Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

 Now as Spain has withdrawn from Eurovision song contest at least in 2026, let's have a look of some Spanish favorites of mine over the year. Starting with totally undeserved null pointer.  Enjoy! 1983 Remedios Amaya - Quien maneja mi barca (last, zero points) 1991 Sergio Dalma - Bailar pegados (4th) 1990 Aucar Moreno - Bandido (5th) 1985 Paloma San Basilio - La fiesta termino (14th) 1980 Trigo Limpio - Quedate esta noche (12th) 2004 Ramón - Para llenarme de ti (10th) 2003 Beth - Dime (8th) 2012 Pastora Soler - Quédate conmigo (10th) 2022 Chanel - SloMo (3rd) There would have been quite a few to pick up as well but these sounded the ones at this time and space.  Special mentions go to: 1995 Anabel Conde - Vuelve conmigo (2nd) 1982 Lucia - El (10th) 1997 Marcos Llunas - Sin rencor (6th) 1973 Mocedades - Eres tu (2nd) 2024 Nebulossa - La zorra (22nd)

  "Here we are back in Sweden. I know, don't blame me, I voted for Finland as well." That's how Petra Mede and Edward af Sillén the scriptwriter decided to open the 2024 Eurovision song contest in Malmö. Just gotta love them both. And yes, today's news is Käärijä will perform in tomorrow's second semi-final besides giving the Finnish jury's votes in Saturday's final.  Another fun moment was the Grindr joke. If there's something good in Sweden's Eurovision it's Petra and Edward. This is Petra's third time (Edward has quite a few more) as host of the show. First alone in 2013 after Loreen won and the contest was in Malmö, sounds familiar? Then she did 2016 in Stockholm with Måns Zelmerlöf and after solo, with a man she's now trying a woman, actress Malin Åkerman and it works beautifully. Petra keeps delivering those little jokes here  and there with stoned face and Malin plays the more serious role. The scandal 1 of the evening is Eri...

  Justice be done, Käärijä beats Loreen's Tattoo to second place with a clear margin in the annual fa voting #ESC250, the one and original one.  Cha cha cha scored 22.440 points against Tattoo's 19.446 and Loreen's previous #1 for 11 years Euphoria was almost beaten by last year's #1 SloMo, 17.986 vs. 17.913. Käärijä got 991 12s versus Loreen's 765. Käärijä has had an excellent year: more than 120 sold out gigs in Finland and an European tour. The most streamed song in Finnish ever with nearly 122 million streams on Spotify alone. Cha cha cha was also the most watched video on Eurovision.tv's Youtube channel beating again Loreen.  Cha cha cha topped the official Finnish charts for 9 weeks staying in Top-5 for 30 weeks, still at number 38 at its 48th week. In Radio play charts in was #1 for two weeks, staying in Top-5 for 16 weeks, 11 of them at #2 behind another UMK2023 act, Kuumaa's Ylivoimainen.  On Christmas Eve Yle broadcasted his summer gig in prime tim...

Spain became the first country to reveal their names for Eurovision 2023. The semi-finalist of Benidorm Fest 2023 are 18 this year, up two from last year's very successful first edition. Two semi-finals will feature nine entries each, four of them going to the final. There is a mixed voting system for each three shows: 50% professional juries, 25% demoscopic panel and 23% televote. Mónica Naranjo will host again with Inés Hernand. The semi-finals will air on January 31 and February 2 and the grand final on Fenruary 4.  Last year Chanel won over Tanxugueiras (70,75% televote!) thanks to expert jury but they clearly saw its potential better as SloMo finished 3rd in Turin only 7 points short of 2nd place, while France's entry , the most similar to Tanxugueiras one finished 24th.  Among the artists is 2018 Eurovision entrant Alfred Garcia , Blanca Paloma from the 2022 edition,  Famous who won Operacion Triunfo 2018 and already tried to get the ticket to Eurovision 2019. Tw...

The individual rehearsals come to end today when the Big5 have their second technical rehearsals for 20 minutes each. Tomorrow it's time for the Turquoise Carpet and Welcome Party following Euroviison Village opening today as well. Next week is all about Dress rehearsals and live broadcasts. Today in their post-rehearsal press conferences the Big5 will draw out which half of the final they will perform. As we know Italy is already drawn to number 9. France draw first half, UK second half. Spain got first half and Germany as well.  Just like with the semi-finalists is spare you from any further comments and let the videos provided by eurovision.tv speak to themselves. Have fun! Mystical Chills Victorius Bootyliscious Casual

The time has come: Also the Big 5 countries have arrived and have had their first rehearsals on stage in Turin.  France brings the beat with dance and folk, black and gold wardrobe, a podium on stage. Add pyros, flames, floor graphics and flashing lights and even a wink from Alvan in the end. More is more! I still don't the appeal of this song and by no means this is a winner. Italy next with Eurovision 2019 runner up Mahmood wearing something he surely won't be wearing come Saturday I think with sunglasses, too. He flew in from Madrid concert last night and apparently didn't get any sleep in between. so..... Blanco on the other hand is having a concert in Florence tonight and wasn't present but there was a stand in. No pyros as they would really be unnecessary but there's smoke. And very simple backdrop with some great white lightning. Italy is closer than any country for a long time to do a double, but maybe this is still a bit too special for a winder European te...

Here we go again! Once again Blogilkar's home jury has sat through the songs and videos and voted from 1 to 10. This year the jury consisted of pre-teens, 20somethings, 30somethngs, 40somethings and 50somethings. Even a dog participated and went nuts for Romania but was not allowed to vote. Most of the jury members had not heard any of the songs beforehand, some not even the Finnish one.And yes, this jury didn't care for betting odds, fan favorites or wanks but only their own taste and first impression! I will be counting down from bottom to the top and  here are places 17-20.  Check out also places 21-24 here .  17. GERMANY - MALIK HARRIS - ROCKSTARS (Average score 6,00) Eminem without Dido? Heard before, modern yet very 90's at the same time. Somehow likable. I don't mind hearing this again, and again. Quite ok, a bit too slow at times. Not really sure how this will work on stage if done the German national final style..... 18. SAN MARINO - ACHILLE LAURO - STRIPPER (A...

It ended the most Spanish way possible. A social media chaos. The fandom once again forgot the simple fact of the game: the rules are rules and everyone has accepted them beforehand, and your own favorite isn't everyone's favorite, especially in a year like this. Benidorm Fest 2022 could have easily been the showcase of Spain's last eight Eurovision entries as each entry was better than anything they have sent since Pastora Soler or so. Each and everyone would have been a solid entry. Fans also forget they have listened the songs ad nauseam whereas a regular viewer and voter sees them for the fist time on the Night. I see sees and not hears as by then it's the whole package that counts and Chanel did just that. Booty hypnotic in slomo for sure. No one cared for her before her semi-final performance but out of the blue she won it- Can you make a better first impression than that? I personally didn't like Rigoberta's performance at all, or Tanxugueiras either whil...

Sanremo is not only music and songs. It's also one of the biggest fashion shows in Italy. One can describe it five day long red carpet where all designers want to be. This year is no exception. We know that Carlo Conti will trust Salvatore Ferragamo once again with one new suit for every night. It has taken three months to make them.... Madalina Ghenea is this year's "model" and has 15 dresses ready for the five nights from Alberta Ferretti , who has privided five of them, then she wears Vionnet and Libanese Zuhair Murat . Virginia Raffaele has kept mysterious about her choices but she's wearing different designers every night. Gabriel Garko has chosen Gianni Battistoni and he will be wearing suits inspired every night by different legendary movie stars: Paul Newman, Marcello Mastoianni, Gary Crant, Marlon Brando and Sean Connery. Nicole Kidman is a star of such calibre she can keep Giorgio Armani and Chanel waiting whose dress she will eventually choose...

Now you can. Anni-Frid Lyngstad, aka ABBA-Frida will auction this September 11, 2012 some 70 dresses, accessories and shoes, most of them real designer stuff in Stockholm. Among the goodies the red mink fur she wore in the Chiquitita video. And also a Chanel dress she wore in 2004 when she performed with Deep Purple's John Lord in Cologne in 2004. "They are just dresses she has grown out of and thinks are too pretty to be left hanging in the closet" says her agent Görel Hanser. The fans are already getting excited especially in Germany and the UK and the prices are expected to go very high due the interest.