Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The preparations for the 2017 Eurovision song contest in Ukraine seem to be facing some major problems to start with. First NTU wanted to change the previsional dates a week earlier, because May 18 is the Day of Remembrance for the victims of Crimean Tatar genocide, but the dates proposed don't go well with EBU as they are clashing with some major sports events, namely the Champions League semifinal matches. EBU doesn't want to lose viewers, which is very much understandable. This blogger remembers with horror when back in the day the Eurovision final and the World Championship final in Ice Hockey used to clash and with the household of one TV only there was always such a fight over it with ice hockey crazed brother and father.... Never again! But it's not only the dates that are causing some head scraching in Ukraine, as apparently they don't have a suitable venue that would fill all the requirements by EBU either, as stated by the Minister of Culture Yevhen Nys...

Kaliopi, the finest voice the Balcan's have to offer if you ask me, has released a new single today, Jutro . It's already a thrid offering this year following Mojot dom  and  Poželi . Especially  Poželi promised great things for her new album and Jutro follow on that path. That's an album to buy for sure. And she's one artist I would welcome back to Eurovision any year! Enjoy! 

Now this is something interesting! A whole bar serving Italian tapas (whatever they may be), drinks and food dedicated to Nina Zilli's L'amore è femmina , the Italian entry in Eurovison 2012 in Baku. A shot of her graces the center wall of the bar, but it's dedicated to more "female love" than only La Zilli, the walls are covered also by other female Italian singers from Mina to Arisa, from Noemi to Gigliola Cinquetti and Mia Martini. On top of that there are frases from her song written all over, such as the unforgettable "ma che caldo fa....". Next time in Madrid, a must! L'amore è femmina is on Calle San Bernardo 86 and open for lunch from 12.30 to 16.30 and in the evening from 19.30 to midnight during the week, and until 2.30 on Friday and Saturday. Check more details here . Buon appetito!

Emin, who performed Never enoug h in the Eurovision 2012 final's interval act may have not gotten the boost he hoped for in the western Europe for his music. Most of the fans just dismissed him the second they heard he's the president's son-in-law and his dad's a multimillionaire. So what? (Hint: Alsou, anyone?) These facts put aside, Emin sings better than many of those in the charts today and he's easy on the eye, too, besides releasing good enough songs regularly. Should we give him another chance? Currently he has released   Сердце Бьется for the Russian market. The songs was originally released as Heart keeps beating  His latest single off his already sixth studio album After the thunde r is   Walk through walls . Here's the acoustic version. Another goodie is Baby get higher . Get to know Emin and his latest album here . And here's the somewhat troubled  Baku 2012 performance. 

EBU has counted and recounted the votes and can now reveal the separate scores by the juries and the televoters. If it was the juries only like the good old days Sweden would still have won followed by Serbia, Albania, Italy and Spain while the Russian grannies would have been only 11th! (Why am I not surprised?) The first semifinal was won by Albania followed by Moldova, Greece, Cyprus and Romania - only Albania did top-10 in the final.  In the second semifinal Sweden won followed by Serbia, Ukraine, Estonia and Malta - and three of them made the top-10.  The biggest differences between the jury vs televote we have with Turkey (22/4), Ireland (25/10), Italy (4/17), Spain (5/18), Romania (20/7), Ukraine (7/20), France (13/26), Russia (11/2), Greece (18/9), and Malta (16/25). So, in short the juries favored Italy, Spain, France and a bit strangely Ukraine and Malta that I didn't quite expect from them. The televoters went for Russia and Ireland fo...

It has been another success for the Eurovision song contest and EBU. The 2012 edition from Baku was watched by a total of 102,9 million viewers, or 64 million for the grand final and 19,4 and 19,6 million for the semifinals and 37% of share - a much higher for these public broadcasters than on a normal Saturday. In comparison the 2011 final was watched by 70 million, the 2010 by 69 million, the 2009 by 73 million and the 2008 by 64 million, the same as this year. Still long gone are the days when most countries had only 1-2 channels and Eurovision was watched by up to 300 million people..... :-) A bit like the charts with 7"s and iTunes... One just can't compare them!

Blogilkar had the pleasure to interview the Italian Head of delegation Nicola Caligiore. How did he live those two last editions in Baku and Dusseldorf? Will Italy be back in 2013? Will there be an Eurovision night in Sanremo? What are his favorite Eurovision songs? What does he think of Italian fans behavior? Here is the interview in Italian, the English version will follow shortly. L'anno scorso l'Italia é tornata con diciamo euforia generale, accolta a braccia aperte da tutti a Dusseldorf. Come vi hanno accolto quest'anno? Siamo stati accolti benissimo, per me oramai tutto il management dell'evento e gli altri capi delegazione sono come una grande famiglia. Nel 2011 l'Italia non era tra i favoriti ed é finita seconda. Quest'anno invece la Zilli era tra i superfavoriti e finita nona. Come mai? Non so dirti con esattezza, è un concorso… si può vincere, si può perdere… fa parte delle regole del gioco, d’altronde arrivare noni su quaranta...

For this Sunday Blogilkar offers this absolutely fantastic cover of Nina Zilli's L'amore é femmina (Out of love) by David0 from Rome! Great stuff! And he has about a zillion other covers to pass your lazy Sunday with.... here . And you can like him here . 

Spanish Eurovision fan and photographer Alberto Ponferrada Rodriguez has made this wonderful clip of images  in Baku 2012. Beautiful images to remind us all how it was in Crystal Hall. Here . 

Nina Zilli takes on her very succesful L'amore è femmina tour part 2 tonight in Note d'Autore Jazz festival in Piossasco. The tour continues until September and further gigs may be added during this summer.  June 3 PIOSSASCO (TO)- NOTE D’AUTORE JAZZ FESTIVAL 9 LEVICO (TN) – PALALEVICO 22 NOVA GORICA (SLO) – CASINO’ LA PERLA 28 SENIGALLIA (AN)- CATER RADUNO 30 UDINE- UDIN&JAZZ July 7 RICCIONE -NOTTE ROSA 12 GENOVA- ARENA DEL MARE 13 AREZZO – AREZZO WAVE 16 ROMA- ROCK IN ROMA 28 UMBERTIDE (PG)- ROCKIN’ UMBRIA August 4 LOANO (SV) -GIARDINI DEL PRINCIPE 9 CASSINO (FR) – GLI ARCHI VILLAGE 11 LOCOROTONDO (BA)- LOCUS FESTIVAL 12 CANNOLE (LE) -FESTIVAL GUSTO DOPA AL SOLE 24 BARD (AO)- FORTE DI BARD Settember 1 MOLFETTA- ANFITEATRO DI PONENTE 7 VERONA -FESTIV’ AL FEMMINILE 15 MARINA DI VARAZZE (SV) – PORTO  

One week after, what do we have left from Baku 2012? Are you going zaleilah la la la or la la love? Got over Rona's agony? Kaliopi's scream? Pastora's long note? Loreen's euphoria? Boom booms of Russia and Italy? Gaitana's shouts? Are you euro sceptic, an alphabetic? Or are you still going oh oh, uh oh oh? Still counting love yous in various languages à la Sofi? Getting over Franka's head piece? Is this the night? Is love blind? Will it set you free? Are you woking mit deim Popo? Standing still in waterline?  Many questions unanswered until the summer is over. What will stay in your ears? And what sights you can't get over... Was it Ott's trousers that set the chat rooms and Twitter on fire or the French dancers... or something else? Feel free to comment!

Loreen did it again, She climbs back to #1 after 11 weeks in top-7 already. The song debuted at #1 and then has climbed back to #2 already three times and now again at #1. Finns do like Euphoria ! (Heli Kajo's debut album enters the album chart at #4 but more about that later....)

Nina Zilli is back in Italy where many expected a victory but she came home with a respectful 9th place, or "nono posto" and it's that what she has now taken as her new nickname, Nona Zilli, 9th Zilli. "I knew I was considered a candidate for the victory but it didn't come. But it's ok, I'm happy anyways. I managed to make my music known in many, many countries and everything went well, that's all that matters. I have played basket ball for many years and I know how to take defeat. You win and you lose. You just have to level with it and go on."   She also tells she prefered in Baku the old town to the new town but unfortunately she had to spend more time in the new one. "From my hotel room I saw the Flame towers and a boutique with all the luxury labels but just around the corner was the old city, alleys from the 6th century, echoes of the minarets, people who love Italy and like in Italy, those you have little are easier to share the ...

Every year we talk endlessly about the blocks, neighbors voting for each and such. The guys over at 12points.tv have done an interesting count how it would have gone without that in 2012. And guess what, it doesn't change much! Have a look here . And have you wondered about Azerbaijan's success the past few years? Have you noticed they are voted by neighbors and small European countries mainly...? 12points.tv investigates also that here .  Are you suffering from P.E.D.? They also give useful tips how to cope with that here . 

Dutch nu.nl reports :   Azerbaijan claims to have terrorist attacks occur during the Eurovision Song Contest.  The Ministry of Security in the country said on Wednesday 40 members of a group of suspected conspirators have been arrested. The Contest took place last week.  The terrorist group was planning attacks on the Crystal Hall where the contest was held, the Azerbaijani President Ilham Alijev, police buildings, hotels, mosques and other religious places. They were in possession of tickets for the contest, let the Ministry know. The security forces seized the members of the group during operations in Baku, Ganja, Sumgayit and other regions of the country. One of the conspirators was slain.  A spokeswoman for the TROS, the Dutch delegation sent to the contest, said nothing of an impending attack to have noticed.  

If Arlanda's airport was packed when waiting for Loreen's return ( here ), no one noticed that at the same time also Finland's Pernilla arrived to Helsinki airport. Not a single fan was expecting her and only one media was there to welcome her home. Truth to be said her flight was some five hours late. How come most everyone I hear have sent hours and hours in Istanbul airport both going to Baku and coming back...? Pernilla told she was very tired but had a great time in Baku. After Tuesday's semifinal where she placed 12th and also got 12 points from Hungary, she stayed in Baku and followed the rehearsals and other shows. After all she's a true Eurovision fan!

The Eurovision 2012 is over and most everyone has left the city and Azerbaijan, the winner Loreen has just arrived home, Nina Zilli just tweeted she had a long sleep and woke up at 8pm, Tooji's back home, too.... But did you know it didn't go all so well for a Norwegian delegation, when one of them ended beaten up, threatened, and amused causing Norway almost to pull out from the contest.  Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) almost pulled Tooji out of the competition before it even started on Saturday, to protest the treatment that an NRK team received upon departure from Baku. NRK reported that they were detained at the airport, threatened and abused by Azerbaijani police, apparently because the Azerbaijani authorities were provoked by the content of material broadcast by the team, which included a Norwegian-Iranian comedian who works for NRK’s channel P3.“But we chose to go ahead (with Tooji’s performance),” said NRK’s program director, Per Arne Kalbakk. “Pulling Tooji...

Loreen landed in Arlanda airport tonight around 22.25 and one hour later she met the press and a few hundred fans waiting for her. While waiting the fans kept singing her Euphoria . The homecoming was webcasted live by both Aftonbladet and Expressen! Tomorrow the big party in Hötorget in Stockholm. That will be broadcasted live on TV2 (19.00-19.30 CET). Move out Carola and Charlotte, Sweden's got a new schlager queen!

Loreen's winning entry Euphoria is #1 all over iTunes and one would think it's a perfect time to release an album but no, it will only come in September 5, 2012. She will release a new single late July-August, then the album. He record company is telling they really want to do things well and prove Loreen is more than one song and will make a world star. She won't lack songs as it seems everyone wants to write for her and be on her debut album in Sweden and beyond. Prior Euphoria Loreen has only three singles to her credit; The snake in 2005 after Idol, and My heart is refusing me from Melodifestivalen 2011 that was produced by Måns Zelmerlöv who actually started a record company just to be able to sign her! Last year she also released Sober . Here's some more of her.