Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  First impressions and comments: Italy is straight from Italian prime time Saturday night entertainment television. Sal looks a bit excited but I'm sure he will nail it when it matters and charms the pants off half of Europe. Accusi! Germany is what it is, the most generic unoriginal song and staging that can be titled Fire. Hard to think this will go anywhere in top-10 and gain points, a possible zero points France seems to bring the French revolution on stage and they indeed don't give us bread but cakes! Looks great, sounds good. Indeed another contender for the win - if the televoters aren't already tired of opera. UK is one of my personal top favourites against all odds and I'm so curious to see how it will do in the end! Staging seems pretty much as expected.  Austria - what to say? I preferred his national final outfit. To start with. The song is what it is. Maybe it won't score a flat zero like last time in Vienna. And indeed it deserves a bit more. 

  Italy - Sal Da Vinci - Per sempre si ... and here's the Italian team on stage:  Germany - Saran Engels - Fire France - Monroe - Regarde! United Kingdom - Look Mum No Computer - Eins, Zwei, Drei Austria - Cosmo - Tanzschein

  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! 16. ISRAEL -  NOAM BETTAN - MICHELLE   47 17. LATVIA - ATVARA - ENA    47 18. GERMANY -  SARAH ENGELS - FIRE   47 19. UKRAINE - LELÉKA - RIDNYM    46

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.  Austria - Cosmò - Tanzschein ** Certainly different from last year's entry. I kinda like this but then in the end not so much. This starts well and makes me curious but then it gets quite repetitive and goes nowhere. He's doing vocally good enough live but not so sure about the performance and masks and stuff. Haven't we seen that quite a few times already? Not sure how this act will open up to those not understanding German though. I can't quite see neither juries nor televoters going wild for this. Final placing 20something? Or even dead last. Again. Austria knows something about ...

Germany has had its national selection Das Deutsche Finale for Eurovision song contest and it was won by Sarah Engels and Fire.  The songs were gathered by open submissions, invitations for record companies, publishers and managers. The songs were selected through three different selection and development rounds including international songwriting camps and eventually the nine finalists were out for the on off grand final. In the final an international panel of 20 selected the top-3 for the televoting only super final.  Sarah Engels, also known as Sarah Lombardi, is a German pop singer and television personality known for her participation twice in Deutschland sucht den Superstar talent show, finishing first in top-10, the  runner up. Six albums todate, two of them Top-10. Some sixteen singles so far, many of them with ex-husband Pietro Lombardi. The two first ones hit #2 in the charts.  Bela - Herz Dreamboys the Band - Jeanie Laura Nahr - Wonderland Malou Lovis - Wh...

The beauty of Eurovision is occasionally the artists became friends and/or collaborate in the future. Here comes another fruit of that thing: Germany's last placed Lord of the Lost join forces with Finnish runner up Käärijä in Raveyard.  Somehow I have a feeling this isn't last Käärijä collaboration with fellow Eurovision artists..... It's worth remembereing Lord of the Lost already did a v´cover of Cha cha cha, too :-)

The old days it was a form to record the Eurovision in songs in multiple versions but that's not been so common anymore. How ever even this year we do have some surprising ones: France in English, Germany in Hungarian and Serbia in French. My favorite though is the jazzy version of Iceland in English, just vaebulous!

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...

 And here come the second rehearsal clips from the Big5 and the host Switzerland. (Waiting for better ones to come up) To be updated

The Big5 + host had their first rehearsal Thursday night while the world was waiting for the new Pope that appeared from the white smoke between UK and France.  Germany has upped their game from the national final bringing curtains, huge 80's style boombox prop, LED electric cello and four dancers. Fandom hopes Tynna has also brought the voice as it's been missing most pre-contest season.  France premiered their song in a packed stadium hanging meters high in the air in front of tens of thousands of people and the video gave us completely different imaginary. And here they have yet another one: sand covered circle of  hour glass with time running out as the girl grows up to woman and then to mother herself. Sounds very pretty and promising I can say that much without seeing anything. United Kingdom bring along to their chaotic morning after a huge chandelier and a boudoir screen. And their vocal harmonies. And yes, it's the very first staging we have for it, taking a tiny...

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.  26. MONTENEGRO  48 Montenegrro scored one 8, a couple of 7s and the rest below 27. LITHUANIA  47 Lithuania scored one 9 and the rest between 2 and 7 28. GERMANY  47 A couple of 8s but the rest between 3 and 5 29. POLAND  47 One 8, a couple of 7s and the rest between 2 and 5 Check out places 30. - 33. here

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 fourth part! DENMARK - Sissal - Hallucination I see this one's got some devoted fans out there but for me this does nothing much and have this at a borderline qualifier but more as NQ as Q but that's just me. Sissal deserves better song and most of all better staging and styling and if I have unde...

The German national selection ( read more here ) was won by Abor and Tynna who bring yet another non-English song (Hooray!) to Basel. Abor and Tynna are Austrian duo of  siblings Attila and Tunde Bornemisza. They origins are in Romania and Hungary, and come from a musical family their father being a cellist in Vienna Philharmonic orchestra or Vienna State Opera. The siblings started working together in 2016, and has gotten more recognition . In Spotify they have released ten singles since 2020 and one album this year. Enjoy below some of their previous songs:   Super final results: Abor and Tynna - Baller  34,9% Lyza - Lovers on Mars  31,1% Moss Kena - Nothing can stop love  22,6% Leonora - The Bliss  7,0% The Great Leslie - These days  4,4 to be updated

Alice had success also abroad, especially in Germany after winning Sanremo 1981 with Per Elisa. The follow up single Una notte speciale continued and cemented her success and apparently at the time she was selling more abroad than in Italy. In summer 1981 she had two singles in German charts and especially Una notte speciale had a long lasting chart success as it stayed there for months.  Una notte speciale, off her 1981 album Alice (published abroad as Per Elisa) was written by the trio Alice, Franco Battiato and Giusto Pio. The song would reappear in the soundtrack of The House of Gucci film by Ridley Scott  starring Lady Gaga in 2021.  The song was re-recorded for 1987 album Elisir . Noi senza dignità oltre la montagna scopriamo l'amore Qui, qui senza falsità noi ci amiamo come la mente non sa We without dignity beyond the mountain discover love Here, here without falsehood we love each other the way mind does not know

The individual rehearsals come to an end as The Big 5 + host country Sweden have their second 20 minutes rehearsals. Today also they draw their final slot. Unlike previous years there are three options: first half, second half or an empty ticket meaning the producers are free to place them anywhere they like to. United Kingdom and Germany draw first half, France second half and Spain and Italy an empty ticket. Host country Sweden was drawn to open the final already in the delegations meeting in March. It looks like Italy has changed their outfits. And not only but also the graphics?!  Tomorrow is the Turquoise Carpet day and from Monday we have the three dress rehearsals before the first semi-final on Tuesday evening.  UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY SWEDEN FRANCE SPAIN ITALY All photos as always from eurovision.tv