Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Two ESC legends, two classics, one project: Logan and Lordi in the studio to record their respective songs. The Irish singer and three-time Eurovision winner Johnny Logan an the Finnish hard rock artist Lordi, winner of the Eurovision Son Contest 2006, have realized a joint project in which both reinterpreted the other’s Eurovision winning song. Logan recorded a pop-rock version of Hard Rock Hallelujah, while Lordi, together with singer  Noora Louhimo aka Motherbeast, produced a new metal-ballad version of Hold Me Now.  "The idea emerged during a spontaneous phone call. We immediately hit it off", says Logan. "The original idea of a duet for 20th. Anniversary of Lordi’s ESC victory was quickly discarded in favour of a song sway. When I heard Lordi’s demo of their winning song tailored to me, I knew right away that I wanted  to do it." Both songs will be out tomorrow May 15, 2026. So, as it seems Johnny Logan was invited to Vienna Eurovision but declined the invitati...

  Catanian beauty Marcella Bella has a long career and nine Sanremos under her belt, and in the late 1980's  she scored a hit after hit there along with good placements (3rd, 6th, 4th) this being the third one in 1988 placing 4th, Dopo la tempesta . and being a Top-10 hit in Italy. One of my favorites along with Tanti auguri .

  Michele Zarrillo, or simply Zarrillo won Sanremo newcomers 1987 with La notte dei pensieri . Thatb was however already his third Sanremo including 1982 when he sung Una rosa blu that later become an evergreen. So far he has returned to Sanremo ten times after that with a total of 13 participation collecting three Top-5 placements and several big hits, including Cinque giorni .

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. Umberto Tozzi (69) won Sanremo 1987 with Gianni Morandi and Enrico Ruggeri with Si puó dare di piú , co-written by Raf or Raffaele Riefoli. Morandi had already done Eurovision and Ruggeri would do it later so Tozzi took along Raf (in the beginning of his career spelled Raff) with another song they wrote together, Gente di mare . It also marked Raf's debut singing in Italian. They placed 3rd out of 22. Umberto Tozzi is one of the most selling Italian artists abroad in the 1970's/1980's with songs like Gloria , Ti amo , Tu , Stella stai . Laura Branigan made both Ti amo and Gloria global hist in English. Over 80 million records sold he's still active today. Four Sanremos with that one victory, 17 studio albums and 60 s...

Virve "Vicky" Rosti joins the string of Eurovision artists who have been awarded the annual Iskelmä-Finlandia aka Schlager Finlandia award, the most important award of its kind and worth of 10.000 euros given by the city of Nokia (yes, Nokia, rings a bell?)  "Vicky has a recognisable voice, she's a charming persona with charisma and a string of hits from the 1970's onwards and she can sing besides schlager also rock, jazz and blues" are the motivations. She shot to fame in 1974 when she was only 15 and won a talent contest and toured with Danny, the biggest showman of the time and her debut single's B-side Kun Chicago kuoli became the biggest hit of the year and is an evergreen today. Other hits like Tuolta saapuu Charlie Brown , Näinkö meille täällä aina käy , Jolene , Rahaa rahaa rahaa and Oon voimissain followed, being covers like it was back then. After a break and motherhood she returned in 1987 by winning Euroviisut with Sata salamaa a...

After Alice & Battiato joined forces after 30 years with new recordings and a highly succesful tour in 2016 another Italian Eurovision couple returns after 30 years, too: Umberto Tozzi and Raf have released a new song, Come una danza , re-recorded Gente di mare and remastered their other hits in a double-CD to be released late November and hit the road next spring in Italy and Europe. 

Celine Dion plays the movie soundtrack card once again Did you know the first original recording of this global success snobbed by NRK for Eurovision was by Johnny Logan? Finally released on Secret Garden's new compilation.  Tanel Padar keeps scoring hits from his solo EP Maria Naumova who? - Marie N! - Who?

Johnny Logan, born as Seán Sherrard in Australia, moved back to Ireland at the age of 3 with his Irish born parents. Coming from a musical family he first tried to get to Eurovision in 1979 with Angie , placing 3rd.  The year after he was back with What's another year and won. Seven times 12 points gave him an easy won obver Germany's Katja Epstein who placed 2nd. (After being twice 3rd, must be frustrating!) He earned an UK #1 and a big hit all over Europe. Sadly his follow up singles flopped and he was soon considered a one hit wonder..... Meantime he wrote Terminal 3 for Linda Martin, the Eurovision 1984 runner up. In 1987 he decided to givee Eurovision another go as his career wasn't going anywhere. Hold me now won leaving Germany 2nd again, and he became the first ever double winner. It certaibly was worth returning, as his career also took another turn now and he got it going in Ireland and Germany, and kept it going elsewhere, too, even if those winners...

  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...

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...

The other big pre-festival favorite by the journalists along with Fiorella Mannoia is Marco Masini who has already won both Newcomers and Big categories. Apparently he has changed his musical style once again and it's a success. Maybe. Will he return to Eurovision after 30 years? Marco Masini (52) started his musical career working in soundtracks and studio vocalist as no one was interested to sign him. He worked with Umberto Tozzi and Raf among others - and even did Eurovision song contest 1987 with them - and also sung the demo for Sanremo winning song Si può dare di più that year. In 1988 he was dropped from Sanremo the last minute but finally in 1990 he managed to squeeze into the Newcomers selection with Disperato and won. The year after he was among the Big with Perche lo fai and is 3rd. The song was originally ment for Umberto Tozzi who changed to another one. His success continues and he scored hits like Malinconoia , T'innamorerai , Vaffanculo and Bella stro...

Vicky Rosti turns 58 today. Congratulations! Vicky represented Finland at the Eurovision song contest 1087 with Sata salamaa , a song that enjoys huge popularity again in the past few years as a karaoke and cover favorite. It places 15th out of 22. She's still busy with her career.

Fausto Leali releases his first album in seven years and this time it's fashionable duets album. The lead single is A chi mi dice , originally adapted in Italian by Tiziano Ferro for Blue , originally Breathe easy . Leali belts it out with legendary Mina (last public concert in 1978, but has released dozens of top selling albums since, 1-2 per year generally), the only lady on the album while other duets are with Eurovision veterans Enrico Ruggeri and Umberto Tozzi , and Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley , just to name a few.  Two years ago he released an autobiography Notti piene di stelle (Nights filled with stars) that celebrated his 50th anniversary in the business. The story continues now.....

Lena Philipsson is set to start her new show in Cirkus, Stockholm to celebrate her 30th anniversary as an artist, and why not also her 50th birthday she just celebrated last month. The new show is based on her latest album Jag är ingen älskling released late last year. Of course she will be also performing her older hits and there will be quite a lot of talk, too, but then knowing her twit sense of self irony and comedian skills that's only a good thing. She also explains it's going to be very intimate affair, as the audience will be very close to her and stage, and not a huge show as she's done all that before. It's a lot of her by the piano and the band playing in the background. But the rehearsals have proven it doesn't stop the audience getting on their feet and dancing along to the music and in such moments the stage pretty much disappears and she's just singing among them.  She's got Emma Bucht, a theater director onboard making the show so besid...

Last but not least Pave Maijanen got his day. His career covers five decades so there was where to choose but all went for his golden era the 1980's with the exception of Vicky Rosti. No one covered his Eurovision song contest 1992 entry Yamma yamma , but it was remembered in a short clip. As we remember he came last and the tabloid were screaming the day after "Worst in Europe!" and Pave told his gigs vanished for three years when no one wanted him anymore. He was also worried for his kids that they would be bullied at school.... rough times. Once again mostly very enjoyable versions and the first ever Vain elämää duet (other than the day's artist's final one) Maija Vilkkumaa Vs. Pave Maijanen - Jano One of Pave's biggest and well known hits. Quite similar arrangement to the original but Maija's vocoder, simplified approach and touch of orient sounds made it very good and fresh. Vicky Rosti Vs. Royals - I'm gonna roll Vicky confessed ha...

The Finnish Eurovision entry 1987, originally by Vicky Rosti, has been covered by Antti Tuisku for the Vain elämää series and is this season's first hit. It enters both official and download charts at number One and is already getting also radioplay entering at 71. One hundred lightnings are surely striking again!  Official Finnish singles charts (week 39) - 1.  Download and streaming charts (week 39) - 1. Radio Play charts (week 39) - 71.

Second episode was dedicated to rapper VilleGalle. Most of his songs as JVG are all about what they enjoy the most in life: ice hockey and Playstation. Most songs also are rapped with featured singers so the covers by his fellow Vain elämää stars were mostly completely reworked, most of them by lyrics, too. This was the episode I maybe waited the least as I thought I wouldn't know his music at all but then.... four of these were such big hits you couldn not have not heard them.... In the end a very enjoyable evening after all and if the first three seasons have been marked by tears and artists crying their eyes out this season so far it's been mostly laughter and good vibes! Vicky Rosti Vs. JVG feat Anna Abreu  - Huominen on huomenna Vicky as a 50something grandmother had turned the teenager party song into an anthem for a hot mama who goes for holidays and parties all night with her daddy man. Very well done and she already declared this one's going in to her gig ...

Vicky Rosti had the honor to open the fourth season of megapopular Vain elämää series. Over one million Finns tuned in to see it on television and streaming continues online. Antti Tuisku's Sata salamaa has got already over 300.000 views. This season the artists doesn't seem to know each other beforehand that well or at all so the first lunch and dinner were still a bit akward but surely when the season goes on they loosen up. As expected all but Anssi have searched a song from Vicky's early years and 70's cover hits - besides her Eurovision entry 1987 of course that was sure to be in the line up.  VilleGalle Vs. Vicky - Menolippu ( One way ticket ) Him being a rapper the song had gone through a total make over and gotten new lyrics sampling Vicky's original vocals. Good start but not outstanding or quite totally there.  Maija Vilkkumaa Vs. Vicky - Näinkö meille aina täällä käy ( Ain't that just the way ) This song fitted nicely Maija's voic...

Virve Rosti has been around for 40 years already! Hard to believe but it's true. She scored her first hits in mid 70's ( Kun Chicago kuoli , Tuolta saapuu Charlie , Näinkö meille täällä aina käy ). More hits followed, mainy covers like Menolippu , Oon voimissain , Soita kelloain and Koputa puuta in the middle of 70's disco fever and the golden era of cover version. Two other good examples are Jolene and Rahaa, rahaa, rahaa . After a decade of hectic tours, hits and show biz she married, had a string of kids and concentrated on family life.

Jari Sillanpää, Virve Rosti and Laura Voutilainen are starring in a 3-act Christmas music show touring Finland until Christmas. The kick off is tomorrow in Tampere and the last and 18th performance will be in Helsinki's Hartwall Arena, the Eurovision 2007 location. A 11 men band conducted by Heikki Elo completes the cast.  The show that last three hours will be filled with music, humor, energy and fun, not forgetting new and old Christmas songs from Finland, Europe and USA. Throw in some Christmas pop and rock and the three Eurovision veterans ( Sata salamaa ,   Addicted to you , Takes 2 to tango ) and you've got one megashow. More information, dates and cities, tickets here .