Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Adam Pavlovčin (29) aka Adonxs has been internally chosen by ČT for the Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel. At first glance he might look like a hybrid of Duncan Laurence and Nemo but this basso profondo voiced Slovak is a classically trained singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actor, Superstar 2021 winner, androgynous, five time Slovak street dance champion, LGTBQ+ activist. Phew, that's a lot! His musical career started already in high school where he formed genre-bending band PACE. They moved to London and were joined by Greek drummer and guitarist from Monaco. They released Baroque pop EP and a couple of singles (Hunt me down, Fallen) and did performed in London, festivals and Prides until 2021 when Codi-19 shut things down and he moved to Prague and started a solo career. Update 4.2.2025: he previewed his entry Kiss kiss goodbye in the Maltese selection as acoustic version: The official version was released March 7: He won the joint Slovak-Czech idols Superstar 2021 stirring ...

ČT organized once again ESCZ already in December 2023 with a live final and online voting running for a week with separate Czech and international votes. Aiko emerged victorious with Pedestal in a final of seven, selected out of 200+ submissions.  Aiko or Alena Shirmanova-Kostebelova (24) is a Russian born Czech singer songwriter who lives in United Kingdom. Her career started in reality talent show  Česko Slovenská SuperStar in 2015. She made the girls top-10 but not the top-4. After that she mmoved to UK to pursue her career and released her debut album in 2018. Second album followed in 2020. She's done a few firsts for a Czech artist, like being featured in the Time Square's screens in New York. Her songs have made it to tv-series like Teen mom and Love island. Her third album was released last year. She has released also a dozen singles so far. Her entry Pedestal was revamped for Eurovision, here's the original one .  So, what do I think? To be honest, at first n...

The Czech Republic's ESCZ national final results were revealed already a few days ago but only today eurovision.tv announced the winner officially. During these days fandom was speculation a possible disqualification or some other political pressure and all that #drama. The song is apparently about Slavic sisterhood and includes a Russian member, some lyrics in Ukrainian, and the sister, is it Ukraine? you decide what to think about it.  Vesna won the contest with a large margin and gained quite a popularity already before the final among international fans. Below are the final results (Czech votes+International votes) 1. Vesna - My sister's crown (3.501 + 7.083) 10.584 2. Pam Rabbit - Ghosting (1.417+2.799) 4.216 3. Rodan - Introvert party club (501+1.494) 1.995 4. Marketa Irglova - Happy (184+825) 1.009 5. Maella - Flood (95+504) 599

Czech Republic has managed to gain success and following in the past years in the Eurovision circuit and the national final went live this year for the first time since forever. Or sort of. January 30 the presentation show was streamed live where the entries performed live and the voting started. People all over the world were able to vote their favorite online until February 6, and the winner will be announced the day after. The international votes weight 70% and the rest is national. One song in particular became a huge fan favorite as soon as it was clear it was one of the five songs but what else is there in store. I review. Maella - Flood * This one didn't really impress me at all. Nice but that's all. Pam Rabbit - Ghosting  *** Quite catchy and interesting that with excellent staging could do well at Eurovision. I quite enjoy this but still not quite four stars worth. Yet.  Markéta Irglóva - Happy  ***** This is adorable, so sweet and happy, I'm in love. Fandom won...

Czech Republic is riding with success lately at the Eurovision song contest and their national selection Escz will go live instead of just videos this year. On January 30 the five participants will be streamed live via eurovision.tv and national broadcaster and people everywhere may vote for the winner until February 6, when the winner will be announced. The voting will be 70/30% international/national votes.  Among the artist already familiar Pam Rabbit who hopes to be third time lucky having participated already in 2019 and 2020, besides being already on Eurovision stage in 2018 with Mikolas Josef. Another familiar name is Markéta Irglová. Yes, the very same Markéta from last year's Icelandic selection as that's where she lives these days, despite working mostly in the US. Rodan was awarded as The Discovery of the Year 2021 in Czech Republic, Vesna comes from folk-pop world, and Maella who has gone from jazz to alt-pop and loved by BBC Introducing completes the five-some. Upd...

Be kind. Another day, another rehearsals. Today the remaining acts of semi-final two rehearsed for the second time for 20 minutes and this time we get to see the short videos. Enjoy! Wailing Perfection Convincing 33 1/3, part 1 33 1/3, part 2 Bébébé (aka 33 1/3, part 3) Shaky Breathless Thriller Close Tanzen!

Another day, another first 30 minutes technical rehearsals for semi-final two countries: Ireland, North Macedonia, Estonia, Romania, Poland, Montenegro, Belgium, Sweden and Czech Republic. Meanwhile there's first official statement by Ebu about the malfunction of the Kinetic sun. In other words it does work, it only takes too long to remove it during the performances and thus it is not used that way for the delegations. This said, solutions have been found for everyone and a general viewers isn't any wiser. It could also be one of the reasons the acts will be announced Sanremo style besides it being a nice touch and very old school Eurovision - something these young folks have no idea of and are outraged for nothing. In the final there's also one country less as an Big5 country is hosting so that also saves time here and there, not only the performance but the recaps etc. Clearly it just wasn't enough. No big deal. But that's not the only thing from Sanremo in Turin...

  The Rasmus are gonna hunt you if you don't vote for them! So far there's been a huge lack of this kind of photos!  Here are some good old flag photos! I hope Stefan isn't afraid to fly..... Someone spotted Jeremie at the airport! Oh wow, a good old promo pen!!!

Here we go again! Once again Blogilkar's home jury has sat through the songs and videos and voted from 1 to 10. This year the jury consisted of pre-teens, 20somethings, 30somethngs, 40somethings and 50somethings. Even a dog participated and went nuts for Romania but was not allowed to vote. Most of the jury members had not heard any of the songs beforehand, some not even the Finnish one.And yes, this jury didn't care for betting odds, fan favorites or wanks but only their own taste and first impression! I will be counting down from bottom to the top and  here are places 5-8. Check out also places 9-12 here .  5. ARMENIA - ROSA LINN - SNAP (Average score 7,28) Great little tune, catchy and likable. This left me indifferent said one. The other loved this to bits. The most divisive of them all really. Yet it's this high. 6. CZECH REPUBLIC -     WE ARE DOMI - LIGHTS OFF  (Average score 7,00) Great vocals and presence. I could dance to this. Good beat. Good average g...

  A little series of those entries I liked i the national finals this season who didn't make it to Torino 2022 Eurovision song contest. In no particular order! Luma - All in (Slovenia - 4th) Lolita Zero - Not your mother (Lithuania - 3rd) Pauline Chagne - Nuit Pauline (France - 2nd) Jordan Haj & Emma Smetana - By now (Czech Republic - 4th)

Here is the next set of today's second rehearsal for the semi final two ones. Check out the previous post for more information here . Czech Republic gets critic online for bad vocals and lack of energy but hard to say more from this short clip. To me this looks a bit boring and unoriginal staging and unless Benny turns on all his charm and quirkiness this could be a NQ after all even if I thought pre-rehearsals he would qualify easily. Well, you can't win always, can you? Greece is using the green screen for most of the performance and I wonder will it get a bit annoying once the novelty wears off? Especially if they don't fix the minor errors in using it before the live shows and I'm not sure if this is the staging I wanted for this, as the song itself is one of my favorites. It's also surprisingly low in the odds so I can only hope this would be the dark horse that does the  Olsen Brothers/Marie N in the end. As this is sure finalist and Stefania looks and sounds...

Today's rehearsals continued with the first rehearsals of the first part of second semi final. Tonight after three days of rehearsals there's already some movement in the odds. Iceland (+1), Greece (+2), Austria (+1) of today's acts move up and from first semi Ukraine (+2), Russia (+1), Cyprus (+2) and Croatia (+3) move up as well. Lithuania (-1), Sweden (-1), Norway (-5), Azerbaijan (-2), Slovenia (-1) and Australia (-2) move down and from today both Moldova (-1) and Serbia (-1) as well) San Marino's Senhit certainly gets everyone's attention with her headpiece. She's having four dancers – already a trend this year – on a rotating thingy and it's all very colorful, happy and insanely catchy as is the music video. Flo Rida is replaced by some random rapper but the strong rumor is he is already in town and waiting for his quarantine and Covid-19 tests to prove negative so he can join the fun. Vocally Senhit seems to deliver as we know she can. Estonia's U...

Benny Cristo got the ticket to Eurovision last year by winning the national final with Kemama . The Czech television decided early that he's the one also for 2021 and today his internally selected entry was revealed. Omaga stands for Oh my God and omg the video leaves one kinda breathless as it keeps going on like a long distance train..... I think I like this more than 2020 one? Here's song number seven out of 41 for Eurovision 2021:

Czech Republic - Benny Cristo - Kemama What can I say? There are elements I like, but in the end it's a mess. It's also so anonymous it could be from anywhere, anytime. I kinda like it for a while when it plays but besides that it's completely forgettable. This said I would have been interest to see how they would have staged this because I have a feeling this might have worked live in a big arena with audience participating. But would people have taken the effort to vote? Probably not. 4/10 Austria - Vincent Bueno - Alive Shackle bolts! Now that's something you don't hear every year in Eurovision. This is like Czech entry, I kinda like it when it's playing but have hard time remembering otherwise. Vincent does his best Timberlake/Jackson moves and grooves but it really isn't that original or captivating, is it? 5/10 United Kingdom - James Newman - My last breath The best UK entry for a long, long time! I really like his voice and I hope...

Poland is experiencing a new way of choosing their entry and after three heats with only the winner getting the ticket to the final we have contestants tonight, one of them Albert Černý with his Lake Malawi who represanted Czech Republic last year. Their entry is co-written by three Eurovision veterans: JOWST from Norway, Cesar Sampson from Austria and Lasse Piirainen (Norme John) from Finland. On top of that it is dedicated to last year's hostess in Tel Aviv, Lucy Ayoub! How weird is that? Albert Černý (Lake Malawi) - Lucy Kasia Dereń - Ufaj mi Alicja Szemplińska - ?

Benny Cristo or Ben Ben Cristóvão (32) has been around over ten years after making himself known in 2009 in talent show Superstar. Son of an Angolan father and Czech mother and brother to stand up comedian Bianca, Ben is also a medal winning athlete in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and even before that in snowboarding.  In his musical career he has released three albums, three EPs and 20 singles including his latest, the Eurovision 2020 entry Kemama .