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...

  Norway had its national final for Eurovision song contest 2026. Jonas Lovvw on Melodi grand prix with Ya ya ya.  The final songs were selected among some 1.500 submissions shortlisted to 16; eight made the final directly, the other eight had to go through a radio competition in duels until one was left, that being Skrellex. Read more here . Among the competitors previous Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak and Eurovision veteran Marcus & Martinus little sister Emma, both being the favorites to win as well. Final (jury + tele) Skrellex - Into the wild (15 + 30) 45  7th Hedda Mae - Snap back (11 + 4) 15  8th Storm - Lullaby (14 + 36) 50  6th Mileo - Frankestein (54 + 35) 89  4th Silke - Forevermore (0 + 4) 4  9th Alexander Rybak - Rise  (66 + 126) 192  2nd Emma - Northern lights (28 + 99) 127  3rd Leonardo Amor - Prayer (60 + 13) 73  5th Jonas Lovv - Ya ya ya (96 + 196) 265  1st to be updated 

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.  Very solid foursome next with almost identical votes in every way. 10. MALTA  60 Malta scored solidly between 6 and 9 with a couple of 4s in the mix 11. ISRAEL  60 Same set for Israel between 7 and 9, with a couple of 4s 12. NORWAY  60 Solid voted between 5 and 8 13. SAN MARINO  58 One 10, one 9 and a lot of 5s and 6s Check out places 14. - 17. here

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...

Tone Damli may have entered Norwegian MGP as sort of a pre-favorite but the reception by the fandom was very cold once the song was out, and the live performance the night didn't help her either. In the end she placed only 5th. But for me this is perfect pop with a lot of 80's/90's vibe to it aka the period I was young and love the music of the moment. Also this has been one of the most earwormy songs for me from the national selections. For that alone this deserves a spot in this series, despite the somewhat uninspired and awkward performance. 

Norway had its traditional Melodi grand Prix that was a one night affair this year. If Tommy Cash took an easy win in Estonia minutes later Kyle Alessandro did the same in Norway with his Lighter. Kyle Alessandro Helgesen Villalobos or simply Kyle Alessanro (18) is a Spanish-Norwegian singer. His career started already back in 2017 when he at the age of ten took part in Norske Talenter talent show. That lead to  other performances and debut album and string of singles between 2017-2019. In 202 he returned to music and in 2023 he was a part of Umami Tsunami trio that took part in MGP with Geronimo that placed last. In 2023 he released his second album and the steady flow of singles continued.  Below are some of his songs for your enjoyment: Results (jury/televote) 1. Kyle Alessandro - Lighter (118 + 189) 307 2. Nataleen - The Game (86 + 104) 190 3. Bobbysocks - Joyful (29 + 135) 164 4. Wig Wam - Human fire (25 + 68) 93 5. Tone Damli - Last song (24 + 63) 87 6. Nora Jabri - Su...

After five years of semi-final Norway is back to one night Melodi Grand prix when nine songs will battle out the ticket to Basel 2025 Eurovision on February 15. The show also returns to Oslo's Spektrum. Originally it was supposed to be ten songs but Lavrans Svedsen withdraw in the last minute. Also Angelina Jordan withdrew a week before due to Los Angeles wildfires as she lives there. It is however not revealed who from the backup list replaced her. Svedsen won't be repalced thus only nine entries. The line up sees two winning comebacks: Bobbysocks or Elisabeth Andreassen and Hanne Krogh return after 4o years of giving Norway it's first win in 1985 with La det swinge. Another returnee is back after 20 years is Wig Wam. Should Elisabeth win again it'd be her fifth and record breaking time in Eurovision song contest leaving San Marino's Valentina Monetta and Switzerland's Peter, Sue & Marc behind. She has also placed well every time: 8th, 1st, 6th and 2nd. Han...

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

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