Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Another year has passed and sadly more Eurovision song contest veterans and winners have joined the heavenly band. Below are some of the artists, song writers, conductors of Eurovision that we lost this year.  Francois Hardy (1944-2024) - L'amour s'en va (Monaco 1963) Dickie Rock (1936-2024) - Come back to stay (Ireland 1966) Guy Bonnet (1945-2024) - Marie-Blanche (France 1970), Vivre (France 1983), writer for La Source (France 1968) Joe Cujatar (1941-2024) - L'imħabba (Malta 1972) Humbrey Campbell (1958-2024) - Wijs me de weg (Netherlands 1992) Marjorie (1965-2024) - participated in the Finnish national selection 1988 , 1989 , 1990 , 1994 Hans Blum (1928-2024) -writer of German entries 1967 , 1969 , 1986 Martin Lee of Brotherhood of Men (1946-2024) - Save your kisses for me (UK 1976) Colin Gibb (1953-2024) of Black Lace - Mary Ann  fame (UK 1979) Emre Tukur of Klips ve Onlar and Pan fame (Turkey 1986, 1989 ) Shmulik Bilu of Milk & Honey (1952-31.12.2023) - Hallel...

Listen to the album trailer Alice's new album Weekend is released today. The title comes from the fact it has been recorded over the weekends the past two years, after the release of her previous Samsara album. In many interviews she has given for the album she also talks about her relationship with Franco Battiato and the music business.  "With Battiato we have always stayed friends and I have continued singing his songs, even recording some like È stato molto bello in 2003. I asked him to write me a song for Samsara and he gave me Eri con me . Now in this album he sings duet with me in late Claudio Rocchi's La realtà non esiste , and he wrote also Veleni , a song sent to Sanremo 2014 and luckily not accepted, The lyrics are by late Manlio Sgalambro, propably his last text" she now says. "Working with Battiato is always a pleasure and comes naturally. He has also written the Italian lyrics to Tante belle cose , a Francoise Hardy cover , masterfully a...

Another French speaking little one, Monaco, took part from 1959 to 1979 and returned in 2004. Three years stopped in the semifinals made them lose their interest at least for now. They blame Monaco has no chance to qualify with the current voting system where neighbouring voting counts too much (how about sending good songs and valuable artists, they would have an endless resources of big French stars?) as well as financial matters. TMC has however went on year by year toying with the participation so there is a chance we will see them back. 24 entries to date with one victory in 1971 - Monaco remains the only winning country that did not host the Eurovision - and 7 other top-5 placings gives a very good average, however the placements in the 2000's are sad reading: 19th, 24th and 21st in semifinal. Just like Luxembourg also Monaco usually borrowed its song writers and artists from France or elsewhere, and sometimes managed to get a big name for them like Francoise Hardy , or the ...