Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Another look & listen of what Eurovision (related) artists have been releasing lately... The Balcan Queen Kaliopi released late last year  Hajde da pjevamo   asking us all to sing along in her pop rock song looking 50+ fabulous topped with her one of a kind voice.  Shiri Maimon is back with   נ שימה (Breathing) off her new album, first in seven years. It comes with a simple yet effective video. She has been busy with musicals and tv-projects the past few years, including the Next Star for Eurovision.... Latvian  Brainstorm aka  Prāta Vētra perform the main theme  Мотив (The motive) of a Russian romantic comedy Семь ужинов (Seven dinners) and even star in the film's final scene. Very nice song indeed! Vincent Gross has gone a long way since his attempt to represent Switzerland in Eurovision. Now he has teamed with German Stereoact for Nicht allein sein , a catchy fun pop song that flirts with tradition an...

Macedonia has internally chosen a familiar name: Tamara Todevska (33), already twice a backing singer and once a part of a trio and even a runner up in a national final.... however she seems to be suffering from some sort of Saara Aalto syndrome as she also tends to place 2nd and that's what she aims in Tel Aviv 2019 (that's what Saara did, too. landed 2nd to last tho). Her entry will be made public  later. And yes, she just gave birth.... Meanwhile here's her Eurovision story so far: Backing vocalist Eurovision 2004 National final 2007 - 2nd  - Kazi koj si ti Eurovision 2008 Backing vocalist Eurovision 2014 for her sister Tijana

  San Marino - Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening - Who we are Jessika Muscat (29) has the faith of fellow Maltese Christabelle: several national final attemps and now she gets finally to Eurovision with the worst of them. Or almost. She is joined by German Jenifer Brening (21) who took the original rapper Irol's place when he turned down the song stating it's not his cup of tea. He would have given this at least some Sammarinese touch. Anyways, the innotative Sammarinese national final selection promised a lot but in the end gave us this. I would have chosen differently but what we have is a rather anonymous and heard before anthem against bullying, well sung by Jessika with Jenifer's rap as bonus. Sadly unforgettable and the only thing that might get attention and viewers to remember this are the robots. If they travel to Lisbon, too. What's their deal anyways?! 3/10 Macedonia - Eye Cue - Lost and found Eye Cue is Bojan Trajkovski and Marija Ivanovska...

  Another new one for today, this time Macedonia's internally chosen Eye Cue and their Lost and found . Well, reggae rhythm was something still missing from Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest but the song features several other rhythms... Not sure if they lost the right one and did they found it after all....

Out of the blue comes today's second confirmation: Macedonia will be represented by the internally selected Eye Cue with Lost and found . The song was picked out among the over 300 submissions. The three member band (Bojan Trajkovski - Vocals/Guitar, Ivo Mitkovski - Drums and Marija Ivanovska - Vocals) has been together since 2007 and their debut album was titled  Superstar wannabe ! But following the trend of this year their entry will be published later...... Meanwhile below is their latest offering Million times :

First they were 43 as slipped away by RTP, then EBU confirmed 42 , and now it's 43 again and the curse is beaten for once and apparently Macedonia has paid its debts to EBU, or at least managed to get an agreement when and how to pay it. Thus, 2018 will match 2008 and 2011 as the record number of participating countries, 43. If only Bosnia & Herzegovina were able to take part we would have had a new record. Or if Turkey or Slovakia returned... (or Andorra, Luxembourg, Monaco or Morocco for that matter :-) ) I feel pretty much like Kaliopi at 2'30 mark....

  Only twice Eurovision song contest has managed to reach the record number of participants, 43, in 2008 and 2011. It seems every time since when 43 has been announced something has happened and it has dropped to 42. Be it Bosnia-Herzegovina wihdrawing or Romania being kicked out. This time it is Macedonia. It's pretty safe to assume Macedonia was in RTP's list of 43* they confirmed last week before EBU made public it has cut off MRT of its services including news, sports etc and of course Eurovision song contest due to a debt of 0,5-22 million euros depending on your source. This recalls the Romanian affair of 2016, only that it happens well ahead of the contest unlike then when Ovidiu Anton was already packing his bags to go to Vienna wheh he and Romania was stopped. This time Macedonia's participation in Junior Eurovision song contest 2017 goes on as planned but Eurovision 2018 itself is a no go, unless the debt is paid or solution found.  *It would be real su...

  What would fit better into rainy autumn that a song about tears that hide in the rain? Romanian Andi Banica 's Ploaia is just that. Catchy and melancholic. Love it. If you don't want to give in to the autumn yet maybe you need some Tequila & Lemon offered by Elena Risteska ? That will surely bring you back to summer beaches in Macedonia or elsewhere..... Margarita muy bonita! Austria's finest Nathan Trent after running on air is offering Good vibes . What it lacks in originality is made up by Nathan as we all know Nathan is adorable. He even shows us some serious moves. He can do no wrong. Right? It may be 13 years since Giuni Russo sadly was taken away from us, but her music is alive. This fall a full album of her unreleased songs were released, reproduced and re-recorded with the sound of the early 80's when these songs were written. But her amazing voice tops it all in its Italian glory. This is Non voglio andare via . It takes us back to 19...

Jana wears something very short as expected and it's a dark one. With long boots. And some akward dance moves and windmachine. She seems to be terribly alone on stage - and for one the staging stands for the title - but I'm not sure if it's working that well.  Also the song all of sudden feels rather poor and repetitive. Did that video just make the magic and illusion of something so much better?

  Jana won't be dancing alone in any club if she wears that dress! It's not the one she will wear on the big night but my guess is it'll be equally non-existing in lenght. Add high boots and her slutty moves that in some strange way mix nicely to her bubbly girl-next-door looks and facial expressions. She may have been a disaster in the promo events but apparently gave a decent vocal performance. Decent but not great. The backdrop has city lights that would fit Belgium, but here they are instead with some footage from her video clip or her dancing her heart out alone.  Now this is one hard thing to predict.... In or out?

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Pictured is the national flower of Macedonia, poppy Macedonia chose internally Jana Burčeska and also her song Dance alone amongst the over 100 songs submitted The curious rumour is she was to sing In too deep first, the Serbian entry but ... who knows? Anyways, the song is written by Borislav Milanov, Alex Omar, Joacim Persson and Florence A. Macedonia's aim was to have an entry of quality and dignified representation, that is modern and attractive. Time will tell if they succeeded. Jana Burčeska (23) has experience in the Macedonian Idol  in 2011. Then she went on the usual festival circuit and tried to get to Eurovision in 2012, and participated in Skopje Fest 2013 and 2015 making herself known. She's also UNICEF Ambassador. This is one of those very few entries that I got very excited first and then with further listenings it has dropped in the ranking. It has a cool 80's sound, it's catchy and joyful and you are singing along already in the second...

It's time for Serbia to reveal their entry In too deep by Tijana Bogićević. It starts off quite interesting but then sadly nothing much happens and the overal feeling afterwards is it she didn't quite deliver. Then there's the curious rumour about the catfight over this song by Serbia and Macedonia... (or was it the other way around?). Anyways, it's a bit sad all ex-Yogos have dropped all the Slavic characters and are offering standard western pop.... This being a prime example. Not bad, but nothing special either....

Jana Burčeska has also released her entry for Macedonia in the Eurovision song contest, titled Dance alone. And it's a bit wierd affair in a way it doesn't sound at all like an Eurovision entry but a pop tune from the 80's. I'm not going crazy for it but I like it. Yet it's a bit hard to place it in the scoreboard, and then how will this work on stage with all those vocal sounds and stuff? And it's also too long.... Confusing.But the video and it's basic idea is pretty fantastic :-)

The Balcan rock queen has cu her hair, too. She was wearing her stage dress, black and white, and was in good spirits. As we remember after the first one she wasn't too pleased but now all seems to be fine. New graphics and new lights have improved the act a lot. No backdrop to talk about, only spotlights for Kaliopi. Looks good, sounds great. And yes there's her trademark scream in the end. Love it. I am so hoping this will qualify for the final! (I know I'm saying this to most every entry, but I like almost everyone this year :-)

Kaliopi. Who doesn't love her? She's back by public demand as she says. She will be wearing a long black dress with white back when it matters but today she was in casual. Four backing vocalists and a drummer with her on stage. Dark blue stage with spotlight on her only to start with, and then the stage lightens up eventually. Kaliopi is a fantastic live performer and could sing the shopping list convincingly if needed, especially if in Macedonian. And she puls out her famous high note as well. What's there not to love? The song may be old fashioned and all that but then, among all these manufactured and calculated acts this stands out as real and autenthic, full of passion and emotions. Real ones (take note, Australia) Kaliopi was not happy with her first rehearsal, she tells in the Meet & Greet. But she's sure everything will be fixed in time. She also has actively forgotten her 1996 Eurovision and counts only these last two ones. Then she praises the Eurovisi...

In a funny twist of fate three of the returning artists this year all competed in the 2012 edition in Baku, and all of them also made the final. Do you think they can do better than four years ago?  Kaliopi for Macedonia did the best, finishing 13th with her Crno i belo .  And this year she is giving us Dona Just one point behind was Lithuania's Donny Montell finishing 14th with Love is blind .  This year he's singing I've been waiting for this night Iceland's Gréta Salóme dueted with Jónsi in Never forget finishing 20th.  This time she's solo with Hear them calling *We have three more returnees this year:  Ira Losco (Malta 2002), Deen (Bosnia & Herzegovina 2004) and Poli Genova (Bulgaria 2011)

The Queen of Balcans, Kaliopi has revealed her entry Dona for the Eurovision 2016. Gone is the rock of Crno i belo from 2012. Dona is a passionate ballad that firs her like a glove.

FYR Macedonia announced this evening Kaliopi will return to Eurovision and sing for them in Stockholm 2016 Eurovision! Her song will be once again written by Romeo Grill and will be presented in the end of February. This blogger is superhappy, she's awesome! Can't wait!

Kaliopi, the finest voice the Balcan's have to offer if you ask me, has released a new single today, Jutro . It's already a thrid offering this year following Mojot dom  and  Poželi . Especially  Poželi promised great things for her new album and Jutro follow on that path. That's an album to buy for sure. And she's one artist I would welcome back to Eurovision any year! Enjoy!