Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Her son Fabrizio did it . Twice . Her daughter Claudia did it . Now she has entered X Factor that also doubles Malta's Eurovision 2019 selection and charmed pants off from most everyone with her heartfelt cover of Mia Martini's Gli uomini non cambiano . Forget girl power - it's Mom power time (especially if we also get Pernilla Wahlgren for Sweden).... How cool that would be?! Mrs Faniello can sing, she's lovely and she deserves it. Check out also Cinque giorni , Il mare calmo della sera . Fabrizio and Claudia can provide her backing vocals if needed. 

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?

The rumor gets stronger and stronger: Laura Pausini will be in Sanremo 2016? But hold your horses, she won't be in the competition but as a guest, and possibly the co-host? Last time Carlo Conti took two singers, Emma and Arisa next to him and this year he wants them both in the competition again. Time will tell if that will be the case. Both have already won it, too, and Emma has even done Eurovision while Arisa has declared several times she wants to do it. Would it be too soon for her to win again? But back to Laura. She's one of those stars born in Sanremo. She came, sung La solitudine back in 1993 and won the newcomers and charmed Italians and half of Europe alike. Next year she was back among the Big and placed third with Strani amori . Since then she has become a worldstar with over 70 million sold albums, been back to Sanremo twice as guest star (2001, 2006), she has dueted with countless local and international stars, been nominated and won Grammys and other awar...

Malta will have it's national selection once again for 2012 and it will take place on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th of February at the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre in Ta’ Qal. As usual many familiar names among the artists and songwriters including even two previous winners Fabrizio Faniello (ESC 2001 and 2006 ) and Mirian Christine ( ESC 1996 ). The 20 in semifinal become 14 for the final. I have listened the songs a couple of times and here's my wild guess for the ones that will stay in semifinal: Andreana Debattista, Corazon, Amber, Ryan Paul Abela, Pamela and Deborah C . They just didn't pull any strings in me that would indicate Eurovision success or that I'd would particlarly want to listen them over and over again.  I don't have a clear favorite either, the live performance will be crucial me thinks. A the moment my favorites are (in no particular order) De Bee, Romina Mamo, Chris Grech, Miriam Christine, Wayne William, Firelight, Christabelle, Davi...

France3 has revealed the song titles for their three Eurovision hopefuls. Twin Twin will sing Moustache , Joanna My liberté and Destan Sans toi . The songs will be first heard on January 26 in TV-show Les chansons d'abord conducted by Natasha St-Pier. Let's see if any will be up the standard she was back in 2001 with  Je n'ai que mon âme ...

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...

Malta has revealed its Eurovision 2012 plans and interested had two days to send in their entries it seems. And as soon as that was over the names of interested artists started circulating, amongst them also the singing Faniellos, Fabrizio and Claudia. Claudia's international career may have not started the way she and her management wished for with the release of her first album but Fabrizio is doing fine. Last weekend he was in Latvia's Pop Idol and has also sung a theme song for the big German show celebrating 50 years pop, The sound of life is pop . And there's also a great remix of Know me better . Things are cooking well for him the time being so a trip to Baku would be the icing on the cake?

In 2001 two songs finished last in the Eurovision song contest - Norway and Iceland. Norway was represanted by Haldor Lægreid , then 31-year-old rather unknown singer, dancer and actor with On my own . The over dramatic performance didn't really go down well with the juries and the song scored only 3 points, all of them from Portugal. (The Icelandic song scored points from two countries so this Norwegian entry came ultimate last. Kind of). The result may have been a surprise for Norwegians who had high hopes for their entry. Haldor studied musical theatre in Sweden and has since made a rather succesful musical career in Germany and has been performing also in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. He lives now in Berlin. Here are some of his more recent performances: How am I supposed to live without you , Calling you and Just tell me when .

When Fabrizio Faniello represented Malta again in Eurovision 2006 with I do propably no one predicted he would end up last with only one point from Albania. He has a solid fan popularity and did well five years earlier when Another summer night came 9th. The ex-football player in Italy however didn't take it bad as he tried again this year in the Maltese selection with No surrender . It only came 4th but I think it deserved much better I think. And I think he will be back. For sure. His career didn't suffer much from this result in 2006 as he has continued to release hits especially in the Asian, German and Scandinavia markets. Like I believe , Love me or leave me ,  I no can do , My heart is asking you to add to his older hits I'm in love and Love on the radio . Will he be one day third time lucly?

Fabrizio Faniello has released a new album No surrender. The album has been recorded between Malta, Sweden, Italy and Germany with songwriters like Mary Susan Applegate, Take That's Gary Barlow and Arash. Included is of course his Maltese Eurovision wannabe 2011, the title track No surrender and his previous smash hit I no can do . This is his fith album including the previous Hits & Clips , and his first in four years. Listen the songs here.

The UK entry for the Eurovision 2011 that will be presented officially tomorrow night by BBC was leaked today and you can listen to it here . It's the very first UK entry in history where the British have had no say whatsoever about the song nor the artists. And yes, it's a typical Blue track. After the fantastic Hungarian entry revealed yesterday this feels a bit of a let down but ... it's just about the best British entry since... since... 1997 in my books (yes, I've never been a big fan of UK entries).

Wali has sold millions of records and downloads of their Cari jodoh in their native Indonesia and Asia and now Fabrizio Faniello wishes to do the same in Europe with the English version I no can do . I must admit I didn't quite get this song at first but then relistening I kinda found the hook and love it now! It's five years since his last album and three from the latest single release so maybe this is the come back to forget the second Eurovision disaster?

Esctoday.com has been running a poll to find out the ultimate Eurovision entry of the 2000's. More information and how to vote here And here are the 24 entries that made it to the final. If you want to see who didn't make it here is the semifinal one and two .

Now this is what I call a lost chance! Elisa came from nowhere singing for the first time in Italian after being recording only in English before and took the trophy right from Giorgia's nose, the super favourite before the final. The song was originally Come speak to me , the Italian text written by her with the help of her mother and Zucchero, and she recorded it also in Spanish . She won also the critic's Mia Martini award for the best song and Volare award for the best vocal performance. The single sold over 30.000 copies in a week and shot to number one in Italy and stayed there for weeks. Here is the Sanremo performance. The song later charted in various countries and Elisa has also had success in the USA later on, especially with Dancing , featured already twice in So you think you can dance. I can only wonder how she would have done in Eurovision.... Other Elisa hits include Rock your soul, A fest for me ,  Sleeping in your hand , Heaven out of hell , tribute to M...

As we are heading to Oslo 2010 it's as good as time as any to sit down and look back of each country's efforts in this decade. In some cases it was very easy to pick up the best song in my opinion, sometimes really difficult. Some favourites back then didn't sound so great anymore while others...  The top-2 songs from each country in the end ended up being rather evenly spread over the years with  most songs from 2007 (17) and 2004 (16) but that's maybe because I was there, saw them live and lived with them through the rehearsals and so on. 2008 follows with 13 songs, 2009 with 12. That propably means that if I redo this list in ten years time it might look very different again. Or - has Eurovision really got so much better the past few years? (Yes!) Anyways, here is what I came up with: THE BEST ONES: Albania , Andorra , Armenia , Austria , Azerbaijan , Belarus , Belgium , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Bulgaria , Croatia , Cyprus , Czech Republic , Denmark , Estonia , Finlan...

Ok, I announced Aqua come back on this blog already in October 2007 when they were in studio, supposed to hit the road in 2008 and so on.... Well, nothing much happened after all back then but now it's for real! The Greatest hits album will be out soon with three new songs: Back to the 80's , My momma said and Live fast, die young . And all the fantastic poptastic genious songs they did back then: Roses are red, Barbie girl, My oh my, Dr Jones and such. Can't wait! We need some pure bubble gum pop again. Here's Back to the 80's : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz8loLIYc2Q and just for the good times: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=buXJlBd3Mf8 , http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Guqhnz4N38 , http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTnT3DfQyrw http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=y24EKmzgYGU and here's the Copenhagen ESC 2001 performance with EBU shocking fuck off Kens and dirrty bastards: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpuvxDM9vY8

Parken Stadium hosted the 46th Eurovision on May 12, 2001. A total of 38.000 people were there and what may have looked like a good idea on paper turned against its greatness. Luckily the venues have been smaller ever since! 23 countries were there, amongst them Michelle from Germany and Norway sent a song titled On my own. The Netherlands combined both by sending Michelle singing Out on my own. None of them made great impact. Fabrizio Faniello and Antique (aka Helena Paparizou) were there and Aqua made a short comeback as interval act. There were many favourites, including Antique, Natasha St.Pier, Friends, David Civera and Nusa Derenda but the top-2 was a big surprise: Denmark scored a second place and Estonia took everybody by surprise. However one must say their performance was one of the most relaxed on the evening. They seemed to enjoy being on stage and just sing and dance with no worries and it turned into a first ex-Sovjet country's victory. Tanel Padar and Dave Benton par...

All eyes in Estonia seem to be on Laura and Ralf Junior, but in fact there's also one artist who can call himself a real Eurovision winner: Lawry. He was part of the 2XL group that backed Tanel Padar and Dave Benson in Everybody . I always thought they were the best part of the song anyways! Lowry, or Lauri Pihlap (26) started singing at early age, coming from a family of musicians, both his father and uncle are famous respected musicians. He joined 2XL in summer 2000, and in spring 2001 they stormed to a surprise victory in Eurovision. The group changed its name later to Soul Militia. They also participated in Eurolaul 2007 with My place. A couple of albums and 9 singles later the band is still existing, even if Lowry started also his solo career with the release of Split personality , his debut album in 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI05B5pxg_Y&feature=related , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij3KBU2OqR0 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p6_K67CGXI , http://www.youtub...