Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with Valentina Monetta before and after the concert in San Marino on August 5, 2014. A concert where she presented songs from her latest album Sensibilità . An album where Valentina was able to express herself in a more personal way including songs composed by herself in collaboration with other authors, including her brother Vincenzo ( Viaggio samba , this blogger's personal favorite). An intimate concert in the magical setting of Piazza della Libertà under (almost) full moon, with intense and original interpretations of rearranged Chrysalis and Maybe and a lot of what she does best: jazzy stuff. But it's not all spotlights and glitter in the tiny intense, somewhat closeted reality of the microstate of San Marino, a small jewel of the Italian peninsula, as we spoke over a pleasant lunch and the post-concert gathering in the historic center, or during an afternoon at the beach on the Adriatic Coast (where her video for May...

Marco Mengoni's success in Italy has no end. The multiplatinum selling album #prontoacorrere stays firmly in top-10 (being at #7 after 21 weeks in the charts when writing this), while the title track Pronto a correre has been one of the hits of summer 2013 (still at #16 in the downloads after 16 weeks), the tour that continues until October has been a sold out success everywhere and more dates have been added in bigger cities to accomodate all the fans... On top of that he's about to take off to Los Angeles and start conquering the Latin market. He has also picked up several awards and even more nominations, made Italy proud in Eurovision, won the Sanremo festival.....  The winning song and his Eurovision entry L'essenzial e is the most sold/downloaded song in Italy between 31.12.2012-30.6.2013! The album is 6th most sold/downloaded at the same period.  His fans - Esercito - has always been a very active one, but another milestone has been reached: 500.000 likes ...

UMK gets serious this Thursday when the first heat takes place in the sold out Circus nightclub in Helsinki city center. The broadcast will be live on TV2 (20.00-20.50 and 21.05-21.30) but not only: you can also follow it online in YLE Areena, where a special UMK+ will start already 19.45 and go on until 20.00 and be online again during the break at 20.50-21.05 with special guests and surprises. The same goes for the second heat and the semifinal as well. UMK+ will broadcast also before the final 19.30-20.00.  You can also participate by Twitter with #UMK13 and the tweets are visible on Text-TVs page 398. And then there's of course UMK's Facebook . (All times CET) And how will it all work? The jury and televote will send two songs directly to the final, three will go to semifinal and one is out. The same process next week so in the final there will be six songs (four direct qualifiers and two from semifinal). Tomorrow we have Iina Salin , Last Panda , Mikael Saari , I...

Participate NOW here . Eurovision Song Contest 2012 San Marino                           Lights, camera ... ACTION!! We are giving all of Valentia Monetta's fans a once in a lifetime chance to win an exclusive VIP trip to the world famous Oktoberfest 2012 in Munich, Germany (flights and hotel included for two) plus 1000€ in Cash       You will be invited and looked after as Valentina's esteemed guest and will experience some of the most unforgettable days and loads of fun at the biggest folk festival in the world! YOU might be asking yourself  "How does it work?" ... Well let me tell you what you need to know to win this fabulous prize!  It's all about being creative, musical and original in order to stand out and have a chance of winning. You need to create your own music video to the song FACEBOOK UH ...

The Satirical song aka Facebook Uh Oh Oh turns into The Network song (Oh Oh Uh Oh Oh) . Music stays the same - to horror of many fans - but I don't agree. I think it's happy, funny, groovy and incredibly catchy if you just let yourself like it. The lyrics do not mention anymore Facebook (or Mark Zuckerberg for that matter) as it has been replaced by various Oh ohs, Beep beeps and hellos . Well done. 

You are already over 900 in Facebook. If you are not a fan yet please join here and let's make it 1.000 before the big night, ok?

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