Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Just like last Saturday also to night's it's a busy night! Two finals and three national semifinals (all times CET): 19.55-21.50 Norway - FINAL - read more here 20.00-22.00 Finland - FINAL- read more here 20.00-21.30 Sweden - semifinal 2 - read more here 20.15-21.50 Hungary - Heat 2 - read more here 20.25- 22.40  Latvia - semifinal 2 - read more here And this time it's a lot trickier than last week when one could catch up the results one after another. Now most everything is happening at the same time! But one can catche the results in Sweden just before the Norwegian winner that happens just before the Finnish one. And then you can go to Latvia to catch up the results as well. Hungary seems to be the one left in shadow this tonight... I will concentrate on Finland's UMK 2013 final of course with live blogging here, but will update post other results and comments asap as well so stay tuned. And have a great evening!

Moments ago the allocation draw took place in the Old City Hall of Malmö. Statistically it was best to be in the first semi-final this time as there are only 16 countries, and in the second half of it. That's good news for Belgium and Montenegro who haven't really shined in Eurovision, Montenegro never making the final so far. Worse for San Marino, another country with that track record: first part of the second semi-final, the worst possible. The Netherlands, also struggling to enter the final in recent years was drawn to the first semi-final and the first part for it. No good. The same fate for Bulgaria, only in the second semi-final. The eternal qualifiers were divided; Russia and Ukraine in the first one (and both in the first half) while Azerbaijan is in the second one and in its first half. Good news for Romania, Armenia and Greece - all in the second semifinal and its second half. And Finland? Now when it mattered a bit to be in the first semi-final as always, for t...

Here it is, the sublogo and the theme. We are one!

This morning, after a wild night out with booze and well slept night he had come to his senses: "Eurovision was a wonderful experience. Our goal was to make the final and we did. Once in the final everyhting was just an added bonus!" Also guitarist A. Järvinen thought the same "We got into the final with rock, in Finnish! Others are welcome to try that, too!" Teräsbetoni returned home from Belgrade late last night and at the airport the group wasn't very pleased. "After the semifinals things were going so well we believed in better result. When Estonia gave us 10 we were still hoping but soon after realised it's not our evening. And at the last moment even Sweden past us by " tells J.Ahola. (sources: Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti)

Yet another book has been released about Helsinki 2007 - you remember last year's bookmania in Finland, don't you? This time around it's a rather academic research of what was done, where, when and how, what the people really thought about it all and how the media in Finland and abroad handled it, and how Helsinki and Finland in general was potrayed abroad. The book has 148 pages with short translations in English. Viisukuppila's Anna Muurinen has written an article for it about Eurovision music and its changes over the years. This and all the rest in this book collected by Vesa Keskinen. Some picks here: 92% of the people thought YLE did a great job. 36% of the people attending Eurovision 2007 had a university degree, 19% higher education and only 16% had only a basic school background. There were over 350 happenings or events during the Eurovision period in town, one of the most succesful ones was Ourvision singing contest ( see previous posts ). Watch the Helsinki ...

UPDATE: EBU has given a statement tonight 22.2 that the preparations in Belgrade go on as planned for now.... Now that the situation in Serbia and Kosovo is Eurovision threatening YLE's Kjell Ekholm (of EBU's reference group) has apparently offered Helsinki as a back-up option. Will we be back here so soon? Not after another 40 years?! I'm not sure I can survive that! Serbians and other people, cool down, make peace and Eurovision!

Gerli and Edsilia were brave enough to visit the Media Centre after the failed semifinal. I don't know what Gerli had to say as she said nothing but smiled to left and to right with a sadness in her eyes. Edsilia were more talkative or pissed off enough to speak her mind. However, the situation soon turned around and she was conforting the fans and saying "Honey, it really doesn't matter!" to anyone who was nice enough to tell her she deserved a final spot... At that moment she still didn't know if she was to stay or go but we had a great surprise on Saturday night when she popped in to give the Dutch votes!