Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

As Mahmood has been announced as one of the co-hosts for the Sanremo 2025 fourth night this is as good as any excuse to have a some Friday night nostalgia and a closer look to his Sanremo participation history that is quite remarkable indeed. 2016 Placed 4th in Newcomer's with Dimentica  (behind certain Francesco Gabbani and Ermal Meta) 2018 Winner of Sanremo Giovani with Gioventú bruciata (won Critic's award) 2019 Winner of Sanremo with Soldi  (won awards for best performance and was voted the best by other artists) 2020 Author for Elodie's Andromeda (7th) 2021 Guest appearance           Author for Francesca Michielin & Fedez's Chiamami per nome (2nd)          Author for Noemi's Glicine (14th) 2022 Winner of Sanremo with Brividi together with Blanco          Author for Noemi's Ti amo non lo so dire (15th) 2023 Guest appearance 2024 Placed 6th with Tuta gold but had the biggest hit of the fe...

I can't quite believe yet that Saturday night two of my favorite singers are both on Liverpool Eurovision stage: Marco Mengoni in competition and Mahmood performing in the interval act Liverpool songbook with several other Eurovision stars. He has just announced also an European tour for 2024 and is writing songs for his new album and says this time he's taking his time until he's totally satisfied with them. For those who don't know he's also a succesful songwriter for other artists including Mengoni ( Hola ), Elodie, Michele Bravi & Gué Pequeno ( Nero Bali ), Francesca Michielin ( Cheyenne and Chiamami per nome ), Noemi ( Glicine ), Giorgia ( Normale ). Elodie ( Andromeda ) and many many more. And of course we remember him from two Sanremo wins and two Eurovisions:

Un briciolo di allegria, or A bit of joy, is Blanco's new release hoping to continue the success he had with his debut album, Sanremo and Eurovision song contest 2022 he did with Mahmood until things turned sour this year in Sanremo.  But let's go in order. In 2021 Blanco released his debut album Blue celeste at the age of 18. It sold six times platinum. The singles of it sold additional 24 platinum worth. On top of that he was featured or released additional songs that sold 23 platinum discs worth including four #1's and a total of 15 Top-10 hits.  This week he has released his new album Innamorato hoping to repeat the success. But, a big BUT, he kinda angered most of Italy when premiering his first single Isole delle rose off the new album. Due technical problems (his words) he kinda lost it (all planned according him)  on stage in Teatro Ariston and destroyed the whole flower ornament decoration while audience booed and whistled. All that became apocalyptic dimension...

Ram pam pam, performed by BESS in UMK 2022, the Finnish national selection for Eurovision - placing third - has made history becoming the longest running #1 in the official Finnish radio charts, or being the most played song in the Finnish radios for 19 consecutive weeks already! It has reached according statistic 110 million listeners from April to August in a country of 5,5 million.  In the official singles chart Ram pam pam topped the charts for 10 consecutive weeks being the biggest hit along with Italy's Brividi of all national final songs this season in any country. It dropped out of Top-20 only last week after 34 weeks.  The previous record holder was Epäröimättä hetkeekään by Elastinen and Jenni Vartiainen. 

Sanremo 2021 was a record breaking success, but Sanremo 2022 has by far outdone that already as the competing songs have sold over 2,200.000 million copies already and gained 24 platinum discs and seven gold discs. So far.  One can only wonder - and then look with amazed - how Amadeus is going to make it ever bigger and better in 2023. The first rumours are already running wild of the possible "certain" guests (Britney Spears and/or Lady Gaga, Fedez) and competitors (Al Bano, Tananai, Rocco Hunt) as well as guest hosts (Chiara Ferragni, Gianni Morandi) and most of all, whho knows the comeback of Paola & Chiara? Meanwhile let's enjoy again these hit songs! Sold over 500.000 (5xplatinum) Mahmood & Blanco - Brividi (Winner) Sold over 300.000 (3xplatinum) Sangiovanni - Farfalle  (5th) Dargen D'Amico - Dove si balla  (9th) La rappresentante di lista - Ciao ciao  (7th) Sold over 200.000 (2xplatinum) Irama - Ovunque sarai  (4th) Rkomi - Insuperabile  (17t...

Eurovision veteran Mahmood with Blanco will be flying the Italian flag at home soil in Turin 2022 Eurovision song contest after taking a very convincing win at Sanremo festival 2022. It feels incredible it was only three years ago Mahmood won by surprise and caused quite a racistic stir in social medias and beyong, while his Soldi became a huge success all over Europe and not only and eventually finished second in Tel Aviv not so many points behind the winner Duncan Laurence. This time he or they won thanks to the public vote clear and pure unlike in 2019 when the haters blamed the media jury of dirty game pushing him up there. If Mahmood has provided us already years with facial memes now Blanco will provide us even more, and not only facial memes from now on. As many have noted Mahmood has to babysit his crazy friend all the way to Turin and maybe beyond. These guys are fun! Let's see in detail. The first night they won by the web jury and radio jury, while the printed media had ...

Sanremo's incredible success continues even without Fiorello as it hits the highest second night score since 2005 with 55,8% or 11,3 million viewers, all time high with a peak of 16,2 million and it's also the first time the second night beats the first night! The figures include 72% among those of 15-24 year old so they will surely mess up the ranking with televoting. Tonight enter the demoscopic jury (50%) and televote (50%) and be ready for the ranking to have a major changes by some artists for sure. The young people are up and watching this year more than ever! RaiPlay had more than one million viewers (up 50% from last year but then again they lifted the geoblock this year), on demand grew 60% and with over 6 million interactions on social media last night was the most commented second night ever. Another interesting piece of news is Brividi has almost 3,3 million streams in Italy along that pushes it to Spotify's Global Top-5! That clearly means it is already #1 hit...