Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Sanremo Giovani or Newcomers, literally Young has sorted out its first 60 that made it. These 60 will be invited to live auditions and 15 will make it to the televized selection and eventually to the final and the winner will be get the ticket to Sanremo 2027 as one of the 24 Big and who knows, all the way to Burgas Eurovision? (A hat trick previously managed only by Mahmood and in a way Francesco Gabbani). Along Sanremo Giovani there's also AreaSanremo selection going on, each providing 3 of the 6 finalists of Sar?a Sanremo. But how "new" the selected ones are? Eight names have already participated in Sanremo Giovani in 2023-25. Ten have participated already in X Factor inclusing a recent winner and runner up. Seven names come out of Amici reality show. Then we have a name that has already done Eurovision song contest and scored international hits and a couple of names from other festivals or contests like Nuova Scena or Musicultura. Or even Rai's primetime entertain...

A bit over month to go before Stefano de Martino will reveal the 23 Big artists for the 77th Sanremo festival to be held next 16-20 February with the special Eurovision selection show to be held on 19. Stefano De Martino will be first new Artistic director after five years of Carlo Conti, five years of Amadesu and two odd editions in between by Claudio Baglioni.  De Martino is of different generation at 37 than the three others (65-75 years) but the rumored artist list seems pretty much same as every year. Quite a few rappers included but it's clear they all won't make it, it's been the same the past years. It'll be interesting to see how much different the final list will be from this rumored and speculated one published by All Music Italia (and some others). Another thing to look forward and to pay attention is the more focused Eurovision link. I still think the special Eurovision night is not needed and eventually may only end up harming Italy's results in the co...

So, Burgas it is. Ebu and BNT won over the power of Sofia who insisted on hosting the show in the capital due some political stuff if I understood right, and that caused the delay in declaring the chosen city by almost two weeks or so. We will have a beach Eurovision again by the Black Sea and one of the most southern ones. The legendary Sunny beach is there nearby and Greece and Turkey's Istanbul are only a day trip away. The Arena Burgas will host the semi-finals on May 11 and 13, and the grand final on May 15, 2027, just before it celebrates its fourth birthday being opened on May 18, 2023. It's maximum capacity is 15.000 for the concerts but obviously an Eurovision song contest like show will have less seating space due to the big stage etc. Maybe next May will change its image to that of a triumph instead of its current status as a symbol of corruption in Bulgaria due to its delays and failed budgets during its construction that took over eight years..... At the day of ann...

After American song contest (a total flop, one edition)), attempts to create Eurovision like contests to Latin America, Africa, Canada (and who remembers where else?) and the Eurovision dance contest (another flop, two editions) and those on going Eurovision Young musicians, Eurovision Young Dancers, Eurovision Choir that are very marginal, as is Junior Eurovision song contest, it looks like the Eurovision Asia is really happening finally in November 2026 with national selections starting next month across Asia.  But how did we get this far?  It all started already back in September 2008 when Ebu announced that Asian-Pacific Eurovision would take place in 2009 . Under title Our sound - the Asia Pacific Song Contest was to feature 16 broadcasters taking part from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. It was due to happen in Singapore in late 2009 before it was pos...

The new Artistic director for Sanremo Stefano De Martino * has really changed some things in the annual festival with his co-director Fabrizio Ferraguzzo, some same old like dropping the Newcomers category in the festival, some new like replacing the Cover night with Eurovision night. But let's go on order. No news about his co-hosts yet but the names Giulia Vecchio, Herbert Ballerina and Carlo Amleto , his current collaborators are considered very possible be in. Maria De Filippi might return as well.  The 77th Sanremo festival will take place in Teatro Ariston in Sanremo between February 16 and 20, 2027. Apparently there will be fewer songs this time around, 24 (instead of the 30 the past years). The Newcomers winner aka Sanremo Giovani winner will be added to the line up to compete among the Big  and thus will have a chance to win it all and/or the Eurovision night and go to Eurovision as well. Just like Mahmood in 2018-19. The Sanremo Giovani final will take place on De...

Eurovision song contest 2027 will take place in Bulgaria after Dara's win in Vienna 2026. The most likely dates are May 11, 13 and 15, 2027 according the information we have so far but the dates will be most likely confirmed along with the chosen venue and city in the end of July. Four cities submitted proposals for hosting but Plovdiv and Varna were out on July 13 and Sofia and Burgas stay in competition. The other two really didn't have a chance to start with, did they? Sofia stays the front runner from the beginning with its Arena Sofia. Opened in 2011 it has a seating capacity of 12.373 and concerts up to over 17.000. It already hosted Junior Eurovision 2015. Sofia is of course the capital of Bulgaria. It has been continuously inhabited since 7000 Bc and today nearly 1,3 million call it home. With all its ancient history it surely has a lot to offer in that department. Burgas bids with Burgas arena with seating capacity of 4100-6100 and up to 15.000 for concerts. Opened in ...

  The 2020's have been very good for Finland, the best era of the whole Eurovision history by far. Four out of six our best placements ever have been in the past six years.  1. Lordi - Hard rock hallelujah - 1/37   2006 2. Käärijä - Cha cha cha  2/37  2023 3. Blind Channel - Dark side  6/39    2021 4. Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen -Liekinheitin  6/35    2026 5. Erika Vikman - ICH KOMME   11/37    2025 5. Softengine - Something better  11/37    2014

  There was a saying that hell will freeze over before Finland wins Eurovision but then came the monsters from hell and stormed to record breaking victory that night exactly 20 years ago in Athens.... And even cows did fly! (At least I saw a cow balloon the day after hanging in a three infront of my window anyways....) I remember being at home alone, as I always do watch Eurovision alone and as I was a lot more inside in the bubble back then I had had my spies in Athens telling me Finland had won the semi-final. So expectations were high and all along I had said since Lordi won the national final that they would either win or be a total flop. After the Swedish vote I remember my excitement turned into calmness: We will win. And oh boy did we win! The Finnish commentators Jaana Pelkonen and Heikki Paasonen with Asko Murtomäki lost it completely somewhere around the third 12 points. You can watch the voting here , starting around 2h10) 8 points from Slovenia..... (We got first point...

  Bulgarian odds There's been a lot of talk about odds being wrong and not seeing the bangaranga effect almost at all, and how last year KAJ was leading the odds all season and finished 4th just like Linda & Pete this year didn't win but finished 6th. On the other hand in the semi-final two odds predicted the ten qualifiers 100%. But how different it the odds vs. final results really were? The losers Sweden is the biggest loser dropping a total of 12 places from 8th to 20th. Malta dropped 7 places and favorites Finland and Greece both 5. UK and Cyprus dropped 4 places, another favorite Australia 2 as well as Czechia while France and Germany did pretty much as expected dropping only one place. The winners The biggest climber was Poland with 7 places higher than expected followed by Albania 5. Moldova , Ukraine and Belgium climbed 4 places while Romania 3 from 6th to 3rd, another surprise. Norway and Serbia also did 3. The winner Bulgaria climbed 2 from 3rd ...

I must say I pretty much nailed it with Estonia and Switzerland being the 11th ones in their semi-finals. Georgia and Azerbaijan finishing last were expected. Bulgaria scored highest already here among all semi-finalists but Poland and Norway scoring so high is a bit of a surprise after all. Judging the results this year next year's national finals will be filled with insane nonsense bangers, violins and rock.  Finland was second for the juries and fifth for the televoters and third in combined. Semi-final One 1. Israel   269 (jury 106 + tele 163) 2. Poland   247 (137 + 110) 3. Finland   227 (127 + 100)  4. Moldova  208 (62 + 146) 5. Serbia  187 (56 + 131)  6. Croatia 175 (85 + 90) 7. Greece  159 (88 + 71) 8. Lithuania   101 (46 + 55) 9. Sweden  96 (79 + 17) 10. Belgium   91 (81 + 10) 11. Estonia   79 (33 + 46) 12. Portugal  74 (39 + 35)  13. Montenegro   71 (26 + 45) 14. S...

Oh dear, that was a bit unexpected even if Bulgaria rose to the Top-3 in odds the day of final and had its momemtum rising after the rehearsals. Bangaranga everyone indeed. She was fuegoed. And it won both jury and tele , that didn't happen since 2017! Israel was beaten, maybe that's what matters in a way. Next thought is can they afford to host next year? Weren't they away for financial reasons mostly anyways until this sudden return just when other countries stayed home? Another returnee Romania finished third - who would have thought? Makes one wonder how come these two returnees did so well all of sudden and if they were too broke to participate before how they ended up in 2026? Just saying.  Australia and Finland and most of all Greece as well as Denmark bombed a bit. Is it the time of the odds being right is over? Last year the clear #1 favorite finished 4th, now 6th. But then again Finland 6th place is our 4th best placing ever (compared to number of participants) Th...

The moment is here. Three hours before the start odds are saying Finland (38) , Australia (24), a new entry on top Bulgaria (8), Greece (7) and Israel (6), Romania and Denmark have dropped, Italy, France and Malta hold their positions below.  Who is going to win? Will we have a compromise winner who doesn't win either jury or televote?  The televote will be probably won by Israel again as they have started their campaign en force today it seems. Bulgaria and Greece could be the next ones, or even Italy. And where that puts Finland? In the jury votes Australia, Finland, France and maybe Bulgaria should be on top. Where will Italy land?   I think we have three scenarios here: Or Finland wins Lordi style winning both , or as a compromise not winning neither but ending up on top in the end. Or we have a total chaos of voting and the Top-5 is all messed up by very different votes from the juries and the public. And we have a winner no one expected, like Italy :-) This sai...

Finland's Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen and Liekinheitin stormed to the top of odds as soon as the song was released and has stayed there unbothered with a huge margin ever since. The runner ups have stayed at large in odds; France, Denmark and Greece mostly, only Greece having a tiny spurt just before rehearsals and then Australia climbing to second place after semi-final 2.. The news of Linda playing  her precious Gagliano violin from 1781 live only boosted the chances odds going from 30 to 36, and later the day before final up to 43.  Also the fan clubs back Finland, apparently with the second biggest margin ever. This poll has had its hits and misses but usually gets it somewhat right. Mostly, Not necessary the winner. EuroJury pretending to be the indicator for the jury vote has had it apparently pretty much right mostly, the winner placing in Top-2 in most occasions. Also INFE poll was won by Finland with a huge margin. The biggest fan site, more or less, also backs F...

While the rehearsals for the grand final are going on in Vienna let's have a look at those ten who didn't make it to the end. In my personal order of preference. Latvia being the one I am most sad about.... Portugal ended its run of five consecutive finals Azerbaijan NQ'ed for the 4th in a row Switzerland NQ'ed after a win and a null points from the televote the year after. Georgia NQ's for the second year in a row Overall they have qualified only once in the past 10 years! Armenia NQ'd for the first time in 5 years San Marino NQ'ed for the 4th in 5 years Senhit NQ'd for the 2nd time Estonia NQ'd for the first time in 5 years and after last year's 3rd place Montenegro has qualifed only twice before: 2014 and 2015 Luxemburg NQ'd for the first time. Both ever and after its comeback in 2024.  Whichever way you want to count it.