Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Belarus starts the second round of today's rehearsals. Italian Jacopo Massa has done a great job generating a buzz in Italy for his participation as a member of the band and has managed to get into various medias and doing so spread the Eurovision in the country. One can only say "Grazie!" for those efforts! As for the song, I like it. I may have preferred the original rockier version like many others but I'm used to this discoed version of it. It's catchy, easy and ... I just like it. it's quite straight forward rock performance with a little gimmick with the microphone stands it seems, and some synchronized choreography at one point. The song keeps going like a train. The backdrop is some machinery or something. Simple and effective. More here . Portugal next and a complete change of mood. The backdrop features a city on hills (Lisbon?) at night and we can imagine us in the narrow streets fado in the air and Filipa fills the stage with some lusitana ...

After Amsterdam it's all about London this weekend, where the 5th annual meeting and greeting of the Eurovision artists takes place. Nine of the 2012 acts have confirmed their presence so far and also Slovenian Omar Naber (2005), Kati Wolf (Hungary 2011) will be there with maybe some other surprises. Also you can win tickets to fly to Baku for the real thing. So, Anggun from France, Compact Disco from Hungary, Donny Montell from Lithuania, Eva Boto from Slovenia, Kaliopi from Macedonia, Sabina Babayeva from Azerbaijan and Valentina Monetta from San Marino and Filipa Sousa from Portugal will meet again.  The Shadow Lounge in Soho will be the location and the doors open at 7pm on Sunday April 29, 2012.. Nikki French (UK 2000) and Paddy O'Connell are hosting. More information here . 

Finland and Portugal have a similar history in Eurovision: a lot of failures and a very little to cheer for even if the songs haven't been generally that bad. Finland managed to break the spell in 2006 after 45 years but Portugal is still waiting after 47 years thus breaking the previous Finland's record. And this year both countries send a brunette to the competition with a ballad sung in the native language. This match ends with 1-1 result. Portugal - Filipa Sousa - Vida minha  *** Portugal's entry is a mix of local fado and Slavic melancholy thanks to composer Andrej Babic. Filipa delivers with gusto and passion this melodrama which may not open to televoters with the first hearing. For me this song doesn't quite open no matter how much I would like it to. Usually I'm a sucker for the Portuguese songs and would love to see them win but this year isn't the year either. A borderline qualifier. Finland - Pernilla - När jag blundar  *** Finland'...

Filipa Sousa won both the jury vote and the televote in Portugal and goes to Baku 2012 with Vida minha, penned by Croatian Andrej Babic. This is Babic's sixth Eurovision entry since 2003. He has though never reached the top-10 and his best placing amongst the songs he has written for Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Portugal, it's actually the Portuguese entry Senhora do mar that did the best, 13th in 2008. One could argue with first impression this is the same song and same choreography.....  We are not going to Lisbon 2013, that's for sure. Shame. 1. Filipa Sousa (jury 12 + televote 12) 24 2. Cumplice's (10 + 6) 16 3. Rui Andrade (7 + 7) 14 4. Ricardo Soler (5 + 8) 13 5. Pamela Salvado (8 + 4) 12 6. Carlos Costa ( 0 + 10) 10 7. Vania Osario (6 + 1) 7 8. Pedro Macedo (0 + 5) 5 9.. Armenia Pimenta (2 + 3) 5 10. Joana leite (3 + 2) 5 11. To Martins (4 + 0) 4 12. Gerson Santos (1 + 0) 1