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 winners.  Mia Martini (1947-1995) and Libera  (Free) were internally chosen by Rai and Martini was in the 1970's by far the most popular and successful female artist delivering hit after hit and participating and winning several contest and festivals. Sadly Libera wasn't the most memorable one and landed only 13th out of 18 at the Eurovision. But she would come back later and cement her iconic status among the fans. Sanremo having its darkest years was won by Homo Sapiens and Bella da morire .  Mia's career come to a stop in 1983 when she was considered to bring bd luck and was forced to quite the music scene by her colleagues and music industry. (Only in Italy......) It took seven years but in 1989 she managed to make a triumphant...

Eurovision throwback! New series. I will present and comment here the contests of yesteryears picking up four songs from each year (or more). Not the ones I think are the best (now) but the songs that throwback memories when I see them in the participation list. Of course mostly they're my favorites at the time, songs that I have loved. Some have aged well, some... well, not so well.   Before 2020, the 1977 edition of Eurovision has been propably the most troubled one. The contest was postponed thanks to BBC's strike, the native language rule returned but only after Belgium and Germany had already chosen their songs (in English), the voting was interrupted several times due to errors, there were no postcards...  This was also the first ESC held in May. Pink was the color as besides white and black (and Marie Myriam's yellow) it seemed to be the only other color (some ugly marrow is spotted on occasion, too). BBC tried some camera effects (Monaco) and the contest ...

Who is Mercy? Read her story here What is the best way to overcome jetlag but watch some Eurovision? The French final took place last night and took quite a long time but was rather entertaining show anyways as far as I can recall while dozing off a few times ;-p  Each of the finalists performed twice, first with a guest star and then their entry. In the end the international jurors gave out their points before the televoters votes were added, and the voting did keeep up the drama til the end. The international jurors votes went all over the place but in the end Madame Monsieur scored big with the televoters and jumped from the juries 3rd place to a win. Worth noting is Eurovision General Christer Björkman gave them only 2 points underlining what I was thinking myself: Mercy is a lovely atmospheric song, very chich and elegant, very French and I do like it a lot but.... will European televoters get it or will it be lost in the crowd? My guess is it will do a lot poore...

  Finland celebrates its 100th year as an independent state and has ever since searched for its place in Europe and the world, between East and West. Sometimes with less success. As we speak in 1939 we were at war again with Soviet Union but - let's make a huge change of subject here -  since 1961 Finland has been taking part in the Eurovision song contest (and we also took part, and won twice, the copycat contest behind the Iron curtain, Intervision song contest). It may have taken awhile before we won, but it never stopped us taking part. EBU did, in those crazy 1990's-early 2000's. Let's look back in coming days as a countdown to the Big Day some of the most memorable and significant entries from Finland..... Monica Aspelund 's 1977 entry Lapponia is one of the most iconic Finnish entries, and one of those taking a large serving from the mythology with added flavor from Lapland. This is exotism we should have used more often, this blogger thinks. It...

Today's birthday girl is Monica Aspelund who turns 71 today! These days she's still singing, mainly in churches with her sister Ami and studies Hebrew and religious stuff mainly. From Lappish myths and mystics to religion the step is short... Congratulations!

Today we remember the amazing Mia Martini, twice the Italian entrant. Rest in peace.

How have the winners of Eurovision ending with a "7" have been over the decades? Some iconic stuff here really. Let's have a look... 1957 The Netherlands won their first win of many to come shortly. A very clear win (31 points to France's 17) for Corry Brokken and Net als toen In 1967 United Kingdom won with Sandie Shaw 's Puppet on a sting . An evergreen and back then a very uptodate sound. And she was barefoot. Something unheard just years before when the artists were still in tuxedos and evening gawns. And another very clear victory (47 points to Ireland's 22)   In 1977 France won for the last time so far. I'm sure they didn't think it would take this long to win again having used to win every few years really. Marie Myriam 's L'oiseau et l'enfant is one of the most loved Eurovision tunes ever, and for a reason.  In 1987 Johnny Logan . Hold me now . The first ever double winner (and so far only) Do I need to say mo...

Late Mia Martini (born Domenica Berté) entered Sanremo only 1982 after having had already a lot of success in the 1970's, winning Festivalbar twice in a row with Piccolo uomo (1972) and Minuetto (1973). In 1977 she is selected for Eurovision thanks to all her success and sings Libera (13th). Her Sanremo debut comes in 1982 with E non finisce mica il cielo , that becomes a huge success afterwards and is a classic today. To compensate her lack of success in festival's scoreboard a special award is created Premio della Critica (renamed after her death Premio Mia Martini) for her. But things turn sour after that. Among the entertainment business there's a rumor she brings bad luck and many doors close for her for festivals and TV and some people refuse to work with her.  But in 1989 she's back in Sanremo against all odds with another success and classic, Almeno tu nell'iniverso (9th) and she wins again this critic's award as happens the year after when sh...

Remember Kaisa Vala from UMK 2012 who was singing about the habits of human beings and becoming for example this blogger's favorite? She has just released her new album International Shaman . I say new as it's not her first as we all might think, back in 2007 she already released ep Ghost Waltz but who ever head that? It's all in English and she says: "Today's record company politics wanted me to sing in Finnish about little things of everyday life as it's what's been selling a lot recently in Finland but I think there are already many of them around, with all my respect. Every time I talked with record company bosses they all said first they like my music. Then they asked if I could sing in Finnish?" She's also pleased about her participation in UMK 2012: "With our budget it would have been impossible to buy so much promotion time on TV and media. It has only been good for us. Of course I was a bit sad I didn't win but maybe I will ...

The French know how to make great charity singles. Often in these cases with dozens of singers the song itself may get lost and the voices just don't blend together well but this Je reprends ma route flows away like a real song and is very good. Besides it's collecting money for charity and children it features Eurovision names like Marie Myriam, Anggun and Gerard Lenorman along with M.Pokora, Jenifer, Emmanuel Moire, Lââm and Julie Zenatti just to name a few. More information here . 

Out of 32 Italian Eurovision performers only six have been female soloists before Nina Zilli who now becomes the seventh. That's against 17 male soloists, two groups and six duets! Some consolation comes from the fact that two of these six ladies have done it twice. It all started with the first Eurovision in 1956 where Italy, like the other six countries, sent two songs by two female artists who were also the top-2 of Sanremo festival. Franca Raimondi (1932-1988) won Sanremo with Aprite le finestre while Tonina Torrielli came second with Amami se vuoi . Both ladies soon left the show business and Torrielli officially stopped singing in 1965, but has made occasional appearances in nostalgic shows since 2008! Five years later it was time for Betty Curtis (1936-2006), that year's Sanremo winner with Al di là . She remained some what active in the music business until late 1970's and was also seen in nostalgic variety shows on TV in the 2000's.  Three yea...

This is so weird I just have to post it when I found it here (but it's originally from here ): A Charlie's Angel , late Farrat Fawcett covering in 1977 Gigliola Cinquetti's Eurovision 1974 runner up Si' s French version   with some odd French man Jean-Paul Vignon. Further investigation reveals he has played in Star Trek and many other Hollywood movies, TV-series as well as in his native France. He also had some sort of singing career both in France and the US. He had a French father and Italian mother which might explain how he chose this song. How Farrah got involved is not know. Anyways very interesting cover. And not so bad after all, is it?

This is old news as this single was released already in 2010. It was such a success I heard it only now :-).  In some strange way it works though. Monica Aspelund of course did it greatly back in 1977 but these heavy tenors add a new dimension to the song and yes, it should have been a hit, but... Northern Kings are of course Teräsbetoni's Jarkko Ahola, Nightwish's Marco Hietala, Sonata Arctica's Tony Kakko and JP Leppäluoto of Charon and Harmaja. Four great voices doing covers of all sort of songs for fun when not too busy with their own bands. They might have been busy lately as their latest album is from 2008 and this Lapponia is their latest release. But there's a rumour they are planning their third album with original material. Eurovision 2012 anyone?

If you believe the bookmakers France will win tomorrow night and Marie Myriam is no longer the last French winner, the status she has held the past 34 years. Or will Ireland take its 8th win with those crazy ADHDx2 Jedward? Or will Azerbaijan's money and Swedish product bring them their first victory, only 4 years since their debut? Or is it another Big5 country the United Kingdom? Or will Lena win again? Will Estonia score its second win? Denmark its third? Or Hungary its first making it a double win - they already got the OGAE fan award ... and will Finland beat Sweden tomorrow in Eurovision and the day after in the final of the Ice Hockey World cahmpionships? :-) This is the bookmakers top-10 less 24 hours before the final: France, Ireland, Azerbaijan, United Kingdom, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Hungary, Finland, Sweden. It's remarkable the west and Big5 are definatelyclaming back their crown as Azerbaijan is the only tipped new country from the east. See west; all you nee...

A new compilation Altro che il cielo will be released next Tuesday December 7, 2010 by late Mia Martini. Most of the songs are live recording from her 1989-90 tours, after her great comeback. Most of the songs are written for her by, or covers of great Italian songwriters like Francesco De Gregori, Ivano Fossati, Pino Daniele, Paolo Conte and Claudio Baglioni. Included is also Paolo Conte's Spaccami il cuore , a song that was written for her and snobbed by the Sanremo jury and didn't make it to the festival in 1983. The song was later covered by Miriam Makeba ft Dizzy Gillespie as Don't break my heart . There are also cover of Randy Newman's It's money that I love and even Pround Mary , Tina Turner's classic. And as an icing on the cake two previously unreleased tracks from early 1980's: Signorina and Amore mio (amore bello, amore assurdo) . Her Eurovision entries Libera (1977) and Rapsodia (1992) are not included.  Here's the full track list: Danza...

We all know by now that Lena's Satellite is in the charts all over the place from Australia to Austria, but did you know it is only the 7th Eurovision winner that hits #1 in Finland? And for the first time two Eurovision winners in a row make it? (Well, I personally think one can't compare today's digital charts to those good old days when you had to go and buy the physical single but that's another story....). Germany is also the only country that has managed to make two of its winners #1's in Finland and it took her only 5 days while it took 3 weeks for Rybak last year...  Anyways, between 1971-1984 all the winners were charting in Finland, and with one exception all of them also made the top-10. The biggest of them all is though France's last winner L'oiseau et l'enfant by Marie Myriam as the song also charted in two different Finnish cover versions, by Katri Helena and Merja Rantamäki .  Here are all the Eurovision winner number ones in Finland: ...

This day, May 12, in 1995 or 15 years ago Mia Martini died alone. She was found dead in her apartment only two days later. Incredible artist with a very eventful life with its ups and downs. We all remember Rapsodia , her second Eurovision entry but so many songs were left unrecorded, amongst them a duet with Mina and this Attimo x attimo , later then recorded by Anna Tatangelo. Some of her most memorable recordings include jewels like  Minuetto , Almeno tu nell'universo , E non finisce mica il cielo , Donna , Piccolo uomo , La nevicata del '56 and my personal favourite Cu'mme that gives me the shivers everytime she enters the stage....

We all know Monica Aspelund and Lapponia . But not much of her is heard since early 1980's when she moved to Florida with her son after divorce. She did return for the musical Cats in Helsinki in 1986, and 1997 she performed with her sister Ami. She's been singing on Caribian cruise ships and doing jazz and evergreen gigs in Florida. But guess what? She has moved back to Finland and is slowly starting her career here again. She has already some projects - again with Ami - and is looking at her options. She also rethinks about her past: "If I had stayed in Finland after Cats I may have gotten other musical roles. Also I should have maybe invest more on the Swedish market when I was younger. But my music is more jazz-oriented than pop. But it's in the past, can't think about it now. In a way I feel like I'm in the starting point again, it's very exciting! Luckily my voice is still good, actually better than ever " And you may not know that we have had on...

January 22, 1977 the Euroviisut final was won clearly by Monica Aspelund's Lapponia . She already tried the Lapland exotic the year before with Joiku without success. The voting started well in Wembley, too, when the first, Irish, jury gave her 12 points! Until then it was the first ever time Finland was leading alone and sadly the last 12 we ever got until Lordi.... In the end she got 50 points and 10th place. She recorded the song in various languages and the instrumental version by Paul Mauriat was a minor hit, too. French . Multilingual 2003 .

A park in Rome has been named after Mia Martini today, 14 years after her death. The park is situated along Via Domenico Modugno in 13th district of Rome. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GmRRYSiKew