Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  I discovered Cher thanks to her 80's comeback hits penned by Diane Warren, and have followed her ever since as an artist and as an actress discovering also her back catalogue with jewels like Dark lady and Gypsies, tramps and thieves . Later the world (and I) went crazy for stuff like Believe .... and her latest incarnation goes all ABBA..... The first two songs below however stay as firm favorites.  Check out also

  Laura Branigan had her biggest hits with covers of Raf's ( Self control ) and Umberto Tozzi's ( Gloria , Ti amo ) songs and she also recorded songs made hits by someone else later ( I found someone by Cher for example) but her own repertoire is respectable as well. I found her thanks to Self control of course, and then followed and searched back her previous career and was a fan until the end. When I heard the news of her death in a car radio I was maybe a bit more shaken as I should have been....  she's still missed.  Check out also

"Singing Fernando for the movie Mamma mia! Here we go again was such fun I decided to record a whole album of ABBA songs" told Cher earlier this year. And here it is. Match made in glitter heaven. And among the coutless ABBA classics Cher does also Eurovision song contest winner Waterloo ... and some less covered tunes like One of us and The name of the game . The arrangements are pretty true to the originals without trying to update and alter them too much. But it's a Cher album so get ready for some heavy auto-tune effects. And hooray for that!

Eurovision 2014 winner Conchita Wurst from Austria performed also in the EurcoClub in Vega during the Eurovision weeks several times singing her entry Rise like a Phoenix , That's what I am , Believe and even My heart will go on . Here are some photos by yours truly.

While Conchita Wurst tells he's getting dead threats and hate mail, is condamned by some Russian and even Finnish politician (sigh) she's also getting congratulations and praise from world stars like Cher, Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams, Jean Paul Gaultier and Boy George among others, and she received flowers from Elton John with congratulations. Meanwhile Rise like a Phoenix is charting iTunes in over 50 countries from Kyrgyzstan to Mauritius, from Australia to Colombia, New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico. And from Canada to USA, Taiwan and Indonesia. Love conquers hate in the end. "Congratulations, we love you. Elton & David" "With unstoppable love, Jean Paul Gaultier"

Out of nowhere comes Spicy Geri Halliwell 's comeback with Half of me . Would BBC have a half of sense to consider her for Eurovision 2014? Isn't she after all taylor made for it? Hungarian hipster ByeAlex is back with Csóró itt minden han , another brilliant song that won't maybe open up with the first hearing but has some haunting qualities.... French Guéna LG features one of my favorite Danish voices, Bryan Rice in Stay awake . Quite fantastic club anthem with a nice retro vibe and of course, Bryan's vocals. Me likes! Cher is back with a new album and apparently it's filled with uptempo disco numbers but then there's also I hope you find it . A tender ballad, showcasing once again what a great singer she is. I wish she did this kind of stuff more, like the good old days of Dark Lady ....

It's been confirmed! The british media is going wild with the rumor it's Bonnie Tyler (61) representing UK in this year's Eurovision in Malmö. Born as Gaynor Hopkins and owing her youthful looks to biannual Botox injections, as she credits herself, she scored her first world hit with It's a heartache in 1977. Songs like Total eclipse of the heart and Holding out for a hero are her biggest hits from her Jim Steinman produced albums in the early 1980's that are among this bloggers favorites. The entry is apparently called Believe in me and written by American Desmond Child who needs no presentation.... Bonnie + Desmond promises very good things... it's almost like getting Cher to do Eurovision! Ravishing ! Update : Just to prove she is still somebody somewhere, the news about her were online in Finnish media within an hour after BBC. The only other Eurovision 2013 related news to get any interest has been Tony Iommi's link to the Armenian song........

One of the biggest Italian artists internationally, if not the biggest, Eros Ramazzotti returns with a new album Noi (We) ,  his 12th studio album since his debut in 1985 with Cuori agitati . Ten of his albums have made it to #1 in Italy (including compilations) and additional three have reached #2. His albums have sold over 40 million so far so this is no minor event in this falls's music business. Further this is his first release for Universal.  Judging the first single Un angelo disteso al sole  (or the Spanish version Un àngel como el sol tù eres ) one can expect a solid Ramazzotti style songs on this one, too. The album includes 14 new songs and several interesting duets. Pyssycat Dolls' Nicole Sherzinger duets in Fino all'estati , actor Giancarlo Giannini visits Io sono te , rappers Club Dogo are featured in Testa o cuore , Il Volo duets in Cosi and finally Hooverphonics are featured in the closing track Solamente uno .  Eros has dueted many times...

Laura Branigan passed away six years ago today at the age of 47. Her biggest hit in the US was a cover of Umberto Tozzi's Gloria , but in Europe a cover of Raf's Self control . She further recorded Tozzi's Ti amo, and even participated in Sanremo 1991 with Fiordaliso doing Il mare piú grande che c'é / Don't walk away . Her recording career started in 1979 but the first album came out only in 1982 and the Grammy nominations started right on with Gloria . She also scored the first hit for writers Diane Warren with Solitaire and Michael Bolton with How am I supposed to live without you. The Lucky one followed winning the Tokyo Music Festival and she also scored a hit with Carole King cover Will you still love me tomorrow , a nice change from her uptempo songs. She also did I found someone , later a comeback hit for Cher, on the other hand she covered Jennifer Rush's The power of love and made it a hit again. And she recorded Celine Dion's Unison before it...

Lena Meyer-Landrut has scored some more credits to her CV. She's been topping both the single and album charts at the same time and the single Satellite has gone double platinum with sales over 600.000 copies. Only Lady Gaga's Pokerface and Cher's Believe have sold more in the recent years. (Even if it took Cher six years from 1998 to 2004 to sell than many!). The latest German artist to sell that is the first Idol winner Alexander Klaws with Take me tonight in 2003. Satellite is also topping the European Top-100 and did so in various iTunes charts all over Europe right after her victory in Oslo 2010. Jennifer Braun's Satellite charted at #32 in Germany and at the moment the football version by Uwu Lena is being released after it hit big in the net. Meanwhile the album My cassette player has sold already over 500.000 copies in Germany alone. She's soon goin on tour and will star in a film Sammys abenteur to be released next spring.

Another divas to sing with Eros include Cher in Piú che puoi and Anastacia in I belong to you . One of my favourite tracks is uptempo L'ombra del gigante . He should do more these popsongs instead of ballads, I think!