Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Friday March 28, Hind, the Dutch Eurovision representative 2008 with Your heart belongs to me , gave an excellent performance in the North Sea Jazz Club in Amsterdam. The venue has this night club look and relaxed atmosphere that made Hind shine and sound bright. With her excellent new band, she delivered around 10 songs. Hind's music is not easy to be put in a box. At the moment, it's a mix of pop, Maroccan, Spanish and jazz and she fuses it to Crosspop , a name she used for her latest cd. Check it out here .  A few days earlier my Flying reporter Robert got a chance to have an interview with Hind where he asked her to look back on her Eurovision adventure. What does she remember from 2008? Who was nice? Who was doing something naughty? Would she do it again? What does she think of Ilse & Waylon's song? And should artists try it more than once? Read it all here: Hind, what have you been doing since Eurovision 2008, it's been six years? I ha...

This week offers the new one from Lordi , The Riff , that has it all: half naked babe, blood, violence, toilet paper and the new members beltin gout a rather melodic and electronic sounding tune. Patricia Kaas releases a second single of her Edith Piaf tribute album, Avec ce soleil , a rather unknown Piaf track that she makes completely her own and she's not afraid to look... ehmm, less beautiful! Then an older song but it's still a good one: Luca Barbarossa with Raquel Del Rosario of ESDM in his Sanremo 2011 song, Fino in fondo . Last but not least Eurovision veteran Hind with her new offering Make it count that is a very hypnotic retro sounding track.... Dum dum dum....

A busy weekend ahead. On Friday we have the third and last semifinal in Finland and the first gala in Spain. Saturday the trio of Norway, Iceland and Croatia continue with their semifinals. On Sunday we will find out who of the newcomers made it all the way to teatro Ariston in Sanremo and in Belgium the radio selection starts. But most importantly we will have another entry chosen: The Netherlands. 3JS was internally chosen to represant the orange nation this year and they have penned five songs to choose from. The voting will be 50% televote and 50% jury made of René Froger, Daniël Dekker, Annemieke Schollaardt, Eric van Tijn and Hind. 01. Vecht nooit Alleen (Never Fight Alone) 02. Ga Dan Niet (Don’t Go Then) 03. De Stroom (The Stream) 04. Toen Ik Jou Vergat (When I Forgot You) 05. Weelderig Waardeloos (Luxuriously Worthless) You can listen a bit of each song here .

Hind, a 22-year-old singer of Moroccan origin will be the Dutch entrant in Belgrad, as widely tipped beforehand. She shot to fame from Soundmix Show in 2002 where she imitated Vanessa Williams and reached the final. The year after she came 3rd in the Idols. She has released two albums so far and seems to be a real Eurovision fan! Watch Hind in actione here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_dat5Tf0KU&feature=related and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7UHEmxqGrU&feature=related