Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Now as the Netherlands has withdrawn from Eurovision song contest at least in 2026, let's have a look of some Dutch favorites of mine over the year. 't is OK seems to be totally forgotten but I loved it to bits as kid.  And I have very fond memories of talks with two of these artists: Ilse and Edsilia. Enjoy! 2014 The Common Linnets - Calm after the storm (2nd) 1980 Maggie MacNeal - Amsterdam (5th) 2022 S10 - De diepte (11th) 2016 Douwe Bob - Slow down (11th) 2019 Duncan Laurence -  Arcade (1st) 1990 Maywood - Ik wil alles met je delen (15th) 1993 Ruth Jacott - Vrede (6th) 1978 Harmony - 't is OK (13th) 1998 Edsilia Rombley - Hemel en aarde (4th) There would have been quite a few to pick up as well but these sounded the ones at this time and space.  Special mentions go to: 1988 Gerard Joling - Shangri-La (9th) 1987 Marcha - Rechtop in de wind (5th) 1979 Xandra - Colorado (12th) 1992 Humphrey Campbell - Wijs me de weg (9th) 1984 Maribelle - Ik hou van jou (13th)

The Eurovision song contest 2025 was the most variable in languages since the free language rule and several songs were featured in French for example and three of them being among the biggest favorites: France, Netherlands and Switzerland. We might add also Luxemburg that was gaining momentum in the last minute and yet they all bombed in the televotes. What happened?  Besides the language they were also staged very dark, that's common but then again the winner was all black and white. After jury votes Switzerland was second with 214 points, France third with 180 points and Netherlands 5th with 133 points. Then the televotes rolled in: Netherlands got only 42 (15th), France 50 (14th) and Switzerland flat zero! I mean, how? France dropped to 7th, Switzerland 10th and Netherlands 12th. Luxemburg finished 22nd overall.  As a consolation these gons swept away all the Marcel Bezençon awards: France won Press and Artistic ones, and Switzerland the Composer award.

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!

It's the time again: Blogilkar's home jury of Eurovision fans, non-fans and common viewers from teenagers to nearly 60 years old have watched and listened giving points from 1 to 10 plus a special 12 points to be awarded to the one favorite. In case of a tie the ranking was done by highest points received by any juror(s). And yes, the result is somewhat surprising here and there. Last year our winner was NQ Czechia but the winner Switzerland was 2nd and runner up Croatia 3rd.  In this foursome we have some serious fan and odds favorites like France and Netherlands but also host country Switzerland did well, and Spain's Latin Mello Euro schlager was well received as well. 6. SPAIN  64 Spain scored one 10 and a long string of 8s with two 4s.... 7. NETHERLANDS  62 Netherlands scored everything between 4 and 9 8. SWITZERLAND  62 Switzerland got a solid set of c´votes between 5 and 8 9. FRANCE  61 France scored 7s and 8s mostly with one odd 3 and 5 in the mix Check o...

It's time to kick of the usual reviews. The opinions are all mine and if I don't like some song it's simply just not my cup of tea so to speak. If I like something you dislike or hate, it's fine, too. No stresso, no need to be depresso it's just music and tastes that re diverse and therefor beautiful!  I also try to predict their success come May a little bit but as we know once the staging is out everything may change, remember Fuego and Rise like a phoenix for example? For this series I have grouped the songs in fours as usual as the songs may have similarities or something in common. Some fours came out beautifully, the others.... well not so well. Here comes the second part. NETHERLANDS - Claude - C'est la vie I was very happy when Claude was announced, and I do like his song a lot. The mix of languages works very well, at least for someone who speaks both English and French so it all blends together without effort. All this said I am quite surprised this is...

The Käärijä hype is going on in Finland for another year and while we still wait for his new album here comes another single: Trafik! This time with another Eurovision legend - for all the wrong reasons - Joost Klein from the Netherlands. 

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! 14. NETHERLANDS  5,13 15. ISRAEL  5,00 16. IRELAND  5,00 17. UKRAINE 4,88 18. MALTA  4,88 19. AUSTRALIA  4,75

Already a week has gone by and today the rest of second semi-final acts conclude their 20 minutes rehearsals and next for them are already the dress rehearsals on Monday! How time flies! SAN MARINO GEORGIA BELGIUM ESTONIA ISRAEL NORWAY NETHERLANDS Photos from eurovision.tv as usual

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

Joost Klein was internally selected by AVROTROS to represent the Netherlands in the Eurovision song contest 2024. He expressed his will to do it in 2023 when hanging out with Käärijä, and people soon picked up on it making a petition to send him to Malmö. And indeed on December 11, 2023 it was announced he is the one. His entry Europapa was revealed on February 29, 2024 and became the fasted streamed and Youtube watched entry of them all scoring millions in just a few days. Joost (26) started as a Youtuber in 2016 with sketches and mini documentaries before turning into music and founding his own label. In 2018 he released a small book of poems. He has released so far eight albums and gained fame and fortune in all Benelux and Germany. Europapa is his 10th official single but several other songs have charted and he has done featuring in about 30 other songs.  His biggest hit so far has been Friesenjung in 2023 that scored him his first German and Austrian #1. It also charted in Net...

  Here comes the photo story from the Eurovision song contest 2023 Turquoise carpet from sunny Liverpool! I must say this was the best carpet event ever in sense of presenting the artists well and each getting their moment to shine. In previous years they have nearly missed some while showing the crowds and already passed artists taking selfies with fans and giving interviews. That was now kept in minimum and the focus was nearly 100% on only those artists entering the carpet. Well done BBC! SWEDEN ARMENIA BELGIUM ESTONIA THE NETHERLANDS ROMANIA SAN MARINO