Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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...

Portugal's 60th Festival da Canção came to an end tonight and the winner is Bandidos do Cante.  Portugal's national selection for Eurovision song contest 2026 has been quite critical to the participation with most artists and/or songwriters declaring they won't go to Vienna should they win. In the end there are apparently only two artists who have declared they will go to Vienna, and one uncertain if they win. Let's see who eventually will go to Eurovision in the end.... Apparently Bandidos do Cante is one of those who have said yes. Read more here .  Bandidos de Cante was formed almost by accident by childhood friends singing Alentejo folk songs at dinner parties and such. The quintet is composed of Miguel Costa, Duarte Farias, Francisco Raposo, Luís Aleixo and Francisco Pestana, all natives of the municipality of Beja, except for Francisco Pestana, who is from Monte Trigo. After tone of those dinner gatherings they were invited to record vocals to D.A.M.A.'s Casa ...

Sweden's Melodifestivalen has been the usual carnival travelling through Sweden with five semi-finals and the grand final that was won by Felicia as expected. She won both international jury vote and the televotes. Out of 3.888 submissions 30 songs made the cut, written by some ten names as usual, and two qualified from each semi-final for the final while the 3rd placed entry was sent to yet another qualification round where from two more songs made it to Stockholm. Among them two Eurovision veterans: Sanna Nielsen and Robin Bengtson. Add A-Teens that were dusted off for the occasion, Medina and Smash Into Pieces trying for another time after being close to the win already previous years. The pre-contest fan favorites this afternoon were Felicia (73%) and Greczula (8%). Read more here .  Final (jury + tele)  A-Teens – Iconic   (31 + 36) 67  7th Meira Omar – Dooset daram   (33 + 8) 41  9th Lilla Al-Fadji – Delulu   (24 + 39) 63  8th Saga Ludvigsson...

  Ukraine's national final for Eurovision song contest 2026, Vidbir, has had its final and was won by Ukraine is the only country that has managed to qualify every time they have participated plus they have won three times and been runner up twice in the past 20 participation. War or no war Ukraine is one of the Eurovision power houses no doubt. In 2026 the selection followed already familiar path: Out of submitted 451 entries  15 were announced and invited for an audition where from nine made it directly to the final. The rest were put on an online vote and the winner Khayat was added to the final. Other familiar names made the cut as like last year's runner up Molodi, and two Eurovision veterans: Jerry Heil (3rd in ESC 2024 with Alyona Alyona) and Monokate (5th with Go_A in ESC 2021). Ad Olena Usenko, a member of The Elliens (6th in JESC 2021). Read more here   My favorite in the end was Laud with Jerry Heil even if her song doesn't quite fit into Eurovision stage I sup...

Luxemburg had its national final for Eurovision song contest on January 24, 2026 and was won by Eva Marija.with Mother nature. Eva Marija Kavaš Puc (20) was born and raised in Luxemburg by Slovenian parents. She has studied singing (from jazz to pop, rock and classical), violin, bass and piano in Conservatoire de Luxemburg. Her music writing studies continue in London. She took a clear win by winning both jury and televotes. Mother nature is her fifth single after When 2 lovers meet , Toxic trait , Time to go and Sweet child in the past five years.  Out of 83 submission came through different ways to enter and 15 were invited for an audition and an international jury chose the 8 for the final. In final the top-3 entered the superfinal. The other placements haven't been revealed yet. (Full results published January 30 and added below) Luxemburg song contest (jury + televote) 1. Eva Marija - Mother nature (94 + 128)  222 2. Steve Castile - Sweet tooth (80 + 65)  136...

  Moldova had its national final Finala Națională for Eurovision song contest 2026 on January 17 and it was won by Satoshi and his Viva, Moldova! Satoshi (aka Vlad Sabajuc, 27) is a Moldovan singer, songwriter, rapper and composer. He's been involved in music as Satoshi since 2019 and has already released four albums and 40 singles since 2022! However so far only two have apparently charted: Noaptea pe la 3 (#16 in Moldova) and Diferente (#81 in Romania).  Satoshi won in the final both international and national jury and also the televote by huge margin: he got 13.084 votes versus CatalinaSolomac's 861! Originally 37 songs were submitted, 34 attended the auditions round in December and 16 acts reached the final. Both the national and international jury included several Eurovision artists who also performed during the show.  Finala Națională 2026 (nat jury + int jury + televote) 1. Satoshi - Viva, Moldova! (12 + 12 + 12) 36 2. Pavel Orlov - Can't say goodbye (10 + 8 + 8)...

Montenegro is selecting its entry for Eurovision song contest tonight. 15 songs have made it this far and there will be a threesome voting: 50% jury, 25% Montenegrin televote and 25% international televote. The show airs from RTCG's Veliki studios in Podgorica. Among artists Eurovision veteran Andrea Demirović and Dolce Hara who for some mysterious reason has decided to sing in accented Italian or maybe just keep up with the "let's sing in Italian for no reason at all" in various national finals trend that regularly is dusted somewhere. And she's not even alone.... Tamara Is a singer and flutist, studies in University of Arts in Belgrade. Her breakthrough came last year in Montesong where she placed 9th with Poguban let . After that she has released another two songs:  Prošla godina and Bez kontrole .  Update: Music video and revamped version was released March 8, 2026 Below are the results (jury + public - total, placement) Lara Baltić - Rhythm Boy   (6 + 12) 18 ...

Sanremo giovani final is titled Sarà Sanremo (It will be Sanremo) will air tonight from Casinò di Sanremo  and six artists have made it this far after submissions (a total of 524), auditions, four weekly selections and a semi-final and two of them will win the ticket to Sanremo 2026 newcomers section tonight along with two artists from Area Sanremo selection picked out of 505 submissions. They were announced yesterday and are Mazzariello and Soniko, Blind & El Ma trio.  Angelica Bove made it already last year to the final but didn't make it to the top-4 losing the duel to eventual winner Settembre. Mazzariello on the other hand was eliminated by Angelica in a semi-final duel. She did also X Factor 2023. Antonia made the final of Amici earlier this year finishing 4th. Also Filippucci comes from the same  Amici 24 placing 6th. But before that he has done most every possible talent between 2022-24 in Italy, San Marino and elsewhere. Senza Cri tried her luck already in Sa...

  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. 

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...

  Let the drama come to an end with a peaceful way. Let's pray! In the odds (at 6pm) Croatia is still leading with 43% chance, followed by Israel (22%), Switzerland (14%), France going up with 4%. All the other % are 4 or lowers so I won't add them here. Ireland is steady at 5th, followed by Ukraine and Italy dropping, Finland going up to 8th place (!!!), Greece steady at 9th, Uk, Sweden, Norway and Armenia going up next, while Lithuania and Austria going down. Georgia steady at 16th. Spain and Cyprus going up and Estonia steady at 19th. Then Germany and Latvia going up, while Slovenia going down at 22nd. Portugal and Luxemburg going up while Serbia has dropped to last. So, quite a lot of movement there up and down. I still stick to my fixed idea since November 2023 of France winning followed by Israel, Ukraine, Croatia, Switzerland and Italy in random order. I also think the winner may not win either jury nor televotes, maybe not even be the runner up but in the end maths done...

There's pre-Käärijä and there's post-Käärijä and Finland is kinda having a post-Käärijä hangover now. Most everyone is complaining the songs aren't good. I always tell them go and check some other country's selection, Moldova for example and you see how great it is again. Seven songs, all good or very good in their own way. Maybe there isn't Cha cha cha in there but any song chosen will be better than quite a few others present in Malmö for sure. Then again, of course we want to find The One that would take us to final and do good. Only that we feel a bit spoiled right now. Still.  The show takes us away from Helsinki or Turku to Tampere and for the first time to a big arena (that sold out within minutes btw! The hype is real). Tampere, the Eurovision wannabe city. Had Käärijä won the Eurovision 2024 would take place there in Tampere in this arena instead of Malmö. But that's life. The show will be broascasted besides Yle1 television on their streaming channel A...

Tonight's the night. Will Sweden's Loreen become the very first female (and only second) Eurovision winner to take the trophy again? And bring Sweden its 7th victory that equals Ireland's record. Or will Finland manage to win against all odds after all and take its second victory? Finland's Käärijä with Cha cha cha stormed to top all polls and odds once it was published late January and only Sweden managed to pass it when it was released over a month later. Sweden tops the odds while Finland tops the Eurovision scoreboard app. It is commonly believed Finland wins the televote but Sweden the jury vote. How will it be? It's been all so much about these two countries that other countries have been completely over shadowed by the whole duel. Could we have a surprise winner and in that case who? Here are the song, with the odds top-10 (when writing this) videos displayed, for the other click the title. In brackets the odds placement 24 hrs before the final. 1. AUSTRIA - ...

Last but not least, we have a winner in Portugal! Festival da Canção 2023 was won by Mimicat and she goes to Liverpool's Eurovision song contest for Portugal hoping to continue the success Portugal has enjoyed the past two editions. It looks like the juries and televote didn't agree on nothing but the top-2 that were very clear. The jury even tied them giving both of them 12 points.  Results (jury/tele vote) 1. Mimicat - Ai coração (12 + 12) 24 2. Edmundo Inácio - A Festa (12 + 10) 22 3. Claudia Páscoal - Nasci Maria (8 + 4) 12 4. Bárbara Tinacvo - Goodnight (3 + 6) 9 5. Ivandro _ Povo (6 + 3) 9 6. Dapunksportif - World needs therapy (0 + 8) 8 7. Voodoo Marmelade - Tormento (0 + 7) 7 8. Tou can't win, Charlie Brown - Contraste mudo (7 + 0) 7 9. Churky - Encruzilhada (0 + 5) 5 10. Neon Soho - Endless world (5 + 0) 5 11. Esse Povo - Sapatos de cimento (4 + 0) 12. SAL - Viver (1 + 2) 3 13. Inés Apenas - Fim do mundo (2 + 1) 3 I can't believe I did review and watch each and...

Melodifestivalen is here again and this year Loreen has electrified the otherwise somewhat snooze fest and everyone seems to be taking for granted that she will again and that she will also win Eurovision in Liverpool again. Maybe she just got pissed off when Euphoria was kicked off from the first place in the ESC250 this New Year's? Who knows. She has entered Mello three times before, twice not making the final at all but this time the hype is real. But more about that later. A lot has been said about the quality of the songs, and especially the songwriters as there are names having six and four and who knows how many songs in the final, and each and every song having about a dozen songwriters. I find that a bit boring to be honest. Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods - Where are you (Sávežan) * Poor Jon Henrik used as a prop! And still he's the only interesting part of this mediocre pop song that goes on three minutes and vanished without a trace...  Tone Sekeliu...