Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

While the rehearsals for the grand final are going on in Vienna let's have a look at those ten who didn't make it to the end. In my personal order of preference. Latvia being the one I am most sad about.... Portugal ended its run of five consecutive finals Azerbaijan NQ'ed for the 4th in a row Switzerland NQ'ed after a win and a null points from the televote the year after. Georgia NQ's for the second year in a row Overall they have qualified only once in the past 10 years! Armenia NQ'd for the first time in 5 years San Marino NQ'ed for the 4th in 5 years Senhit NQ'd for the 2nd time Estonia NQ'd for the first time in 5 years and after last year's 3rd place Montenegro has qualifed only twice before: 2014 and 2015 Luxemburg NQ'd for the first time. Both ever and after its comeback in 2024.  Whichever way you want to count it. 

  First impressions and comments based on these short clips: Bulgaria ... what can I say? I can't stand the song and the staging, the bit we got to see, isn't anything special either. If I can choose this is a NQ. Azerbaijan has more Azeri in it? Not sure as I haven't listened it so much even if I think it's an ok song. I get more irritated by many others than this one, I kinda enjoy it. And more Azeri the better. Most likely NQ but I'd love to see it Q over Bulgaria or Cyprus or something just to see the chaos. :-) Romania has an idea, energy and potential to do well unless the angry aggressive woman syndrome hits again. Then this could even NQ. Or do nothing in the final. Or do Top-10. Hard to say. Luxemburg is just what it is. Not one of my favorites. NQ for me but most likely this will Q anyways.  Czechia uses long, loooong notes and mirrors. But is it still a bit dull? I certainly lose my attention somewhere half way of those long lines.... He's good tho...

  Norway - Jonas Lovv - Ya ya ya Malta - Aidan - Bella Albania - Alis - Nân Ukraine - Leléka - Ridnym Australia - Delta Goodrem - Eclipse Denmark - Søren Torpegaard Lund - Før Vi Går Hjem   Latvia - Atvara - Ēnā Cyprus - Antigoni - Jalla

  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

  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.  Cyprus - Antigoni - Jalla ** When this was released I was "on no another of those" but now that we have all the songs this is quite alone (with Germany) in the genre. Which makes it bop up a little. But she's no Eleni nor Chanel. But these always get some points so midtable result on higher part of the right hand scoreboard can be expected.  Denmark - Søren Torpegaard Lund - Før Vi Går Hjem ** This has went to #2 in odds when writing this and it's a mystery to me. For me this song is a bit mess and the staging a better and less horny version of Olly Alexander's. He does a gr...

  Latvia's Supernova 2026, the national final to select Latvia's entry for Eurovision song contest came to conclusion tonight and the winner is Atvara.  Atvara or Liene Atvara (33) is Latvian singer-songwriter. She has studied music, English and  marketing in Denmark. Her first attempt in music was in 2017 in X Factor but without luck. Her first single Pie manis tveries came out in 2024 and was a Top-10 hit in Latvia.  Dzīve mūs mētā was a radio hit. She has released some more singles as solo or featuring, and her debut album came out in 2025.  Out of 124 submitted entries and a jury of Latvian and international professional selected 24 entries for the two semi-finals where from the ten finalists were voted by a professional jury and televoters. Among the acts Eurovision veteran Robert Ox (2022 as a member of Citi Zēni). The semi-final results were not made public beforehand to keep things exciting. Last year's runner up Emilija seemed to be the favorite ...

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!

  Latvia had its national selection for Eurovision song contest 2025 among three other countries this Saturday and Tautumeitas won and will represent the Baltic state in Basel in May with Bur man laimi (Bring me luck). Not exactly my cup of tea this one either but hey, it's in Latvian! And it was tight, very very tight. Top-3 all finished with 18 points and even the 4th one with 17. As the televote reigned Tautumeitas won and Emilija was second, and so on.  Tautumeitas is a folk/world music group formed in 2015. Their breakthrough came in 2017 with award winning  album Lai māsiņa rotājās! that entered the European and global world music charts. Three more albums have followed and the current line up is Asnate Rancāne (violin, vocals), Aurēlija Rancāne (drums, vocals), Laura Vārpiņa (percussion, vocals), Laura Marta Līcīte (percussion, violin, vocals) and Gabriēla Zvaigznīte (vocals) Read more here Final results (jury/televote). Tautumeitas - Bur man laimi  ...

Latvia's Supernova returns as usual as their national selection for the Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel. A total of 20 songs have been selected out of the 96 submitted for the semi-final on February 1 and  ten of them will be voted for the final a week later. There will be 50-50 televote-jury vote.  Among the artists we have two Eurovision veterans, Justs (2016) and Citi Zēni (2022). There are also a few regular Supernova participants trying once again, leading them of course Markus Riva - this is his 10th time since 2014 without a win (he has missed only 2021 and 2024 selections).  Below is my usual first listening ranking stars. Somehow "Definition of mediocre nothingness" pops into mind while listening. Meaning none is really, really bad but none isn't anything special either with very few exceptions. Then again songs tend to get better with further listenings... The Ludvig seems to be the one to beat I suppose.  Greta sadly had to withdraw last minute due i...

Another year, another Home Jury. And mind you, never ever before the results have been so surprising and I must honestly admit so not in line with my own likes and dislikes but what can I do, they have spoken. We voted with scores from 1 to 10 and this year also the scores are all time low and without a runaway winner. Ties were broken by highest individual scores. This year our unprofessional, mildly interested, regular Eurovision viewers included people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Both sexes, various locations in Finland added with our exotic Peruvian member to spice things up a little. I will count down the whole ranking in coming days from bottom to the top so please do follow up and comment if you like. Let's go! Here are places 26-31. Luxemburg is our lowest grand final qualifier, the other are out for us.  26. LUXEMBURG  4,50 27. LATVIA  4,34 28. CYRPUS  4,25 29. NORWAY  4,13 30. AZERBAIJAN 4,00 31. PORTUGAL  3,75

As there isn't much to blog when rehearsals are done with closed doors (and yes, I'm all for it!)  I will just do a feature with a couple of  photos from the rehearsals as published by Ebu. Today we concluded the second semi-finals 30 minutes first technical rehearsal and there isn't much to say at this point. All looks good. Georgia went all fire as expected and also continued the girlie pop with male dancers, apparently these guys do not get bare chested by the end. Also Israeöl has dancers and most importantly both Israel and Latvia have a huge circle on stage! And not only. The circle motive seems to be dominant also in the backdrop of Georgia.  LATVIA SAN MARINO GEORGIA BELGIUM ESTONIA ISRAEL NORWAY NETHERLANDS All photos as always from eurovision.tv