Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Belarus will have its national final on December 26, 2014 and a jury has picked up the 15 finalists after casting auditions. Several familiar names but not Alyona Lanskaya who either didn't pass the casting or didn't participate at all after all. Not that this blogger misses her one bit. As expected the designed winner Milki did it with a song penned by Alexander Rybak. It would a surprise if they didn't win eventually. If they don't, there's always a way to make it happen afterwords. This is Belarus after all. And therefor there's also a lot of broken English and some rather horrid songs in the line up that have no life but in national Eurovision selections. This said, it has been worse so the jury has done quite decent job... Listen with caution:  Gunesh - I believe in a miracle Janette - Supernova Alexey Gross - Stand as one Daria - Love is my colour Valeria Sadovskaya - Summer love Uzari & Maimuma - Time Milki - Accent Yana Butskevich...

Alexander Rybak is working with a girl group to win the Belarusian national final on December 26, 2014. he has been to Belarus and through auditions selected five girls to perform his song, that will be very Belarusian as he says. "I have had this idea to work for my native Belarus for a couple of years now" he says, "I decided to compose a song that shows the Belarusian soul. I think I understand very well the Belarusian people that differ from the other Slavic people. They can be calm and natural. The song features both English and Belarusian and even the costumes are in Belarus style". He says he dedicates as much of his time as possible for the project but being very busy - only four days off before Christmas - he has a team in Belarus working on it and they know what he wants.  Rybak also tells he's closer to Belarus now that he has been there many times, met his relatives who have told him how his life was as a little child in there, but says he has ...

Yuriy Vaschuk aka Teo (31) finally gets to Eurovision. He's singer, composer, arranger, presenter. He has "won" the national selection as composer already three times, only that the songs have been always changed afterwards ( Far away in 2010, All my life 2012 and Rhythm of love 2013). This year he decided to sing himself and stick to the song. No wonder. Cheesecake is ment to be Teo, the object of desire that he doesn't want to be.... Want a slice? Robert: Pfff what a torture to go through all the songs of Belarus this year. Also Teo's Cheesecake is not my cup of tea. In fact, it could be my worst song of 2014. With this, Belarus will certainly not qualify. If I had to choose the best of all the mediocre songs, I would have gone for Dariya with Starlight . Blogilkar: I've never been particularly a fan of Belarusian entries. Or rather the changed ones that got to go to Eurovision - is it pure coincidence they were co-written by Teo? Cheesecake wa...

 Hey, we found some more lost photos in our archives this morning... Enjoy!

  Farid Mammdov - Hold me   Aliona Moon - O mie   Klapa s mora - Mizerija (accapella)   Esma & Lozano - Pred da se rezdeni   Moje 3 - Ljubav je svuda   Natália Kelly - Shine Birgit Öigemeel - Et uus saaks alguse - Russian version Alyona Lanskaya - Solayoh

Belarus had invited most everyone to their Planet Solayoh and party were promotional items were brought in in industrial quantity; chocolates and biscuits and all you can get! A buffet and drinks were avalable, too, and many artists showed up. Here are the Red Wall photos: Ryan Dolan and Natália Kelly were having a cozy time..... Serbian girls looked stunning in flashlights.... Esma and Lozano were holding court... And it's Ryan Dolan again. Will he bring the trophy back to Ireland? Coming up next..... the performances!

Next lot of song.... MONTENEGRO - Who see fr Nina Zizic - Igranka The two astronauts that are Who see emerge from the dry ice, and cyber girl Nina jumps in literally when the chorus kicks in. Weird but wonderful and visually stunning, as I wrote before, something we haven't seen in Eurovision yet, and we have seen a lot! Very powerful. mainly green and yellow ccolors on stage. Nina is fantastic. The whole concept of the first party on Mars is fabulously different and will go either way. I hope it goes to the final and kicks some butts there, too! LITHUANIA - Andrius Pojavis - Something With Lithuania we are back to performances without any deeper ideas. Blue and purple basic stage, basic performance by worn out looking Andrius and it all comes across a bit tired. Shame, because the song would deserve better, it's not bad.  BELARUS - Alyona Lanskaya - Solayoh The stage is set on multicolor mode again when Belarus takes on. Using every gimmick found on Eurovi...

Always trust Belarus for the promotional items and stuff. (I still have the kitchiest thing ever, hidden in the back corner of my wardrobe hidden from the world: Dima Koldun's vodka bottle!) Here's a sample of what they have come up this year. Better than the song? Cha cha cha!

Last year in Baku we were in Chrystal Palace of Baku. Belarus brings us back to those days by dragging on stage a huge chrystal ball, or should I saw an egg? wherefrom Alyona emerges and dances then the night away with her two hunky dancers while the three backing singers from planet Solayoh keep shouting their cha chas. Yikes. This is Eurovision by numbers. With a minus mark in fron of the numbers. Watch the rehearsal video here .

Norway - Margaret Berger - I feed you my love Margaret, who has been working with Jukka Immonen, the Finn behind Belgium's entry this year, is among the superfavorites this year. And it's easy to see why.  She came like an alien from the outer space, looked stunning like an ice queen and fed the viewers her love and will to vote for her. Less is more in staging. The song looses some when only hearing it though. Yet, Norway shouldn't be worried about qualifying this year but how far this will carry in the final is another matter.... as this is rather cold package filled with drama that may be lost to other than hardcore Eurovision fans.... And the intro alone may get some tender people change channel as they might think there's something wrong with the sound. But I like it. Finland - Krista Siegfrids - Marry me Krista is another creature and total opposite on stage; while Margaret is cool and distant, Krista is all over the place and certainly more is more ! S...

Belarus is known to change their song, sometimes even several times so no one expected anything else from them so in the end Rhythm of love was out, Solayoh in last week. Also Macedonia is changing their song, and one can only wonder why as Imperija got mostly positive comments - except from Greeks apparently for reasons only known to themselves, too much free alcohol perhaps? The latest addition to this "they/we don't like the song, let's change it" routine is Bulgaria. Out with televoting winner Kismet and in with the pre-contest favorite Samo shampioni . Of course all this looks a bit ridiculous from the outside but maybe they have their reasons, all three of them. On the other hand, EBU or no one else has nothing to do with it. The songs that will eventually go to Eurovision 2013 will be confirmed and officially presented only in the delegations meet in the host city in mid-March. Until then, the broadcasters can do whatever they want within their own ru...

It seems to be true, Belarus has changed its song. Out with Rhythm of love that I actually liked and in with Solayoh , that sounds as uninspiring, plastic and old as can be like usually the songs written especially for Eurovision by the usual writers are. What are they thinking? This could have been a hot Spanish/Greek entry back in the 80's and but not even retro enough to sound good in the 2010's. Yawn. But it has all the right bits of shouting cha cha and drum banging to make a stage show. Another yawn. Not that the love rhythms were particularly exciting or modern but I liked that.

Alyona Lanskaya has won the Belarusian national final with All my life and will travel to Baku 2012. Well, what to say? She was not my favourite but honestly I haven't paid that much attention in Belarus this year either. Who knows? She still has time to change her song, doesn't she? :-)