Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Let's continue the series and kill some time having a look at the last decade and see who were the Top-10 best scoring countries in the Eurovision song contest in the past ten years. The ways to calculate are many and here I have used the simple average placement method (and it's not all so serious). Next up is Romania at n.o 6. Romania has had a very steady finish in the contest last decade; only two top-10s but all the rest 12th-17th. Until two close non qualifications to end the decade with. And then there's of course the disqualification in 2016 for TVR for repeated non-payment of debts that made Ovidiu Anton stay home in the last minute with   Moment of silence . Moment of silence indeed that year!  Hotel FM is the one I have completely forgotten over the years.... but Romania has surely provided some unforgettable moments with Cezar, Ilinca and Alex for example 2010 Paula Seling & Ovi - Playing with fire - 3rd *** 2011 Hotel FM - Change - 17th * ...

TVR has released the semifinalists for Selecţia Naţională Eurovision 2018. Some things never change: MIHAI tries again as a singer, and various Perssons, Downs and Gladnikoffs with quite a few Swedes are at it again. Among the songwriters also Ovidiu Anton that EBU made to stay home in 2016 when he had already packed his bags thanks to TVR's unpaid bills to EBU. Last year's Alex Florea tries again, this time solo. Then he have again Sergiu Bogota, this time with a self penned song when he tries last year with Stig Rästa's excellent We were young , one of this blogger's favorites. But the real surprise is (Italian?) Erminio Sinni singing with Titziana Camelin. This blogger wonders if it's the Erminio Sinni who took part in Sanremo 1993 with L'amore vero and left an everlasting mark in my mind. He's long disappeared from my radar, last seen in Latin America so could it be he has ended in Romania or is it just another Sinni? Any excuse is good enou...

Guy Sebastian got upset. And then a coffee.... Lena Ph got excited over a gig Gabbani was fooling around over breakfast.  One of those days.... Poli Genva was having fun at Emoji movie premiere Isaiah supported a wrong team.... Francesca got an amazing t-shirt -  why no one thought about that before??!! Alex was rocking it Demy was still hiding her face Lordi had the hottest gig ever in Czech Rep. Lucie got extensions Nina still has a questionable fashion sense and new accessories Sergey... well, Sergey.... Ott was looking cheeky OG3NE sisters got tattoos and are getting over losing their mom. How was your week?

While Lucie Jones has been enjoying a lovely relaxing bath.... .. and Alma has been on holidays enjoying the sun and the pool as well.... ... Isaiah has visited both Paris.... ... and Sweden where he picked up among other things a platinum disco for his debut single..... ... and Slavko relaxed by the lake - maybe dreaming of winning something eventually ( and he did, the Barbara Dex award! ) ... and Salvador and Luisa Sobral were invited to the Portuguese parliament for a standing ovation and congratulations.... .... while Alex Florea fired some accusations that Salvador used false technics to win Eurovision having problems with his head rather than his heart causing quite a stir among fans.... . ... but he only followed Robin's example, who first voiced what most of us thought anyways: Salvador's winning speech about disposable fast-food music wasn't quite necessary and polite at that very moment and was easily understood wrong..... .... ...

This year's Eurovision was the usual love love peace peace fest it always is. It seems also that the many promotional events from London to Amsterdam, Madrid to Riga and especially the long one to Israel has bonded the artists together more than ever. Or so it seems following their social media updates as they sing together, they spend time together, they praise each other, they promise future collaborations together. That's the beauty of Eurovision. Uniting people. Europe. Artists. Love love peace peace indeed. This year was a special one on screen, too. First the Macedonian postcard, kept secret until the live broadcast, revealed lovely Jana is pregnant (and she may not be the only one....) but a bigger secret and revelation came later: her boyfriend proposed her in Green room in front of all of us and she of course said Yes! And can we forget the passionate kisses after their performances by Navi Band's Arciom and Ksienija, and Romanian Ilinca and Alex? if a...

Romania is a total contrast to Malta before it. Toysoldiers playing the drums in the intro and then the cartoon colorful explotion just continues. Kolibris and cannoon shooting more color. This youthful and a lot of crazy. I don't have much to comment as I just watch the show and be entertained. This should also qualify with cannons blasting and in the final? Who knows?

Esctoday's Press Poll has now had a chance to judge all the semifinalists in thir first rehearsals and here's the combined results: Semifinal One: 1. Armenia  100 2. Finland  72 3. Moldova  69 4. Azerbaijan  65 5. Portugal  64 6. Cyprus  40 7. Sweden  39 8. Australia  37 9. Latvia  37 10. Greece  22 11. Poland  20 12. Slovenia  17 13. Montenegro  16 14. Georgia  13 15.Iceland  11 16. Albania  9 17. Czechia  6 18. Belgium  0 Semifinal 2: 1. Bulgaria  97 2. Austria  79 3. Romania  72 4. Netherlands  51 5. Croatia  50 6. Belarus  43     Esronia  43 8. Hungary  39 9. Norway  30 10. Denmark  29 11. San Marino  27 12. Macedonia  18 13. Israel  16 14. Ireland  14 15. Malta  10 16. Switzerland  6 17. Lithuania  3 18. Serbia 0

Exclusive greetings and wished from Kyiv for you!

Romania is boombastic. Certainly not boring three minutes and we already know they can handle this vocally so no worries on that department. Cartoon soldiers and cannoons with explosions of color in the backdrop, real cannoons on stage so Alex can do his phallus stunt on top of it. All we need now is a confetti climax to finish it off. This is a qualifier for sure and with this performance it might be doing even better than we ever thought. Maybe. 

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Pictured is Romania's national flower dog rose Romania returns to Eurovision after one year break - last year EBU disqualified them over unpaid debt just weeks before the final - and TVR organized a national final and open submission. They received 84 songs and after live auditions 15 were chosen for the semifinal. Ten songs were selected by a jury to the final and Yodel it! got full marks from all of them. In the final it was televoting and they scored twice the amount of the votes of runner up, Eurovision veteran MIHAI. The song is written by Mihai Alexandru and Alexandra Niculae. Maria Ilinca Băcilă (18) has tried already them all: Romanian The Voice, Romania's Got Talent and X Factor (in Trupa Quattro) so her yoggling is already well known for Romanians. Alexandru Ionuț Florea (25) is also known from The Voice in Romania. Now they will bring their joint yodel meets pop meets rap combo to Eurovision and anything can happen.... When this song was presented as t...

Yodel it was the obvious winner since its participation was revealed ages ago and apparently indeed it scored well above the others in the final. Ilinca with Alex Florea will yodle it in Kyiv. MIHAI managed econd place this time and my favorite Instict third....

Romania has its final tonight. In the last week's semifinal the jury kicked out five songs and these ten are left. Now in the final only televoters have a say, so let's see if they agreed with the jurors that all gave their top marks to Ilinca ft. Alex Florea? Also the nasty pre-contest rumors say it's the one to be chosen no matter what.... Below are the entries in the order they qualified for the final: Ilinca ft. Alex Florea - Yodel it! Xandra - Walk on by MIHAI - I won't surrender Cristina Vasiu - Set the skies on fire Instinct - Petale Ramona Nerra - Save me Eduard Santha - Wild child Maxim -  Adu-ți aminte Tavi Cohen & Emma - We own the night Ana-Maria Mirică - Spune-mi tu