Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

 It's September 2, 2024 and we have the first artist for Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel, Switzerland. Cyprus announced that Theo Evan will be their entrant with a song that will be released in due time. I suspect it is based on choreography rather than vocals. Update: It took over six months but his entry was finally released on March 11: Theo Evan, yet another Berklee alum (Could someone do a list of all Berklee's Eurovision stars?). He has released songs on Spotify where he has 372 monthly listeners when writing this. The most listened song The Wall has just under 29.000 streams.  Born in Nicosia, Cyprus to a wealthy Greek-Cypriot family as Evangelos Theodorou (Ευάγγελος Θεοδώρου) he started dancing and singing at 7. After studies in Nicosia's English school he moved to the US to study in Boston's Berklee Collage of Music. His first single release The Wall was released in 2021. he has also starred as an extra in popular tv-series Euphoria.  In 202 he released S...

  Slimane was the fourth artist announced for the Eurovision song contest 2024 in Malmö, but the very first with the song Mon amour released at the same time and thus the first song of the season, when the whole package was revealed on November 8, 2023. This year France Télévisions dropped the national final and picked internally the biggest name instead. A bit like Italy last year with Marco Mengoni. Slimane Nebchi (34) is a French of Algerian descent through his grandparents. In 2016 he won the season 5 of The Voice but before that he had already gone through many talent shows: Popstars 2007, Nouvelle star 2009, X Factor 2011, Encore un chance 2012, Je veux signer chez AZ and also did Didier Barbelivien's musical Marie-Antoinette et le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge in 2015. His recording career started started after The Voice (except for an EP in 2011 that went nowhere) with his debut album hitting #1 and selling triple platinum. Since then he has released three more albums (last one...

  Belgium's RTBF chose its entry internally and was first to announce that they chose Mustii already on August 30, 2023. We had to wait for the release of his song Before the party's over until February 20, 2024 though. Among the songwriters is Pierre Dumoulin, who's co-written already City lights (2017) and Wake up (2019) for Belgium. Another co-writer is Nina Sampermans who's also co-written Would you? (2012) and Tout l'univers (2021) for Switzerland and Bridges (2023) for Estonia.  Mustii - Before the party's over Thomas Michel Mustin (33) is Belgian actor on stage, film and television, and singer with two Top-5 albums to his credit so far. He has been nominated for awards for both singing and acting, winning The Newcomer of the year 2016 as singer and The best newcomer in Belgian films in 2019. Ten singles so far both as single and featuring, three of them Top-20: 21st century boy , Blind and Skyline . He has been also Drag race Belgique judge in 2023.  He ...

BBC chose internally Olly Alexander for United Kingdom at Eurovision song contest 2024 in Malmö, Sweden. Olly himself told the news on December 16, 2023 during the final of Strictly come dancing, and the song Dizzy was premiered on March 1, 2024. The music video was shot in mid February in Tbilisi, Georgia.  Oliver Alexander Thornton (33) is an actor, singer and LGBT+ activist. He was the singer of Years & Years before the band ended its journey by 2023 it being already more or less Olly's solo project since 2021. As Years & Years they released three studio albums (two #1s, one #3) and five Top-20 hits including #1 King . For this blogger the most familiar hit is Dreamland with Pet Shop Boys though. Other collaborations include Tove Lo , Elton John and Kylie Minogue (twice) Besides music Olly has a successful acting career going on since teenage years and has been nominated to various awards over the years. Besides movies (13 so far) he has done theater and musicals on s...

  As usual Switzerland chose internally among the 420+ entries sent The Code by Nemo, as announced on February 29, 2024. And yes, it's something else for sure from opera to rap to hip pop and pop and even Bond-esque sounds.!  Nemo Mettler (24) is a Swiss non-binary rapper, singer and musician who plays violin, piano and drums. He has released four EPs since 2015 and over 20 singles as solo or featuring. Du in 2017 is his highest charting single yet as #4. In 2017 and 2018 he won several awards as Best Newcomer/talent/Best male act/Best breaking act/Best live act and Du was awarded the Best Hit award.  Here are some Nemo's videos, truly an interesting artist to discover more in the near future. So, what do I think? I must say the first hearing left me rather speechless and I just didn't re-listen it and continued with my life thinking The Code isn't much to think about. Then, slowly, I had an urge to listen it again. And again. And now it's one of my most anticipated...

Joost Klein was internally selected by AVROTROS to represent the Netherlands in the Eurovision song contest 2024. He expressed his will to do it in 2023 when hanging out with Käärijä, and people soon picked up on it making a petition to send him to Malmö. And indeed on December 11, 2023 it was announced he is the one. His entry Europapa was revealed on February 29, 2024 and became the fasted streamed and Youtube watched entry of them all scoring millions in just a few days. Joost (26) started as a Youtuber in 2016 with sketches and mini documentaries before turning into music and founding his own label. In 2018 he released a small book of poems. He has released so far eight albums and gained fame and fortune in all Benelux and Germany. Europapa is his 10th official single but several other songs have charted and he has done featuring in about 30 other songs.  His biggest hit so far has been Friesenjung in 2023 that scored him his first German and Austrian #1. It also charted in Net...

  Austria's ORF chose internally Kaleen with 90's dance banger We will rave. The video is also pure 90's with bare chested muscle hunks drooling over her like she was Madonna, Janet or Paula Abdul. Kinda nostalgic. Kaleen or Marie-Sophie Kreissl (29) is no stranger to Eurovision even if her name maybe doesn't ring a bell. She's been involved many years already as stand-in singer ( most notably Eleni Foureira's Fuego ), dancer and choreographer for interval acts in 2018, creative director for both Spain and Bulgaria in Jesc 2021. In 2022 she was creative director for Spain and overall stage director. Last year she helped with the stage performances of Austria, Armenia, Germany and Georgia. I suppose this is a first in the contest history someone with CV like that steps into spotlight? Surely we have dozens if not hundreds of backing singers who have done that..... She comes from a musical family and started ballet at at the age of 2 and as a 7-year-old she won h...

CyBC announced 17-year-old Silia Kapsis as their entrant on September 25, 2023 and the song Liar was made public on February 29, 2024. And isn't this a curious case! This is 12th Eurovision song by composer Dimitris Kontopoulos. And it is basically more or less the same song that took part in the internal Greek selection in 2023 then sung by Melissa Mantzoukis, who wasn't pleased with the outcome and filed a lawsuit against ERT. And yet, the song is here now..... Silia Kapsis is an Australian singer, actress and dancer born in Sydney to a Cypriot father and a Greek mother. She's been performing since she was 4 and has already a lot of international experience with the Australian Youth Performing Arts Company among others. She has acted in a short film and done some television, too. Her debut single Who am I? came out in 2022 and she has since released three other singles prior to Liar.  So, what do I think?  Liar is a flashback to yesteryear's Eurovisions. Sounds kinda...

ERT chose internally Marina Satti for Eurovision song contest 2024 and launched an open call for songs. Initially planned final where she would have performed various songs to be chosen from was soon cancelled and finally on March 7. 2024 her entry Zari was revealed. Marina Satti (Μαρίνα Σάττι) is a 37-year-old singer-songwriter. She's of Sudanese Arab origin by her father and Greek mother. She has studied piano since early age, later vocal training, and later jazz in Berklee Collage. She also studied architecture. in 2016 she formed an a Capella female group Fónes, and her single Koupas ended in Bob Sinclair's Buddha Bar 20 years anniversary album.  Since 2018 she has toured the world with world music mixed with pop and Eastern Mediterranean traditional music and finally in 2022 she released an album Yenna, that was met with great commercial and critical reception. Over the years she has released also more than a dozen singles, Pali in 2021 being a Top-20 hit in Greece. She...

  Finally Raiven did it. After placing 2nd in 2016 with  Črno bel , 3rd in 2017 with  Zažarim and again 2nd in 2019 with Kaos . This time RTVSLO picked her internally with Veronika. There was indeed an open call for songs and approx 100 were received and a national final planned as well. That was canceled and December 12, 2023 it was announced Raiven was internally selected instead. The song Veronika was revealed on january 20, 2024 and it is co-written by last year's Joker Out's Bojan, Käärijä's loved side kick.  Raiven or Sara Briški Cirman (27) is a Slovenian singer, songwriter and harpist. She has studied classical music, before mentioned harp, and opera. She has won several awards in that field and has performed in several operas in Berlin, Prague, Tirana, Ljubljana, Brno, Budapest and Malta. She has also done musicals. In her pop career she released her debut album in 2017 and it was awarded as The Album of the Year. In 2021 she won Popevka 21 festival wi...

Malta had its long and confusing selection process, after having songs written on a songwriting camp and semifinals and finals on prerecorded videos only and...  I don't know. I wasn't following the process as every time I read about it it was just getting more confusing. In the end Sarah Bonnici won over Matt Blxck thanks to juries and we got yet another girlie pop tune with a dance choreography. The song was revamped for Eurovision. Sarah Bonnici (25) is a Gozo born Maltese singer, daughter to a millionaire CEO father. She's been mentored by Eurovision veteran Miriam Christine and in 2009 tried her luck in Junior Eurovision selection with The Mambo song finishing 3rd. The year after she tried again placing 7th with Kitty kitty cat after winning  L-Għanja Tal-Maltin Song Festival's Best voice award and her age category. But she did get to go to JESC 2010 as backing dancer! In her teenage years she's become a regular in various international festivals in places li...

Sweden took their 7th win and now share the first place with Ireland. And Ireland, the Eurovision superpower of the 1990's has been struggling big time the past 20 years or so while the frustration has grown. A bit like Finland and then in 2006 we decided to just go all in, sent Lordi and won. Same kind of feeling I got from Ireland this year when they  decided not to go safe but went "ok, let's send something weird and wild and see how that goes, as who cares?!" kind of thing and here we have something never seen in Eurovision before: Bambie Thung and their Doomsday blue.  And mind you they wasn't the only wild and bold entry in Eurosong. Incredibly the international jury voted for the dullest, most boring safest entry ever. Shame on them.  Bambie Thug or Bambie Ray Robinson (31) is Irish singer-songwriter born of Swedsih father and Irish mother. Their music has no genre and is inspired by breakups, witchcraft and drug addiction among others. Their career started...

NRK arranged once again Melodi grand prix, even if with a revamped system with three semi-finals. After 60-40 televote-jury Gåte beat KEiiNO after winning the televote with a margin. That came after a new lyrics between semifinal and the final as originally the lyrics were nothing but a medieval ballad already existing. KEiiNO's original Damdiggida lyrics needed no change though. Gåte is a Norwegian folk-metal-ethno-progressive rock band founded in 2000. These days the line up is Gunnhild Sundli, Magnus Børmark, Jon Even Schärer, Mats Paulsen and John Stenersen. They released their first EP in 2000 but it was the second one followed by an album in 2002 that breakthrough. They gained popularity not only in Norway but also in rest of Scandinavia and Germany. Another EP and second album were released before they announced a break. A live album was released in 2006. They toured and did live concerts until the farewell one in Oslo in 2010. They were back in 2017 with another EP and then...

Israel's internally selected entry Hurricane finally was approved by EBU March 7, 2024 and published three days later after several re-writes after its original lyrics and title October rain. The song and its music video refers to Re'im Music Festival Massacre on October 7, 2023 when Hamas did a surprise attack killing 384 and taking at least 40 hostages, many of them still missing.  Eden Golan (20) is Israeli-Russian singer. She was born in Israel but moved to Moscow when she was six for 12 years. She started her singing career taking part in the Russian selection for Junior Eurovision in 2015 and later Russian The Voice Kids. Back in Israel she found fame winning The Rising Star that was used to select the Eurovision artist. She won both the jury and the public vote. She has released recently four singles before Hurricane, and already one in Russia in 2015: Schastye. So, what do I think? Putting everything else side and concentrating only solemnly on this entry it's one o...

The 62nd Festivali i Këngës was held in December 2023 and Besa won the ticket to Eurovision song contest with her Zemrën n'dorë while the winner was Mal Retkoceri with Çmendur, but as for the second year there's the new separate voting (or public's vote) for the Eurovision entry she's the one. In true Albanian style her song was later revamped and translated in English and became TiTAN.  Besa Kokëdhima (37) is Albanian singer. She was born to a wealthy family, her father being a local politican, and at the age of 15 she moved to United Kingdom to finish her education. Her music career started back in 2003 with Më Beso and it was already an awarded song of the year. In 2006 she released her debut album. She's no stranger to festival and contests. She won Kënga Magjike 2013 with  Tatuazh në zemër , she also won Notafest with  Lëshoje Hapin . In 2010 she was awarded The Best female singer in Top Fest with  Kalorësi i Natës . In 2009 she even tried the Romania...

ČT organized once again ESCZ already in December 2023 with a live final and online voting running for a week with separate Czech and international votes. Aiko emerged victorious with Pedestal in a final of seven, selected out of 200+ submissions.  Aiko or Alena Shirmanova-Kostebelova (24) is a Russian born Czech singer songwriter who lives in United Kingdom. Her career started in reality talent show  Česko Slovenská SuperStar in 2015. She made the girls top-10 but not the top-4. After that she mmoved to UK to pursue her career and released her debut album in 2018. Second album followed in 2020. She's done a few firsts for a Czech artist, like being featured in the Time Square's screens in New York. Her songs have made it to tv-series like Teen mom and Love island. Her third album was released last year. She has released also a dozen singles so far. Her entry Pedestal was revamped for Eurovision, here's the original one .  So, what do I think? To be honest, at first n...

Georgian GPB announced on January 12, 2024 that Nutsa Buzaladze has been internally selected for Eurovision song contest 2024 and at the same time launched an open call for song. They received around 300 submissions and March 11, 2024 they announced the song is Firefighter, written by Darko Dimitrov. This is his 13th Eurovision entry - for 4th country after several entreis for North Macedonia and Serbia, and one for Albania previously.  Nutsa (27) is a Georgian singer-songwriter born in Tbilisi but grew up in Turkey. She's been performing since she was 5, and learned piano since she was 8. Later she has lived also in Los Angeles and in Dubai. Her pop singer career started in Georgia's got talent in 2011, continued in Jurnala's New Wave festival in Latvia 2014 representing Georgia. Other talent shows followed like The Voice of Turkey (coached by Eurovision veteran Hadise), Two Stars Georgia, Georgian Your face sounds familiar and Dancing with stars. in 2017 she came 2nd in...