Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The hugely successful and polar duo has left Sanremo after five years. Whoever follows them has to face a similar situation as UMK2024 artists had to do post-Käärijä. Nothing is good enough. Artic director and host Amadeus and co-host Fiorello, after celebrating Angelina Mango's victory on stage walked out of Teatro Ariston hand in hand, stepped into their Cinderella carriage with horses and drove to sunset, or as it was Sanremo final night to dawn. All that after scoring a record breaking 90,7% share in the viewing figures as nearly 9 million Italians were still clued to their tv-screens to see them off. Earlier in the evening they reached 18,259 million and 85% share at 01.56 when the Top-5 super finalists were announced. How can you beat that? And it's not only the viewing figures but his five years have also been hugely popular in charts as all those chart toppers, multi platinum selling singles prove. Mahmood winning in 2019 was a shock and a start of something new in the ...

The Finnish Grammy, or Emma Awards were handed out tonight in Helsinki's Ice Hall and the biggest winner was our last year's Eurovision success Blind Channel that won all six awards it was nominated for. Dark side,  their entry was awarded as The Song of the year, and it was also the most streamed Finnish song. Eurovision winners Måneskin got also a trophy: The Most streamed song of the year doe I wanna be your slave ! So both the local and international most streamed song was from Eurovision 2021 act! This is all Blind Channel won: Rock band of the Year The Export of the year The Group of the year The Song of the year (Dark side) The Most streamed Finnish song (Dark side) People's Choice 

It's been a sad year in the Eurovision family. We lost a great number of Eurovision artists from young Örs to eldest of them all Emil, and Finland particularly was hit hard with three artists and also a legendary songwriter. Another great loss was Franco Battiato, an Italian legend to whom Eurovision is just a minor chapter in his curriculum.  Carlos Do Carmo (21.12.1939-1.1.2021)  Portugal 1976 Uma flor de verde pinho Liam Reilly (29.1.1955-1.1.2021) Ireland 1990 Somewhere in Europe Ireland 1991 Could it be I'm in love (composer) Pave Maijanen (3.9.1050-16.1.2021) Finland 1992 Yamma yamma Örs Siklósi (1992-5.2.2021) Hungary 2018 with AWS - Viszlát nyár Sanja Ilic (27.3.1951-7.3.2021) Serbia 2018 with Balkanika - Nova deca Patrick Juvet (21.8.1950-1.4.2021) Switzerland 1973 Je vais me marier, Marie Shay Healy (29.4.1943-9.4.2021) Ireland 1980 What's another year (composer) Matti " Fredi " Siitonen (23.7.1942-23.4.2021) Finland 1967 Varjoon - suojaan Finland ...

Sanremo 2022 kicks off tonight when finally the 12 become 2 and those two join the Sanremo 2022 Big cast. Meanwhile there was a rumor Amadeus might be adding another two Big names in the cast as well to make it 26 in total. Veteran names like Alice (!!!), Ron, Nada, Marcella Bella, Ricchi e Poveri, Riccardo Fogli, Luca Barbarossa and Anna Tatangelo, or newcomers like Ariete and Mara Sattei, or will he add the newcomers winners from past two years Leo Gassman and Gaudiano after all? Or more superpower to the already stellar cast with Francesco Gabbani, Elodie or Diodato? Or Giovanni Caccamo with a song written by late Franco Battiato? Matteo Andrea's son Bocelli? Simona Molinari? Renzo Rubino?  All that proved wrong (so far....) yesterday when he announced that not only Top-2 but Top-3 of the artists tonight will have a ticket to Ariston in February!  He also let us know that 320 submissions didn't make it, among them that of Jalisse who he said he's got nothing personal aga...

 Spotify has published the listening figures for 2021 and Eurovision song contest is present more than ever! Finland's Eurovision entry Dark side by Blind Channel is number one, while Eurovision winners Måneskin are rnner up with I wanna be your slave. And fifth with Eurovision winner Zitti e buoni. And sixth with Beggin'! Måneskin is also the fourth most listened artist! Check below the full lists: The most listened songs on Spotify Finland in 2021: 1. Blind Channel - Dark side 2. Måneskin - I wanna be your slave 3. Haloo Helsinki - Piilotan mun kyyneleet 4. Portion Boys - Vauhti kiihtyy (feat Matti & Teppo) 5. Måneskin - Zitti e buoni 6. Måneskin - Beggin' 7. Lil Nas X - Montero (Call me by your name) 8. BEHM - Frida 9. The Kid Laroi - Stay (feat Justin Bieber) 10. Masked Wolf - Astronaut in the ocean The most listened artists on Spotify Finland in 2021: 1. Haloo Helsinki 2. Cheek 3. JVG 4. Måneskin 5. Eminem 6. BEHM 7. The Weeknd 8. Ed Sheeran 9. Gettomasa 10. Justi...

Mr Lordi and his band have been a bit bored during the pandemic and after the fun idea of their fictional greatest hits compilation Killection last year they have now extended it to fictional seven albums of different decades and genres those songs could've been from. Clever, no?   Skelectric Dinosaur, Superflytrap, The Masterbeast from the Moon, Abusement Park, Humanimals, Abracadaver and Spooky Sextravaganza Spectacular are the album titles including influences and sounds inspired from likes of Bee Gees, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Boney M, Earth Wind and Fire, Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi and more... This blogger has enjoyed with amusement the disco one, Superflytrap wherefrom single Believe me is taken from. The latest single Borderline is from Humanimals. 

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. Måneskin or four young kids from the streets of Rome. What can I say? If they thought they had arrived when being the runner ups in X Factor and having a few local hits, touring small clubs in Europe and being cool and credible, they were so wrong. Things were slowing down a little so Sanremo was the logical next step. Zitti e buoni was however all but Sanremo entry in minds of most, including this blogger, and against all odds did win. Things looked good again for the band and the same happened at Eurovision; liked by many but probably too rock, too different to win..... How wrong we were! In less than a year they have won Sanremo, Eurovision, MTV Europe Music award, been nominated to American music award, went viral in Tiktok,...

Sanremo 2022 artists come from three different submissions: First the newcomers (over 700, read more here ) and Area Sanremo choose the 12 finalists for Sanremo Giovani, wherefrom two lucky ones get the ticket to the Big, and only, category in Sanremo 2022 itself, where the artists are chosen from submissions and invites from artistic director Amadeus & co.  Area Sanremo gets four of its chosen artists to the Giovani final instead of two as previous years. The submissions were over 400, and after auditions  56 made it to further auditions on November 19-21, where from only 20 will make it to the next step. Yet another audition in front of Amadeus & co. will pick up the 4 for Sanremo Giovani live on television on December 15. They will join the eight chosen via Sanremo Giovani selections. Area Sanremo (ex-Accademia della canzone di Sanremo, ex-SanremoLab) has produced names like Anna Tatangelo (2001), Arisa (2008), Simona Molinari (2008), Renzo Rubino (2012) and Mahmood...

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 winners. Francesca Michielin (26), a self declared Eurovision fan, got to Eurovision 2016 with her Sanremo runner up when the winners Stadio and Un giorno mi dirai declined the offer and said instead that Michielin should go. After a very long period - well, it felt like that anyways - Rai confirmed that they had chosen her indeed. She revamped and renamed her song, originally Nessun grado di separazione and travelled by bus (and social medias) to Stockholm but only placed 16th out of 42 with No degree of separation ..... Francesca shot to the fame after winning X Factor and has had a string of hit singles ever since, also in several featuring with various top rappers. In 2021 she was close to Euroviison again and placed second in Sanremo with...

Sanremo 2022 rules and other info has been revealed. There are changes to voting, and next year there will 24 Big artists, two of them coming from the Newcomers Sanremo Giovani 2021 selection that is the biggest change really, or no more two different categories. This isn't anything new either as already 2019 this was tried out and gave us Mahmood.  For the Giovani selection there were 711 submissions out of which 30 acts will be invited to live auditions on November 8 in Rome. A special invitation there is also for Castrocaro winner Simo Veludo . Eight of them will make to the televised selection in December, with addition of four acts from Area Sanremo. That's doubled to previous years when only two made it that way. Each of the chosen ones has had to have two songs ready already and has input in decision; one for the Giovani selection and one new one for the Sanremo itself.  As already common, the same phrase is in the rules: The winner goes to Eurovision if only has agreed...

  Syksyn sävel 2021 had its final tonight and ended with no surprises, if not the fact that three ballady boombastic well arranged tunes took the podium. Out of the finalists these were by far the best song in every sense; melody, arrangement, production and vocals. Antti Ahopelto sung again perfectly and the Bondesque tune ended third after Teemu Roivainen's somehow very catchy midtempo and the winner Saija Tuupainen that balances somewhere between power ballad and her tango music past. Charles Plogman came 5th and Henry Friman 4th. The other placements were not announced. Read more here , here and here.   1. Saija Tuupainen - Kuurasydän (Frosted heart) 2. Teemu Roivainen - Hiekkalinna (Sand castle) 3. Antti Ahopelto - Sydänpimeää (Darkness of heart)

The second semi-final took place last night and from the very amateurish studio setting and graphics straight from the 1990's, non existing make up and poor sound with apparent problems for the singers another five songs made it to the final by telephone voting. Not that I agree. I would save only these four, but only Eini and Antti Ahopelto who gave the best vocals of all of them made it.  Check the final list all all the songs here   Eini - Mä en oo kenenkään Nomi - Repivää Johanna Pakonen - Vähän valoa Antti Ahopelto - Sydänpimeää

Syksyn sävel made a comeback. Here are the four best IMO for the semi-final one. They all made the final but Anja Niskanen.... which I think is the best out of these, while Teemu the front runner to win this at this point.  Anja Niskanen - Loistaa kuu Miika Mattila - Uusi alku Teemu Roivainen - Hiekkalinna Saija Tuupainen -Kuurasydän

Everyone knows Ricky Balboa, an underdog like Blind Channel at Eurovision 2021 where they sneaked into sixth place - Finland's second best showing ever! Måneskin may have taken over the world but also Blind Channel hasn't come back empty handed. They have a new international record deal and their summer tour in Finland has been sold out. The tour continues in Europe in January! Their gig in Helsinki's Allas Sea pool in the city center is now watchable in Yle Areena . 

  Well, what can you? Señorita must be one of the best known Spanish words in Italy, or...? Francesco at least goes for more local signorina! This said, La Zilli sweeps the floor with these other signorinas. I desideri -  Señorita Francesco da Vinci - Signorina Davide Cascini -  Señorita Nina Zilli / Clementino - Senorita

  After a little break here are again some new #Finpop for your enjoyment! Vahtera - Kun Diana kuoli NOOA - Rosie Ellis - Perhosii DJ Oku Luukkainen /Neon2 - Elämäni laulut

Only two short months after winning Eurovision song contest locally known Italian rock band has become a global phenomenon and a success story with chart success in the world's most important charts, the UK and Billboard in the US not mentioning hitting number one and other top placing all over Europe with their not one, but already THREE hit songs. Already Eurovision winner Zitti e buoni 's chart success was something any act could be envious off, but this I wanna be your slave became an overnight hit by itself without any promotion really, and even more so can be said when Beggin' , their 2017 cover single, started charting and what's most remarkable each one has outdone the previous one! I am not even trying to start listing their records broken and chart appearances, number of gold discs they have already gathered, countries where they have been featured in streaming and physical official charts and all that. Just sit back and enjoy this new video clip: Well, ok. ...

 It's time for some more summer sounds and hits from Italy! Virginio - Brava gente The Kolors - Cabriolet panorama Gaudiano - Rimani Federica Carta / Mydrama - Tocca a me

  The heat is one, the summer's here and here's also another dose of Italian summer hits. Enjoy! Takagi & Ketra / Giusy Ferreri - Shimmy shimmy Rocco Hunt / Ana Mena - Un bacio all'improvviso Nek - Un'estate normale Noemi / Carl Brave - Makunba

  The summer is definitely here and Finland is soaking up in the extreme heat nearly breaking all time heat records. An excuse as any to pretend to be enjoying some Latin rhythms and beats from Italy!  Elettra Lamborghini - Pistolero Michele Bravi / Sophie and the Giants - Falene Madame - Marea Clementino / Nina Zilli - Señorita