Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

What can I say about the show to start with? The hosts? Okeyish, mostly kept to their role, the attempts to be funny mostly were a bit meh and what an earth was Michael wearing?! The graphics were rather unpleasant when the songs were introduced. The postcards kinda nice but weird, an evolution of those in Turin but better. The opening act was nice and pure Eurovision, the interval act also typical Eurovision the little I watched it being busy scrolling Twitter but that Australia/austria thingy was a big yawn really. And it seems Italy and Finland took over Twitter at least in my wall.  But the stage! I love the stage! It looked great to most everyone and some shots were just stunning. One of the best stages for many years! Of the acts Croatia stunned me the most and Belgium looked great, too, as for the songs Israel really steps out in the recaps.  And then the finalist, here in order they were announced except Finland (announced second) that makes the headline of course. Aft...

  My first look opinions, here they come! Belgium is looking very very nice I must say, still don't care for the song but I do like the visuals. Lithuania is another song I don't care for and the staging does nothing to me either.  San Marino . Colorful. That's all I can say. Even Senhit sounds off.  Poland has upped its game. Yet another song that does nothing to me but at least they have made an effort with the staging that looks pretty cool! Still all these four seem like NQs to me so far. Serbia . Whoever decided to put that bit of the song in this preview needs a raise immediately! The funniest preview clip I have seen in my Eurovision history - and that's a long one!

Serbia - Lavina - Kraj mene Poland- Alicja - Pray San Marino - Senhit feat. Boy George - Superstar Lithuiania - Lion Ceccah - Solo quero más Belgium - Essyla - Dancing on the ice Israel - Noam Bettan - Michelle Estonia - Vanilla Ninja - Too epic to be true Montenegro - Tamara Živković - Nova Zora All photos lovingly borrowed from Eurovision official media  

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! 32, BULGARIA - DARA - BANGARANGA    33 33. SERBIA - LAVINA - KRAJ MENE    32 34. BELGIUM - ESSYLA - DANCING ON THE ICE   30 35. LITHUANIA  - LION CECCAH - SÓLO QUERO MÁS   26

  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.  Poland - Alicja - Pray * Poland's Alicia has the voice but sadly the song is a mess. Not my cup of tea at all. For me she's a borderline qualifier probably thanks to juries and Polish diaspora. And it's nice she finally gets her chance even if the first time around she had a lot better song.  San Marino - Senhit feat. Boy George - Superstar * Oh dear lord not her again. Does she have a life outside the Eurovision bubble participating, hosting, attending every possible Eurovision event ever organized anywhere. If I had one would she come? Aren't we a bit tired already? Valentina at...

Serbian national final for the Eurovision song contest was held tonight and was won by Lavina and Kraj mene. Certainly not a Balcan ballad! Out of open call submissions 24 songs were selected for the semi-finals, among them many familiar names from the previous years: Harem Girls (2025), Zejna (2022, 2023, 2024), Yanx (2009, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2024) Eegor (2023), Aleksandra Sekulić (2019) and Nemanja Erić (2019). Seven songs made the final from each semi-final. Read more here .  Lavina is a Serbian metal band since 2020. They are Luka Aranđelović, Pavle Aranđelović, Pavle Samardžić, Andrija Cvetanović, Nikola Petrović and Bojan Ilić. They have toured Europe and released their debut album in 2022 and Kraj mene is their 6th single release.  Final results (Jury + tele): Mirna - Omaja (1 + 0) 1  14th  Kosmos trip - Sve je u redu (0 + 5) 5 8th Iva Grujin - Otkrivam sebe ( 0 + 4) 4 10th Lores - Unseen (6 + 2) 8  6th Yanx -  Srušio si sve (8 + 0) 8...

The old days it was a form to record the Eurovision in songs in multiple versions but that's not been so common anymore. How ever even this year we do have some surprising ones: France in English, Germany in Hungarian and Serbia in French. My favorite though is the jazzy version of Iceland in English, just vaebulous!

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, ...