Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

What can I say about the show to start with? The hosts? Okeyish, mostly kept to their role, the attempts to be funny mostly were a bit meh and what an earth was Michael wearing?! The graphics were rather unpleasant when the songs were introduced. The postcards kinda nice but weird, an evolution of those in Turin but better. The opening act was nice and pure Eurovision, the interval act also typical Eurovision the little I watched it being busy scrolling Twitter but that Australia/austria thingy was a big yawn really. And it seems Italy and Finland took over Twitter at least in my wall.  But the stage! I love the stage! It looked great to most everyone and some shots were just stunning. One of the best stages for many years! Of the acts Croatia stunned me the most and Belgium looked great, too, as for the songs Israel really steps out in the recaps.  And then the finalist, here in order they were announced except Finland (announced second) that makes the headline of course. Aft...

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

Israel's selection show HakokHav Haba or Rising Star for the Eurovision song contest 2026 artist came to conclusion last week and was won by Noam Bettan. The selections and eliminations startd in November 2025 and a total of 21 singers took part in the televized shows this time. The final was a foursome with Noam Bettan, Gal De Paz, Shira Sloof and Alona Erez.. As usual only the artist was chosen and the song he will perform in Vienna on behalf of Kan is revealed later, on March 5, 2026 Noam (27) comes from a French Jewish family and grew up in Israel. He has already experience from other talent shows and has released his debut album and several singles and scored some hits, too.  Update: His song Michelle was published March 5, 2026: Below are some of his songs and covers for your enjoyment along with his Rising star performances:

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, ...