Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Finland and Portugal have a similar history in Eurovision: a lot of failures and a very little to cheer for even if the songs haven't been generally that bad. Finland managed to break the spell in 2006 after 45 years but Portugal is still waiting after 47 years thus breaking the previous Finland's record. And this year both countries send a brunette to the competition with a ballad sung in the native language. This match ends with 1-1 result. Portugal - Filipa Sousa - Vida minha  *** Portugal's entry is a mix of local fado and Slavic melancholy thanks to composer Andrej Babic. Filipa delivers with gusto and passion this melodrama which may not open to televoters with the first hearing. For me this song doesn't quite open no matter how much I would like it to. Usually I'm a sucker for the Portuguese songs and would love to see them win but this year isn't the year either. A borderline qualifier. Finland - Pernilla - När jag blundar  *** Finland'...

Giornale.sm has released the news this morning that Sammarinese Valentina Monetta will represant the tiny state in the Eurovision 2012 in Baku. With a song in English written by Ralph Siegel. Listen her sing Let it be here . Somehow this feels a bit anticlimax, doesn't it? But let's wait for the confirmation at noon and the song on Friday..... maybe this is another stunt by them, after Nicola di Bari with Andrej Babic :-) UPDATE : Valentina it is. Siegel is not so sure. Let's see and wait. Besides, apparently Giornale.sm has violated the agreement with the SMRTV not to publish the news before the end of the press conference, and in the heat of the moment this blogger among others did the same. I apologise. I didn't know. Here's  Una giornata bellissima .

Filipa Sousa won both the jury vote and the televote in Portugal and goes to Baku 2012 with Vida minha, penned by Croatian Andrej Babic. This is Babic's sixth Eurovision entry since 2003. He has though never reached the top-10 and his best placing amongst the songs he has written for Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Portugal, it's actually the Portuguese entry Senhora do mar that did the best, 13th in 2008. One could argue with first impression this is the same song and same choreography.....  We are not going to Lisbon 2013, that's for sure. Shame. 1. Filipa Sousa (jury 12 + televote 12) 24 2. Cumplice's (10 + 6) 16 3. Rui Andrade (7 + 7) 14 4. Ricardo Soler (5 + 8) 13 5. Pamela Salvado (8 + 4) 12 6. Carlos Costa ( 0 + 10) 10 7. Vania Osario (6 + 1) 7 8. Pedro Macedo (0 + 5) 5 9.. Armenia Pimenta (2 + 3) 5 10. Joana leite (3 + 2) 5 11. To Martins (4 + 0) 4 12. Gerson Santos (1 + 0) 1

RTP has put snippets of the 24 songs selected on their website to listen and vote until January 27. Twelve most voted will go to the final where we will find the eventual winner of Eurovision 2011. Or maybe not. Not even this time unfortunately even if the selection is pretty good and original. Amongst the songwriters we have... yes, you guessed it! Ralph Siegel! And Andrej Babic is there, too. And Jonas Gladnikoff & co. But the selection is not as infected by foreign writers as the Spanish one. And all songs are in Portuguese thank you RTP for that! But then maybe they would have the best chances with Carla Moreno? Or will she do the end of Catarina Pereira?