Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

InCulto has just won the Lithuanian final with  East European funk It would be easy to label it as a  joke act but I think it is not, despite the men's strip tease á la Bucks Fizz in the middle. I guess I should by principle dislike it but I don't, I kinda like it! I found Aiste rather pretendious and the only other alternative was Agama, or maybe Evelina. Aiste came second for the zillioth time and best singer of the evening Evelina Sasenko surprisingly third beating Agama who got a special award for something (text?). Points were given Eurovision style 50-50% televote-jury and InCulto won both: 1. InCulto   24 2. Aiste   20 3. Evelina Sasenko   14 4. Agama   13 5. Sasha Song & Nora   12 6. Merunas   12 7. Ruslanas Kirilkinas   7 8. Ramunas Difartas   6 9. Eden   4 10. Monika Linkyte   3 11. Amberlife   1 12. Jurate Miliauskaite   1

The enthuasism amogst the Lithuanian artists doesn't seem very high as apparently only 30 singers applied before the original deadline. After throwing out the worst only 19 of them are still in the running, amongst them some familiar names like Aiste Pilvelyte (hoping to be 7th time lucky), Ruslanas Kirilkinas (participated in the Finnish Idols but was eventually kicked out because he spoke no Finnish and is now better remembered for carrying around his teddybear and the other participation: Lithuanian gay porn), Erica Jennings (lead singer of Skamp that sung for Lithuania in 2000) and a few other names from the previous national finals. Due to poor quality LRT has extended the song submission deadline until December 5. Here are the names so far: Bix, 69 Danguje, Sokoledas, Fuego, Blogos mergaites, N.E.O., Laiptai, Funny Beat, Auguste, Stano, Ruta Sciogolevaite, Donatas Montvydas, Irena Starosaite, Zilvinas Zvagulis, Milano, Merunas, Aiste Pilvelyte, Ruslanas Kirilkinas, Erica J...

Belgium's K3, Sweden's Peter Jöback, Estonia's Rolf Junior and Lithuania's Aiste all have one thing in common: they have all participated in their countries national fnals for Eurovision. Aiste has the record with six tries. She has been getting closer and closer (1999 unknown, 2004 11th, 2005 9th, 2006 6th, 2007 3rd and 2008 2nd) so will she give it another try in 2009? Estonia's Rolf Junior also tried his luck in Eurovision after Estonian Idols with a very respectable 4th place. He has also gained a lot of experience in musicals. Sweden's Peter Jöback came 2nd to last in Melodifestivalen 1990 but has then built up a very creditable career in musicals besides being a pop star. K3 didn't reach the final in Belgium's 1999 selection.