Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

While the rehearsals for the grand final are going on in Vienna let's have a look at those ten who didn't make it to the end. In my personal order of preference. Latvia being the one I am most sad about.... Portugal ended its run of five consecutive finals Azerbaijan NQ'ed for the 4th in a row Switzerland NQ'ed after a win and a null points from the televote the year after. Georgia NQ's for the second year in a row Overall they have qualified only once in the past 10 years! Armenia NQ'd for the first time in 5 years San Marino NQ'ed for the 4th in 5 years Senhit NQ'd for the 2nd time Estonia NQ'd for the first time in 5 years and after last year's 3rd place Montenegro has qualifed only twice before: 2014 and 2015 Luxemburg NQ'd for the first time. Both ever and after its comeback in 2024.  Whichever way you want to count it. 

  First impressions and comments based on these short clips: Bulgaria ... what can I say? I can't stand the song and the staging, the bit we got to see, isn't anything special either. If I can choose this is a NQ. Azerbaijan has more Azeri in it? Not sure as I haven't listened it so much even if I think it's an ok song. I get more irritated by many others than this one, I kinda enjoy it. And more Azeri the better. Most likely NQ but I'd love to see it Q over Bulgaria or Cyprus or something just to see the chaos. :-) Romania has an idea, energy and potential to do well unless the angry aggressive woman syndrome hits again. Then this could even NQ. Or do nothing in the final. Or do Top-10. Hard to say. Luxemburg is just what it is. Not one of my favorites. NQ for me but most likely this will Q anyways.  Czechia uses long, loooong notes and mirrors. But is it still a bit dull? I certainly lose my attention somewhere half way of those long lines.... He's good tho...

Here it is, already traditional Blogilkar's Eurovision Home Jury results. This year we had a total of nine people in the jury from teenagers to 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, most every one just people who do watch Eurovision but aren't any fanatic fans, just tv viewers who don't remember who won two years ago or sometimes even last year, don't have a clue about the polls and odds but just score the songs to their liking. We used 1 to 10 scores. Tie breaks were settled by highest marks and if still a tie by my preference. Here we go! 24. CYPRUS - ANTIGONI - JALLA    44 25. ROMANIA - ALEXANDRA CAPITANESCU - CHOKE ME    44 26. AZERBAIJAN - JIVA - JUST GO    39 27. ARMENIA - SIMÓN - PALOMA RUMBA    38

  I wasn't planning on doing personal reviews this year either but here we go after all. Truth to be said I have listened the entries 0-2 times before sitting down now to comment them. Let's go! The usual Blogilkar's home jury will reunite later and the results revealed in due time. meanwhile, my thoughts and comments on the entries of Eurovision song contest series is right here.  Armenia - Simón - Paloma rumba ** Oh dear what is this? is this good or bad? Is this chaos? Yes it is. Remembering his last year's performance in the national final I'm a bit afraid. Very noisy. And did I say chaotic? For now I have this as NQ but I have no idea..... Azerbaijan - Jiva - Just go ** When this came out I was phew, finally a ballad among all these noisy acts. First hearing I kinda enjoyed this, maybe the mood was right. The second time little less. Now I don't know. She can sing but the whole production comes across very amateurish, almost demo like. For now I have this a...

  The names and entries  keep dropping today and it's time to Azerbaijan to reveal their artist: Jiva Jiva or Jamina Hashimova has two decades of career behind her. After various talent contests in the early 2000's she won last year The Voice of Azerbaijan. In between various projects like Hazz band combining jazz and pop she launched her solo career in 2017 singing all genres of music.  Her entry Just go was published March 9, 2026 and yes, we finally have a proper ballad! Did they wait on purpose perhaps? Enjoy below her other songs:

As every year some EuroviSIon entries have their remixes out, dance or other versions and 2025 is no exception. One of those really blew me away: Germany. I haven't been a big fan of Baller but this remix hit me in the right mood - love the old school piano! Wow what an improvement! If this was the Eurovision version Germany would be high on my scoreboard! Finland's Erika offers a ROOS+BERG Club mix that is fine, somehow I wish it had more of the original song in it being more sing-a-longable.  Estonia's Tommy Cash offers not one two remixes already. The second one just was released featuring extra rapping by Italian heavyweight (and Sanremo 2025 participant) Roman rapper Tony Effe. Here .  Azerbaijan's Mamagama delivers Deep House version of their entry and actually I just love it, it might be even better than the actual entry. Such a lovely groove and vibes. Luxemburg's puppet gets electrified in its remix Poupée èletrique but I very much prefer the original silly...

It's the time again: Blogilkar's home jury of Eurovision fans, non-fans and common viewers from teenagers to nearly 60 years old have watched and listened giving points from 1 to 10 plus a special 12 points to be awarded to the one favorite. In case of a tie the ranking was done by highest points received by any juror(s). And yes, the result is somewhat surprising here and there. Last year our winner was NQ Czechia but the winner Switzerland was 2nd and runner up Croatia 3rd.  Slovenia might be a surprise here for fandom but mostly it was well liked among us - except the angsty teenagers. Czechia somewhat underperformed in points vs. comments. 14. SLOVENIA  58 Slovenia scored one 2 and one 3 but the rest was between 6 and 9 15. CZECHIA  58 Czechia scored a solid string from 5 to 9 with one odd 3 16. GREECE  57 Greece got a couple of 9s and the rest between 5 and 8 with one off 2. 17. AZERBAIJAN  56 Very variable between 3 and 9 Check out places 18. to 21. here

It's time to kick of the usual reviews. The opinions are all mine and if I don't like some song it's simply just not my cup of tea so to speak. If I like something you dislike or hate, it's fine, too. No stresso, no need to be depresso it's just music and tastes that are diverse and therefor beautiful! I also try to predict their success come May a little bit, but as we know once the staging is out everything may change, remember Fuego and Rise like a phoenix for example? For this series I have grouped the songs in fours as usual as the songs may have similarities or something in common. Some fours came out beautifully, the others.... well not so well. But here we go! ALBANIA - Shkodra Eletronike - Zjerm One of the big fan favorites. Original, well performed, great arrangement, intriguing stage presence. Could it be Albania's big year? Or will it be the shock non qualifier? I wasn't hooked up the first time I heard it nor the second and that might be it'...

Azerbaijan has announced today that Mamagama has been internally chosen for the 2025 Eurovision song contest in Basel. The trio of Asaf (vocals), Huss (guitar) and Arif (drums) is known for their unique fusion of rock and pop flavored with  traditional Azeri sounds. Formed in 2021 they made themselves internationally known in 2022 Kenga Magjlke festival in Albania. The band was chosen among the 154 submissions received. Twelve of them were invited for auditions before an Azerbaijani and international jury. Their entry will be revealed "soon". Update 19.2.2025: Their entry Run with U was released. They have released five sngles on Spotify so far since 2022. Below are some of their previous performances and song. Just somehow the photo of them as three men in grey polyester suits don't quite match the idea you get when only listening to them and his peculiar voice.....

Another year, another Home Jury. And mind you, never ever before the results have been so surprising and I must honestly admit so not in line with my own likes and dislikes but what can I do, they have spoken. We voted with scores from 1 to 10 and this year also the scores are all time low and without a runaway winner. Ties were broken by highest individual scores. This year our unprofessional, mildly interested, regular Eurovision viewers included people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Both sexes, various locations in Finland added with our exotic Peruvian member to spice things up a little. I will count down the whole ranking in coming days from bottom to the top so please do follow up and comment if you like. Let's go! Here are places 26-31. Luxemburg is our lowest grand final qualifier, the other are out for us.  26. LUXEMBURG  4,50 27. LATVIA  4,34 28. CYRPUS  4,25 29. NORWAY  4,13 30. AZERBAIJAN 4,00 31. PORTUGAL  3,75

Azerbaijan had a long internal semi-open selection going on and when apparently only two names were left according rumors İTV announced Fahree, a name outside those rumored two (but one of the final six). And a few days alter Ilkin Dovlatov was added as featuring. Özünlə apar was released March 15, 2024 as the last entry for the Eurovision song contest 2024. The song brings Azeri language back to contest and for the second year in a row  (and only third time in general) the song is by Azeri songwriters instead of a song bought from Sweden or somewhere else. Hooray for that! Fahree or Fakhri Ismayilov (28) is Azerbaijani singer-songwriter coming from an artistic family. His dad is a famous jazz drummer and his grandfather an actor. He has both Bachelor's and Master's degree in law buit during Covid-19 pandemic he realized music is what he wants to do in life. His first single Dance came out in 2022, and he has another one in 2023, and also a duet with Mila Miles in 2022....

Here comes the photo story from the Eurovision song contest 2023 Turquoise carpet from sunny Liverpool! I must say this was the best carpet event ever in sense of presenting the artists well and each getting their moment to shine. In previous years they have nearly missed some while showing the crowds and already passed artists taking selfies with fans and giving interviews. That was now kept in minimum and the focus was nearly 100% on only those artists entering the carpet. Well done BBC! ITALY AZERBAIJAN CZECHIA DENMARK GERMANY

The rehearsals started on stage in Liverpool arena for the Eurovision song contest 2023 yesterday and today we continue with the rest of the first semi-final, including Finland, and some first acts from the second semi-final.. As Ebu once again is using TikTok for the short tiny rehearsal clips I'm not going to care much of them. But here is a collection of photos and impressions and observations by your truly of the closed doors happenings. Mind you, I'm all in favor for this closed door policy: the delegations must have a little bit privacy and peace and quiet to polish their acts before they are given to the sharks aka fandom eager to criticize every tiny detail. And also I kinda like the idea we are given as little as possible to watch before the shows so there will be surprises and wow effect - if you have seen it all beforehand where's the fun? The first rehearsal is 30 minutes for each meaning 3-4 run through. After that the delegation gathers to a viewing room and c...

Here it is! The incorruptible, infallible and most reliable Blogilkar's Home Jury made of people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's, mainly Finnish and mainly those who turn into Eurovision only on that one Saturday night, enjoy the show and that's it. Most everyone heard the songs for the first time so this was a true first impression judgement. And thus they had no idea about the fan polls, betting odds and trivial information and expectations. And boy did they turn those pools and odds around mostly, sinking some major favorites and enjoying some real underdogs. I will countdown the full ranking day by day until we have our winner out just before Liverpool is in full swing. This year I publish very few comments or opinions. Just the average score (we voted 1 to 10). In short this year is considered a bit poor by the jurors compared to for example last year and it may show in the somewhat low scores. Anyways: Enjoy! 3. AZERBAIJAN - Turalturanx - Tell me...

The last missing piece of the Class of '23 for Eurovision song contest is out: Azerbaijan has confirmed 22-year-old twins and street musicians Turan and Bağmanov from Zaqatala under name TuralturanX for Eurovision. They have written their entry Tell me more themselves, a welcome change from Azeris usually shopping songs from Sweden and elsewhere, and in fact its the first Azeri made song since their debut in 2008! Well done! They were chosen among the five short listed artists internally. The other ones were Azer Nazibov, Humay Aslanova & Amrah Musayev, leila Izzatova and Mamagama.  The song will be revealed later. 

Today the semi-finalists had their second technical 20 minutes rehearsal. The remaining semi-final one Iceland, Norway and Armenia along with the semi-final two ones from Finland to San Marino. Without further ado enjoy the videos: Enchanting Yumyumyum White Balloons Diva-like Healthy Fading Locked Anthemic Unjudgemental

Today another set of semi-finalist had their very first 30 minutes technical rehearsal on stage: Finland, Israel, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Malta, San Marino, Australia and Cyprus. The useless drama with the kinetic sun on stage continues when the cancer of fandom attacks designer Francesca Montinaro's and her atelier's social media accounts, and the Italian organisation in general. I have no words. In the fact is if no one said anything about it most likely no one, but the direct delegations, noted anything as how can you judge something you haven't seen? Does it make any difference? No.  Finland is yellow and black as expected and The Rasmus look like human bees among big black balloons and energetic rock'n roll performance. Add smoke and pyros and the whole of Finland is praying also for strong vocals from Lauri when due. Judging the Tiktok hiring a backing singer might have been a clever move.... Hope he won't catch cold running all around sweaty and half nak...