Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Eurovision veterans Kuunkuiskaajat have joined many previous Euroviison stars to support Käärijä and his Cha cha cha. They have made a hilarious boomer version of Cha cha cha. The video pretty much displays what they're into i nstead of Käärijä's night at the bars and pina coladas... . 

Oh what a time to be alive: I can't remember a Finnish Eurovision entry would have been covered before Eurovision final or/and in Finnish. Ever. Now the German entrant Lord of the lost have done it in. I repeat: In Finnish. And very well, too, I might add. But this may not become as such a surprise as they have done acoustic covers all spring of their fellow competitors, and they have a lot of links to Finland from recording studios to producers and generally hanging out in Finland a lot. And of course their entry could very well be a Finnish entry, no one would wonder or blink an eye. The second Cha cha cha comes from Käärijä himself with YES YES. A more lounge like version missing the dance part completely but still quite enjoyable late night version when you don't have so much energy left anymore and want just to chill out a bit. 

Käärijä does what Käärijä wants and while getting ready for the second rehearsal he decided to show Loreen how it's done - I mean Loreen's own Tattoo performance. If I was nasty I would say it clearly shows how simple and nothing it is really compared to Käärijä's crazy party performance but I'm nice and say nothing. Just watch yourself..... (giggle). No wonder Finland climbs in the odds while Sweden comes slowly down..... 

Sure as a change of a month, and this time even a year, Senhit comes out with a new cover on her #freakytriptoRotterdam. This time she has covered ABBA's Waterloo , Eurovision 1974 winner and turned it into a disco banger.... and many other musical styles! Previous entries: Amar pelois dos Rise like a Phoenix Congratulations Ding a dong Everyway that I can Cheesecake

Here comes Senhit's second offering on her #FreakyTripToRotterdam and this time with a video filled with Hollywood "glamour", quote from Marilyn Monroe and reference to Hitler she has covered Everyway that I can , that gave Turkey its first and so far only victory in the Eurovision song contest in form of Sertab Erener and one of the most exciting votings ever in 2003.  Check out also CHEESECAKE

If someone told me back in 2019 when Achille Lauro arrived to Sanremo with his Rolls Royce that 1,5 years later I'll be expecting and excited about his album I would have laughed that off as a good joke. Yet here I am, listening to 1990 that is filled with covers or rather reworked versions of 1990's hits with guest stars like Alexia, Annalisa and Eiffel 65 liking it a lot. Truth to be said I kinda liked Rolls Royce but didn't quite dare to say it to even to myself aloud. Come Sanremo 2020 and Me ne frego and his fabulous outfits night after night, after the 1990 single, 16 Marzo and this summer's Bam bam twist . I'm a fan. Against all odds.  This album will be for the youngsters a similar discovery box as Janet Jackson's Janet album was with all its countless Motown samples. 

The Finnish Eurovision entry 2017 by Norma John has been covered by the leading Finnish accapella group Club For Five. Enjoy!

A curious details was revealed by Sunrise Avenue's Samu Haber in the popular Vain elämää show, where artists spend a week together and every night cover each others songs between stories of their career and life. On Samu's night Laura Voutilainen had picked Forever yours to cover and Samu told: "After Lordi won Eurovision in 2006, we were writing a song to Hanna Pakarinen for Eurovision and the demo sounded pretty much like Forever yours. When I played it to the record company people telling this would be on our second album's first single they insisted we record it and it was added to the debut album's special Gold version instead." So, if the record label didn't like the song so much it could have been one of the two Hanna Pakarinen songs in Euroviisut 2007 and propably Finland's entry as well at home in Helsinki 2007. Hanna never recorded it, of course, but Laura Voutilainen gave an outstanding performance of it in the show first solo,...

Alexander Rybak seems to be in a Eurovision winning mood. Recetly he made a fantastic violin cover of last year's winning song, Jamala's 1944 . And now he plays tribute to Salvador Sobral's Amar pelos dois , singing it in English though. The lyrics are quite wonderful and the interpretation fits him like a glove. This  somehow underlines the song's movie song feeling as this could be straight out from La la land soundtrack. Great job!

Spanish Manel Navarro isn't exactly tipped to win this year's Eurovision song contest, on the contrary. Many are seeing him the one to keep Germany out of the last place for the thrid year in a row! This doesn't encourage him as he tells Attitude magazine he will pose nude for the cover if he wins (he already promised this to a Spanish gay magazine).  He also firmy believes he's got a chance, it's difficutl but not impossible.  Now that's kind of a safe bet..... maybe he only does it for his lover after all? Meanwhile he's napping in his dressing room while waiting for tonight's final with his lovely colorful shirts. This blogger loves them! No kidding! They also talk about the Spanish national selection scandal and says he's in good terms with Mirela, they even had drinks together after her concert a few weeks ago.  As we have seen Manel makes friend with everyone. In Kyiv the bromance with Austrian Nathan goes well. Pictued here as th...

Alexander Rybak has made a fantastic violin version of Jamala's last year's Euroviison winner 1944. It underlines once again what a beautiful song it is.  Last night Jamala herself reperformed the song in the Eurovision song contest 2017 first semifinal with a new symphonic arrangement.

Hanna Pakarinen is releasing her new album Synnyin elän kuolen (I was born I live I die) next September 9 and it's a cover album of late Carola's songs (not the Swedish one but the Finnish one). Carola scored hits also with covers back in the day and one of the biggest ones was the Eurovision 1971 winner Un banc, un armbre, une rue for Monaco and it is the second single off the album, titled in Finnish  Penkki, puu ja puistotie . The first single was Herrojen kanssa pellonlaidassa . But before that her fans have a chance to relisten all the songs she has ever recorded solo (with the new album they are already 77) live on webstream and Periscope on her Facebook page every Tuesday. All new acoustic live versions with guitarist Jaakko Kääriäinen. 

This is simply awesome! Well done!

Love metal meets Swedish pop when HIM's lead singer Ville Valo gives his voice to guitarist MGT's (Mark Gemini Thwaite) debut album's first release, an ABBA classic Knowing me, knowing you.   MGT stated in Loudwire , “ABBA released ‘Knowing Me Knowing You” nearly 40 years ago in the winter of 1977, and the single sleeve and their video had a wintery feel to it, so when we decided to shoot a video for our version. Both myself and Ville Valo agreed we should try and capture some of the feel of the ABBA version and have a winter vibe to our video as well.. So we shot my footage up in snow covered mountains, and Ville’s close-ups in front of a fire place in a secret place in Hell-sinki. We’re pleased with it, and director Ville Juurikkala did a fantastic job!” This blogger thinks those Björn & Benny have proved once again how timeless and flexible their music is. This is great!

Israel sailed to the Eurovision song cotest final this May with Nadav Guedj's Golden boy for the first time for ages. Now the song gets a Greek treatment by Eleni Foureira. Is it an improvement or a miss?

Emma Marrone won Sanremo 2012 with Non è inferno and now the Cypriot megastar and Eurovision 1998 entrant Michalis Hatzigiannis has made his cover of it as Poios eimai ego (and strangely wrong written Non el'inferno following it. One could ask why, but why bother? He sounds great as always! Emma sounds all rough and raw while Michalis has a softer approach giving the song a slightly different mood - maybe it's all in the lyrics? Not speaking Greek I have no clue. I like both of them. They are different yet the same. 1-1 for me. But that's not all. It seems La Marrone's songs seem to be hot stuff in Greece as also her Amami has been covered in Greek by Nadio Mpoule as Klepse me . And once again Emma's version is much harder, with raw and harsh vocals while the Greek one seems kinda watered down, doesn't it? This goes for Emma!

Following the amazing covers by Amos Lee and Scott Matthew here's another (already) pop classic getting the stripped down acoustic treatment, Euphoria by Gavin Mikhail. He's a Nashville based pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. This version underlines the fact Euphoria is not only hard beats and a club anthem, underneath there's a real song. But he's not the only one having success with a this particular song. Icelandic Sverrir Bergmann and guitarist Halldór Gunnar scored a top-5 hit with it in Iceland at the same time Loreen herself was charting there. Which one do you prefer? Piano or guitar? And here's the original .