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...

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...

  Finland - Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen - Liekinheitin Georgia - Bzikebi - On replay Portugal - Bandidos do Cante - Rosa Greece - Akylas - Ferto Croatia - Lelek - Andromeda Sweden - Felicia - My system Moldova - Satoshi - Viva, Moldova! All photos lovingly borrowed from Eurovision official media

The Finnish trio KAJ that won Swden's Melodifestivalen and placed 4th at the Eurovision song contest 2025 has been collecting awards and milestones over the past year.  Bara bada bastu topped the charts both in Finland and Sweden, as well as Spotify's Viral Global chart. Last year it also topped the OGAE poll and won Eurovision song of the year at OUTmusic Awards. The Finnish music publishers awarded it as The Song of the Year and also gave an Export award to KAJ. They have won also an award by the Finnish language teachers union SUKOL and many more among them The Finnish-Swedes of the Year and even an award for promoting sauna culture.  In the Finnish Grammys, Emma Awards Bara bada bastu won The Song of the Year and they also won The band of the Year and the Export award. Now they have won in the Swedish Grammys aka Grammies also The Song of the Year award. Previously they won in Sweden's Rockbjörnen award the Band of the Year and the Breakthrough of the Year awards. I sup...

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

  After touring the US and doing Coachella (!!!) with Joost Klein Käärijä's next step is to reconquer Sweden (and not only) with Basshunter and Ja eller nej. Yes or no? Late May he will have his very first arena concert and most likely Basshunter will join all his countless collaborators so far from BESS to Hooja, from Baby Lasagna to Joost Klein and Bojan/Joker Out, Rekami (the other fresh single with video shot infront of the famous Cha cha cha murales  Mun mestoi ), Lord of the Lost and who knows who else shows up

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.  Sweden - Felicia - My system *** First of all it's refreshing to not see Sweden as #1 in the odds for a change. And for a change I kinda like the Swedish entry (KAJ and M&M don't count as they are not Swedish, lol) Felicia is likable, she's got the backstory, too. I like the verses, less the noisy bits. This kind of song didn't work for Belgium last year and I never liked it at all. This is less demanding and melodic  in every way. Sweden will be once again in Top-10 because it's Sweden but will they reach To-5? I'm not so sure. Belgium - Essyla - Dancing on the ice * I ...

Sweden's Melodifestivalen has been the usual carnival travelling through Sweden with five semi-finals and the grand final that was won by Felicia as expected. She won both international jury vote and the televotes. Out of 3.888 submissions 30 songs made the cut, written by some ten names as usual, and two qualified from each semi-final for the final while the 3rd placed entry was sent to yet another qualification round where from two more songs made it to Stockholm. Among them two Eurovision veterans: Sanna Nielsen and Robin Bengtson. Add A-Teens that were dusted off for the occasion, Medina and Smash Into Pieces trying for another time after being close to the win already previous years. The pre-contest fan favorites this afternoon were Felicia (73%) and Greczula (8%). Read more here .  Final (jury + tele)  A-Teens – Iconic   (31 + 36) 67  7th Meira Omar – Dooset daram   (33 + 8) 41  9th Lilla Al-Fadji – Delulu   (24 + 39) 63  8th Saga Ludvigsson...

Finland, once the eternal loser and failure has become a real Eurovision powerhouse in the past few years. Finishing 6th and 2nd in the past few years and qualifying already four years in a row - fifth one coming this year - has also managed to sneak in to help other delegations like Albania last year and  this year Ari Levelä is doing stagings for Austria and Cyprus, Teemu Muurimäki who created the famous green bolero for Käärijä among others will dress up JJ and even UMK show producer (and one of Käärijä's dancers) Matti Myllyaho is involved with Austria's staging. Estonia's entry this year is co-written and produced in Finland, the Swedish entry is by Finns and then we have Finland itself in top-10 in the odds to win the whole thing. In short Finns are behind four entries in the Top-10. And Käärijä will perform in Basel as interval act. Again. That brings us to the curious situation in Finland: the media and people have pretty much forgotten about Erika Vikman and our en...

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.  Sweden's Finnish sauna brothers have to settle with the third place with 80 points. A solid ring of 10s but yet none of them turned into 12 keeping it away from the top-2, and with the rest from 7 to 9 it was a solid performance. The KAJmania is all around us and we aren't immune to it. Or the president of Finland who declared he supports them, only having to apologize Erika privately and come out with the statement he supports both of them and hopes for a Finnish Top-2 in Basel. Fair enough... 

If KAJ was real fresh air in Melodifestivalen so was Meira Omar but this time the Finnish sauna humor and sympathetic guys won over adorable Meira and her oriental ethno vibes. This is the only other song besides Bada bara bastu that survives on my Playlist still, out of about 4 that initially made it there btw. And it's the 15th song in this series of national selection songs from all over it's a perfect end for this series that started with Karnaval. 

The long, loooong Swedish Melodifestivalen reached its climax after six weeks. In the end it was set to be a duel between Eurovision veteran and winner Måns Zelmerlöw and his utterly polished and perfect revolution and fresh and crazy nonsense by the Finnish band KAJ. KAJ was clearly the winner is streaming and video views and chart action beforehand. Also the only song in Swedish this year in the final, and even a Swedish dialect spoken in a small area in Finland only. In the end KAJ won. This is a bit like Cha cha cha phenomenon. Finland is the new Eurovision superpower; we have Finland, Estonia and Sweden in Basel! How I like happy endings! KAJ is a Finnish group from Swedish speaking Ostrobothnia region and sing in their Vörå dialect. The trio is Kevin Holmströn, Axel Åhman and Jakob Noorgård and they have been working together since 2009. They pop-folk.rock-schlager music is often spiced up with satire and humor. They have produced two musicals for Wasa Theater and have been award...

Swedish Melodifestivalen goes ahead as usual with the same songwriters and even three previous winners in the line up: Arvingarna, Måns Zelmerlöw and John Lundvik, Måns of course being also an Eurovision winner and host and ever present anyways.  Minor changes to the procedure: Five heats with six songs each. two will qualify for the final and the third placed ones will have a second chance in the end of fifth heat two making it to the final that will have 12 songs. A 50/50 televote/international jury will determinate the winner and the Swedish entry in Basel 2025 Eurovision. The heats start on February 1 each Saturday until the grand final on March 8, 2025. Another change is all the songs will be released to the streaming platform the day before their heat.  A total of 2.794 songs were submitted and yet majority of the songs are written by the usual songwriters in various combos. Jimmy Joker Thörnfeldt and Anderz Wrethov both are behind 6 songs, Thomas G:son 5, David Lindgren...