Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The local favorite Youtuber Bilal Hassani won the French national final Destination Eurovision 2019 with his Roi , a song co-written by last year's winners Madame Monsieur . The international juries weren't that impressed placing it only 5th. And for a reason. The song has its moments but the problem is Bilal himself. The character will keep average European voters guessing is it a boy or a girl even if it shouldn't matter in 2019, and the rest of us will be only listening if and when his voice breaks and will he make it to the end of the song. The French delegation better think a proper back up for him in form of backing singers and rethink the whole staging again as how it is, it isn't good. Shame. International juries preferred Seemone's French ballad filled with fragile emotion and Silvàn Areg's French cabaret and even Emmanuel Moire's and Chimène Badi's more radio friendly pop tunes. But televotes changed it all.... Time will tell how wise th...

France's Destination Eurovision is again one of the best national finals with lots to offer in terms of today's radio hits and modern music yet having a clear French sound and enough variety to make it very interesting. Corsican makes a comeback as a possible Eurovision language with Battista  Acquaviva. After three liveshows two semifinals will follow with nine eantries each, four of them advancing to the final after 50-50 televote-international jury. Among songwriters we have last year's Madame Monsier for Bilal Hassani and Alma of 2017 for Naestro, who is my front runner with Emmanuel Moire who I have wanted for Eurovision for years, sadly his song isn't as strong as I'd want it to be. Below is my first hearing ranking. Sadly, most my favorites are in the first semi-final.... Update 1: The first semi-final gave rather surprising results, and my faves are already out. On the other hand the night deliveres a lot of weak vocals and uninspired performances to...

This week we start with Tarja Turunen who has released Victim of ritual , that one could call a heavy bolero with operatic singing and rolling r's, off her recently released Colours in the dark album. Fabulously weird! Another Finn everyone knows is Tom of Finland . There's a movie in the making of his rather incredible and eventful life starring Olli Rahkonen as Tom himself, read more (and help to finance the project) here . In this clip Tom and his lover sing a beautiful Finnish classic Romanssi , romance. Did you know he was also a very talented pianist? Emmanuel Moire is one of the top favorites by the French fans to represent them in Copenhagen 2014 and this blogger loves the idea indeed! Beau malheur is one of his latest songs and it's great! And if you want more Tom-like Emmanuel it's enoug to google " Emmanuel Moire " and " naked " ;-p And to finish off it nicely, here's G Sisters with  Мало тебя , a Serebro cover of their Malo ...

... France should have saved Et alors by Shy'm for Eurovision. But that song is representing La France in OGAE Song contest instead, let's see how it will go....  Eurovision Bonsoir Paris fan site has run a lot of questions for French Eurovision fans (nearly 500 of them answered) over the summer and out of the results we can see that they'd prefer a Melodifestivalen type of selection show - or at least a televised national final. Not surprisingly they would also like to pick up the winner themselves - and if not, it should be picked up by an international jury and/or televote.  And when it comes down to the song itself, it should be a quality one, as well as the artist's vocal capacities should be up to it. There should be rhythm, charisma and stage presence and visual effects thrown in with a good measure. If the artists is well known or not isn't that important. Surprisingly more fans would like to order a song from a known Eurovision writer than ordering i...

Tout le monde chant contre le cancer , amega charity event for cancer gathers together 50 artists, two nights each with 3 hours of entertainment takes place in France next month. Among artists several Eurovision veterans like Amandine Bourgeouis, Amaury Vassili, Patrick Fiori and Michele Torr . And there are several names this blogger would love to see on Eurovision stage sometime soon, like M Pokora - presenting his megasuccesful Robin Hood project -, Emmanuel Moire and Florent Mothe . Just to name a few. You can follow the event news here .

Husky and sassy Amandine Bourgeois (33) will represent France in Malmö 2013 with L'enfer et moi , a song written for her by David Salkin and Boris Bergman who returns to the Eurovision for the third time. She hopes to relaunch her career that started with a bang after she won La nouvelle Star in 2008 and delivered an album that sold gold in France and hit the charts also in other French speaking countries. This is the moment for the girl who studied flute and learned the profession singing in covers bands while dreaming a duet with Whitney Houston but ended up dueting with Scorpions in Still loving you instead and working with Amy Winehouse's team in London for her second album. She has already done Royal Albert Hall, soon she will rock Malmö Arena. Recently she also took part in the musical phenomenon of the year in France, Génération Goldman singing Jean Jacques Goldman's Au bout de mes rêves with Emmanuel Moire. Her other songs include Envie d'un manque des pr...

Jean-Jacques Goldman is one of this blogger's favorite French artists and the man who did adult Céline Dion in French, so to speak. He hasn't released solo material since 2001 but his music lives on, most recently in France where a tribute album has been released and become the hit of the season, Génération Goldman featuring some big names of the music industry of younger generation, including M Pokora, Shy'm, Emmanuel Moire, Christophe Willem, Amaury Vassili, ZAZ and Baptiste Giabiconi, the world's highest paid male model and Karl Lagerfeld's muse turned into pop singer. It's like a Christmas came early present! Fantastic! What a nice trip back to past and my musical history of the 1980's and 1990's! The covers are nicely kept pretty close to the originals, just with a new voices and maybe slightly updated sounds. For me this is the music event of the year! Here below you can compare the versions and enjoy some great music if you don't his work ...

The French know how to make great charity singles. Often in these cases with dozens of singers the song itself may get lost and the voices just don't blend together well but this Je reprends ma route flows away like a real song and is very good. Besides it's collecting money for charity and children it features Eurovision names like Marie Myriam, Anggun and Gerard Lenorman along with M.Pokora, Jenifer, Emmanuel Moire, Lââm and Julie Zenatti just to name a few. More information here . 

... France would send Mika . He's not French but Lebanese-American and has lived in the country for a long time and speaks fluent French. He has previosuly expressed his interest toward Eurovision and his wish to represant Lebanon - would France do? He beats Emmanuel Moire and Christophe Willem in a fan poll. Worth mentioning is Patricia Kaas came second last year in this poll (won by Chimène Badi who came 4th this time). It is also known France is aiming to send another big name to Eurovision after Patricia Kaas. Previous Eurovision entrants Lara Fabian and Natasha St-Pier came 8th and 12th, and other names include Najoya Bèlyzel , Anggun , Helene Segara , David Guetta . Emma Shapplin and Miss Dominique .

They're talking about national selection in France, yet there are rumours of internal selection again. What if France sent another internationally succesful act, like Bob Sinclair or David Guetta. I'm personally dreaming of Jeanne Mas, Myléne Farmer, Alizée, Elsa, Vanessa Paradis, Roch Voisine and such but the chances are very slim. So here's a trio of male singers that I think would suit the job well: Emmanuel Moire, Christophe Maé and M.Pokora! Emmanuel Moire already did Sopot festival last year reaching second place. Did that wet his appetite to try the real thing? His also free from his duties as Louis XIV in the musical Le roi soleil he did from 2004 to 2007 and ready to publish his second album. Check him out here: http://www.emmanuelmoire.com/ Christophe Maé also made himself famous in the same musical playing Maestro. He released his first solo album in 2007 and it topped the French album charts and gave birth to 4 hit singles selling over 1,5 million copies. He w...