Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

It's been three years Käärijä cha cha chaed his way to Finnish people's heart and not only: sold out European tours where locations have been updated to larger ones, three years in a row performing at Eurovision song contest final in one form or another (plus Cha cha cha played this year making it four), hundreds of gigs and festivals, millions of streams and countless collaborations with local and foreign artists. Not bad for an unknown guy from Vantaa who didn't quite speak English. In Finland he has two Top-5 albums, one has sold triple platinum. Ten top-10 singles, 23 Top-50 singles. 17 singles with other artists. New album comes out in October 2026.  Sold out Veikkaus Arena (Eurovision 2007 arena) saw a show described by critics (and music lovers)  as one of the best Finnish productions ever. A bit messy as he delivered all his hits with guests and the genres go from TRAFIK! to I miss us.... Understandable. But enjoyable. Bojan and Joker Out were the warm up act.  Se...

  Italy - Sal Da Vinci - Per sempre si ... and here's the Italian team on stage:  Germany - Saran Engels - Fire France - Monroe - Regarde! United Kingdom - Look Mum No Computer - Eins, Zwei, Drei Austria - Cosmo - Tanzschein

San Marino. The tiny little thing that makes things big and never ever stops surprising us. This year after the usual very long selecting process that included several previous Eurovision entrants and wannabes from various countries, even with songs they competed in another country's selection, as the last twist of turns announced the qualified semi-finalists before they aired the shows..... Ok. Because why Not?  Read more about all the zillion entrants here After all the submissions, castings through Dreaming San Marino song contest 20 semi-finalists were selected, among them previous Eurovision entrants Magdalena from Poland, Marayya from Slovenia and Star Guy (Norway),  and from this years national final selections Elysa (Estonia), Sheila (Albania) and Xannova Xan (Greece) and even Edward Maya also running in Romania at the same time, with other singers from Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Czechia, Netherlands and United States.  Ten out of those 20 semi-finalist qualified ...

Tonight was the official date but as usual the list leaked already last night as Etta published the group photo and details of her entry in her IG by mistake and obviously someone got a screenshot. Or was it a PR stunt from Yle to boost attention and hype? We will probably never know. And yes, all names were circulating more or less during the past months with the exception of Antti Paalanen. Apparently very well known and famous in his music genre circuit but I have never ever even heard of him I admit.  As for the artists I will go deep with them later after their songs are out (and my holidays over) but I am very, very happy to see Linda and Pete in the list as I have been wishing and hoping both of them for years by now. Not sure about Antti and Komiat but let's hear the songs first. Kiki and Sinikka I'm also happy for, Etta ... not so sure and Chachi is a mystery as she's so far only been as the wife of Jukka Hilden of Duudsomit/The Dudesons fame. But then again she...

  So, Erika Vikman got the same slot 13 than Käärijä did in 2023, both also closed their respective semifinal. Also the combo of Luxemburg-Estonia-Israel-Lithuania-Spain one after another is the same as last year - you only need to switch Netherlands to replace Estonia performing just before Israel. Intentional? Kids friendly Norway and Luxemburg will open the evening and we close with top favorites Sweden and France before going out with a bang with San Marino and Albania.  Below are the odds as of Friday morning 7am CET. Last night Finland passed Israel and France passed Netherlands, otherwise no change on top. 

  It's time to kick of the usual reviews. The opinions are all mine and if I don't like some song it's simply just not my cup of tea so to speak. If I like something you dislike or hate, it's fine, too. No stresso, no need to be depresso it's just music and tastes that re diverse and therefor beautiful! I also try to predict their success come May a little bit but as we know once the staging is out everything may change, remember Fuego and Rise like a phoenix for example? For this series I have grouped the songs in fours as usual as the songs may have similarities or something in common. Some fours came out beautifully, the others.... well not so well. Here comes the eight part! UNITED KINGDOM - Remember Monday - What the hell just happened? They can sing alright. The song is a mess. It sounds like a medley of hits from a musical or simply just some band's greatest hits medley. A bit annoying really. I wouldn't surprised if this end up in bottom 6 as usual. ...

The German national selection ( read more here ) was won by Abor and Tynna who bring yet another non-English song (Hooray!) to Basel. Abor and Tynna are Austrian duo of  siblings Attila and Tunde Bornemisza. They origins are in Romania and Hungary, and come from a musical family their father being a cellist in Vienna Philharmonic orchestra or Vienna State Opera. The siblings started working together in 2016, and has gotten more recognition . In Spotify they have released ten singles since 2020 and one album this year. Enjoy below some of their previous songs:   Super final results: Abor and Tynna - Baller  34,9% Lyza - Lovers on Mars  31,1% Moss Kena - Nothing can stop love  22,6% Leonora - The Bliss  7,0% The Great Leslie - These days  4,4 to be updated

After two semi-finals Iceland had its Söngvakeppnin final with six qualifiers from those. As a change to previous years there were no wild card and no super final round but only 50/50 jury/televote. One thing didn't change: All songs were performed in Icelandic in semi-finals but for the final they could choose either Icelandic or English version of the song or the version they intended to perform in Basel should they win. Read more here . Last year's winner (and also 2010 Eurovision veteran Hera Björk was a guste star with Finland's own Eurovision runner up Käärijä with Swedish Hooja. Final results (jury/televote): Væb - Róa ( 74 + 93) 167 Stebbi Jak - Set me free (57 + 85) 142 Júlí and Dísa - Fire (63 + 74) 137 Bjarni Arason -  Aðeins lengur (44 + 39) 83 Tinna -  Words (53 + 22) 74 Ágúst -  Like you (45 + 23) 68

It was in the air and now it's real: Olly doesn't go to Eurovision. He explains on his social medias:  "I've been asking myself and asking everyone's opinions for days, the answer is always the same: "in the end you have to do what you feel", because everyone knows how much it means to me to be myself, always. Well, I don't think you would be sad if I moved concerts for Eurovision, but I firmly believe that I need to connect with everything that is happening to me, before looking even further ahead, before continuing with my beloved live apprenticeship that I always talk about with infinite pride. I have therefore decided to give up the opportunity to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, with the awareness that it is one of those things that maybe only happen once in a lifetime. I thank those who voted for me and gave me the opportunity to have this privilege: I hope to see you soon at one of my concerts to reciprocate all the love I'm rece...

Finland chose its entry for Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel in a show from Nokia Arena in Tampere. Some last minute drama was provided by Goldielocks and lost voice, as she was forbid by doctors to speak between dress rehearsal and the final. During the live show it was clear she couldn't sing and the show producers had decided in her favour to use the filmed rehearsal instead. Phew! As she had risen maybe the main contender to challenge Erika after One last morning withdraw/was disqualified taking away another one would only fueled more conspiracy theories against Yle. (Well, I never believed them for that matter but it was worth mentioning this). Update 9.2: 2,270.000 viewers last night  and 342.543 votes given - both are new records! The show was hosted by popstar Sanni and Jasmin Beloued, and by the way they were fantastic!  The sold out arena (as well as sold out dress rehearsal in the afternoon) witnesses a show opened by last year's surprise winner Windows95man wi...