Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Rarely you see such "a star is born" moment and mass hysteria that followed like when only 16 year old Carola (56) won Melodifestivalen 1983 and went to Eurovision for the first time placing third. I was there, in Sweden that night at my aunt's and remember it well. I also went to see her on her summer tour in Sweden that year and it was something else.  But in a decade things went sour and she went from everyone's darling to a religious freak that needed...

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 win ners. Italy returned to Eurovision 1983 after two year's break and now I can only recall how the things went in Finland, as I was already a big fan and followed everything in media with a lot of interest. When the first news and reports were out for the previews they stated that Sanremo winner Tiziana Rivale and Sará quel che sará would be the Italian entry. Photos and all. When it was time to air the previews in television it had changed to Riccardo Fogli and P er Lucia because, according the preview host, Tiziana had been disqualified due to some voting scandal and Rai had enrolled Fogli, who just happened to me in Munich already in studio recording his new album. True or false, I don't know. He had also won Sanremo the year be...

"Se dig omkring, Var det det här vi drömde, drömde Är det någonting, Någonting vi glömde, glömde Har vi en planet fylld av mänsklighet Hela mitt liv har jag försökt att fråga Fråga och få ett svar... " Those lines of lyrics are ones that have burned into my mind like no other, since I heard them one summer night in 1983 as opening number of Carola's summer tour in Sweden. She was still behind the stage and her voice alone gave shivers to the audience listening in silence before exploding the applause and cheers when she entered the stage when the beat came in. Priceless moments.  Of course I knew the song from her debut album that I had listened by then about a half zillion times on vinyl. The song stayed with me and I heard it live again in Helsinki when she was doing concert here in 2015. And now thanks to Zara Larsson she has re-recorded and re-released it as a single due to public demand. Sometimes a simple pop song can go so far..... (And it...

  Ofra Haza. What can I say? I loved her Eurovision entry in 1983 and started following her after that, also exploring her past albums. I liked her pop songs but loved her Yemenite songs album, that later gave her a worldwide stardom with Im nin'alu and Galbi remixes, and the music that followed with strong ethnic vibe. This said, one of my favorite songs of her is Le'orech hayam from early 90's, that has become to me a sort of requiem for her.  If she only was alive and making music I'd still be a devoted fan. Meanwhile I still listen her regularly.  And yes, Im nin'alu was also played in this year's Eurovision song contest opening medley. Open the heaven's gates, indeed. 

Now what can I say? Carola is one of my favorite artists, an ultimate Eurovision Diva and we go back a long time. Flashback summer 1983: I was spending summer at my aunt's in Sweden. And Sweden was all about Carola after her Melodifestivalen win (full marks from each and every jury - for the first and last time ever) and 3rd place in Eurovision (6,1 million Swedes watched her there!!!) with Främling   (fate is I was also in Sweden when the Mello took place and saw it live on tv. However then I was all for runner up Kikki Danielsson's Varför är kärleken röd ...) Her album was the best selling album in Sweden ever (over 1.000.000 copies). She was everywhere, including a Folketspark near Fagersta where I saw her live.  The tour broke all previous records in 24 out of 25 parks. The year after I saw her live in Finland. And again in the years to come . But then Carola, a controversial figure retired after 3-4 years of success and even an album with the BeeGees in the USA to...

  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..... Ami Aspelund and her Fantasiaa restored some Eurovision pride in 1983 after a string of rather disastrous results, and the early 80s Finns were pretty satisfied when also 1984 and 1985 brought us decent results. The song is also remembered thanks t...

The legendary voice of Ofra Haza would have been 60 today...  Instead she's been missing already for 17 years but her voice lives on and forever. 

Carola has released a new song, Til' the end , her first new release since forever it seems. The Voice hasn't been very active in recording studio in the past 3-4 years so a new track is something to joy about. But Christer Björkman, who recently released his autobiography, propably isn't impressed as he says in it Carola's music is uninteresting and that's she's demanding, hard to work with and naive. Like the rest of us he agrees she's vocally like no one else, on league of her own. He describes her as a mix of super professional, always demanding, never boring and always full of surprises, and yet she's like a little 16-year-old girl still in her yellow suit hugging her bible, and mostly leaves Björkman emotionally totally untouched.  To be honest, I must partly agree with Björkman partly. Carola is amazing vocalist and I have been a fan since her breakhtrough in 1983, I have followed her career and bought the albums, saw her live a few times b...

Ami Aspelund turns 64 today. Congratulations! Ami was already a veteran in the Finnish national selection when she finally won in 1983 after being a runner up in 1982 . She also participated several times after ther win scoring a third place again in 1988 . These days she still sings, often with her sister Monica, but the repertoire is more poetic and religious. 

No doubt Carola is one of the finest voices to belt out Christmas songs - and to prove it she has released a new Christmas album Drömmen om julen ( read more here ) but this Christmas she has more gifts to us: a cooking book! It comes with her thoughts about humanity and compassion. She wants to courage us to do good, not only at Christmas time but always and teaches us the art of finding harmony and peace in stressful times. She has created a book fo 60 recipes along with food expert Malin Landqvist. All of them are linked to her life from the recipes her mom used to cook around Christmas, the food she had in the northern mountains when spending Christmases there, the food of the refugees she took into her home and gave them shelter and also goodies from South Africa, the homeland of her adopted daughter Zoe.  Included are also suggestions for Christmas breakfast, New year eve's dinner and for all the advent Sundays. The result is comprehensive, unique and altogether a...

... but hold your horses, it's not a new pop album* but yet another Christmas album. But then again, no one belts out Christmas songs like she does! Drömmen on julen (Christmas dream). This one differs from her previous Christmas albums - especially Jul i Betlehem series that she recorded in Betlehem and had some interesting modern arrangements - being mostly piano and strings driven affair, with new unreleased songs mixed with some classics and even instrumentals. The album is a collaboration between Carola, producer Peter Nordahl (Agnetha Fältskog, Måns Zelmerlöw, Jill Johnson etc), and composer Ulla-Carin Nyqvist.  She will hit the road agai with Drömmen om julen tour, that starts from Stavanger (Norway) on November 16, and continues until December 18 with the final gig in Uppsala.  *Her latest pop album is Från nu till evighet (2006), while her latest album release is the tribute album Elvis, Barbra & jag (2011). In 2014 she recorded cover songs for the t...

The queen of fu**ing everything, Carola turns 50 today! How time flies. This blogger has been a fan since the day one, has all her discography, has seen her several times live in Finland and in Sweden and no matter what she will always be one of my favorite singers. She has provided so much soundtrack for my life, ever since Främling back in 1983, a vinyl LP that was played on repeat and and is all scratches these days (and yes, I do have the CD, and the remastered Främling30 CD as well) and I still know all the songs by heart. Many happy returns and hey, when a new pop album?!

We already know Carola has been several times in Greece, and in the island of Kos especially helping the incoming refugees. She has also helped those who have managed to make their way to Sweden by giving them shelter in her home. She had met those 10 Iraqi and Ugandan christian refugees in Kos and given them her address telling them to look her up if they get to Sweden. One day they were at her door and true to her word she welcomed them to her house.  Now she tells it hasn't all been so easy.  Once she got in trouble by trying to stop some people stealing the incoming boat's engine. Long story short she  managed to get it back from thieves and they got very angry at her. She jumped to her car and was driving away with eight refugees through the village seeking help from the local police. Instead she and those Pakistani refugees were all jailed! The thieves in question who hunted her all the way to the station blamed Carola for taking money from the refugees to he...

Carola kicks of the sumer leg of her Min bästa... tour following the hugely popular and sold out Christmas editions and the best of tour last year. This summer some of the concerts are a joint affair with another Eurovision song contest winner, Månss Zelmerlöw. Are you ready? July 1 - Västerås July 15 - Varberg - with Måns Zelmerlöw July 29 - Lysekil August 3 - Halmstad August 12 - Stenungsund - with Måns Zelmerlöw and Peg Parnevik August 13 - Helsinki (Finland) August 14 - Floda - with Måns Zelmerlöw and Peg Parnevik This blogger enjoyed her show in Kulttuuritalo last year, check out some videos after after the jump... Maybe the best concert ever I attended what comes to atmosphere. Loved it!

Ofra Haza passed away 16 years ago today. Her legacy and her voice live on .  Tell me how do I stop the tears  Tell me where there's a different world to live in  Tell me why there is no truth, only hallucinations  So why try and keep crying now? By the sea  There are no waves there is a world that is  Broken pieces on the dock.  Tell me how to stop the tears  Tell me where there's a different world to live in  When people run into Inferno like into the Sea  I will run into the fire if they will return from there  Along the sea ...  Tell me how you live with death  hide the tears every night, tell me how long  The fire that calls me is not really there  And the one who disappeared,  will he return or he is already dead?  Along the sea .. Tell me how to stop the tears Tell me how 

Carola's Det bästa av mig tour landed helsinki's Kulttuuritalo last night. The venue was sold out and when I looked aroud the crowd before the concert I thought this is going to be one dull evening - mostly middle aged couples. Mostly Finnish speaking. A very few Eurovision fans (those that you see everywhere) and even fewer young people. But how wrong I was! Carola entered the stage with the Orup version of Främling before moving on to Tell me this night is over and by third song, Gatorna tillhör oss she had the audience on their feet, eating from her hand and dancing around. I have never witnessed so many middle aged Finns letting their inner teenager out that way. When she continued with her hits from the early 1980's like Tommy tycker om mig and Mickey I noticed I wasn't the only one knowing stil all the lyrics by heart. Even she noticed that something special was going on and commented from stage "I see this is going to be a very interesting evening!...

Carola hits all the right spots in her new tour, it seems. Critics are predicting another megasuccess for her with it, and the first dates (and Helsinki for example) are already sold out. It's been 32 years since Främling but the song is still actual and it both opens and closes the show. The opening number is the ballad version presented by Orup in Så mycket bättre while the 2013 remix one gets to close the evening in general euphoria. The track list covers all her career from childish Mickey to her Eurovision entries, American adventure and gospel. She also dedicates a big part of it for her covers in Så mycket bättre and makes them all work on stage. And yes, she dives into the public and creates hysteria. Just like the good old days. Even the wildmachine is there, of course! Here is the song list: Främling (Orup version), Tell me the night is over , Gatorna tillhör oss , Tommy tycker om mig , Mickey , For the sun , Nyår , Bakom allt , När löven faller , Allt kommar b...

Carola is hitting the road after years under title Det bästä av mig or The Best of me. From the end of january all the way to the end of March she will be touring Sweden but also Norway and Finland. More dates are added for the summer. Major dates include Oslo Konserthus on February 8, Stockholm Circus on March 3 and 4, Malmö March 6, Gothenburg March 8, Helsinki Kulttuuritalo on March 12 and Mariehamn Alandica on March 13. She will perform her biggest hits from the past 32 years, including of course her Eurovision entries Främling , the winner Fångad av en stormvind  and Invincible as well as the latest hit Tell me this night is over , a The Ark cover from Så mycket bättre.... I think this blogger is getting a ticket.... Update Dec 16 : Only after two days since the ticket sales started Kulttuuritalo is nearly fully booked. Only some lonely seats here and there are left and one part of the worst seats in the corner. Hallelujah and praise the Lord, she's still got it, even ...

The 5th season of Så mycket bättre* started in Sweden last week. Among the artists this season we have finally Carola along with The Ark's Ola Salo, Orup, Amanda Jensen, Kajsa Grytt, Familjen and Love Antell. Blame it on Carola but the show broke its viewing record when 2.245.000 Swedes turned in to watch it. After all she's responsable for many Swedish records of that kind.... Update: the Carola episode was the most watched of them all. Of course. All good things come to an end and this was the last week, dedicated to Love Antell. If you missed the post about last week's Carola Day, it's here . Next week it's still time for one special edition, with duets. But back to Love Antell. Carola took on his Gatorna tillhör oss . She lets herself wild, brings in the trademark wind machine and jumps on the table and gets everybody up and dancing. And yes, makes the song a Carola anthem. Next single? Carola - Gatorna tillhör oss Vs. Love Antell - Gatorna tillhör ...

Samira Sa ï d (or Bensaid) has a career going on for over 40 years already. After being a child star she also got the honors to be the first (and so far last) Moroccan entrant in the Eurovision song contest 1980 when she was 18. Her song Bitaqat hub was way too exotic back then but this blogger remember loving it to bits. Coming second to last didn't harm her career in the Arab music world where she has been on top ever since and selling over 50 million records, more than any other female artist in the Arab world. Nearly 50 albums have been released and over 500 songs recorded but one thing remains: her voice. Another thing remains, too: her beauty and doll like features without one wrinkle.... Some ladies just get prettier with age, don't they? Anyways, her latest single and album Mazal earned her a few World music awards to ad to her previous 40 or so trophies and awards over the years in the Arab world. Here is the remix of Mazal . It seems she has signed a deal to ...