Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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...

  Another dose of  #Finpop for these hot summer nights including Eurovision almost veteran Akse Kankaanranta's latest offering in Finnish. Enjoy! Aksel Kankaanranta - Vielä sä löydät mun luo Kiki - Rodeo Nelli Matula - Diva Pikku G feat. Ani - Kaukana

 Ferragosto is gone but summer's here with these tormentoni sounds and as a nostalgia an evergreen by Luca Carboni. Enjoy! La Rappresentate di Lista - Diva Lorenzo Fragola - Luna fortuna Lazza - Panico (feat. Takagi & Ketra) Luca Carboni - Mare mare

My very first musical crush was Diana Ross. My very first LP I owned was also a Diana Ross album. Once I discovered her I have followed, listened and bought her music ever since going also back to her The Supremes songs - my favorite group ever - and found also Motown, a company I have felt so passionate for and the Motown sound never bores me, I could listen to it anyday, anywhere. If I hear their music in shops or bars it always lifts me. And Diana Ross was and is the Queen of Motown and a living legend. And she's 75 today. Happy birthday my one and only, true Diva! Too many songs to choose from but below are some of my favorites from the past six decades...

Every now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how did it go..... Back in 1998 in Birmingham Israeli Dana International was the hot topic of the contest being the first ever transsexual and having angered the priests in her home country. She had tried to enter already in 1995 with Layla tov Eropa but then placed second in the national final, but in 1998 she was internally chosen. It was a close run and she won only with six points (172 vs UK's 166 and Malta's 165) but she became the winner of the first televoting era contest. If you look at the scoreboard those countries still using jury didn't quite support her. In 2008 she was back in contest, but as an author ...

OMG. Let this be true! Apparently Carlo Conti is trying to get Diana Ross, Art & Garfunkel and Billy Joel to Sanremo as guests, along with George Clooney and Julia Roberts (like every year these two). And there's a lot of talk about Mrs Trump. .... After all she's Slovenian and speaks Italian, no translation needed ;-p Now you youngesters are questioning Diana who? (And propably the other names, too....) Let me tell you just Diana Ross is The Diva. Forget late Whitney, Mariah, Beyoncé and all the rest. They are just spoilt girls. Diana is the ultimate and original Diva . Period. And don't expect Il Volo as superguests in Sanremo. They aren't worthy. "They have brought the Italian music abroad and all around the world, but it's too soon to invite them as superguests. The superguest status is reserved those who have been around for 15, 25 or more years!" Damn right.