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. Charlotte Perrelli (48), ex Nilsson went solo in Melodifestivalen 1999 after having sung with several dancebands since she was 13. Her heavily ABBA inspired schlager banger Tusen och en natt won and went on winning in Jerusalem as well 17 points ahead of Iceland's Selma, the hot pre-contest favorite whose song was very up-to-date instead. Nostalgia won and Sweden took its 4th win. She gained great success at home and some abroad touring Europe and Middle East, was voted ...

Whoever got the idea of that backdrop is a genius! L-o-v-e! Last night's interval act included 1979 winner Gali Atari singing her entry Hallelujah joined by other Eurovision winners Conchita Wurst and Måns Zelmerlöw and runner ups Eleni Foureira and Verka Serduchka. (From 8mins 45) That was already third time the song has featured in the Eurovision final as also last time Israel hosted the show back in 1999 it was there, and even closing the show - the only time the show has ended with some other song than the winner btw - when then winner Charlotte Perrelli then Nilsson was joined on stage by all the toher artists to sing it for the memory of Balcan war victims (on video from 3h 10mins onwards) And of course it was also sun in 1979 contest when it won at home soil in Jerusalem. The song is a true classic with many meanings. 

Jan Ola Sand and EBU gang have been to Israel to go through with KAN/IPBC the three proposals for hosting the Eurovision song contest in 2019. The choice is between fan favorite Tel Aviv, Israeli politicians favorite Jerusalem and outsider Eilat. We should know the decision shortly.  Eilat apparently has a plan a bit similar to Copenhagen 2014 to create the venue in the Port of Eilat in some old hangar or warehouse...? Jan Ola Sand stated EBU will not overlook the out of the box solutions if they only meet the schedule. There's always a risk though, ask Copenhagen that went well over budget and had some schedule issues as well but in the end it served its purpose wonderfully giving us one of the best stages ever - outside the venue was another story then, especially getting to the Eurovision Island..... Eilat is Israel's southernmost town with a population of 50.000, and an important touristic spot between Negev desert and Red Sea squeezed between Egypt, Jordania and...

Every now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how did it go..... If Dana International became the first Eurovision winner not to make the final again, it was a close call for Charlotte Perrelli. To her luck in 2008-2009 there was the jury wildcard rule or only the top-9 of the semifinalists qualified for the final and the jury chose the 10th one. In 1999 Charlotte Nilsson won Melodifestivalen with Tusen och en natt , and thanks to the new rule of free language it became Take me to your heaven in Jerusalem and she beat Iceland's Selma with 17 points taking a somewhat surprise win. Conflicts with SVT caused her to stay out of Eurovision song contest in 2000, breaking ...

The 2016 Eurovision song contest organizers didn't manage it - or any of the previous ones either nor those offering them millions of dollars - but they seem to get together for birthdays, the way the old friends do. Back in 1999 they performed together in a private party for Görel Hansel's 50th birthday, and now to celebrate the first meeting of Björn and Benny 50 years ago. Venue was Stockholm's Bern's Salonger and once again in a private setting but today even they can't stop the cell phone videos and social medias. Enjoy the magic of Frida's and Agnetha's voices again. 

Sometime ago I was asking what happened to the Swedish songwriters in Eurovision ( here ) and now it's time to ask whatever happened to the English language? Namely, since the language rule was dropped in 1999 this year we have fewer songs in English than ever! Mind you, I think these two things are extremely positive things; both the lack of English and the Swedish songwriters! In 2013 we have 39 songs in the competition and 22 are to be sung in English (or 56%) and 17 in other local languages, and for the first time none in a mix of English and something else. That was close already back in 2010 when there were only two bilingual songs including English (Poland and Bulgaria) and neither of them made the final. On the other end of the statistics is 2007 when 13 of the 42 songs were with mixed English and 22 in English alone bringing it up to 83%. But that's not the worst of it. In 2001 that was 87% when only Israel, Portugal and Spain fully believed in their own local la...

Charlotte Perrelli ex-Nilsson ex-Ingrosso is taking part again in the Swedish summer institution, the Diggiloo tour . The problem is she's pregnant and due to have the baby in early August, while the tour end on August 17. What to do? Nothing. She plans to go on and hopes the delivery should happen on a day off and she'd be back on stage the after or maybe two. No subsitution for her.  Maybe the other starts like Lotta Engberg and David LIngdren will have to act as midwives for her this summer? "It's a popular show. I don't need to wear tank tops and shorts anyways " she comments, "I will take time in the fall and rest!" She's The Girl! Currently she is also working on a pregnancy training book....

No, she didn't just eat too much Christmas food or skip champagne on New Year's without a reason. Charlotte Perrelli, born Nilsson is happily pregnant. The baby is due this summer and she's relieved it's just one as they thought first she was with twins. She has just finished with the Evita musical (hmm, Madonna got pregnant while filming Evita ...). Charlotte has two sons from her ex-husband Nicola Ingrosso, later changed to Perrelli (whose brother Emilio Ingrosso was married to another songbird, Pernilla Wahlgren!), Angelo and Alessio. Now she's dating Anders Jensen who is, obviously the lucky father. And he has a daughter, Izabella.  Despite her pregnancy she plans to participate in this summer's Diggi-loo tour as usual! And did you know she, too, has her own perfume, The Girl ?

Il festival della canzone Italiana aka Sanremo (February 14-18, 2013) has been changing its formula all the time with some changes that have been good, and some that were just confusing. And often those formulas were maybe new to Italians and they thought they were extraordinary and original, but frankly, most of them have been already tried in many national Eurovision selections; all from second chances and such... For 2013 Fabio Fazio, who will the main host again (he already did 1999 and 2000) has come up with the idea, that sounds very much like the Finnish Euroviisut in mid-2000's (that brought us Lordi and Hanna Pakarinen): there will be 14 artists, each with two songs and people may vote one song to the final, so that way everybody gets to the final. I hope they won't end up with the same problem we did: singers brought two songs clearly favoring the other while the other was just a filler (and if people actually voted the filler to the final their faces clearly sho...

Charlotte Perrelli who did a flop in 2008 with Hero but won the Eurovision 1999 as Nilsson with Take me to your heaven is giving it another go this year with The girl . A sure fan favourite. The rehearsals didn't go totally as planned today. A backing singer smashed the microphone into her front tooth. " I just heard it crack " she commented afterwards. Now she needs to fix it before tomorrow night's live broadcast. She also revealed they have spent over 113.000 euros for the entry (or one million in local money) and can't afford to go to Second Chance. "I need to go directly to the final or be kicked out!" she said. Didn't Carola have similar tooth problems in Athens?

The Swedish multiple Melodifestivalen winners and Eurovision winners Carola Häggkvist and Charlotte Perrelli have been national schlager queens for decades and privately have known each other for years as well but strangely they have not shared the same stage before. Between them they have five Eurovision final placings and four of them in top-5. That all changed this summer in Norway when they both sung their songs and joined forces for the final medley in Allsång på grensen - or should we say Charlotte was reduced to back up Carola? " It's quite funy actually " they told the press in unison. "Usually they book one or the other, it's difficult to have two such big names in one show maybe?" But don't except a duet with them anytime soon. " Maybe if we had known better we could have prepared something " they conclude. Sounds like "no no never"....

The summer rumours are running wild and some are just making them up to get some attention and who am I to deny it from them? A few days ago Kate Ryan announced she'd like to return. Her Eurovision trip went all wrong last time in 2006 with Je t'adore , from a hot favourite to a non qualifier. Another returner might be Charlotte Perrelli who was far from a hero on her return from the second time in 2008 even if the first trip as Nilsson in 1999 did take her to heaven . Mihai Tristariu promised already back in 2006 he will return and indeed, this news is out there every year. Just like Dima Bilan.

Tonight the Bosnia-Herzegovina's entry will be presented in a show that besides Dino features last year's Vukasin Brajic and Italy's "no-longer-the-last-Italian-entry" Jalisse. Dino will also sing other songs and duets, one of the with Beatrice and their 1999 entry I putnici . The show starts at 21.00 CET. If the show goes like last year the Bosnian version will be first heard and then the English version. UPDATE: Love in rewind it is. And I like it! 

Dino Merlin returns in Eurovision and this blogger thinks it's quite fabulous. He already did 1999 with Beatrice and fantastic I putnici and has dueted with Zeljko Joksimovic in fabulous Supermen . At 48 he is a real superman in the region himself and this looks very promising for Bosnia-Herzegovina! Me likes! The song will be premiered on February 20, 2011.

Eurovision and Melodifestivalen veterans Charlotte Perrelli and Magnus Carlsson have been selected to record the special single title Mitt livs gemål   for the crown princess Victoria's wedding in June 19. The single will be released a couple of weeks before and it is not sure yet if they will be part some of the official celebrations. In 1976 when king Carl XVI Gustaf wed Silvia - also on June 19 - ABBA's Dancing queen became unofficial wedding anthem. It was first performed in the party the night before the wedding.

Anna Oxa would have made a comeback to Eurovision ten years after Avrei voluto with Senza pietá , one of the finest songs she has recorded the past 20 years or so (yes, I do think she has lost it!) Back in 1989 she declared she wanted to win Sanremo just to do Eurovision so I would think she would have said yes to it also in 1999. Antonella Ruggiero was the runner up for the second year running with Non ti dimentico (se non ci fossero le nuvole) . Albano was back with Ancora in volo (6th) but one of the most interesting songs and singers was Marina Rei with Un inverno da baciare . Otherwise rather forgettable year but the newcomers had a lot of interesting names: Alex Britti , Filippa Giordano , Leda Battisti , Daniele Groff and Max Gazzé .

After many troubles and change of dates Jerusalem hosted its second Eurovision on May 29, 1999, the latest date to date. Malta and UK were again ready to step in and host the show but in the end Israel did it despite financial and political problems, as well as Dana International. The mayor of Jerusalem and the religious groups were against her and Eurovision but in the end she performed the interval act under Mount Sinai which is one of the most memorable Eurovision moments. But due to financial reasons IBA dropped the live orchestra and it has never returned since. Also the language rule was gone and most sung in English, sometimes with hilarious results, like Slovenia... The Big4 was introduced, and there were problems with the stage as well. It was completely changed the last minute. Bosnia-Herzegovina had to change their song as the winning entry was already recorded in Finland years before. Maybe it was a good move after all, the replacement took respectable 7th place! Iceland se...

Urban Symphony has released the single Rändajad , the Estonian entry in Moscow 2009. Besides the familiar Eurovision mix is also includes rather groovy Lazy Drumbeat mix that I like a lot! Estonia is doing well in the polls and should finally qualify to the final for the first time since the semifinals were introduced back in 2004. This year's entry has Diamond of night kind of qualities and that one ended up 6th ten years ago. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=U29y5bjJ92c http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFK9TU9G4AI