Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home,  Rome  and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the  #FinPop  series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

After this exhausting and exciting Eurovision season it's time to take a break of it.  First off to my spiritual home, Rome and therefor here comes a series of songs celebrating Rome in its lyrics and/or videos.  After that at some point I'll relaunch the #FinPop series with all the goodies that have been released since January 2026. Have a good one !

  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. 

  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! 1. FINLAND - LINDA LAMPENIUS X PETE PARKKONEN - LIEKINHEITIN    87 2. ITALY - SAL DA VINCI - PER SEMPRE SI   69 3. SWITZERLAND - VERONICA FISARO - ALICE    68

   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.  And I saved my beloved Italy and the my biggest surprise of the season to last. Enjoy! Italy - Sal Da Vinci - Per sempre si ***** Oh Sal. I'm so happy he's back on top, a Sanremo winner finally, having the success he merited already in the mid 1990's! Tjis song may be corny and old fashioned but there's the charm. This year especially with so many weird strange songs that aren't really songs in the true meaning of the word. This is. A proper melody, proper lyrics, performed with emotion and passion and flawless vocals. Could you ask for more? And yes, there is a remix coming ...

Sal Da Vinci came, sung and won. After being rejected 13 times. Out of the (it may seem) blue like he did in 1994 in Festival Italiano with Vera .(Sadly there's only a very, very bad live Youtube of it but the Passion comes through anyways)   He remains the only artist ever to have won both contests now. ( Festival Italiano was created my Mediaset to compete with Sanremo but Rai managed to kill it after only three editions by forbidding any artist taking part in it even dreaming of taking part in Sanremo ever again, as the story goes ). And to think that many (critics), as has happened in the past, didn't even see him coming. Relegated to the semi obligatory  "neomelodic quota of the Festival" (where neomelodic stands for kitch, which in turn stands for trash), mocked like a living meme, they had to change their minds the first time he sung live  his "Per sempre sì," dedicated to his wife Claudia Pugliese. All it took was one live performance with his usual ...

The five day Italy stopping affair that is Sanremo music festival came to and end tonight and was won by Sal da Vinci!!!!! And he has said he would do Eurovision should he win! Forza Napoli! You read more about the previous nights here , here , here , here and here .  1. Sal Da Vinci - Per sempre si  22,2%  (televote 23,6%) 2. Sayf - Tu mi piaci tanto  21,9% (televote 26,4%) 3. Ditonellapiega - Che fastidio!  20.6% (televote 18,9%) 4. Arisa - Magica favola  18,9% (televoto 19,2%) 5. Fedez & Masini - Male necessario  18,5%   (televoto 11,9%) 6. Nayt - Prima che  7. Fulminacci - Stupida sfortuna 8. Ermal Meta - Stella stellina 9. Serena Brancale - Qui con me 10. Tommaso Paradiso - I romantici 11. LDA & Aka 7even - Poesie clandestine 12. Luchè - Labirinto 13. Bambole di pezza - Resta con me  14. Levante - Sei tu 15. J-Ax - Italia started pack 16. Tredici Pietro - Uomo che cade 17. Samurai jay - Ossessione 18. Raf - Ora e per sem...

The 76th Sanremo festival comes to an end tonight. The 30 Big artists will perform once again and are voted by the holy threesome: Press, web and tv (33%), radio (33%) and televote (34%). the votes will be added to those of the first, second and third night and the final ranking will be revealed from 6th palce to 30th. The Top-5 will face another three way voting that is added to the previous votes and that will finally give us the winner and other placements. The winner may or may not go to Eurovision 2026 in Vienna. (Vai Sal!!!) Several other awards will be handed out for best music, lyrics, arrangements etc. Giorgia Cardinaletti and Nino Frassica will be co-hosting. Andrea Bocelli will be the musical guest while I Pooh (the most sold Italian group ever before Ricchi e Poveri including Eurovision veteran Riccardo Fogli) will be performing on Suzuki stage outside Teatro Ariston and Max Pezzali still aboard the cruise ship.  In pole position are Fedez & Masini, Arisa and Serena...

The 76th Sanremo festival continues with the Covers night that no longer (hallelujah!) has no effect directly on the scoreboard but is a separate competition with its own winner and Top-10 announced. The competing Big artists have chosen a song to their liking and invited Italian or international artists to perform together. That brings many Sanremo veterans and regulars back on stage in Teatro Ariston: Morgan, Pupo, Fabrizio Moro, Giusy Ferreri, Gaia, Gianluca Grignani, Brunori Sas, Fiorella Mannoia, The Kolors, Michele Zarrillo, Alex Britti along with international stars like Gregory Porter. Morgan was supposed to be there with Chiello (Remember Dov'è Bugo? Where is Bugo? incident a few years ago?) but after rehearsals he withdraw because he didn't want to shadow the artist with his own talent"... Yeah. Right.  The competition itself sees Arisa, Serena Brancale and Fedez & Masini reaching Top-5 both nights and therefor are in pole position while Sal Da Vinci mania ke...

The 76th Sanremo festival continues and the remaining 15 Big artists will perform again and be judged by Radio (50%) and televote (50%). Once again the Top-5 will be announced in random order. The Newcomers final will take place and the two winners of yesterday's duels will battle it out with the holy three way voting: Press, web and tv (33%), radio (33%) and televote (34%).  Co-host will be supermodel  Irina Shayk and Ubaldo Pantani. There's also Virginia Raffaele and Fabio De Luigi. Musical guests are Eros Ramazzotti  (celebrating 40 years of his win with Adesso tu) with Alicia Keys. The Kolors will perform outside Teatro Ariston on Suzuki stage and Max Pezzali still on the cruise ship. Laura Pausini will sing Heal the world with children's choir Piccolo coro Antoniano.  Some are calling the viewing figures a flop but 9,053.000 watched the second night with a share of 59,5%. The peak was 13,706.000 and the share peak 66,1% while Lillo was doing his comedy. Laura Pa...

The 76th Sanremo festival continues tonight. The Newcomers will kick of the evening with two duels with the winners going to the final. The voting is the holy threesome: Press, web and tv (33%), Radio (33%) and televote (34%). Half of the Big artists will perform again and are voted by Radio (50%) and televote (50%). Again the Top-5 will be announced in random order. Co-hosts are Pilar Fogliati, Achille Lauro and Lillo. Bresh will perform outside Teatro Ariston in Suzuki stage and Max Pezzali again on the cruise ship.. Apparently Eurovision veteran Fausto Leali will be present and receive a life time award. The first night was watched by 9,6 million viewers with share of 58% compared to last year's 12,6 million so 3 million viewers  were lost. The peak was 15.782.000 during the 105 year old lady's interview while the biggest share 64,5% during Leo Gassmann's performance. Laura Pausini did not sing last night but tonight this will change as she will be dueting (at least) wit...