Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Greta Salome is clearly in Halloween mood.... ... as is Svala Artsvik is only posing. Or is she? Isaiah has got the mood.... ... and surely Conchita.... ... as does Valentina and her girls..... Kurt definately is! As is Nathan. Michal is only being himself. Scary enough? Loreen... hard to tell..... Cleo... not. Sweet as ever. Vaclav.... nope.  Jowst. Just being Jowst.  Aram Mp3 and emoji friend Freddie's not afraid of black cats Ira and horror of a snake Sertab. Scary. HAPPY HALLOWEEN PEOPLE!!!!

 Marija and her dog  Douwe feeding his family  Alexander trying to selfie a duck Vaidas doing good Amber feeling melancholy in Birmingham Amir in photoshoot for the new album! Hovi in photoshoot Iveta launching her own robe collection Aram mp3 inviting you for a bicycle tour Artsvik posing Carola studying new songs Conchita relaxing Yo! Polina adding drama Sertab leaving holidays she needs after breaking the Eurovision  fandom bubble with Turkish rumors....

That much is for sure now, as only four artists remain in the race and they are all female. This week Lucy (Aram MP3's team) and Vahe Aleksanyan (Iveta Mukuchyan's team) had to leave the contest as they scored the lowest with the combined jury and televote. Marta shone above the others in this round securing the win with both juries. Jury placed Vahe second but televoters last and so he dropped out. Wanna have a look and listen how they are? Click on their names for some past performances....  1. Marta (Anush) - Jury 48 + televote 49 (25,9%) = 97 2. Artsvik (Essai) - Jury 32 + televote 39 (20,6%) = 71 3. Suyzanna (Inga) - Jury 31 + televote 36 (19,1%) = 67 4. Egine (Hayko) - Jury 25 + televote 33 (17,5%) = 58 5. Vahe (Iveta) - Jury 33 + televote 15 (7,9%) = 48 6. Lucy (Aram MP3) - Jury 20 + televote 17 (9%) = 37

Armenia decided to be the complicated one this year with their  Depi Evratesil marathon that started months ago. It's prettty much like any The Voice/X Factor/Idols type reality show with the exception the winner goes to Eurovision and the judges/coaches/team leaders are all ex-Eurovision artists: Anush (2009, 2015), Hayko (2007), Iveta Mukuckyan (2016), Aram Mp3 (2015), Inga (2009) and Essai (2015). After endless auditions and second round eliminations each coach had their team of four ready for the next rounds: Aram MP3 — Lucy, Saro Gevorgyan, Jujo and Lilit Harutyunyan Inga — Suzanna Melkonyan, Gevorg Harutyunyan, Karina Harutyunyan and Narine Jinanyan Essaï — Opera Viva, Artsvik, Only Girls and Marissa Iveta — Christina Mangasaryan, Vahe Aleksanyan, Hasmik Siroyan and Sona Dunoyan Hayko — Egine, Anna Danielyan, Eva Kans and Amalya Margaryan Anush — Stepan Hovhannisyan, Marta, Alexander Plato and Anna Седракјан Then we had some duels and the losers wa...

Like everywhere else also in Finland the Eurovision songs enter the charts. Not the physical top-20 but the Dowwnload charts where Conchita Wurst enters at #2 while Softengine re-enter at #3 (after being #17 after they won the Finnish selection). Further down we have The Common Linnets at #6, Sanna Nielsen at #7, Carl Espen at #20 and Aram Mp3 at #29. In Radio Play top-100 only Softengine has made it so far, at # 12, going up from #40.

Eurovision 2014 has been a success. The iTunes in various countries were taken over my the songs right after the final and today we got the new from the official UK charts; 13 songs from the show made the Top-100. The Common Linnets even enter the Top-10, is this a first for a non-winning, non-UK song? Anyways, even Finland's Softengine made it! Something better than that?  Maybe the over one million views of Youtube and over one million streams on Spotify?

Today there was a break of the rehearsals in the arena. A part of the singers had though appointment in the recording studios to record their bits of Rainmaker that they will perform together with Emmelie De Forest. Apparently all didn't go as smoothly as the Danes would have wanted, for various reasons.... Anyways, a day off for most ment parties! Parties were arranged all around Copenhagen starting at noon with Macedonia, followed by Latvia, Iceland, Estonia, Georgia...  We opted for Latvia. A Tea party at 2pm and a song title Cake to bake promised well.  And indeed, there were trays full of cakes of various kind with tea or coffee. And a lot of music. Jöran and Katrina with the rest of the band played hosts getting their guests involved with singing. They improvised and entertained us like there was no tomorrow and the other stars that came by just went along:  Hersi from Albania singing in Italian Vivo per lei with Jöran (who certainly isn't Bocelli.....

Aram Mp3 (Aram Sargsyan, 30), a wellknown media person in his home country was chosen to represent Armenia internally. He is a singer-songwriter, actor, comedian, showman... you name it! (And apparently a homo- and transphobic*) He came up with a touching ballad Not alone that builts up towards the end and won instantly over both Eurovision fans and bookmakers and is currently the #1 favorite to win in May (*Update: Let's see if this has some effect on polls...) Robert : Ok song chosen internally for Armenia this year. Interesting composition. In final? Yes. Blogilkar : I must admit I was taken by this the first moment I heard it, which was a  cellphone video from a concert. When the official version came out I was even ore convinced. Maybe not an Eurovison winner but a very strong and worthy runner up? In final: Yes!!!