Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

While the rehearsals for the grand final are going on in Vienna let's have a look at those ten who didn't make it to the end. In my personal order of preference. Latvia being the one I am most sad about.... Portugal ended its run of five consecutive finals Azerbaijan NQ'ed for the 4th in a row Switzerland NQ'ed after a win and a null points from the televote the year after. Georgia NQ's for the second year in a row Overall they have qualified only once in the past 10 years! Armenia NQ'd for the first time in 5 years San Marino NQ'ed for the 4th in 5 years Senhit NQ'd for the 2nd time Estonia NQ'd for the first time in 5 years and after last year's 3rd place Montenegro has qualifed only twice before: 2014 and 2015 Luxemburg NQ'd for the first time. Both ever and after its comeback in 2024.  Whichever way you want to count it. 

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...

Serbia - Lavina - Kraj mene Poland- Alicja - Pray San Marino - Senhit feat. Boy George - Superstar Lithuiania - Lion Ceccah - Solo quero más Belgium - Essyla - Dancing on the ice Israel - Noam Bettan - Michelle Estonia - Vanilla Ninja - Too epic to be true Montenegro - Tamara Živković - Nova Zora 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! 8. GREECE - AKYLAS - FERTO    53 9. ESTONIA - VANILLA NINJA - TOO EPIC TO BE TRUE    52 10. FRANCE - MONROE - REGARDE    51 11. AUSTRALIA - DELTA GOODREM - ECLIPSE    50

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.  Sweden - Felicia - My system *** First of all it's refreshing to not see Sweden as #1 in the odds for a change. And for a change I kinda like the Swedish entry (KAJ and M&M don't count as they are not Swedish, lol) Felicia is likable, she's got the backstory, too. I like the verses, less the noisy bits. This kind of song didn't work for Belgium last year and I never liked it at all. This is less demanding and melodic  in every way. Sweden will be once again in Top-10 because it's Sweden but will they reach To-5? I'm not so sure. Belgium - Essyla - Dancing on the ice * I ...

Estonia has had the final of the 18th Eesti laul tonight, the national final for Eurovision song contest 2026. Vanilla Ninja was selected as the winner so they return to Eurovision after finishing 8th in 2005 for Switzerland with Cool vibes (that was actually cool). This Too epic to be true isn't very epic sadly. Neither the whol selection this year. My initial favorite was NOEP and indeed it may still be the best one for me. Vanilla Ninja these days is Lenna Kuurmaa, Piret Järvis and Kerli Kivilaan. They had their prime time in 2002-2008 when they had several hits in Central Europe ( Tough enough , When the Indians cry and Blue tattoo just to mention some) and reunited in 2020. They tried to win Euro laul also in 2003 with Club Kung-Fu (9th) and 2007 with Birds of peace (4th).  A total of 177 entries were submitted for the contest. A 34 member jury chose the 12 finalists and the songs were presented on October 30 and 31. Among the artists Eurovision veterans Getter Jaani (2011),...

As every year some EuroviSIon entries have their remixes out, dance or other versions and 2025 is no exception. One of those really blew me away: Germany. I haven't been a big fan of Baller but this remix hit me in the right mood - love the old school piano! Wow what an improvement! If this was the Eurovision version Germany would be high on my scoreboard! Finland's Erika offers a ROOS+BERG Club mix that is fine, somehow I wish it had more of the original song in it being more sing-a-longable.  Estonia's Tommy Cash offers not one two remixes already. The second one just was released featuring extra rapping by Italian heavyweight (and Sanremo 2025 participant) Roman rapper Tony Effe. Here .  Azerbaijan's Mamagama delivers Deep House version of their entry and actually I just love it, it might be even better than the actual entry. Such a lovely groove and vibes. Luxemburg's puppet gets electrified in its remix Poupée èletrique but I very much prefer the original silly...

Finland, once the eternal loser and failure has become a real Eurovision powerhouse in the past few years. Finishing 6th and 2nd in the past few years and qualifying already four years in a row - fifth one coming this year - has also managed to sneak in to help other delegations like Albania last year and  this year Ari Levelä is doing stagings for Austria and Cyprus, Teemu Muurimäki who created the famous green bolero for Käärijä among others will dress up JJ and even UMK show producer (and one of Käärijä's dancers) Matti Myllyaho is involved with Austria's staging. Estonia's entry this year is co-written and produced in Finland, the Swedish entry is by Finns and then we have Finland itself in top-10 in the odds to win the whole thing. In short Finns are behind four entries in the Top-10. And Käärijä will perform in Basel as interval act. Again. That brings us to the curious situation in Finland: the media and people have pretty much forgotten about Erika Vikman and our en...

The infamous three (3) photos are out ( read more here ) for the semifinal one. Apparently there are no major changes the first day for what we have already seen in national finals or music videos but just updated and more polished and adapted performances for Eurovision rules (less people on stage for Sweden) and the bigger stage. Several wardrobe changes though. The day two brings more changes and even unseen before stagings to the first semifinal set. Azerbaijan is all newand apparently works fine. They have also dancers while San Marino has lost them and has instead accordion and tambourine instrumentalists along with the masked singers. Croatia has also come up with a new staging and the one from Cyprus has been a lot talked and speculated beforehand and seems to be delivering. If they only had a song to match, too! ICELAND POLAND SLOVENIA ESTONIA UKRAINE SWEDEN PORTUGAL NORWAY BELGIUM AZERBAIJAN SAN MARINO ALBANIA NETHERLANDS CROATIA CYPRUS