Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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Every now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how did it go..... If Dana International became the first Eurovision winner not to make the final again, it was a close call for Charlotte Perrelli. To her luck in 2008-2009 there was the jury wildcard rule or only the top-9 of the semifinalists qualified for the final and the jury chose the 10th one. In 1999 Charlotte Nilsson won Melodifestivalen with Tusen och en natt , and thanks to the new rule of free language it became Take me to your heaven in Jerusalem and she beat Iceland's Selma with 17 points taking a somewhat surprise win. Conflicts with SVT caused her to stay out of Eurovision song contest in 2000, breaking ...

Now that Benjamin Ingrosso has won Melodifestivalen, let's not forget his mother Pernilla Wahlgren, a Mello royalty who sadly hasn't managed to win it - yet. Pernilla comes from a well known family of actors, and she has won theater awards herself. Her parents are famous actors Hans Wahlgren and Christina Schollin. Her brothers Niclas and Linus are also actors. Pernilla herself started her career at 4 in television with her mom and later moved to theater and music. The ex couple was seen in public oveerjoyed for the success of their son. Those are tears of joy! She was married to Emilio Ingrosso between 1993 and 2002 and they had three children (besides recording song like Paradise , Only your heart together) : Oliver, Bianca and Benjamin. Bianca is also a wellknown celebrity via blogging and reality tv.  Pernilla also a television host, and has her own reality show Wahlgrens värld where Benjamin is part of. Obviously.  Benjamin started his musical career at 9...

Gaia Gozzi is the latest Italian X Factor runner up. She's half Brazilian so no wonder her song Fotogramas is sung in Portuguese/English and is filled with sunshine! Bloody from Albania delivers Me ty and it's not short of the tropical rhythms in the charts this summer. Great track! Mahmut Orhan from Turkey comes every summer with a hit. This year it's Save me , featuring Eneli in vocals. And the video is filled with awesome sceneries from Turkey just like the good old days Eurovision preview videos..... Benjamin Ingrosso is making mama Pernilla proud with his latest, Do you think about me? A laid back groovy song that feels like the one after summer, after summer fling......

Melodifestivalen continues tonight with the second semifinal. As always two will make the final, two wil make the andra chansen and three will say adjö to Eurovision dreams and rush to the charts. Or so they hope. Mariette returns and even if I never was a fan of hers she sounds pretty good! Then we move from Pontare's mysstic sounds to Etzia's very Swedish rhythms, you know. Sweden is in the Caribian tropics for all I know. Some useless hiphop follows with some androgyneus poprock that was born old. Then enters Lisa Ajax with a lot of f*cks all over the place. Finally Pernilla's son and a relative to Swedish House Mafia offers some anonymous pop. All this said this is an improvement from last weeks all time low.  Semifinal 2: 11 February, Malmö Mariette – A million years -> FINAL Roger Pontare – Himmel och hav Etzia – Up Allyawan – Vart haru varit Dismissed – Hearts align -> Andra chansen Lisa Ajax – I don’t give a - > Andra chansen Benjamin ...

Melodifestivalen started big time last week and the show was great even if the songs ween't maybe the strongest ever. Things may change this week (or then not). I will be watching UMK 2013 final when this is on so I will be back with results in due time. The most important thing to know about the rehearsals is Pernilla Wahlgren fell on her ass with high heals when she got a bit too dancy.... here: And it's worth mentioning Sean Banan has 15 people involved in his number. The rules say max 8 people on stage in melodifestivalen (instead of the 6 in Eurovision) but he's got a way around it: there are max 8 people on stage at the same time . When does someone try this in Eurovision?! And in this semi we have the writers of Eurovision 2011 and 2012 winner up against each other, too. Excited yet? Anyways, it's a very solid pack this week this blogger has difficulty to pick up the faves and yikes (from the reheardal videos, that is). Erik & Tone? I must support Sea...

No, she didn't just eat too much Christmas food or skip champagne on New Year's without a reason. Charlotte Perrelli, born Nilsson is happily pregnant. The baby is due this summer and she's relieved it's just one as they thought first she was with twins. She has just finished with the Evita musical (hmm, Madonna got pregnant while filming Evita ...). Charlotte has two sons from her ex-husband Nicola Ingrosso, later changed to Perrelli (whose brother Emilio Ingrosso was married to another songbird, Pernilla Wahlgren!), Angelo and Alessio. Now she's dating Anders Jensen who is, obviously the lucky father. And he has a daughter, Izabella.  Despite her pregnancy she plans to participate in this summer's Diggi-loo tour as usual! And did you know she, too, has her own perfume, The Girl ?

Looks like there's a change in Sweden. The aertists for the first two semifinals were revealed today and most of them seem to be newcomers to the contest. We do have Cookies N Beans and David Lindgren trying again in the first one, Sean Banan and Erik Segerstedt in the second with some other familiar names like Jenny Silver and Pernilla Wahlgren, and then there's also Tone Damli after all. And a lot of familiar names among the songwriters, too, from Måns Zelmerlöw to Ingela Pling Forsman and Thomas G:son.  And we also have the songwriters of Eurovision winners of 2011 and 2012 neck to neck, too, as also Bjurman and Örn are there.... SEMI FINAL 1 KARLSKRONA (February 2) Cookies N Beans – Burning Flags (Fredrik Kempe) Mary N’diaye – Gosa (Åsgärde, Frändå, Mary N’diaye) YOHIO – Heartbreak Hotel (Fransson, Lundgren, Larsson, Göranson, YOHIO) Jay-Jay Johanson – Paris (Jay-Jay Johanson) Anna Järvinen – Porslin (Björn Olsson, Martin Elisson) David Lindgren – Skyl...

Pernilla Wahlgren has been in Melodifestival four times (1985 Piccadilly circus , 1991 Tvillingsjäl , 2003's runner up Let your spirit fly and Jag vill om du vågar this year) but there have been times her the songs she has proposed haven't been accepted, and times she herself has said "no thanks" to a song she was offered to perform. In a recent interview she revealed Som om himlen brann that Lizette Pälsson took to the second place in 1992 is one of them, Kayo's Innan natten är över in 2006 is another and finally Jessica Andersson's Kom in 2007 yet another. "I was pregnant when I was offered Kom so I had to skip it " she told before concluding "If I ever do Melodifestivalen again it will not be with schlager !"

Sweden is slowly recovering from the royal wedding but today finally Peter Jöback married his Oscar Nilsson, nicely on midsummer! They must have been thinking of this day in the royal wedding where they were also invited. See the newlyweds right after the wedding here . Pernilla Wahlgren was there, so was Andreas Lundstedt and Sarah Dawn Finer, another royal wedding performer. Congrats Peter & Oscar!

I have had my moment. That Moment when you think you are listening to the Eurovision winner. I had it with Fairytale when I first heard in the Norwegian semifinals. With Believe . With Molitva when I first heard it once the Serbian songs were out in 2007... . And I got it with This is my life . I might be completely wrong but we will see... At least it's Is it true? moment. In meantime she qualified directly to the final in Globen and if she wins there, too, we might be back there in 2011?. Noll Dicipline I didn't think would go to top-5 but was thinking Sibel or Lovestoned would take that last place but I got it rest right. Peter Jöback went to the final as expected and Pernilla and Neo meet again in Second chance round next week. This was all in all the best Swedish semifinal this year so SVT was saving the best for last and used some simple but very effective special effects but what was wrong with Måns jacket???

Pernilla Wahlgren is back in Melodifestivalen for the fourth time and her entry this year is called Jag vill om du vågar or I want if you dare. And she wants and dares. Her artist badge doesn't say "artist" like everybody else but MILF. And we all know what that stands for, don't we? :-) Here's Piccadilly Circus (1985), Tvillingsjäl (1991) and Let your spirits fly (2003)

SVT has revealed the artists in the third and fourth semifinal of Melodifestivalen and yes, Pernilla Wahlgren is back! So is Alcazar, Elin Lanto, Py Bäckman and Sibel. Here are the names: Elin Lanto - Doctor Doctor  Alcazar - Headlines Crucified Barbara - Heaven Or Hell  Erik Linder - Hur Kan Jag Tro På Kärlek Timoteij - Kom (Run) Johannes Bah Kuhnke - Tonight  Getty - Yeba  Darin - You're Out Of My Life  Peter Jöback - Hollow  NEO - Human Frontier  Noll Disciplin - Idiot  Pernilla Wahlgren - Jag Vill Om Du Vågar Py Bäckman - Magisk Stjärna Sibel - Stop  Anna Bergendahl - This Is My Life  Lovestoned - Thursdays Now we only miss the name of the last wildcard. Let it be Lena Philipsson....

... from your reliable Expressen! According them Elin Lanto, Galaxy one, Dogge Doggelito and Andra generationen, Neo Erik Linder, Jessica Andersson, Sibel, Pernilla Wahlgren, Eric Saade, Sarah Lundbäck, Linda Pritchard, Lovestoned, Anna-Maria Espinosa, Anna Bergendahl, Daniel Gildenlöw/Pain of Salvation, Frispråkar'n, aka Håkan Bäckman, Orsa spelmän, Ola Svensson, Andreas Johnson and Getty Domein are 19 confirmed names for the 27 songs chosen by SVT. Time will tell....

Pernilla Wahlgren is starring in The Producers musical as Ulla in Gothenburg until Christmas time. The show will go on next spring and a new leading lady is needed (Pernilla took the role from Christin Meltzer) and one of the names in the play is Lena Philipsson along with Isabella Scorupco and Anna Anka. So, is Pernilla going to Melodifestivalen and Lena toThe Producers?

Ok, she is propably out of the question because she is starring in musical The Producers (and apparently a certain Melodifestivalen dictator has something against her...) Anyways, Pernilla is the only one of these three special girls that came out in early 1980's and have been dominating the scene since, the other two being of course Carola and Lena Ph . Pernilla was a superfavourite in 1985 with Piccadilly Circus but managed only 4th place. In 1991 she and Lena Ph joined forces "to beat Carola" as Lena jokingly stated with Tvillingsjäl that Lena wrote and Pernilla sung - suffering from a severe throat infection. We all know what happened to Carola's entry while the the other team didn't even make the final. In 2003 she was back in Melodifestivalen with Jan Johansen and they came close to winning with Let your spirits fly , 2nd place. Since then she has reportedly tried to enter many times but never accepted. Like this I min värld in 2008 or Don't say g...

It looks like Pernilla Wahlgren isn't in Melodifestivalen this year either. No idea if she even submitted songs but my guess is she didn't... After all, how many slaps can a girl take in the face from Christer Björkman??