in the Eurovision history no one is very likely to break anytime soon: she has been in top-3 three times never winning! Now think about that! I'd be rather mad. Her first two attemps in 1970 and 1971 placed her third, and her final one in 1980 made her runner up behind Johnny Logan. Some 30 albums later, work in theater and TV, musicals, cabaret, books, politics and more she is still around even doing Let's dance in 2007. Her latest album Witkiewicz is from 2005 and includes a new version of Wunder gibt es immer wieder .Several compilation albums have been released since. 1970 Wunder gibt es immer wieder (3rd) 1971 Diese Welt (3rd) 1980 Theater (2nd)

The rumour game of who is going to host the 61st Sanremo festival next spring has started full force in Italy. This is one of the main differences with Sanremo and Eurovision: in Eurovision the hosts don't have much space but in Sanremo everything happens around them and they are the show. One can discuss why they still bother having some songs in between but.... Ok, seriously. Sometimes the festival has moved on smoothly and sometimes you have even managed to hear as many as five songs in an hour but... Two Eurovision stars are at the moment considered as main contenders to be the hosts; Gianni Morandi and Massimo Ranieri. Together or separately, and undoubtly with some pretty lady or two. Whether the season is succesful is mainly blamed on the presenter(s), not the songs. Last year Antonella Clerici triumphed but wisely she has said "no" for a bis. Clever lady. Gianni Morandi di Eurovision in 1970 with Occhi di ragazza (8th) and Massimo Ranieri in 1971 with L'amo...

No, not the Swedish one but one of the greatest Finnish singers ever, Carola Standertsköld-Liemola who died this day in 1997 at the age of 56 of Alzheimer's. She started singing in 1962 and soon was scoring big hits like Kielletyt leikit , Nuori tumma , Rakkauden jälkeen   and Mä lähden stadiin together with Lasse Mårtenson, who also penned her first Euroviisut song Ge mig en grabb in 1965. She was back in Euroviisut 1966 with Meren laulu and tried for the third and last time in 1971 with Ei koskaan (with Aarno Raninen). In 1970's she scored other hits like Herrojen kanssa pellonlaidassa , Penkki, puu ja puistotie (Un banc, un ambre, une rue) and Rakastan saavuthan (Aprés toi). She took then a break but returned in the 1980's with two more albums, including hits Sydämeen jäi soimaan blues and Maria, Maria . She had one of the finest voices ever, singing also jazz and blues, chancons like La mamma , and latin influenced material like Agua de beber and  Perfidia and ...

Gaiety Theater in Dublin hosted the 16th Eurovision on April 3, 1971. All the countries that stayed home in 1970 for protest returned, as well as Austria and Malta debuted. Besides the voting there were also other new things: the preview videos were obligatory to all countries and groups/bands were allowed for the first time, too, but only Sweden and Switzerland sent a group. The Swiss one was Peter, Sue and Marc and they would also make another record in Eurovision history: they would participate in all 4 times, singing in a different language every time: 1971 in French, 1976 in English, 1979 in German and finally in 1981 in Italian. Apparently also another record was made that night: Séverine did not sing her winning entry again in the end but a recorded version was seen on TV - and even that cut short. Another oddity was that Séverine, represanting Monaco, had never set her foot in Monaco before the contest, nor was she ever invited there after her victory... and as we know the Eur...