Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

ESTONIA - ELINA NECHAYEVA - LA FORZA Quando m'en vo per la via Sempre libera Vorrei che intorno a noi sia una favola Vocals ***** Staging *** Song * Overall **** Qualifier BULGARIA - EQUINOX - BONES So I love beyond the bones Goes deep inside your soul Vocals ***** Staging **** Song *** Overall **** Qualifier MACEDONIA - EYE CUE - LOST AND FOUND I wish you trust your intuition And let the journey start Vocals *** Staging ** Song ** Overall *** Borderline non qualifier CROATIA - FRANKA - CRAZY  Over the moon I’ll be your queen And I’ll be your fool  Vocals **** Staging ** Song ** Overall ** Non qualifier

The rest of the semi-final one acts rehearse today for the first time, including Finland. Macedonia - Eye Cue - Lost and found Macedonia takes lead from their music video and they have a drummer and three backing singers on stage, while Marija interacts with all them with or without Bojan. Fucsia minidress for her. Another close up start apparently, and another let's walk to the stairs for the finale. Judging the comments it seems they did it all right and vocally fine. Looking good for them then. Maybe. This song is musically such a mess one needs time to digest it and an average televoter doesn't have it. But isn't that dress a bit too short....? "Sultry", "Cool beats", "Great chemistry", "Unfinished", "Not instant" Croatia - Franka - Crazy Another close up start? Franka is wearing a black lace dress looking like a real diva taking a full advantage of wind machines. smoke and did we see a tear? This ...

Tonight it was Croatia's turn to reveal their entry, internally chosen Franka's Crazy . I must say it sounds oddly familiar in some parts.... Sam Brown's Stop maybe... but by no means plagiation, mind you. Great orchestration with some cool sounds but ... quite a long three minutes, isn't it?

Croatia was supposed to have a national final but they did YLE Finland and dropped the plans and chose Franka Batelić  (25) internally instead. She's no stranger to Eurovision dreams having participated twice in the national final (2009 and 2010). She has also won the local version of Dancing with stars in 2009 and had a taste of international success in music in 2011, but has been quiet until last year when she made a comeback with S tobom in the local charts. And she's been on many fans' wish list for years as well.  Her song Crazy is written by Branimir Mihaljević, who's no stranger to Eurovision either: He wrote Femminem's Lako je sve in 2010, one of this blogger's favorite Croatian eentries. Her song should be premiered tonight on radio.... meanwhile, here's S tobom ...