Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Now as Iceland has withdrawn from Eurovision song contest at least in 2026, let's have a look of some Icelandic favorites of mine over the years. Starting off with Euroband's banger that is one of my all time favourite and sure to put me in the mood anytime in seconds! This is my life!  Enjoy! 2008 Euroband - This is my life (14th) 1997 Páll Òskar - Minn hinsti dans (20th) 2003 Birgitta - Open your heart (8th) 1994 Sigga - Nætur (12th) 2019 Hatari - Hatrið mun sigra (10th) 2022 - Systur - Með hækkandi sól (23rd) 2009 Yohanna - Is it true? (2nd) 2025 Væb - Róa (25th) 2010 Hera Björk - Je ne sais quoi (19th) There would have been quite a few to pick up as well but these sounded the ones at this time and space.  Special mentions go to: 2013 Eyþór Ingi - Ég á líf (17th) 2007 Eirikur Hauksson - Valentine lost (sf 13th) 2005 Selma - If I had your love (sf 16th) 1985 ICY - Gleðibankinn (16th) 2018 Ari Olafsson - Our choice (sf 19th)

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!

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

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.  Biggest surprise in this block is Albania I guess considering the fan hype and odds. It was very divisive one, either you like it quite a lot of just don't get it at all... 22. IRELAND  52 Ireland scored one 10 and one 9 but the rest was less enthuastic 23. UKRAINE  52 Ukraine got one 9 and one 8 and a lot of 4s 24. ICELAND  51 Iceland scored nice medium set from 4s to 8s 25. ALBANIA  50 Very divisive; several 8s and several 1s-2s! Check out places 26.- 29. 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 are 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. But here we go! ALBANIA - Shkodra Eletronike - Zjerm One of the big fan favorites. Original, well performed, great arrangement, intriguing stage presence. Could it be Albania's big year? Or will it be the shock non qualifier? I wasn't hooked up the first time I heard it nor the second and that might be it'...

After two semi-finals Iceland had its Söngvakeppnin final with six qualifiers from those. As a change to previous years there were no wild card and no super final round but only 50/50 jury/televote. One thing didn't change: All songs were performed in Icelandic in semi-finals but for the final they could choose either Icelandic or English version of the song or the version they intended to perform in Basel should they win. Read more here . Last year's winner (and also 2010 Eurovision veteran Hera Björk was a guste star with Finland's own Eurovision runner up Käärijä with Swedish Hooja. Final results (jury/televote): Væb - Róa ( 74 + 93) 167 Stebbi Jak - Set me free (57 + 85) 142 Júlí and Dísa - Fire (63 + 74) 137 Bjarni Arason -  Aðeins lengur (44 + 39) 83 Tinna -  Words (53 + 22) 74 Ágúst -  Like you (45 + 23) 68