Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

I'm so excited. Why? That being one of my favourite songs of all time what an earth had it to do with Eurovision? They just may have destroyed that song for me. I am not going to see or hear that bit ever again, that's for sure.....Borrowing the Finnish commentator the Viennese waltz bit was the best interval act so far... Enough said! The quiz show for example is horrendous waste of time.  Tonight, Bulgaria indeed was boombastic, Armenia worked surprisingly well, too. Romania in the end was a bit meh, Cyprus too. Australia indeed dated and a bit overworked, even by Delta herself vocally and in manners. Sad. Albania was touching, I may have shed almost a tear when the glasses were gone.... Luxemburg had nice visuals but the song is what it is and I think Eva Marija performed a lot better in the national final. Aidan clearly gave it all to Bella but was the national final staging better anyways? And yes, I loved the UK, France wasn't staged as well as I expected but Austria ...

  First impressions and comments: Australia looks and sounds fantastic. Delta is such a good and seasoned performer and the staging looks stunning. Is it a winner? If not Finland let it be Australia! Ukraine ... what to day? I like the song and then I don't. For me its kinda schizofrenic somehow, like two different songs in one and one I like, the other I don't. Hard to explain. But what's that dress? and that make up?! Ukraine is Q anyways no matter what. And deserved.  Albania sound majestic and the little we have seen so far tells a story. I have a feeling this will do a lot better than expected. Or at least I hope so, That it all comes together in final and people connect with this, not only diaspora.  Alis is fantastic singer.  Malta is one of my favorites and I hope Aidan and his Versace vest will have a lot of success. Norway is a big question mark. This could go very well or ... not. Jonas is another great vocalist. For me this is this semis Estonia, proba...

  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! 4. MALTA - AIDEN - BELLA    60 5. SWEDEN - FELICIA -  MY SYSTEM     55 6. NORWAY - JONAS LOVV - YA YA YA    55 7. MOLDOVA - SATOSHI - VIVA, MOLDOVA!    50

  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.  Malta - Aiden - Bella **** Now this is a curious one: One of my favourites, reasonably high in odds yet I have a feeling this will place somewhere in 20s in the grand final. I hope not! Beautiful and old fashioned but in a good way (like Italy) and among all these weird puzzle songs this has a melody that starts, grows unlike most. Aiden finally made it and I'm happy it's with this kind of a song rather than those Ritmus and other "girl pops" with Latin thrown in. Secretly I wish and hope for a Top-10. Norway -  Jonas Lovv - Ya ya ya ** I didn't follow the Norwegian selectio...

It was third time lucky for Aidan (aka Aidan Cassar, 26) winning the ticket to Eurovision after placing 4th in 2018 with Dai laga and second in 2022 with Ritmu .  In 2023 was set to participate with Regina but was disqualified. He won the jury vote by far and placed second in the public vote after Matt Blxck those two being runaway favorites by public. Seasoned performer he has taken part also in Junior Eurovision selection in 2015 , X Factor Malta, Muzika Muzika festival in 2021 . He has released one album so far, an EP and over 20 singles since 2015. He has 13 #1 singles in Malta.  The semi-final was hold on January 15 and the final on January 17, 2026. The jury had ten members: five from Malta and one from Cyprus, UK, Germany, Turkey and Greece.  Malta Eurovision song contest 2026 (jury + televote) 1. Aidan - Bella   113 + 170 = 283 2. Matt Blxck -  Ejja lejja ħdejja 'l hawn (The Flute)   68 + 200 = 268 3. Mychael Bartolo Chircop - My sweet ...

This year there's been quite a few orchestral versions of the Eurovision 2025 entries released, and that's always a nice bonus. If there was the big orchestra like the old days this may give a tiny little hint in which direction the live production might have gone. 

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, ...