Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Denmark is trusting its melodi Grand Prix once again to elect its entry for the Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel. The show returns to Herning on March 1, 2025. The eight finalist were selected among open submissions and revealed on February 8, among them one Eurovision veteran Tim Schou of A Friend in London fame, Eurovision 2011. The voting will be open between February 24 and 28 and again during the final. The top-3 will reach the super-final, both rounds have a 50/50 jury/televote.  Among the songwriters the usual suspects Julie Aagaard, Dino Medanhodzic, Jimmy Thörnfelt, Linnea Deb, Meladie Wehbe among others.  Belo is my usual first time hearing rank.... Mariya Apollonia - I belong to me   *** Tim Schou - Proud   *** Max Ulver - Supernova   ** Hervé Toure - Allez allez   **** Maria Mathea - Air   *** Adel the Second - The unluckiest boy alive   *** Sissal - Hallucination   ** Andreas Kruse - Hear my prayer   ****

  Roberto Amadè placed third in 2011 Sanremo Newcomers with this fabulous Come pioggia. Since then I have lost track on him (as most everyone) but apparently he wrote songs and did some musical collaborations outside pop scene, and even became an artist/painter. This track has however stayed with me. 

  Remember Nathalie?  The X Factor winner 2010 who was heavily tipped to be The One for Eurovision (or was I the only one spreading these rumors?)  as Italy announced its comeback. In punta di piedi would have been great, as would have been her Sanremo 2011 entry as well, Vivo sospesa that she brought to the final and placed 8th. However, Rai decided to sent Newcomers winner Raphael Gualazzi and the rest is history! Nathalie has released collaborations with Eurovision veterans Raf and Franco Battiato, and she has continued to produce music but these two songs are her only singles chart appearance.

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. First time since 1957 the reigning champion returned the year after to defend the title. That's what German winner Lena Meyer-Landrut (31) did after 2010. And she was internally chosen, too, and had her own national final as well. How cool. The newcomer who won with Satellite with a landslide had become the hottest thing on German soil after winning, breaking records, hitting number one in both albums and singles so her second participation just continued the trend. She ...

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. Dana International (Sharon, previously Yaron, Cohen, 54). Now we can easily say for her coming back wasn't maybe a good idea. If her first time and win in 1998 was a triumphant ground breaking success despite a very small winning marginal: 172 for her, 166 for Imaani and 165 for Chiara.  But this big fan of late Ofra Haza tried already in 1995 to get to Eurovision placing second in the national final with Layla tov Eropa, and had been already scoring hits by then and esp...

Topi Latukka was the lead singer of Softengine that brought Finland its third best placing at the Eurovision song contest ever in Copenhagen 2011. The band is no more and  28-year-old Topi has been busy launching his solo career a few years ago and then silence. The silence was not due pandemic like for many but a rare bone cancer, adamantinoma. He has been operated this week, his leg basically rebuilt and now he has expect a full recovery in 6-12 weeks, including learning to walk again as he tells in his Instagram . This blogger wishes Topi a speedy recovery. #Cancersucks .

Hey ho! Moldova was planning a national final for the March but a sudden change in plans turned this afternoon's live audition round to a national final where a jury picked up the winner who goes to Turin 2022 Eurovision. The 3,5 hours long parade of low quality demos, broken English, unfortunate performances of every kind will make up for missing Belarus auditions this year for the fandom. Apparently none of the songs or performers had time to become a fan favorite - except one random withdrawn nonsense I don't even care to mention - so the winner's announcement remained rather low key.  If you care to check out a recap of all entries it's here .  The jury decided to send the most experienced act, one that has all social medias and most likely record label back up and all that in good shape, or Zdob si Zdub. The band was Moldova's debut entry back in 2005 and with their drum beating granny scored a very respectful 6th place, still Moldova's second highest. The...

While riding high on polls and betting odds, higher than any Sammarinese entry before, Senhit's video extravaganza #FreakytriptoRotterdam continues with a homage to legendary Queens like Marie Antoinette and Elizabeth I. Here is Roi . Enjoy! While at it check out the previous videos here

Sure as a change of a month, and this time even a year, Senhit comes out with a new cover on her #freakytriptoRotterdam. This time she has covered ABBA's Waterloo , Eurovision 1974 winner and turned it into a disco banger.... and many other musical styles! Previous entries: Amar pelois dos Rise like a Phoenix Congratulations Ding a dong Everyway that I can Cheesecake

Senhit's #freakytriptoRotterdam continues also this month, this time with a homage to late Freddie Mercury in form of Conchita Wurst's winning entry in 2014, Rise like a Phoenix . Moustache and all.  Check out the previous ones below: Congratulations Ding-a-dong Everyway that I can Cheesecake

Another month has passed by and Senhit has delivered another episode in her #FreakytriptoRotterdam. This time it's Cliff Richard's Congratulations, the UK's runner up in Eurovision song contest 1968 and the video plays hommage to Fellini and David Bowie among others  Check out also Ding a dong Everyway that I can Cheesecake

Here comes Senhit's second offering on her #FreakyTripToRotterdam and this time with a video filled with Hollywood "glamour", quote from Marilyn Monroe and reference to Hitler she has covered Everyway that I can , that gave Turkey its first and so far only victory in the Eurovision song contest in form of Sertab Erener and one of the most exciting votings ever in 2003.  Check out also CHEESECAKE

Senhit was due to represent San Marino in 2020 Eurovision song contest for the second time but for reasons we all know very well it's going to happen only in 2021. But she's not lazily waiting for next spring but will keep herself busy with a series of Eurovision covers until May 2021. Each month a new video, worked together with Italian art director and choreographer Luca Tommassini that will be a real work of art with transformation of her style and look with a real artistic video clip. The first one's out and it's the Belarusian entry 2014 Cheesecake by TEO, that finished 15th in the final. The song gets a whole new meaning with the video imaginary that throws in role and gender play and recent #Blacklifesmatter movement with references to Grace Jones, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring among others. 

Senhit Zadik Zadik (40) is one of this year's returning artists, as she represented San Marino already back in 2011 as Senit with Stand by . Born and raised in Bologna by Eritrean parents she started her career abroad starring in musicals in Switzerland and in Germany. Then she started her career as a recording artist  in Italy releasing two albums in Italian and one in English before Eurovision 2011. She also collaborated with Sanremo winners Stadio. After Eurovision she's been releasing singles and got to become an Italian television regular in shows like Domenica live and All together now . Freaky is her 20th single and continues her collaboration with Luca Tommassini as video director and choreographer. San Marino wouldn't be San Marino if they didn't invent something new every year. This year Senhit's song was chosen by a flash internet voting out of two songs and less than 48 hours to vote for your favorite. Freaky took a slight lead on Obsessed .  ...

San Marino, the tiniest is again recycling its singers as this time it's Senhit (40) again making a comeback after she did Stand by in 2011, this time with the added "h# in her name though. But San Marino wouldn't be San Marino if they didn't invent something new. They have had Valentina Monetta three years in a row, the youngest duet etc. This year's novelty is the fans will be able to vote for the song in a digital online battle. She has prepaired two songs: Obsession and Freaky . The voting starts tomorrow morning 9am and closes Sunday 23.59. Here . The voting result: Freaky!  51,6% Obesession 48,4%

Remember Breath easy by Blue? It was released in Italy with Italian lyrics by Tiziano Ferro and went to #1 in Italy holding that position for 8 consegutive weeks and in the Top-20 for six months! Now another Eurovision veteran Il Volo have recorded it for their Musica album. Enjoy!

Once upon a time we had Eric Saade and Danny Saucedo competing against each, kissing it good  and also shared girlfriend Molly Sanden - separate times thankfully!  These days we have younger version of them in Benjamin Ingrosso and Felix Sandman. Also they scored the top-2 in Melodifestivalen, became kissing good friends and are now touring Sweden together. No Molly in between them but a lot of bromance. They even released a song together, Tror du att han bryr sig . Now they both have a new song out....  Meanwhile Danny is out with a Latin flavored number Undantag that fits his Bolivian roots,  while Eric's latest offering is from last summer, Another week . 

Emmelie has been a bit lost ever since her win, and has released a sting of undisturbing singles and History isn't any exception. Nice but forgettable.... After dusting off I didn't know with Martha Wash Serhat does the same with Helena Paparizou for his oldie Total disguise , then in duet with Eurovision presenter Viktor Lazlo.... The question remains: why? The Azeri victory remains still a mystery (well... really?) and both winners haven't really been heard of ever since. This is one of Eldar's latest, dating 1,5 years ago. I miss you is his latest.  His partner in victory Nigar Jamal hasn't bothered the international charts since then either. Her latest (?) Sus is kinda nice ethnic pop. Worth a listen. 

Or depends how you want to count it. if we only count the top-10 placings then Sweden has 7 and Italy 6, and then we have Denmark, Norway, Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan with 5 so it makes it all very Nordics Vs. ex-Sovjets. And the odd one out: Italy. On the other hand if we look at the placements turned into Eurovision points (12, 10, 8....1) Sweden is still ruling with 56, but Azerbaijan is second with 43 (but we all know what happened, how all of sudden they were no longer in top-5 every year but where they belonged: vote rigging. Before that they managed to collect in five years one of each placements from one to five, with Swedish songs mind you). Russia follows with 38 with Italy close behind with 35. Ukraine completes the top-5 with the Nordics after: Denmark and Norway. Italy has been flirting with the victory already several times, it's time they take trophy home soon. All other countries in Top10 have won (except Turkey, abseent since 2013 but but strong with 3 to...

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..... 19 years old Lena Meyer-Landrut came from nowhere and after winning the German national final in 2010 went on to win the Eurovision song contest as well with her Satellite . She wasn't quite a favorite but once the votes started rolling in she took a convincing surprise win over Turkey's maNga (246 vs 170) scoring top-3 from 18 countries including nine 12s.  Her album went to #1 in Germany and  Satellite charted all over Europe making it one of the most succesful Eurovision winners of recent years. Her momemtum carried all the way to the next year's contest when it was announced she would do the 50...