Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winner s. Rarely there's been such a clear pre-contest favorite than in 2017. Ever since Francesco Gabbani won Sanremo with Occidentali's karma it was The One. The video broke records in Youtube and the hype was real. So much that I remember him saying he had one day off between Sanremo and Eurovision; the rest was promotion and  gigs in Italy and sadly it was evident at the Eurovision stage; in Sanremo he was the quirky flirty himself, at Eurovision he looked tired and somewhat bored to perform the song for the 1000th time...... The uninspired staging didn't help. And Occidentali's karma dropped to sixth out of 42. A shocker. Francesco Gabbani (39) shot to the fame in Sanremo 2016 Newcomers that he won. The year after he won t...

Today's first release comes from Austria. Vincent Bueno was internally chosen last year and also for this 2021 edition of Eurovision song contest. This year he brings something quite different from last year's entry Alive . Amen continues this year's minor semi  gospel/religious theme.....

Ana Soklič, who won the national final for Eurovision 2020 in Slovenia was internally selected for this year's contest and tonight she has unveiled the internally chosen song. Originally it was planned a mini national final with two songs to choose from like in Spain but in the end they just delivered the song, Amen . This year due to pandemic it is allowed to use recorded backing vocals and taking advantage of that they go all gospel in the choir. Why I have the feeling Slovenians have went fishing in the same pool where Tamara Todevska found her jury pleasing Proud ?

Finally! Krista Siegfrids got married to her Janne Grönroos this Saturday in her hometown Kaskinen. The couple met when both were studying to become teachers in Vaasa, and eventually moved to Helsinki when Krista's singing career took off and Janne landed a job in radio. Today he's working in Stockholm for Aftonbadet tv, and Krista works in both countries. The couple has been together already 13 years, and Krista wrote Marry me for UMK and Eurovision 2013 jokingly to get Janne to propose. He finally did it in Maldives a year later on holidays and due to their busy schedules it took this long to have the wedding. Congratulations, Krista and Janne!

Francesco Gabbani has had an amazing year. His success adventure started already in Sanremo 2016 when he won the Newcomers with Amen and released his second album. But that was just calm before the storm. Step by step he made himself better known  with Eternamente ora , In equilibrio and Foglie al gelo and it all exploded in Sanremo this year when he won ahead of some other names that were more papable. Occidentali's Karma become an international phenomenom with 160 million Youtube views and the early announced Eurovision song contest winner. Not winning has been the only hicup in his career so far but it didn't stop him. Instead he released a new album and Tra le granite e le granate became the #1 hit of summer 2017 in Italy. Recently he released Pachidermi e pappagalli , already another hit to his credit while he is finishing his triunphant sold out tour all over Italy. In between he has done all major festivals and television shows, been nominated and won a few award...

Tra le granite e le granate proves to be The summerhit of 2017 in Italy. It has now been certified platinum following the incredible success Francesco Gabbani is enjoying in radios and on his sold out tour. The single made it to #19 in official charts but keeps selling steadily after hitting #1 in Italian Airplay (four weeks and counting....). The video counts over 32 million views. The album Magellano  has sold already gold and made it to #1 in albums chart.  The Sanremo winner and Italy's Eurovision entry Occidentali's Karma sold four times platinum after hitting #1 in both official charts and Airplay (and San Marino) and #10 in Europe. The video is close to 148 million views... It's already the 4th most watched Italian video ever.   And let's not forget his very first platinum selling single, Amen .  UPDATE AUGUST 7:

Even the monsters age. Today's birthday monster is Jussi Sydänmaa aka Amen, he turns 45! Espoo born Lordi's guitarist and one of the founding members. The mask is inspired by a dream he had of Amon-Ra from ancient Egypt so in short: he's a mummy that woke up to play in Lordi.  Congratulations!

Today's the day we all have been waiting for all spring: Francesco Gabbani releases his third album Magellano . (That you can hear already in Spotify at least in Italy....) Update noon: The album is already #1 in iTunes. Quel surprise! This blogger is already in love with the graphics and photoshoot style he has opted for the promotion! The album includes nine songs, including obviously Occidentali's Karma and also F oglie al gelo , released already last year.  The international version of the album Magellan includes also Amen , his winning song in the Sanremo Newcomers 2016. And the new single off the album is T ra le granite e le granate to be released as a video shortly, but you can already hear a bit of it here. TRACKLIST 01. Magellano 02. Tra le granite e le granate 03. Occidentali's karma  04. A moment of silence 05. La mia versione dei ricordi 06. Susanna, Susanna 07. Foglie al gelo  08. Pachidermi e pappagalli 09. Spogliarmi ...

Where to start? Francesco Gabbani broke two record in Italy immediately after his Sanremo victory: the first ever artist to win both categories within two years : Newcomers with Amen in 2016, and the main category with Occidentali's karma in 2017. Within hours his video became the most watched Italian video on Vevo ever in 24 hrs period. Then the video became in less than two months the most watched Eurovision entry video EVER in Youtube passing Il Volo's previous record on 86 million. When writing this it stands at 90,6 million. Meanwhile the song topped all possible charts in Italy and has sold already triple platinum. It entered the iTunes charts in 15 countries right after Sanremo and currently is played on radios in over 30 countries.  Now in mid April, a month before the final betting offices are giving him the lowest odds ever seen before the rehearsals start, below 2.0. If you thought Loreen or Alexander Rybak were clear pre-contest favorites... they never ...

After the drama in the first elimination Francesco Gabbani emerges as the winner of the newcomers, or Nuove proposte di Sanremo 2016 with his Amen .  First it was announced Miele had won the duel with 53-47. Then the journalists in the Press center who voted noted there has been a technical problem and they had to revote. That finished 49-51 for Gabbani (televote 70-30 for Miele, press vote 72-28 for Gabbani) so in the end Gabbani is declared the winner. On the final night he scores 42% of the votes against 28% for Chiara Dello Iacovo, 14,3% for Ermal Meta and 13,9 for Mahmood.

Krista Siegfrids has been travelling between Helsinki and Stockholm the past months while writing and recording her new album to be released later this year. She also took part in Tähdet, tähdet tv-show where she mastered 1990's pop , punk , Finnpop , country , opera , heavy and soul before she was sadly voted out and she finished 5th (ex-Eurovision stars Laura Voutilianen and Teräsbetoni's Jarkko Ahola made it to top-3 when the show is still on. Last year Jari Sillanpää won it). Those who thought she's only a ding dong girl and can't do but songs like Marry me , Amen or Cinderella finally saw she is much more, like her singles Can you see me and On & off have proven, too. 

Krista Siegfrids releases her new single off her second worthcoming album. After marriage proposals and apparently marriage in Amen  and feeling like a Cinderella the relationship is On and Off - yet still very hot  - now. The story continues..... 

Did you think Krista Siegrids would just disappear from the spotlight like most Finnish Eurovision entrants after the final? No way! She's been touring ever since, tutoring kids in The Voice Kids all fall (and her kid Molly actually won, and she has released her debut single If I ever grow up , too), she's been to Paris and to Dublin with her record company, to Stockholm writing songs for her new album and creating contacts... Around Christmas time we will see her on Tv again in MTV3's Christmas concert filmed in Finlandiatalo last week. She's also being nominated here and there for various awards and time will tell how many she will pick up over the winter! She will spend the New Year's performing again in Dubai and will stay there for some well deserved holidays after... And then I guess we will hear more from her. And that's a fact! Meanwhile here are her videos Marry me , Amen and Can you see me  PS. Today's Krista's birthday! Drop in here and...

Krista Siegfrids has released the third single/video of her debut album and it's a far cry from Marry me 's ding dongs and Amen 's party. Can you see me? is a heartfelt ballad dedicated to her late father. Elias Koskimies also once again as director makes a great job. Simply and beautiful perfectly fitting the song. Well done! UPDATE : Can you see me climbs the Finnish iTunes charts to #3! Ahead her only the megastar of the day Cheek and Jenni Vartiainen with her comeback single. Well done and ding dong!!!!

Here it is, Krista's follow up to Marry me, Amen ! The story continues....

Krista follows her path with determination. After Marry me her next single will be called Amen ! The video shoot has been finished and one can only hope she didn't catch pneumonia by walking the chilly streets wearing THAT (the pic above, from her Twitter) . If you don't know, the spring is really delayed up here this year, still below zero at night and some snow in the ground, too.... You can hear a bit of the song in her Marry me, Europe reality.