Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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?

  Spain is turning into Operación Triunfo to find their Eurovision entrant for Lisbon 2018. But there's a twist: there will be a specially staged Eurovision final for the five finalists - before the OT is over! The five finalists will have songs written by experienced composers to compete and televoters will choose the winning compination. After that OT continues to its end so the OT winner may not be the one going to Eurovision.  Nine out of original 18 singers are still in the competition, but four more has to go before we get to the Eurovision stages. The next episode will air after New Year's so February looks likely for the OT/ESC final. Then again, this isn't something new either: Beth who represented Spain in those OT years didn't win OT either. She only came 3rd in OT behind Ainhoa and Manuel Carrasco but beat them in the special Eurovision selection. The year before when the first OT was used as Eurovision selection the winner Rosa took her runner u...

  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..... In 2002 Finland sent Laura Voutilainen with Addicted to you to southern neighbour Estonia. Expectations were high as usual, and there was a thrilling buzz all around Helsinki the big night; bars were showing the contest, thousends of Finns were at...

The ever so popular Mamma mia! musical by ABBA is having its Finnish version coming up next May in Helsinki. Laura Voutilainen has landed the role as Donna (played by Meryl Streep in the movie) and she describes it as her dream role and as written for her. She's done musicals before but says this is her first experience in such an acting role. She auditioned for the role by the request by the producers and there was no doubt she'll be perfect.  But the Eurovision connections don't end here: Nina Tapio and Tomi Metsäketo are also in the cast. Nina Tapio has been several times in Eurovision as a backing singer, as well as in the national final and even performed in the opening numbers in Helsinki 2007 Eurovision. Tomi Metsäketo nearly beat Lordi in Euroviisut 2006 but let's see how it goes for him now. He's in the middle of #metoo scandal now and was kicked out last week from a tv production he was supposed to be in several future episodes still in coming we...

Expectations were high in 2002 when Laura walked to the stage in Eurovision song contest, but Finns were to disappoint once again. It didn't stop Laura becoming one of the most succesful, versatile artists in Finland who keeps delivering albums, hit singles, being awarded and starring in various tv shows. Today 42 years young. Congratulations!

Laura Voutilainen has been in the business and one of the most popular and chameleon Finnish female singers since early 1990's. She's always been big in radio sporting over a dozen radio play top-10 hits over the years, but now she's scoring her second official single's chart top-10 with Mä en kestä at #6 when writing this (also #6 in download and #38 on radioplay going up) following the success of Miks ei last year (#4 in download, #10 in singles, #9 radios).  Of course this is also to do with the new way of making the charts but its refreshing to see some oldtimers making it among all the teenage idols and rappers. :-) Well done Laura!

Well, she's never been away really but she's back to the charts and even with a Top-10 hit! Miks ei (Why not) is going up on download charts, number 6 this week on its fourth week, and in Radioplay Top-100 she's at number 9 on its 8th week. We have to go back to 2007 to find her a Top-10 radio hit Rakkautta ei piiloon saa and the same year she had also Timanttinen tähti in Top-20.  But as said, she's not been away fromthe music business or the spotlight after her 2002 Eurovision adventure at all. She has released seven albums (and two compilations) since, been the Idols judge, dubbed half a dozen Disney movies, done countless stage shows and cabaret revues, musicals, music theater.... She has done a number of television reality or talent shows like Dancing with stars (finishing second behind Antti Tuisku), Sirkus (she won), Tähdet tähdet  (she was runner up behind Waltteri Torikka).... And yes, she did also try to get to Eurovision again in 2007 with Take a ch...

Krista Siegfrids is one of the chosen guest stars for the world's biggest imitation show happening at Helsinki's Hartwall Arena on November 25, 2016,  Stars Show XXL This grand finale follows a tour around Finland. The main star Jarkko Tamminen imitates over 40 celebs, there are dancers and a full scale musical show. Besides Krista making her imitator debut also Laura Voutilainen is there and I have a feeling Jarkko imitates them both, too.  "I have never done any mímitations publicly, only at home" Krista says. "I'm though confident my voice is flexible enough to make it but I'm shit scared!" Meanwhile Krista tells her Melodifestivalen participation has opened her many doors in Sweden and interesting things are cooking in Sweden as well as in Finland.....

The Eurovision song contest 2002 runner up Ira Losco has won the Malta's national selection tonight.She was the big favorite from the start as fans have been waiting for her comeback for years and years and over the years she has become one of the most succesful Maltese singers at home andabroad. Her song Chameleon (Invincible) needs though q bit of a revamp, me thinks. And most of all all new staging as this one's as bad as any other in the Maltese selection this year. Apparently she scored 40% of the televote followed by Christabelle and tonight's well deserved surprise Brooke. Brooke was also many juror's favorite and also franklin scored so well with them he pushed ahead of Christabelle in the end. Maxine came 5th so I got all right except Franklin in the top-5. 1. Chameleon (Invincible) - Ira Losco   68 2. Golden - Brooke   58 3. Little Love - Franklin Calleja   44 4. Kingdom - Christabelle Borg   38 5. Young Love - Maxine Pace   36 6. Alive...

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 . 

The season's first national final takes places in Macedonia in less than two weeks when Skopje Fest will take place (November 12, 2014) and give us the Macedonian entry as well. It seems to be a grand show that will also celebrate MRT's 50th and Eurovision's 60th anniversary.  The winner will be decided by 50-50 televote-international jury. Seven different countries with five jurors each will provide the international votes and they will vote on the dress rehearsal performances the night before - sounds very old school Eurovision, doesn't it? Special guests will be the Macedonian ladies in Eurovision: Karolina Goceva ( Od naz zavisi 2002 and Mojot svet 2007) and ever so wonderful Kaliopi ( Cnro i belo 2012). The running order was drawn with a special gimmick that I hope more countries will adopt: songs were divided in ballads (even numbers) and uptempos (odd numbers) before drawing the positions.  Lena Zatkoska –  Alo Tanja Carovska –  Ako mi se vra...

Kaliningrad born Tanja (Tatiana Mihhailova, 30) isn't a new comer to Eesti laul as she already was a runner up back in 2002 with NightLight Duo and Another country song and took part again in 2003 . Since then she has become a household name and much admired person in theater, musicals and TV-shows. Several bands, talent shows and international festivals later she lands Copenhagen 2014 with partly self-penned Amazing . Robert: Like previous years, a very interesting preselection in Estonia. I like many songs of this Eesti laul like Maiken , Sandra Nurmsalu, Lauri Pihlap, Körsikud, Lenna Kuurmaa and MiaMee but in the end Traffic's song Fur Elise is the best for me. The winning song by Tanja is not at all appreciated by me. No final. Blogilkar :  I have to admit I didn't pay much attention to this among the Eesti laul semifinalists. The dancing & singing performance seemed a bit akward and yes, a bit Loreen-ish. The Estonian final was full of worthy songs, ...

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...

Last year saw the first edition of The Voice in Finland and several familiar names took part from Waldo's People's Karoliina Kallio to Saara Aalto and this year's UMK hopeful Krista Siegfrids. The season's real winner was Jesse Kaikuranta even if the trophy went to Mikko Sipola. Will this new season feature familiar names as well? So it seems. Saara Aalto's little sister Suvi and Gary Revel Jr and both were picked for the next step. Gary who? Gary Revel Jr is familiar for Eurovision followers as the wildly dancing guy behind Laura Voutilainen in Tallinn 2002. Two years later he took part in duo with Iina and You don't need to go (6th), in 2005 he was back as solo artist with You're a star (4th in his semifinal). In 2006 he was in group SafeSix with Livin' it up and I can't wait . The latter finished 8th in the first round of voting. In 2005 he was involved in a naked photo scandal when his nudies emerged on internet, pics he has taken some ten...

Laura Voutilainen needs no presentation. Eurovision veteran and multi-award winning artist has released 11 studio albums and the 12th is coming soon. The first single off the new work was this summer's hit Kokonainen nainen and now she tries her luck in Syksyn Sävel with ballad Äiti tähtipuutarhan . She has won Iskelmä Finlandia and two Emma awards as the Female singer of the year so really only thing missing in her impressive CV is a Syksyn Sävel win.... 

One of the most successful Finnish pop bands Aikakone makes a comeback in its original form in Syksyn Sävel 2012 contest. Maki Kolehmainen, Sani, Veera and Alex are back again! Aikakone's debut album in 1995 sold tripleplatinum with hits like Alla vaahterapuun , Odota , and Matkustanut oon . Second album gave even more hits, including Nti groove and Opettelen salaa . Third one in 1998 continued the strings of hits with Magiaa , Perhosten yö and Anna mun bailaa . Two participations in Euroviisut and a career also in English as Aika followed, with hits like Hear me now , and second place in Euroviisut 2002 with Stay . Then they took a break and returned in 2008 with a compilation album and in 2010 another album with several new songs. They have sold over 400.000 albums so far.  Besides that Maki Kolehmainen has become a very familiar name in credits for top selling acts and several songs in Eurovision national finals in various countries the past few years and in...

The Finnish post has reached the 1990's in their series of stamps featuring popular artists. The stanps are published on September 3, 2012 and the criteria for choosing these six artists is that their career and popularity is still strong besides them being top sellers of the 1990's. Among them we have two Eurovision veterans, Jari Sillanpää and Laura Voutilainen, OGAE Second chance winner Anna Eriksson, the best selling female singer of the 1990's Kaija Koo and two ever popular bands, The Agents and Yölintu. The stamps simply feature their best seller album sleeves.

Robert is out and about in Baku and Crystal Hall and here's who he met today: Fans being journalists/journalists being fans. Eurovision is really an event for that. Here is Roy Van der Merwe from South Africa. He is the president of the OGAE Rest of the world. This is his 20th year in a row that he is present at the Eurovision. The OGAE Rest of the world was established in 2006 and Roy has been the president ever since. His first Eurovision was in 1983 in Munich. He was a special guest for Ralph Siegel because Roy was such a fan of Nicole who was winning for Germany the year before. He felt the most special in Tallinn, Estonia. He was treated as a VIP there and who doesn't like that?! Beautiful song of Anmary from Latvia is his favourite song for this year and what an accident, Anmary just comes our way and I get a chance to take a picture of Roy and Anmary. Roy told me also that a cover of the Finnish song of 2009, Lose control from the Wal...

Two blond ladies with blue eyes, catchy little rather acoustic song, perfect for radios. While Denmark has a hint of melancholy in it, Latvia is bursting with good mood and happiness singing about the song she is singing about. How weird is that? Weird but wonderful but so is Denmark's entry. I have fondly disliked all these Danish entries of recent year's that have done very well in Eurovision - does this now mean Denmark will bomb as I like it? And how about Latvia? Many say they like it "somehow" but it will not be voted for. Are we sure? As said, Denmark has done the top-5 two years in a row, while Latvia has missed the final three years in a row. Will the tables turn this year? And both have a very messy staging in national finals to sort out before Baku. Will they succeed? Latvia - Anmary - Beautiful song ***** The song is insanely catchy, whether you like it not, the melody sticks into your brain. And the corny lyrics. But it also comes across that the...

Katri Helena will release her 32nd studio album next month titled Valon maa . It is her first for the new record company managed by her suspected toyboy. On a live TV-show she joked he will propose her to marry him if the album sells 100.000 copies...  The first single of the album is Raja . That would be her 14th gold album, 4th platinum and second multiplatinum album. Her most sold album to date is Anna mulle tähtitaivas from 1992 (over 100.000 copies sold). Another blond blue eyed Eurovision star Laura Voutilainen has released Ihmeitä , her 11th studioalbum. The album was recorded in Iceland and features winter inspired songs. The first single is Winter song/Rakkaudesta . Laura has sold six gold albums so far and two multiplatinums, namely her first two albums in 1994 and 1996.