Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

What can I say? Not much judging these short videos. But I say a few words anyways by the first impression that can be very misleading anyways. Moldova is a bit let down, not at all so powerful and energetic as I expected. Vocals seem to be off, too. Sweden . Same as Moldova. Which makes me think these vids are on purpose a mess. Croatia seems very busy and a bit too serious and angry. I have said before and I repeat myself: angry women don't do well in Eurovision . Greece .... Oh well, looks rather chaotic and his voice a bit weak. But then again it's a rehearsal. Need to see the whole package but doesn't look like a winner despite all. This said my favorite performance of them all is the Greek national final preview with only one hanging mic. That was fab and let Akylas show all his charm. Now he disappears into his visuals.  Portugal stands out with the pretty staging, calm song and good voices. They're so sailing to the final! Georgia was on my list to qualify b...

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! 28. MONTENEGRO - TAMARA ZIVKOVIC - NOVA ZORA    38 29. PORTUGAL - BANDIDOS DO CANTE - ROSA  36 30. SAN MARINO - SENHIT FEAT. BOY GEORGE - SUPERSTAR   35 31. CROATIA -  LELEK - ANDROMEDA    34

    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.  Greece - Akylas - Ferto ***** Ok, this is this years Käärijä/Joost/Baby Lasagna/Tommy Cash but Akylas has what the others have missed since Käärijä: the cute bubbly personality that I can't not adore. The song's also fun, catchy but not studid. The arrangement throws in nice nuances and the ballad bit fits and is beautiful and very, very Greek. Great job. I hope this makes the Top-5. Should this win I wouldn't be too sad but this more of a tyoical runner up like song. Instead of the national final video I want to add here the preview video as it shows best his personality.  Moldova ...

Portugal's 60th Festival da Canção came to an end tonight and the winner is Bandidos do Cante.  Portugal's national selection for Eurovision song contest 2026 has been quite critical to the participation with most artists and/or songwriters declaring they won't go to Vienna should they win. In the end there are apparently only two artists who have declared they will go to Vienna, and one uncertain if they win. Let's see who eventually will go to Eurovision in the end.... Apparently Bandidos do Cante is one of those who have said yes. Read more here .  Bandidos de Cante was formed almost by accident by childhood friends singing Alentejo folk songs at dinner parties and such. The quintet is composed of Miguel Costa, Duarte Farias, Francisco Raposo, Luís Aleixo and Francisco Pestana, all natives of the municipality of Beja, except for Francisco Pestana, who is from Monte Trigo. After tone of those dinner gatherings they were invited to record vocals to D.A.M.A.'s Casa ...

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. 

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.  Our surprise number 4 is Portugal with 74 points gathered with one 12 pointer given by our alternative 30something, a 10 and the rest is solid 7s and 8s with one 1 . yes, from the angsty teenager. 

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 seventh part! ITALY - Lucio Corsi - Volevo essere un duro I predict another Top-5 for Italy against all fan bubble odds. Even a shock winner. The juries would like this and televoters as well. If he managed to charm Italians as a nobody in Sanremo finishing second only 0,45% behind the winner why wouldn...

Portugal's Festival da Canção 2025 also reached the final after two semi-finals. The winner was chosen by 50/50 regional juries and televotes. For me once again one of the best and most interesting national finals, a true contrast to Melodifestivalen's polished boredom and playing it so safe also here it seemed beforehand a duel between two: for international fandom Josh vs national popular Fernando Daniel with Henka in for a possible surprise. And yes, Portugal did Portugal and unlike San Marino and Sweden where things went as scripted - except Sweden did the unthinkable finish against all odds - chose Napa that no one abroad saw coming.... nor in Portugal I guess watching those votes going everywhere and so different from the juries and televotes Napa (ex Men on the Couch) is a Portuguese indie rock pop band since 2013. Francisco Sousa, João Guilherme Gomes, João Rodrigues, Diogo Góis and  João Lourenço Gomes are from the island of Madeira. Switch from English to Portuguese,...

Portugal sticks to its already familiar selection system and Festival da Canção, A total of 633 submission were made for the open call songs and six were selected along with the 14 invited composers. As always, the composers have free hands to pick up an artist and a song. As usual there are two semi-final (on February 22 and March 1) and the grand final on March 8, 2025. The composers were announced early November and the artists and song titles later. Invited composers - who in most cases ended up performing themselves their song. It's good to hear Portugal still goes on its own path and musical style with very few exceptions to the rule. Then there's Henka milking the Käärijä/Bambie Thug thing - but I cenrtainly don't wish to hear a song like this from Portugal of all places -  and Emmy Curl going all musical while Bombazine takes us to nostalgic trip to 70's disco.  The voting in semi-finals is 50/50 jury/televote + one more added by televote only. A Cantadeira - Re...

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 a couple of things caught my eye: Luxemburg's totally wrong outfit, Finland's and Slovenia's "nudity" and Moldova's lack of those violin girls. Not so sure of Azeri outfits either. As for the rest pretty much the same and expected.  Today we had the first 30 minutes technical rehearsals by these countries: ICELAND SLOVENIA FINLAND MOLDOVA   AZERBAIJAN AUSTRALIA PORTUGAL LUXEMBURG

RTP organized Festival da Canção as usual (already the 58th time in 60 years) with the already familiar concept: 14  invited songwriters who got free hands with six entries from an open call, that received 809 songs! This time it was won by Iolanda and her Grito after winning the jury vote and placing 2nd in the televotes. Iolanda Costa (29) is Portuguese singer-songwriter. Her musical career started already in 2008 with talent show Uma canção para ti. In 2012 she tried Idols, again not reaching the finals. In 2014 she tried The Voice of Portugal, failing to impress the judges. In 2022 she was a co-song writer to Blacci's entry Mar no fim in Festival da Canção. During the Covid-19 pandemic she wrote her debut EP that was released last year and finally earned a ticket to the festival.  In between she has released a couple of those EP songs as singles.  So, what do I think? Usually I'm aboard the Portuguese entries but this hasn't quite clicked with me yet. Is it...

  Odd Børre (Norway 1968, Stress , 13th) (9.8.1939-28.1.2023) Heddy Lester (Netherlands 1977, De mallomolen , 12th) (18.6.1950-29.1.2023) Laura Valenzuela ( ESC 1969 hostess ) (18.2.1931-17.3.2023) Anita Thallaug (Norway 1963, Solhverv, 13th) (14.2.1938-20.3.2023) Dario Campeotto (Denmark 1961, Angelique , 5th) (1.2.1939-1.4.2023) Roy Taylor (of Jump the Gun, Ireland 1988, Take him home , 8th) (1957 -1.6.2023) Rachel Haim (of Lehakat Shiru Israel 1993, Shiru, 24th) (1957 -18.6.2023) Rele Kosunen (Finland choir 1985 , 1986 + national final entries ) (30.7.1962-23.6.2023) Özkan Uğur (of MFÖ, 1985 Didai didai dai , 14th, 1988 Turkey, Sufi , 15th) (17.10.1953-8.7.2023) Liisa Tavi (Finland national selection 1980, Nopea talven valo , 6th) (12.5.1956- 10.7.2023) Patricia Bredin UK 1957, All , 7th) (14.2.1935-13.8.2023) Luc Smets (of Dream Express, Belgium 1977, A million in one, two, three , 7th) (1.8.1947-20.8.2023) Toto Cutugno (Italy 1990, Insieme: 1992, Winner...

  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! FRANCE IRELAND LATVIA MALTA NORWAY PORTUGAL SERBIA