Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Montenegro's Montevizija was on last night but I was too busy in Sanremo to care. And I have missed nothing. Montenegro is famous for staging diasters and I can only wonder if D-Moll won only because they do have a prop? They were my least favorite of them all and hearing they have won can only be deescribed with one for: Disaster. The song is old and tired and the staging just lame. Truth to be said the only decent option for me was Ivana....  1. D-Moll - Heaven (radio 5+international 5+expert 2+televote 5 ) 17 2. Ivana Popović-Martinović - Nevinost (1+3+5+3) 12 3.Andrea Demirović - Ja sam ti san (3+1+3+0) 9 4. Nina Petković - Uzmili ili ostavi (2+0+0+2) 4 5. Monika Knezović - Nepogrješivo (0+2+1+1) 4

Open submission gave Montenegro 27 songs. Five made it to the 2nd round, among them Andrea Demirovic, Eurovision veteran from 2009 when heer song was written aby Ralph Siegel, this time she has written all alone her song. Ivana and Nina aree back from last year's selection. Among songwriters Eurovision 2007 winner Vladimir Graić. D-Mol - Ti/Heaven *  (Dejan Božović - Aleksandar Miličić) Andrea Demirović - Ja sam ti san **  (Andrea Demirović) Monika Knezović - Nepogrješiva **  (Vladimir Grajić - Graja - Snežana Vukomanović) Ivana Popović Martinović - Nevinost ****  (Slavko Milovanović - Ivana Popović Martinović) Nina Petković - Uzmi ili ostavi *** (Bojan Momčilović, Zoran Radonjić - Nina Petković)

Once again many spokespersons are already familiar faces. There are previous Eurovision singers and winners, even previous Eurovision and national final hosts and then well known tv-hosts and hstesses in theirown counties. And then some random celebrities like Ireland's ex-Westlife singer and UK's celebrity tv cook Nigella Lawson. Here they are from Valentina Monetta to Helena Paparizou, from Tinkara Kovac to Andrea Demirovic, Teo, Suzy and Nikki.and more.... and ding dong alert: Krista Siegfrids will burst out with a bubble of laughter and positivity, too!

Montenegro is yet to make the Eurovision final. In 2009 they were close with Amdrea's Just get out of my life (11th in semifinal). Last year Who See was heavily tipped to make it but failed, only 12th in the semifinal. This year they will apparently bring the big Balcan ballad with Sergej Ćetković. Now that Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia are out the field is free for that genre, that usually does well in Eurovision. The song will be presented this Sunday and he has prepaired besides the video both Montenegrin and English versions of the song. While waiting for his entry let's enjoy some of his other songs here .

Portugal's Setùbal hosts already for the third time Eurovision stars live in concert on September 10, 2011. The guest of honour is none other than Marie Myriam , the French winner of 1977 of Portuguese origin and this bloggers most significant ever Eurovision entry's performer. Other guests who have already had the taste of the Eurovision stage are Jari Sillanpää from Finland, Marcin Mrozinski from Poland, Igor Cukrov from Croatia,  Lucia Perez from Spain, Chiara from Malta and Andrea Demirovic from Montenegro. On top of that familiar names from various national finals: Chen Aharoni from Israel, Jenny Silver from Sweden besides local stars Filipa Ruas and Rui Andrade . I see there several names I'd love to see besides lovely Marie M but sigh, have to skip this time again..... :-(

The Andrea Demirovic competition is over. The winners come from the Netherlands, Italy and Finland and they have been notified how to receive the CD-single. Thank you to all who participated and congratulations to the winners!

Exclusive greetings from Moscow to all my blog readers sends Andrea & Ralph Siegel and the rest of the team. They had a dinner at Café Puschkin Thursday night after the second rehearsal day. I suspect tonight they have been out to a birthday party! (Happy birthday, M!)

Montenegro's Andrea and her dancer took the stage first this morning and started the second round of technical rehearsals. Nothing seems to have been changed in the presentation, except Andrea's dress that is now short. Beware of those camera angles! The angle in this video below is not very flattering after the chair affair. I would drop the chair affair all together... But Andrea sounded vocally very very good and I still hope this would make it to the final. If it was in the weaker semi 2 there were no doubts, but here... we will see. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9oEWCJAMf8

I have 3 copies of Andrea Demirovic's Just get out of my life singles to give away in kind collaboration with Siegel-Musikverlage. Simply answer the easy question below and send your answer by Sunday May 10 to blogilkar@hotmail.com and you may win it! How many songs has Ralph Siegel had in the Eurovision song contest and for how many different countries?

Andrea was singing her entry in press conference without sound problems like she had during her rehearsals on stage. Ralph Siegel was in the press conference, too. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=fChSqnjx1e0

With the increse of number of participating countries and necessary introduction of semifinals the period each artists spends in the host city has gone from what used to be "Eurovision week" to two weeks. Let's take Montenegro's Andrea as example as she opens the first semifinal on May 12: Sunday May 3: rehearsals and press conference from 9.30 to 11.15 Thursday May 7: second rehearsal and press from 11.00 to 12.25 Monday May 11: full semifinal dress rehearsals twice Tuesday May 12: third and final dress rehearsal + semifinal live and then she will go on if she makes the final: Friday May 15: full final dress rehearsals twice Saturday May 16: third and final dress rehearsal + final live That way, out of 16 days I presume she will be in Moscow she will be on stage only on 6 days, the rest is filled with promotion, interviews, parties and such fun stuff. Who said Eurovision is easy? http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu0kGfldVvk

Andrea Demirović has been internally chosen for Montenegro with song Just get out of my life. First listening judgement is it's the best Montenegrin entry so far.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ1s8ymScT8