Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

What can I say about the show to start with? The hosts? Okeyish, mostly kept to their role, the attempts to be funny mostly were a bit meh and what an earth was Michael wearing?! The graphics were rather unpleasant when the songs were introduced. The postcards kinda nice but weird, an evolution of those in Turin but better. The opening act was nice and pure Eurovision, the interval act also typical Eurovision the little I watched it being busy scrolling Twitter but that Australia/austria thingy was a big yawn really. And it seems Italy and Finland took over Twitter at least in my wall.  But the stage! I love the stage! It looked great to most everyone and some shots were just stunning. One of the best stages for many years! Of the acts Croatia stunned me the most and Belgium looked great, too, as for the songs Israel really steps out in the recaps.  And then the finalist, here in order they were announced except Finland (announced second) that makes the headline of course. Aft...

What can I say? Not much judging these short videos. But I say a few words anyways by the first impression that can be very misleading anyways. Moldova is a bit let down, not at all so powerful and energetic as I expected. Vocals seem to be off, too. Sweden . Same as Moldova. Which makes me think these vids are on purpose a mess. Croatia seems very busy and a bit too serious and angry. I have said before and I repeat myself: angry women don't do well in Eurovision . Greece .... Oh well, looks rather chaotic and his voice a bit weak. But then again it's a rehearsal. Need to see the whole package but doesn't look like a winner despite all. This said my favorite performance of them all is the Greek national final preview with only one hanging mic. That was fab and let Akylas show all his charm. Now he disappears into his visuals.  Portugal stands out with the pretty staging, calm song and good voices. They're so sailing to the final! Georgia was on my list to qualify b...

  Finland - Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen - Liekinheitin Georgia - Bzikebi - On replay Portugal - Bandidos do Cante - Rosa Greece - Akylas - Ferto Croatia - Lelek - Andromeda Sweden - Felicia - My system Moldova - Satoshi - Viva, Moldova! All photos lovingly borrowed from Eurovision official media

Here it is, already traditional Blogilkar's Eurovision Home Jury results. This year we had a total of nine people in the jury from teenagers to 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, most every one just people who do watch Eurovision but aren't any fanatic fans, just tv viewers who don't remember who won two years ago or sometimes even last year, don't have a clue about the polls and odds but just score the songs to their liking. We used 1 to 10 scores. Tie breaks were settled by highest marks and if still a tie by my preference. Here we go! 28. MONTENEGRO - TAMARA ZIVKOVIC - NOVA ZORA    38 29. PORTUGAL - BANDIDOS DO CANTE - ROSA  36 30. SAN MARINO - SENHIT FEAT. BOY GEORGE - SUPERSTAR   35 31. CROATIA -  LELEK - ANDROMEDA    34

    I wasn't planning on doing personal reviews this year either but here we go after all. Truth to be said I have listened the entries 0-2 times before sitting down now to comment them. Let's go! The usual Blogilkar's home jury will reunite later and the results revealed in due time. meanwhile, my thoughts and comments on the entries of Eurovision song contest series is right here.  Croatia - Lelek - Andromeda ** We have had similar entries in Eurovision before from Latvia and Poland with variable results. Great vocals and harmonies, good melody... but I am a bit tired of these. I would like to like this a lot more than I actually do. Right now I have it in final at the bottom five but we'll see.  Finland - Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen - Liekinheitin ***** I guess I have said all already in previous posts about them and UMK. Seeing them #1 in the odds with a huge margin week after week is quite incredible. I guess I just sit back and enjoy the ride. Itäs going t...

Croatia's national final for Eurovision song contest 2026 has also come to and end after two semi-finals where out of 251 submissions 24 selected songs competed for the 16 places in the final line up, among them last year's fan favorite Lelek. If I should pick up some names I would go for Alen Duras, Sergej, Lana Demarin, Stela Bade and Lana Mandaric. Read more here .  Lelek is a Croatian folk pop all female band. They are Inka Večerina Perušić, Judita Štorga, Korina Olivia Rogić, Lara Brtan and Marina Ramljak. They were formed in 2024 and already last year treied to get to Eurovision with fan favorite The sould of my soul placing 4th. A handful of singles released so far they are yet to release an album.  Final results (jury + tele): Ananda - Dora  (13 +7) 20  15th Sergej - Scream   (33 + 9) 42  10th Noelle - Uninterrupted   (27 + 11) 38  13th Alen Đuras - From Ashes to Flame   (41 + 15) 56  6th Irma - Ni traga   (32 + 11) 43...

The most popular and easiest alternative version to do is of course an acoustic version and there's been plenty of them this Eurovision 2025 season.... Enjoy!

It's the time again: Blogilkar's home jury of Eurovision fans, non-fans and common viewers from teenagers to nearly 60 years old have watched and listened giving points from 1 to 10 plus a special 12 points to be awarded to the one favorite. In case of a tie the ranking was done by highest points received by any juror(s). And yes, the result is somewhat surprising here and there. Last year our winner was NQ Czechia but the winner Switzerland was 2nd and runner up Croatia 3rd.  Let's start with the bottom-4. Common to these four was no one really liked them that much for various reason be it monotony, poor vocals, annoying sound and lyrics or simply not feeling that resulted with many very low votes that left them in the bottom of the list this year.  34. CROATIA 36 Croatia's votes went from 1 to 7 with several 2s and 3s as well.  35. GEORGIA 35 Georgia scored between several 2s and one odd 7 as max. 36. LATVIA 35 Latvia scored between 2 and 6 with quite a few 3s.  37...

It's time to kick of the usual reviews. The opinions are all mine and if I don't like some song it's simply just not my cup of tea so to speak. If I like something you dislike or hate, it's fine, too. No stresso, no need to be depresso it's just music and tastes that re diverse and therefor beautiful! I also try to predict their success come May a little bit but as we know once the staging is out everything may change, remember Fuego and Rise like a phoenix for example? For this series I have grouped the songs in fours as usual as the songs may have similarities or something in common. Some fours came out beautifully, the others.... well not so well. Here comes the third part! ARMENIA - Parg - Survivor To me this is a weird one: I have seen Parg's other videos and heard songs and he can sing. But his vocals are very forced giving impression he can't. Plus the whole chorus is sing back. I'm not sure the juries will appreciate that so much. Or the insane l...

Another goodie from Croatia. Marko Tolja offered a solid classic ballad, extremely well sung. A classic polished performance. Of course fandom doesn't get these songs but as an Eurovision old schooler I just loved it. One of the best songs of the season. Had it been in Croatian it would have been perfection!

When I first heard Monopol I thought this is 100% Croatian Eurovision as I would imagine it. A male Maria Magdalena some 25 years later. The semi-final performance was rather disastrous with its sound problems but he did well in the final and the 10th place finish was a big disappointment for me, and even somewhat surprising. Great stuff; Eurovision by numbers but not like all those songs written in various song writing camps even if this might be one with its Swedish co-writers. 

Last year Croatia's reserve song of Dora 2024 swept to victory and conquered Europe finishing second in Eurovision so HRT is facing YLE like pressure this year. YLE may have stumbled ( check out most streamed songs in Finland 2024 ) a bit in the end but Croatia is still riding high in hopes as a new record number of entries was submitted, 221, and these 24 made the cut - and four reserves, better keep eye on those, too, should someone withdraw or be disqualified or something! And indeed, two entries have been disqualified and two reserve entries enter the game, Swingers and Fenksta! Among the artists as usual some familiar names from Luka Nižetić to Marko Bošnjak and Eurovision 1995 veterans Magazin with 45 years of experience and career, but the lead singer has changed. And oui, there's a song i French in the mix.  There will be two semi-finals and the grand final on March 2, 2025.. Below is my usual first time hearing ranking. Nothing really bad here in my opinion and taste b...

As Eurovision is nearing its 70th edition in 2026 we still have 25 countries, more or less active or existing that have never won the contest. Some have been close already like Croatia this year placing second, as well as other runner ups Cyprus, Bulgaria, Australia, Iceland, Malta, Poland and no longer existing Serbia & Montenegro. Moldova, Romania and Bosnia & Herzegovina have reached the third place getting a taste of the podium success, too.  Then we have poor Andorra that never reached the final being close to do so in Helsinki 2007's massacre mega big semi-final of 28 entries placing 12th. Some countries are yet to reach the Top-1o in the final: San Marino, Montenegro and no longer participating Slovakia and Morocco. This said let's hope they all come back one day! While at this let's enjoy those non winning countries best placed entries to show them some support, ok? 2024 CROATIA (2.) Baby Lasagna - Rim Tim Tagi Dim 2019 NORTH MACEDONIA (7.)   Tamara Todevs...

Sometimes the Eurovision stars don't quite follow up their momentum with releases of new singles and/or albums but this year the Top-4 has been already productive with the exception of the winner Nemo who still goes around singing The Code. The runner up Baby Lasagna from Croatia  third placed Jerry Heil and Alyona Alyona from Ukraine as well as French superstar Slimane all are out with a follow up single already. BABY LASAGNA - AND I JERRY HEIL - VIRGIN MARIA ALYONA ALYONA - Тато SLIMANE - RÉSISTER (WHAT ABOUT PEACE?)

  Let the drama come to an end with a peaceful way. Let's pray! In the odds (at 6pm) Croatia is still leading with 43% chance, followed by Israel (22%), Switzerland (14%), France going up with 4%. All the other % are 4 or lowers so I won't add them here. Ireland is steady at 5th, followed by Ukraine and Italy dropping, Finland going up to 8th place (!!!), Greece steady at 9th, Uk, Sweden, Norway and Armenia going up next, while Lithuania and Austria going down. Georgia steady at 16th. Spain and Cyprus going up and Estonia steady at 19th. Then Germany and Latvia going up, while Slovenia going down at 22nd. Portugal and Luxemburg going up while Serbia has dropped to last. So, quite a lot of movement there up and down. I still stick to my fixed idea since November 2023 of France winning followed by Israel, Ukraine, Croatia, Switzerland and Italy in random order. I also think the winner may not win either jury nor televotes, maybe not even be the runner up but in the end maths done...

Ok, it's time to reveal my own personal ranking this year. The first song I heard was France and it has stayed the clear number one for me all this time, and I still think it can win it all - maybe not winning neither the jury nor the televotes but ending up winning as a compromise. The other that still moves me every time I hear it, and I just like still as much as the first impact is Ukraine. Italy and Croatia were on top ever since they won their national finals and Albania was my favorite in FiK and even if it took awhile for me to adjust to the new version I still like it a lot. United Kingdom didn't impress that much at first but has been climbing all the time. Azerbaijan was a favorite as well right away while Switzerland took some time to appreciate while Luxemburg and Austria in the end made my top-10.  A special mention bubbling under are Belgium, Netherlands, San Marino, Spain, Lithuania and Israel not forgetting Ireland and Australia.  1. FRANCE - Slimane - Mon amo...