Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Local teenage superstar aiming for post-army international career with new style.... Half Portuguese Abreu keeps flirting with Latin sounds Title track from his third album that went to #3 in charts following his success, he had the most played song of 2017 in radios with Antaudun  ... ... and this one was the most played song in radios in 2018!

Lisbon 2018 Eurovision is also a real get together for the last year's artists, on screen at least. Besides the artist from Belarus (who just got a baby btw), Netherlands, Macedonia (who announced her pregnancy and marriage live in thee semi-final last year), Georgia and Norway are all their countries spokespersons, and last year's interval act will provide the Ukrainian ones. Sweden gives the honor as usual to the Melodifestivalen runner up and while John Kennydy O'Connor, Nicky Byrne, Mel Giedroyc and Barbara Schönberger are there as usual (and propably Elodie Gossuin) we won't see Lee Lin Chin. Australia has opted for someone with Portuguese roots, just like Finland and Switzerland.  Just like the running order also the order of voting has been determined by the production team based on the votes of the juries in attempt to make it as exciting as possible.  Ukraine –  Nataliia Zhyzhchenko (Onuka) Azerbaijan-  Tural Asadov Belarus – NAVIBAND (ESC 2017) ...

Happy birthday to Axel as he turns 27 today. Congratulations! Axel Ehnström aka Paradise Oskar Dada dammed for Finland in Eurovision 2011 winning the Marcel Bezençon award and placing third in the semifinal and gaining praise from left and right. However, he never intended to become a singer himself and after his debut album (#4 in Finland) he has created a succesful songwriting career. Some of songs he has co-written: Isac Elliott - New way home (#1 Finland, #4 Norway) Kasmir - Wowowow (#4 Finland) Anna Abreu - Bandana (#5 Finland) RAF Camora - Mein Leben (#3 Germany, #12 Switzerland) Alle Farben - Bad ideas (#4 Austria, #7 Germany) Lost Frequences - All or nothing (#10 Belgium) - Also vocals -  Sofi De La Torre - Vermilion Mikael Gabriel - Riippumatto (#4 Finland) Pretty Pink feat. Axel Ehnström - Superman

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.2 (Check out Vol.1 here ) Pete Parkkonen made himself known in Idols finishing 3rd. After two albums in English and one in Finnish - and not really going anywhere - he went on to do some television and won both Dancing with stars in 2014 and Tähdet, tähdet in 2016 and a new sex symbol was born. His latest releases have been in Finnish and Kohta sataa (below) video caused quite a stir. No doubt he's also a talented singer. Could this be a winn...

The Finnish Grammys aka Emmas will be awarded next month in Barona Arena in Espoo. Here are the nominees for the best video: Cheek - Äärirajoille Isac Elliot - Baby I Haloo Helsinki - Beibi My First Band - Don't break my corazon JVG ft Anna Abreu - Huominen on huomenna Olavi Uusivirta - Kauneus sekoittaa mun pään Janna - Läpinäkyvää Stam1na - Panzerfaust Robin ft. Nikke Ankara - Parasta just nyt Kasmir - Vadelmavene This award will be voted by the public. Would you have wanted to see any of these among Eurovision preview videos?

The Finnish Grammys aka Emmas will be awarded next month in Barona Arena in Espoo and here are the nominees for the best song: Haloo Helsinki -  Beibi JVG ft Anna Abreu - Huominen on huomenna Nopsajalka - Lupaan olla Janna - Sä et ole hullu Kasmir - Vadelmavene Which one is your favorite and which one could have been a succesful Eurovision entry perhaps?

Eurovision 2014 winner Conchita Wurst is headlining Serena Pop & Rock festival in Espoo on August 29-30, 2014. She will be performing the first day. The other stars are (so far) Jenni Vartiainen , Juha Tapio , Kaija Koo , Jukka Poika , JVG , Sanni , Anna Abreu , Roope Salminen & Koirat and Pete Parkkonen . Also Kasmir , Sini Sabotage and Tuomas Kauhanen will be present. More info here .

Follow the final with me blogging live right here from 20.00 CET. And watch it here . The show comes from Helsinki Ice hall and is presented by Joona Kortesmäki and Anne Lainto. The Rasmus, Anna Abreu, Robin and Paradise Oskar with Felix Zenger will be the guest stars. The process until now has ben long and confusing but it all comes together tonight. Maybe. There will we televote and superfinal with top-3 with a new televote. Judges have no say whatsoever anymore. 21.00 Here we go! The show about to start in a very snowy Helsinki! We start with a short clip of how we got this far. Anyone was able to participate and 540 demos were sent in. Then the process is recapped in short as no one understood a thing about it before... and now we enter the Helsinki Ice hall where dancers are on stage amonhst dry ice. We already saw the stage last night but now it comes alive with the lights and the audience. 21.07 This is more like classic dancing than disco dancing it seems. And the three ladies...

Anna Abreu will be the guest star in the final of UMK (Uuden musiikin kilpailu) in Helsinki Ice Hall this Saturday promising a show never seen in Finland before by a Finnish artist. We'll see. Anna (Eira Margarida Mourão de Melo e) Abreu who just turned 22 shot to the fame from the Finnish Idols 2007 where she was the runner up. Now after four albums and handful of hits, three Emma award (once the newcomer, twice the female artist of the year) and nearly 200.000 albums sold she is to have a break. And while she's having a break we can enjoy her Greatest hits album and DVD. Her hits include Stereo , Hysteria , Impatient , Music everywhere , Silent despair , Vinegar , Ivory tower , End of love , Worst part is over . Sadly the album skips the songs in Portuguese or Spanish with the exception od Do avesso . Where are Perdoa-me , No estragues el momento  or Contigo corazon ?

The Rasmus will make a comeback in the final of UMK aka Uuden musiikin kilpailu aka ex-Euroviisut. They will perform as world premiere their new single I'm a mess off their new album. It will be their 8th studio album and first in 4 years (the solist Lauri did a solo album in between). The band broke it big in Finland in 2001 with F-f-f-falling and two years later all over the world with In the shadows . Their latest effort was Black roses album co-produced with Desmond Child including Living in a world without you . The other performers in the final are Anna Abreu , Paradise Oskar , Felix Zenger and dancers Minna Tervamäki, Eun-Ji Ha and Linda Haakana. And of course the six UMK finalists!

Anna Abreu will be the main guest star in UMK's final in Helsinki's Ice hall. She seems to be rather thrilled to be able to perform on such a big stage being able to do "never seen before" kind of a show. Anna shot to the fame from Idols 2007 where she was the runner up but since then has become one of the most sold Idols artists of all. So far she has sold over 170.000 albums. Her debut sold double platinum, second platinum, third gold and the fourth is yet to certificate. Her hits include End of love , Vinega r (that got some airplay also in the UK), Music everywhere , Hysteria , Worst part is over and Stereo . She's half Portuguese and sings also in Portuguese and Spanish. She was also one of the judges in the Finnish Strickly come dancing .

The biggest names in the Finnish music business from Chisu to Lauri Tähkä, from Lauri to Anna Abreu , from Haloo Helsinki to Sunrise Avenue , from Kim Herold to Paradise Oskar with LeKid from Sweden are playing tonight live in Hartwall Areena to raise money for the children hospitals. This annual event is more alive than ever and besides beforementioned artists names like Arttu Wiskari, Fintelligens , Idols winner Martti Saarinen , Pasa and Ronya will be performing. The concert is also live on TV from 8pm local time on MTV3.

The Eurovision 2011 third placed Eric Saade is releasing his second album Saade Vol.1 in the end of this month. Meanwhile the follow up single to Popular has been released and is titled Hearts in the air . He's planning to released Saade Vol.2 for the Christmas market and of course hoping for an international career. We will see... (This new single sounds very much like Anna Abreu to me?!) Saade has released in his career one album previously, Masquerade (#2 in Sweden) and four singles: Sleepless (#44), Manboy (#1), Break of dawn (#45) and Popular (#1).

After ladies and gents it's time for groups. K-System has apparently expressed his will to do Eurovision in social medias so hopefully he has done it and been picked up by YLE. His latest is pretty brilliant  Call me 911 . Antti Tuisku & Anna Abreu , or the Finnish pop royals as their tour in 2010 was named. If not alone maybe they would do it together despite Anna declaring she's not interested.... Unfortunately there's nothing official with them together but here's a mobil phone vid . Reckless Love is a band close to break through. Their record company just might give us some glam rock in Euroviisut, like Romance . Indica in this list just an excuse to feature their In passing . They're way too busy right now charting in Germany and places in Europe... on the other hand Eurovision might give them the visibility to break through big time all over the continent at the same time? Nightwish produced. Fork is an accapella group. And a great one both vocally and...

Comments have been flying in Sweden after Thursday night's fiasco and the media throws accusation here and there but what do the Eurovision veterans and the Swedish songwriters say? Thomas G:son , the Swedish writer for the Danish entry In a moment like this that was originally rejected from Melodifestivalen shouts out for Anna Bergendahl: "She was absolutely great. Outstanding. I was sure she's going to win! "  Also many other Eurovision veterans have commented the fiasco:  Nanne Grönvall says she was in shock. She thinks that singing just before Azerbaijan may have reduced Anna's chances. Charlotte Perrelli is under shock, too. She wonders now what should the Sweden send now? What does Europe want from them? She believed in Anna's chances.  Ola Salo from The Ark urges Anna not to get depressed over the result. He says Eurovision is only a spin off of Melodifestivalen that is the only contest that matters. (Err...??) A Finn can only comment here...

One can easily understand the reactions in Sweden. The country will miss the Eurovision final for the first time since 1976 - and back then they were boycotting the contest by they own will. The papers are asking Christer Björkman to leave his job and that Anna's career is over. Anna herself has been gracious even if a bit of tears in her eyes. One can onw only hope the Swedish media won't really massacre her and blame her for the disaster as she did a fantastic job. We should also remember the international jury in Melodifestivalen didn't care at all for This is my life giving their top marks to other songs. Despite that the Swedish people voted her as the winner. Besides the Melodifestivalen organisation, the jury that picks up the songs is better target to accuse. After all they dropped In a moment like thi s and now it's in the final but for Denmark instead. And to end with Anna's comment to stupid journalist asking her "Are you disappointed?": ...

This year's Melodifestivalen final has three ex-Idols (four if you count in also presenter Måns Zelmerlöf) in it and that has made one other finalist, Erik Saade give out some harsh critic: "I'm so glad I have done it the long hard way and not through some Idols. I have worked my career myself" . Well, he seems to forget he isn't unknown to TV either after having been a presenter in Disney Channel! Anna's response was that she is very proud to have been part of the Idols, and Darin says it has been a great school for him about working in TV and it gave him a chance as an artist. Ola says that if they all four are still around and here now, proves they have it, Idols just gave them the chance to be heard. Darin is from Idols 2004 where he was the runner up. Ola Svensson and Måns are from Idols 2005 where they finished 8th and 5th. Finally Anna Bergendahl is from Idols 2008 and she finished 5th.

In Finland the taxes are public information and every year the papers publish who earned what, how much less or more than before, who has to pay more taxes and who gets a refund (lucky me, I do get a big one!) Anyways, the internationally famous Finnish artists are of course also of interest and once again Lauri Ylönen, the lead singer of The Rasmus earned the most: 541.000 euros but that's 100.000 less than last year. It's a lot more than the next one, Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish (378.000) and Ville Valo of Him (360.000). Lauri Tähkä , even if being "only a Finnish" artist singing in Finnish and performing only in Finland almost earned as much as them: 318.000, but the real King of income in Finnish is Kari Tapio with 565.000, more than Lauri Ylönen. That means the best earning pop/rock artist in Finland for the first time in many years earns his money inside the Finnish borders! Mr Lordi or Tomi Putaansuu is far behind with 72.000, much less than a year befo...