Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Now as the Netherlands has withdrawn from Eurovision song contest at least in 2026, let's have a look of some Dutch favorites of mine over the year. 't is OK seems to be totally forgotten but I loved it to bits as kid.  And I have very fond memories of talks with two of these artists: Ilse and Edsilia. Enjoy! 2014 The Common Linnets - Calm after the storm (2nd) 1980 Maggie MacNeal - Amsterdam (5th) 2022 S10 - De diepte (11th) 2016 Douwe Bob - Slow down (11th) 2019 Duncan Laurence -  Arcade (1st) 1990 Maywood - Ik wil alles met je delen (15th) 1993 Ruth Jacott - Vrede (6th) 1978 Harmony - 't is OK (13th) 1998 Edsilia Rombley - Hemel en aarde (4th) There would have been quite a few to pick up as well but these sounded the ones at this time and space.  Special mentions go to: 1988 Gerard Joling - Shangri-La (9th) 1987 Marcha - Rechtop in de wind (5th) 1979 Xandra - Colorado (12th) 1992 Humphrey Campbell - Wijs me de weg (9th) 1984 Maribelle - Ik hou van jou (13th)

The Eurovision song contest 2023 in Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine is turning out very Ukraine as promised with a string of Ukrainian artists coming back to belt out their Eurovision successes. Throw in a bit of British by giving a slot also to last year's runner up (and not only), invite some Eurovision favorites to sing Liverpool Songbook. Add Rita Ora and some drag queens (because why not?) and me thinks it looks like a very nice mix! Grand final Opening act: Kalush Orchestra - Stefania Interval act: Sam Ryder - Space man  Flag parade: Go_A - Shum, Jamala - 1944, Tina Karol - Show me your love, Verka Serduchka - Dncing lasha tumbai Liverpool Songbook: Mahmood, Netta, Dadi Freyer, Cornelia Jakobs, Duncan Laurence, Sonia Semifinal One Opening act: Julia Sanina - Mayak Interval acts: Rita Ora - Medley of hits + Praising you,  Alyosha with Rebecca Ferguson - Ordinary world Semifinal Two Interval acts: Maria Yaremchuk, Otoy, Zlata Dziunka - Medley of Ukrainian Music Podilya dan...

The Netherlands has revealed their entry for the Eurovision song contest 2023 in Liverpool. We already knew since November Mia Nikolai & Dion Cooper are the chosen ones, with a song co-Written by Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence. Burning daylight is the title and all this is internally chosen.  And yes, it's the rumored Chasing heights song, they just changed the title. And ... errr.... hmm.... Yeah. Maybe I expected more. Cha cha cha!

Out of the blue The Netherlands reveal their artists for Eurovision song contest 2023 and become 3/37. Mia Nicolai (26) and Dion Cooper (28) are both up and coming independent artists put together two years ago by Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence and his fiancee Jordan Garfield. Duncan and Jordan have been writing songs together for a long time already and this entry is co-written by all four of them, and apparently picked up from many submissions without a moment's hesitation by the Dutch Eurovision team. The song or its title hasn't been revealed yet but the folks have dug out from internet a song called Chasing heights. 

  This week sees not one but two Eurovision collaborations. The reigning champions and Eurovision 2022 winners Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine cover the Finnish entrant The Rasmus and their biggest hit to date In the shadows with them. And this year's biggest commercial success , Armenia's Rosa Linn teams up with the Eurovision 2019 winner Duncan Laurence in a new joint song.  These collaborations are among the best things Eurovision along with discovering new artists every year and maybe finding decade long favorites, and back in the day there were the cover versions in different languages. Over the years there have been some collaborations, for example this Time to pray of a trio from Eurovision 2008 artists from Israel, Serbia and Armenia.

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winner s. Alessandro Mahmoud aka Mahmood caused quite an outcry in Italy after winning Sanremo, mostly a very racistic one. Nut Europe loved his clap clap Soldi and he missed the Eurovision victory only by 26 points, that's just a bit over 5% Duncan Laurence's winning points. This said he placed 2nd out of 41. This Egyptian-Sardinian Milan based tried his luck first at X Factor 2012 and made it all the way to the judge's houses but didn't make it until he made a comeback as a wildcard and lasted three episodes. In 2013 he released first song Falling rain and in 2016 he was in Sanremo's Newcomers with Dimentica , placing 4th with Francesco Gabbani and Ermal Meta ahead of him. He soon became a hitmaker for other artists like ...

Reigning Eurovision champion Duncan Laurence should have given away his crown tonight but.... you know. Here comes anyways his EP including the latest single Someone else , that he would have performed in Rotterdam arena in the Eurovision song contest 2020. Instead tonight he will perform it in Hilversu,m tv-studios for Europe shine a light ...... (Still don't get it why EBU decided to cancel instead looking for an alternative in form on videos or something though....) This is his third single following Eurovision winner Arcade and Love don't hate it released last October. His EP Worlds on fire include also Beautiful and Yet . A full album is expected to be released later this year...

Let's continue the series and kill some time having a look at the last decade and see who were the Top-10 best scoring countries in the Eurovision song contest in the past ten years. The ways to calculate are many and here I have used the simple average placement method (and it's not all so serious). Next up is the Netherlands, that has some very mixed results before getting their act togethers. Honestly, I didn't even remember 3JS at all..... and Joan Franka's headpiece hasn't aged so well either. The Netherlands lands at 9th plave despite those flops thanks to a gold and a silver medal and three 9-11th places. 2011 3JS - Never alone - NQ (19th in semi-final) * 2012 Joan Franka - You and me - NQ (15th in semi-final) * 2013 Anouk - Birds - 9th *** 2014 The Common Linnets - Calm after the storm - 2nd ***** 2015 Trijntje Oosterhuis - Walk along - NQ (14th in semi-final) ** 2016 Douwe Bob - Slow down - 11th ***** 2017 O'G3NE - Lights ...

Most of Europe, and world, in in various stages of quarantene or lockdown (except Sweden...) and Eurovision artists and winners are finding ways to spend their time at home like the rest of us. Social medias are more vivid than ever and home made concerts and performances are in offer almost every day if you just keep up with them, including EBU's Eurovision Home Concerts series that you all are surely following every Friday, and last night's PrePartyES at home .  Let's have a look at some winner's activities during this #COVID-19 aka #Coronavirus pandemia, including reigning champion Duncan Laurence (above) who celebrated his birthday. Alone. Taking an extra long shower..... Dima Bilan has been entertaining himself with the dress challenge. Check his Instagram for more and in motion pictures as well, aka videos.....  Salvador Sobral will be having tomorrow already a third (and last) episode of his live Instagram concerts at 22.30 CET singing Spanish so...

The reigning Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands came to Helsinki's Nosturi in his European tour on November 28, 2019. The chosen venue was Nosturi amongst the ship building docks by the sea, a venue that will be sadly closed by the end of the year and torn down. The day was also one of the darkest and rainiest possible so outside the atmosphere was all but joyous. Also, going there knowing only the two singles he had released so far the expectations weren't very high to be honest. Paul Elias of UMK's Satin Circus fame (runner up to PKN) was the warm up artist and his gig didn't really go well from broken guitars to missing vocals..... Also, the venue was barely half full, among them many local Dutch obviously.... I had also read some reviews in search for information on set list etc and one reviewers note stuck in mind "he hardly took any eye contact and it seemed like there was a invisible wall between him and the public" I wasn't s...

Reigning Eurovision song contest winner Duncan Laurence has released the video for his follow up single Love don't hate it . Very simple video fitting perfectly the mood of the song that is pretty fabulous and grows with every listen. Good job, Duncan! and while at it, have a rewatch if his Arcade , too:

Here it is finally, eagerly waited follow up to Duncan Laurence's Eurovision song contest winner Arcade . It seems the midtempo Love don't hate it has surprised many who thought he'd release another ballad and has met with general praise. And indeed, it's a good one. The wait for the follow up has raised also a lot of talk in the Eurovision bubble why the winners take so long to release a follow up.  Duncan's five months is in line with the others, or even a bit faster than average. On the other hand it is only the second song he has released so we can talk about a real debutant. The 2018 winner Netta released her follow up Bassa sababa only in February the year after and has released a total of three singles so far. Salvador Sobral, the 2017 winner, for obvious reasons, released his follow up a year later. Mano a mano was followed by his second studio album and two more singles. After Eurovision he released a live album of his debut album based tou...

  After hitting number one in every possible chart in Italy, breaking also a few all time records what comes to streaming (most streamed Italian song ever with 81 milion) and such, selling multiple platinum at home, platinum in Switzerland and gold in Spain, hitting number on in Israel and Greece and making the official singles charts in over 20 countries the success has no end: the live video from Eurovision song contest has become the most watched Italian entry ever on official Eurovision channel (over 12 milion), and the video itself has reached and passed 100 million mark becoming the fifth (and soon 4th) most watched Eurovision entry ever.  While the winner Duncan Laurence is appearing here and there while prepairing his fall/winter tour around Europe, Mahmood is touring Italy and making appearances in Sweden (also a first!) and Spain where he apparently right now recording a new single. Soon he will be also in Switzerland. Check below his tour dates that have regu...

It's been less than two days since Duncan Laurence sung his Arcade to the Eurovision victory and gave The Netherlands their fifth win after 44 years after Ding-a-dong in 1975. Already ten venues in eight cities have showed interest to host Eurovision 2020, added by the whole region of North Brabant.... later specified capital s'-Hertogenbosch's Brabanthallen as the venue.  The front runners are Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam but also places like Arnhem, Leeuwarden, Maastricht, Zwolle and The Hague, the host of 1976 and 1980 editions. It's a bit like when Finland won all sort of Rovaniemi and Lahti wanted to be game and quoting Duncan "bidding is a losing game" for them from the start. Simply because they don't have a suitable venue to start with. or they do and it doesn't have a roof..... But then we have Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome (17.000) and Amsterdam RAI (13.000), already a host for the 1970 contest, and Rotterdam's Ahoy (16.000) with ...

Loving him wasn't the losing game Why I have a feeling they don't know what they're doing? One big Eurovision family One is very happy, the other.... not so much propably Everyone loves Mahmood Christer missed his first Eurovision final since... well.... 1991? Hospitalized and waiting for a surgery he's about to spent some extra time in Israel The day of departures.... .. and time to focus on 2020! Season 2019 has been a lot of fun, thanks for sharing! Zie je volgend jaar in Nederland!

The Netherlands score their first win since 1975, and their 5th, with Duncan Laurence's Arcade. It was juries 3rd and televoters 2nd (Norway won that!) just by 8 points over Italy. Italy was juries 4th. The real surprise was North Macedonia that won the jury vote but was only 121th with the televoters. Sweden was once again juries favorite placing 2nd but televoters didn't buy it and had it only 9th. Sweden got 10 times 12 points, Italy, the Nertherlands and North Macedonia six, Czech Republic 4, Australia 2 and Russia, Serbia, Denmark, Israel, Greece, Azerbaijan and Cyprus one. Needless to say Greece and Cyprus gave them to each other, as did Russia and Azerbaijan. The Russian jury vote was the most random at first glance.  Iceland managed to provocate in the end sporting Palestine scarf when their televotes were announced... A lot of camera mistakes, and one of them during Estonian performance, as well as sound problems at least at my place. Also a lot pixeling i...

Marcel Bezençon Awards 2019 have been announced and delivered just before the final tonight. The Marcel Bezençon Awards are divided into three categories: the Press Award (given to the best entry voted for by the accredited media), the Artistic Award (presented to the best artist voted for by the commentators) and the Composer Award (from a jury consisting of the participating composers who vote for the most original composition). Press Award - Duncan Laurence from The Netherlands Artistic Award - Kate Miller-Heidke from Australia Composer's Award -Mahmood, Dardust, Charlie Charles from Italy

Happy quartet Grrece and Turkey - no problem! Greece & Macedonia - no problem! Kate's poles The podium? Co op (without) limits