Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The 5th season of X Factor has finished and we have a winner, 16-year-old Francesca Michielin . The group Moderni came second and Antonella Lo Coco third. And it seems to be a succes as the Italian download chart is totally taken over by X Factor artists. Francesca is number one with Distratto , Non ci penso mai  by Moderni is at #2, Cuore scoppiato by Antonella is third followed by Nicole Tuzii 's Sarà possibile at #6 and Jessica Mazzoli 's Un livido sul cuore at #10. In the album charts they conquer the whole top-5: The top-3 is the same but Nicole Tuzii 4th and Jessica Mazzoli 5th. And then we have still Vincenzo di Bella 's La vita non è brutto climbing up. The previous X Factor winners in Italy are Aram Quartet , Matteo Becucci , Marco Mengoni and Nathalie Giannitrapani .

Sergio Dalma's Via Dalma has had a sequal Via Dalma II or more Italian hits covered by Sergio. Spanish seem to like them a lot as I heard El mundo all the time when in Spain. He has also released a DeLuxe version of the lot including both albums and extras, like the Italian version of his Eurovision entry, Ballare stretti . There's also cover of Umberto Tozzi's Ti amo but more about that later.... One of the less fortunate versions must be Por Elisa that Alice does so much better I must say... as original and remixed . The best cover remains no doubt Aram Quartet's .

We might be closer for the Italian comeback in Eurovision than ever since 1998. As reported also here a few days ago the winner of the Italian X Factor won't get a free ticket to Sanremo like happened the last season. Instead the might go to.... Eurovision! This is what the director of RaiDue Massimo Liofreddi lets us believe in the press conference yesterday just before the X Factor's 4th season debut tomorrow night. "Unlike last year the winner won't go to Sanremo but we have another possibility. The winner could participate in the European song contest instead" he stated carefully not mentioning Eurovision nor Eurofestival as it is known in Italy. It could be that RAI wants to keep all doors and windows open until the agreement with EBU is done. Propably meaning the Big5. Update: The world Eurofestival or Eurovision appears in the article in TV Sorrisi e canzoni, the leading Italian Tv guide: "The winner could participate in Eurovision" Ok, this mig...

The first Finnish X Factor has come to a second last live show tonight when one of the top 3 will be dropped. Unfortunately personally I think there haven't been much of the x factor in the show, and the very bad viewing figures seem to agree with me. However, Elias Hämäläinen (24), Leena Tirronen (25) and Samuli Taskinen (21) reached the top3. UPDATE : Leena is out. In Italy there have been already 3 seasons of X Factor. The first one was won by Aram Quartet . Giusy Ferreri came second and become a huge star selling over one million records since. Tony Maiello also took part and went on to win Sanremo 2010 newcomers category. The second season was won by Matteo Becucci but it also brought us Noemi who took part in Saremo 2010. The latest edition was won by Marco Mengoni , who came then 3rd in Sanremo 2010

Yet another ABBA cover to the joy of the fans: Italian X-Factor winners Aram Quartet's new single is Mamma mia!, a bonus track on their Xmas edition of the debut album ChiARAMente . It also includes the fantastic cover of Alice's Per Elisa as well as Anna Oxa classic Un'emozione da poco. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWiUPS-hlSE , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHp1K_Cp7cQ , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZqhZFHSMS4