Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Alice debuted in Sanremo (under her real name Carla Bissi) in 1972 without success, returned in 1981 and won it. That started a internationally successful pop career all the way to Eurovision 1984 with Franco Battiato. After that her music changed, she abandoned the search for hits and spotlight on festivals and television. Her label didn't like that very much though. She got her wish to publish a special album God is my DJ of sacred music and sacred in music only by agreeing to do Sanremo 2000 and a compilation album Personal Jukebox of new versions of her hits. Il giorno dell'indipendenza placed 11th. She has returned to semi-pop oriented music in her 2021 and 2014 albums, and has toured and released an album of Battiato's songs in 2022-23 after his death. 

Indonesian born Sandra Reemer aka Xandra has died at the age of 66 in Amsterdam. She represented the Netherlands three times at the Eurovision song contest; 1972 with Andres and Als het om de liefde gaat , 1976 with The party's over and in 1979 with Colorado . She died of breast cancer after being diagnosed earlier this year.... 

Kim Floor turns 69 today. Congratulations! Sadly his Eurovision 1972 companion Päivi Paunu passed away in December last year. Kim has made a career in the movies and television afterwards hosting a quiz show

It has been a very sad year for Eurovision Finland this 2016. After Lasse Mårtensson (ESC 1964) and Riki Sorsa (ESC 1981) also Päivi Paunu (ESC 1972) passed away a couple of days ago. Of cancer like so many others. Considering before this year all but two Finnish stars were alive ( Laila Kinnunen ESC 1961 and Kirka ESC 1984) now we have lost already five.  Päivi Paunu made a name in folk circuit in Helsinki suburbs in the early 1960's, and soon she was in recording studio and her first single and album were released in 1966. Two years later she scored a megahit with Oi, niitä aikoja and she was co-starring two big summer tours in the late 1960's. Slowly her musical styled became more schlager-pop. Her singing career faded away when she started studying but she continued singing in the girlgroup Mirumaru in the early 1980's and doing some occasional small private concerts. She's also related to the famous Von Hertzen Brothers - she was their uncle's wife...

This day, March 25 Edínbourgh's Usher Hall hosted the Eurovision song contest back in 1972. Greek Vicky Leandros won for Luxembourg with her, now a classic and evergreen, Après toi ahead of the UK entry Beg, steal or borrow and Germany's  Nur die Liebe läßt uns leben and 15 other songs.  Vicky Leandros already participated in 1967 and finished 4th with L'amour est bleu , another classic. She recorded her winning entry also in English , Italian , German , Spanish , Greek and Japanese , and several other languages versions were made all over Europe, and the covers keep coming to this day.

Happy birthday Alice!  She turns 58 today, believe it or not! Her new album Samsara sits nicely at #1 in digital downloads 7digital.it  and she's doing PR in Italy while preparing for a tour first in Italy, then in Europe. By clicking that #1 slot in the charts you can listen snippets of all the songs in her album. meanwhile here's pretty fantastic, self penned Orientamento . Update 27.9.2012: In the official FIMI charts of the physical sales she enters the chart at #10!                               And her new website is finally online, too. Here . 

Eurovision related artists keep releasing new songs and this time we have Nikki Ponte's Remembering summer nights , her follow up to her Greek Eurovision wannabe I don't wanna dance . Scooter already teamed up with Matia Bazar's Antonella Ruggiero in Ti sento and now Vicky Leandros gets the treatment with L'amour est bleu aka C'est bleu . Another Eurovision winner Dana International visits Subliminal in their Alay . Aurela Gce teamed with MC Kresha earlier this year in Ca$h with its rather futuristic video. Not bad, all four of them!

Alice was supposed to have released her new and 17th studio album by now but today in her Facebook she reveals it will only come out in March 2012. She will finish the recording by the end of November and then starts the mixing and finishing it and also preparation for the PR. Or could it be she is returning to Sanremo for the fourth time, 40 years after her debut in Teatro Ariston in 1972? This new album will feature new songs wirtten by herself, Franco Battiato, Tiziano Ferro and Di Martino amongst others and is her first one with original songs since Exit in 1995! After that she has released four albums but covers, new versions and live versions of her songs. Alice in Sanremo: 1972 Il mio cuore se ne va , 1981 Per Elisa , 2000 Il giorno dell'Indipendenza

The results show for Euroviisut 1972 was held in YLE's studios in Helsinki. The songs were presented a week before and people voted with postcards. Nearly 70.000 arrived and the winner Muistathan got 1/3 of them. But the winner was no surprise to anyone as the results leaked days before. But funny fact is that even the singers themselves critizised the result and didn't believe in their chances in Edinburg. So they decided to use their looks and wardrobe to get noticed. Päivi was a popular singer at the time but Kim was unknown actor student who accepted to sing just to earn some money. Suddenly in Edinburg the journalists liked the song and spirits were a bit higher. However BBC told them not to look too sexy on stage, it's a family programme after all! 78 points and 12th was way better than we expected....

In the 1970’s Ralph Siegel starts his Eurovision adventure as well as scores hits by many artists. In 1972 he gets two songs to the German final: Edina Pop ’s Meine Liebe will ich Dir geben and Andrian Wolf ’s Mein Geschenk a n Dich . He doesn’t win yet but then in 1974 he gets to Eurovision when Ireen Sheer sings Bye bye I love you for Luxembourg and places fourth. Meanwhile he has also had his first superhit, Rex Guildo ’s Fiesta Mexicana. A year after he tries again in Germany with Peggy March ’s Alles geht voruber . Still no win but his record company is doing well and he produces hits to many artists including Udo Jurgens . One of them was Penny McLeane ’s Lady Pump that topped the charts all over Europe . In America he gets his first #1 hits when Silver Convention ’s Fly Robin fly and Get up and boogie top the charts. In Germany he hits it big with Peter Alexander . In 1976 he finally wins the German selection with Les Humbries Singers singing Sing sang song tha...

March 25, 1972 BBC hosted the Eurovision in Edinbourg after the French TV refused to collaborate with Monaco that didn't have a suitable venue or technics to host the show. One third of the entries were sung by male-female duets (all ending in the bottom of the list). Ireland tried for the first - and last - time Irish as the language. Familiar names Mary Roos, Sandra Reemer and Greek born Vicky Leandros (Luxembourg) who already came 4th in 1967 with a worldhit L'amour est bleu . Now she took revenge with a classic Aprés toi. Malta made a record: it came last with its debut and the second time round it happened again. Also Portugal, Austria, Monaco and Lithuania have started their Eurovision history with a last place but Malta did it twice in a row! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0Ar-YiiPFs , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD4ib9-laGY