Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

While the winner Softengine is still working on their debut album and is about to release their new single Yellow house shortly, the girls of MIAU have come out with their debut album Trinity . Ten songs including of course their 3rd placed God/Drug .  Jasmin Michaela 's new single is called Irtokarkkeja following Kertakäyttösydän . Clarissa is out with Lies , following her duet with Josh Standing in Top of the world . Oh, and Madcraft is out with Never had the guts , too. Let's not forget Mikko Pohjola being featured in Jannika B's Sateen rummut while waiting for his new album including of course Sängyn reunalla .  Hukka ja Mama are also working on their debut album with Selja . And Lili Lambert has released this fabulous music video for her Let me take you there . Hanna Sky has released a follow up single, too, Softer rain . Lauri Mikkola has been busy with various live shows but it's worth remembering his appearance in Elastinen's Uus . Even Jos...

The semifinal from Peacock Theater is over and we have finalists. Some artists did better, some not so. Jasmin Michaela all of sudden was rather bland and televoters kicked her out, which is a surprise anyways. Dennis Fagerström still didn't manage to make anything out if his bland yet cute and sweet song an out he goes. MIAU and Hukka ja Mama really shined, whether you like or not their songs. Mikko Pohjola further secured his favorite status.... Clarissa feat. Josh still didn't make it on stage and vocally. The fans like the studio version and it works, like a song that's 13 in a dozen works. Live and on stage less so. Next week the final will take place in Barona Arena in Espoo, and Krista Siegfrids will be the guest star, obviously! Anyways, here is the final list. It's far from said and done deal, I still think any of these 8 could end up winning, but of course I have my favorites and dislikes, but I guess I could be more or less happy with five of these even ...

This is it. The crucial semifinal. The remaining eight acts and songs are battling it out with televote only for the six places in the final. So far we have only known the jury votes and the result of 50-50 televote-jury vote. Tonight we might be in for some surprises.... We are back in Peacock Theater in Helsinki, for the last time, and Anne Lainto and Ile Uusivuori have been styled by the winner of an online contest (Helena Pirhonen) instead of the usual YLE's stylist, will they look different?  UMK+ will start online already 19.30 CET while the live show starts at 20 CET. Brädi will be the guest star performing together with UMK judge Toni Wirtanen. It will be also interesting to see if this semifinal manages to attract more viewers in front of TV as the previous shows have all got less than about 250.000, none of them entering the Top-20 most viewed programmes of the week iin YLE2. As always, I'll be here blogging it live for you so join in and enjoy the ride! ...

This Saturday the semifinal will take place and six more acts will join the final line up while two has to leave the race. We are still in Peacock Theater in Helsinki before moving to Barona Arena in Espoo for the grand final next week. In this semifinal there's only televote and as we have not really had a chance to see how they go so far as only the jury vote has been made public it's going to a very interesting evening. All still have a chance and there could be major surprises. In the final there will be again 50-50 televote-jury vote. The running order is below. The voting i open and you can vote here . If you don't want to spend your money on voting, vote in my poll instead --> MadCraft - Shinig bright Hukka ja Mama - Selja Lauri Mikkola - Going down Jasmin Michaela - Kertakäyttösydän Dennis Fagerström - My little honey bee MIAU - God/Drug Mikko Pohjola - Sängyn reunalla Clarissa feat. Josh Standing - Top of the world Hukka ja Mama have been ...

All went like predicted me thinks. Softengine sailed to the final and Lili Lambert goes home while the others continue to the semifinals. The televoting results were not revealed as usual, but here are the jury votes: Aija Puurtinen: Dennis 5, Lili 6, MIAU 7, Jasmine 8, Hukka ja Mama 9, Softengine 10 Toni Wirtanen: Lili 3, Dennis 4, MIAU 6, Jasmine 7, Softengine 8, Hukka ja Mama 10 Tomi Saarinen: Lili 3, Dennis 5, MIAU 6, Jasmine 7, Hukka ja Mama 8, Softengine 9 Redrama: MIAU 4, Dennis 5, Lili 6, Jasmine 7, Hukka ja Mama 8, Softengine 9 Next week the other six artists and the same procedure. See you then!

Peacock Theater in Helsinki's Linnanmäki amusement park hosts tonight at 8pm the first elimination round of UMK 2014. Six acts will perform for the first time their revamped versions infront of the judges and the live audience in the theater and the TV-audience. Combined televote-jury vote will send one act directly to the final, the last one has to say goodbye to the contest while the other four will go on to the semifinal where they still have a chance to get the ticket to the final. Watch it live here . The UMK+ starts online already 7.30pm. Join me for a live report as it happens! 20.30 The UMK+ has started from the backstage and the web presenters are talking some random stuff...Next they interview Tomi Saarinen . First live so everyone's a bit excited, of course! He tells a bit how the selection process was from those over 420 demos to these 12 selected ones among all those different genres and styles, most of all there was pop, he said. And can we send a song in...

Emanuele Lombardini, journalist and editor of Italian Eurovision site Eurofestival News and European music site Euromusica - Dove c'è musica has kindly reviewed the UMK 2014 songs for Blogilkar. Here goes:  1 - Madcraft - Shining bright Easy pop rock that is extremely radio friendly, at times reminiscent of " Salvem el mon " of Anonymous ( Andorra 2007). Historically, this kind of rock is not usually very lucky in ESC but the this is written well, it should deserve a chance. 2 - Dennis Fageström - My little honey bee Played only once, this is the only song that has immediate impact . Genuine pop, a song of love that typically works well. Radio friendly, simple, interpretation in line with the song. Would do much honor to the contest. 3 - MIAU - God/Drug The beat works, you start beating your foot along the music. Maybe a little repetitive, but you listen and start singing along on the first listening. The blonde singer surely works: her face and looks. A...

The first live show of UMK 2014 will take this Saturday in Peacock Theater in Helsinki when MIAU, Dennis Fagerström, Lili Lambert, Hukka ja Mama, Softngine and Jasmin Michaela take the stage and people vote one of them straight to the final, one out and the remaining four continue the battle for the place in the final line up. You can vote already since yesterday as the songs have been presented already and one can listen them online ( here for example).... The voting ends Saturday 11.1.2014 at 22.30 local time. But that's not all! You can also vote online and here's where things get a bit complicated. You can give one vote (0,95 euros) or 5, 10 or even 25. Or if you really want to support your favorite why not give 50 votes at once for the price of 47,50! This option, already used in other formats like Big Brother where it hasn't bothered anyone has caused a little stir among fans and media. Is it so that one with the richest back up group will win because of thi...

Time recap what the judges thought about the remaining six artists based on their very first stage performance of their demo tracks. What kind of advice they gave, what was good and what was not and who impressed, who didn't.... As an added bonus this blogger's views :-). Watch the show online here . Or on YLE2 next Saturday. Here you go: MIAU - GOD/DRUG The girls hoped in the insert that the judges would start arguing about their song, have a fight over it and indeed it nearly happened. General madness is one of the band's strenghts according them... They won't let anyone cold, everyone has an opinion of them! Toni: Well now, good boogie, I liked it a lot! It was fun, good song. I should analyze this performance somehow but... I'm simply sold. Surely you divide people, even among us judges, and surely this isn't for everyone. You've only got to gain here. Aija: One can see that you have been already so many gigs that you got it together on sta...

Krista Siegfrids may have been the Queen bee last year but here coms Dennis singing about honey bee. He's already little known thanks to his participation in the Voice of Finland 2013 where he got to the semifinals. He's originally from Hanko but lives now in Helsinki. He's aim is to bring happiness and positivity to the rather melancholy Finnish music business and his influences include Robbie Williams and Michael Bublé and he wishes to be able to perform in the same twinkle in the eye style. He started with saxophone when he was 8 and singing came along only later. He's also described as every mother's dream son-in-law.... His song My little honey bee is written by a well know group of Eurovision fans Michael James Down, Niklas Hast, Andreas Anastasiou, Primoz Pogdalen along with Dennis himself.  You can find links to his Facebook etc here . Here are some of his performances: Minun tuulessa soi , Näytän sulle rannan , Ainutkertainen

The 12 artists and songs for UMK 2014 were revealed today in a MF-esque webcast on YLE's website where you also heard snippets of the demo versions of their songs (you can watch it here ). Or better snippets just click the song titles below. The fans were right with the most names with the clues given away by YLE in the ast two weeks and indeed it seems to be a very interesting cast this season. Jukka Immonen wrote the Belgian entry 2013, and Lauri Mikkola and Dennis Fagerström made themselves known already in the Voice of Finland. I will dig deeper with the artists in coming days so stay tuned! Here are the artists, songs and songwriters: Lauri Mikkola – Going Down   (Lauri Mikkola, Tuomas Viiliäinen) Clarissa feat. Josh – Top of The World   (Paul Oxley, David Neisser, Christian Rabb, Annette Lundell, Joshua Standing) MadCraft – Shining Bright  (Tom Nuorivaara, Juho Rinne, Jesse Mäläskä, Otto Uotila) Mikko Pohjola – Sängyn reunalla   (Jukka Immone...