Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

An era ended in Hungary last night and hopefully that was a first of many changes to come in also some other parts of the world ! I don't get to politics usually but this one links to Eurovision as well as the new elected prime minister has stated in some interview that he wants to connect Hungary to Europe again in every way including the Eurovision song contest, that he didn't agree with the non participation, so... Welcome back Hungary in 2027? All these years Hungary have been missing from Eurovision they have still continued with their national competition  since 2012 A Dal that provided the entry for Eurovision as well. Below you can hear the entries we missed. However it's worth remembering the line up and therefor also the winner might have been different if there was the ticket to Eurovision in store for the winner. This said, I would have been quite ok with most every entry that won A Dal in between. Maybe not all so Eurovision friendly but then again the songs do...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try. First time since 1957 the reigning champion returned the year after to defend the title. That's what German winner Lena Meyer-Landrut (31) did after 2010. And she was internally chosen, too, and had her own national final as well. How cool. The newcomer who won with Satellite with a landslide had become the hottest thing on German soil after winning, breaking records, hitting number one in both albums and singles so her second participation just continued the trend. She ...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try. Alexander Rybak (36) came back in 2018 and so insignificant his comeback was that I had already completely forgotten about it! This said, he scored one of the biggest and most memorable wins in modern times with his Fairytale in 2009. Just like he had done in the Norwegian final. After winning he kept busy performing, releasing songs, collaborating with other (Eurovision) artists in various countries, even wrote a few songs to various national finals. He was working in Norwa...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try. Charlotte Perrelli (48), ex Nilsson went solo in Melodifestivalen 1999 after having sung with several dancebands since she was 13. Her heavily ABBA inspired schlager banger Tusen och en natt won and went on winning in Jerusalem as well 17 points ahead of Iceland's Selma, the hot pre-contest favorite whose song was very up-to-date instead. Nostalgia won and Sweden took its 4th win. She gained great success at home and some abroad touring Europe and Middle East, was voted ...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try. Dana International (Sharon, previously Yaron, Cohen, 54). Now we can easily say for her coming back wasn't maybe a good idea. If her first time and win in 1998 was a triumphant ground breaking success despite a very small winning marginal: 172 for her, 166 for Imaani and 165 for Chiara.  But this big fan of late Ofra Haza tried already in 1995 to get to Eurovision placing second in the national final with Layla tov Eropa, and had been already scoring hits by then and esp...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Ireland dominated Eurovision in the 1990's and Niamh Kavanagh (55) scored the second win of their triplet in 1993 at home in Millstreet with In your eyes. She dropped her plans to move to the US and instead released a successful album and enjoyed her newfound fame for a while before settling into quiet family life and children a few years later. Occasionally she was involved in the Eurovision celebrations until she was convinced back to the Irish selection in 2010. She...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Rarely you see such "a star is born" moment and mass hysteria that followed like when only 16 year old Carola (56) won Melodifestivalen 1983 and went to Eurovision for the first time placing third. I was there, in Sweden that night at my aunt's and remember it well. I also went to see her on her summer tour in Sweden that year and it was something else.  But in a decade things went sour and she went from everyone's darling to a religious freak that needed...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   We don't give enough credit for Elisabeth Andreassen/Andreasson (65) as this Norwegian-Swedish woman has an incredible Eurovision track record: 8-1-6-2. Four Top-10 finishes, two of them after winning in 1985 together with Hanne Krogh as Bobbysocks, the legendary feel good first win for Norway after having the last one for so many years. But it was her second Eurovision duet, having represented Sweden with Kikki Danielsson in 1982 . She would return with yet another du...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Seán Sherrard (68) aka Johnny Logan. Mr. Eurovision by some. He's the only one so far who has managed to win Eurovision song contest twice. Or three times as he wrote another winner, Linda Martin's 1992 winner Why me? (And also her second placed Terminal 3 in 1984 for that matter). But he didn't write his first wining song What's another year. He may have won but his promising career as a newcomer didn't quite get going. He blames poor management and su...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   If several winners in 1950's and 1960's came back for more in the 1870's only Anne-Marie David (70) did so, even switching from Luxemburg for her native France. In 1973 she secured Luxemburg's 4th win and second in a row in a very tight battle. Tu te reconnaitras got 129 points, runner up Spain 125, third UK 123. Her song became a massive international hit and launched her career abroad, especially in Turkey of all places. Six years later she was back, for ...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Closest winning for the second time so far has been Italian Gigliola Cinquetti (75). Just 16 she took an overwhelming victory in 1964 with Non ho l'età scoring 49 points vs runner ups 17. She launched a successful international career singing all over the globe in multiple languages scoring hits here and there and everywhere. Ten years later she was chosen internally by Rai (whereas Non ho l'età was Sanremo winner) with Si. Weird choice in a way as Rai self censore...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Just like Lys Assia for Switzerland, also late Corry Brokken (1932-2016) did three years in a row for the first three editions. Her placement in 1956 is unknown but she won in 1957 with Net also toen and came back again the year after with Heel de wereld, that didn't impress the juries who gave her only one point and shared last place or 9th. That makes her the only Eurovision artist ever who has finished both first and last! On top of that she also hosted the Eurovis...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back after winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   We start of course with late Lys Assia (1924-2018), who didn't come back once but twice and indeed three years in a row, or the first three editions of the newborn contest representing the first host nation Switzerland. She won the first one, kinda flopped the second one but came back once more and almost won, placing second 3 points short of winner's 27. Italian Domenico Modugno and global hit Volare placed 3rd with only 13, so it was really between Lys and winner...

This one we will only know in about six weeks. The winner of 2009 contest Alexander Rybak is trying a double in Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest. Fairytale holds the record of most votes under the old voting system - 387 vs Iceland's 218 and 16 times 12 points, 10 times 10 and 10 times 8! (He was equally overpoweering in the Norwegian national final btw) Rybak came to Eurovision through various talent shows, culture prizes for his violin playing and theater. After Eurovision he was busy performing all over Europe incuding the Nobel Prize ceremony, starring and writing music for films in Norway and Russia, dancing in the Swedish Stricty come Dancing , and keeping his career going also in nis native Belarus and in the Russian market, besides dubbing cartoon in Norwegian. All these years he's also been a regular guest in Eurovision related events and happenings. In 2013 he wrote I'm with you  (4th) for Annsofi Pettersen for the Norwegian national final, in 2015 f...

Johnny Logan, born as Seán Sherrard in Australia, moved back to Ireland at the age of 3 with his Irish born parents. Coming from a musical family he first tried to get to Eurovision in 1979 with Angie , placing 3rd.  The year after he was back with What's another year and won. Seven times 12 points gave him an easy won obver Germany's Katja Epstein who placed 2nd. (After being twice 3rd, must be frustrating!) He earned an UK #1 and a big hit all over Europe. Sadly his follow up singles flopped and he was soon considered a one hit wonder..... Meantime he wrote Terminal 3 for Linda Martin, the Eurovision 1984 runner up. In 1987 he decided to givee Eurovision another go as his career wasn't going anywhere. Hold me now won leaving Germany 2nd again, and he became the first ever double winner. It certaibly was worth returning, as his career also took another turn now and he got it going in Ireland and Germany, and kept it going elsewhere, too, even if those winners...

Just 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti charmed first Italy by winning the talent contest Castrocaro 1963 and then Sanremo 1964 with her Non ho l'etá, and went on to charm the rest of Europe as well by winning the Eurovision song contest a few weeks later in Copenhagen.  She beat UK to second place by scoring 47 points vs. their 17, when over half the juries gave her full marks. The song sold over 4 million singles worldwide and launched her international career. She has had singles released in 120 countries! In Italy she enjoys fame and success participating in various festivals and Sanremo. She almost got back to the contest already in 1966 when she won Sanremo with Domenico Modugno and Dio come ti amo . Modugno decided to go himself back to the contest and came last....  (Such a shame as it is one of the best Italia entries ever, if you ask me! And Gigliola's version is much bettr anyways) In 1974 she was chosen to represent Italy again and the song is Si. Italy ...

Lys Assia, the first ever Eurovision song contest winner took part in the first three editions representing her native Switzerland (just like Corry Brokken did for the Netherlands).  However Lys holds the record of four entries as she sung both songs in 1956.  Das alte Karussell wasn't a hit, but Refrain won the whole thing. The year after she was back with L'enfant que j'étais finishing 8th and finally in 1958, third year in a row and she took Giorgio to the second place losing closely to France's Andre Claveau 27-24. Those two were real runaway favorites, as third placed Italy's Domenico Modugno's Volare only got 13 points.... Giorgio became a hit also in Italy and is played still today in its various cover versions and ... other things . Had it won, it could have changed Eurovision already before 1965 for more uptempo songs..... Maybe... Lys started her career as a dancer but switched to singing in early 1940's. In 1950's and 1960...

Anne-Marie David started with Eurovision in 1972 when she participated in the French selection with Un peu romantique , after doing a succesful Maria Magdalena in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.  She didn't win but the year after Luxembourg chose her and Tu te reconnaitrais and she took a close second victory in the row for the Grand Dutchy beating pre-contest favorites UK's Cliff Richard and Spain's Mocedades; they are finished within six points when David scored 129 points and Richard placed third with 123. Anne-Marie Davis became international star and toured the world and participated in various festivals from Tokyo to Vina del Mar, and ended up in Turkey of all places where she released songs even in Turkish and enjoyed fame and popularity.  In 1979 she was back, this time for France and her Je suis l'enfant soleil placed third. Again the top-3 was way ahead of the others but in the end she was 19 points behind the Israeli winners, a second win in...

Isabelle Aubret was a regular in the French Eurovision song contest selections. She first took part in 1961 with Le gars n'importe óu finishing second. The year after she was back with Un premiere amour  , won and went on to win also Eurovision song contest 1962. The ex-gymnastic had a great star for her career and all was going fine and she had hits and was also offered the leading role in the film Les parapluies de Cherbourg (that then went to Catherine Deneuve) but a car accident ended that. She had several operations and it took awhile before she was able to come back to business.  She made her comeback in the French selection 1968 with La source and won again, and finished 3rd in Eurovision behind Massiel and Cliff Richard. The song was a very daring one at the tme, dealing with rape..... But she didn't stop there and tried to get back to contest a few times: Oliver, Olivia in 1970 (2nd), Je te conneis déjà (6th in semifinal) in 1976 and finally France,...

Israel took a surprise and easy win in the Eurovision song contest 1978 (no matter what Jordanian television think) with their sixth participation, with Izhar Cohen & The Alphabeta group and their groovy and catchy A-ba-ni-bi . (However that nearly didn't happen as in the national final there was a tie with Belev echad by Chedva Amrani & Pilpel Lavan. Hmmm, who knows if they had sent that one instead...?) Six times 12 out of 19 possible, and 32 points lead on runner up Belgium. They also set the trend for the Israeli entries that continued well into the 1990's: lead singer and highly choreographed group with a catchy up tempo tune. Between 1978-1985 with six participation they scored two wins, two runner ups and 5th and 7th place. Not bad.  Incidently Izhar started this run and also ended it in 1985 when he returned with Olé, Olé! placing 5th. Again in white and white a vry energetic backing group. Today the participation is propably best remembered for the...