Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Two ESC legends, two classics, one project: Logan and Lordi in the studio to record their respective songs. The Irish singer and three-time Eurovision winner Johnny Logan an the Finnish hard rock artist Lordi, winner of the Eurovision Son Contest 2006, have realized a joint project in which both reinterpreted the other’s Eurovision winning song. Logan recorded a pop-rock version of Hard Rock Hallelujah, while Lordi, together with singer  Noora Louhimo aka Motherbeast, produced a new metal-ballad version of Hold Me Now.  "The idea emerged during a spontaneous phone call. We immediately hit it off", says Logan. "The original idea of a duet for 20th. Anniversary of Lordi’s ESC victory was quickly discarded in favour of a song sway. When I heard Lordi’s demo of their winning song tailored to me, I knew right away that I wanted  to do it." Both songs will be out tomorrow May 15, 2026. So, as it seems Johnny Logan was invited to Vienna Eurovision but declined the invitati...

Now as Ireland has withdrawn from Eurovision song contest at least in 2026, let's have a look of some Irish favorites of mine over the year. Among them quite a few winners as usually Ireland has won with their best efforts. My favorite of them all is however a  completely forgotten runner up, Mysterious woman.  Enjoy! 1980 Johnny Logan - What's another year (1st) 1981 Sheeba - Horoscopes (5th) 1993 Niamh Kavanagh - In your eyes (1st) 1986 Luv Bug - You can count on me (4th) 1997 Marc Roberts - Mysterious woman (2nd) 1984 Linda Martin - Terminal 3 (2nd) 2018 Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Togerher (16th) Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan - Rock'n'roll kids (1st) 1987 Johnny Logan - Hold me now (1st) 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 Ryan Dolan - Only love survives (26th) 1965 Butch Moore - I'm walking the streets in the rain (6th) 1991 Kim Jackson - Could it be that I...

The most popular and easiest alternative version to do is of course an acoustic version and there's been plenty of them this Eurovision 2025 season.... Enjoy!

Just like the ones for semifinal one ( here ) here come the first three photos of the first rehearsals of the ones in semifinal two with a short little comment what to expect compared to what was expected judged by the Ebu commentary. Day 3 features Australia and much anticipated Austria as they are internally selected ones so there's no idea how the song is planned to be staged. And apparently both do deliver big time. Australia follows the lead of the music video as does Austria but they couldn't be any more different from each other; Australia fun and colorful, Austria dramatic in black and white. Montenegro seems to follow more the original Montesong staging rather than the music video, while Ireland and Latvia have updated their national final stagings. Armenia follows Croatia's lead and brings a whole new staging in Basel as does Greece. Lithuania sticks to the same old.  Day 4 features the rest of the semifinal two. And it seems to be a lot of fog, props, BIG props, ...