Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Samanta Tina (or Samanta Pojakova, 30) finally made it. After six times in the Latvian national selection for Eurovision plus additional two times in the Lithuanaina one and several other festivals  and Lithuanain Voice in her CV. Over a dozen singles released since 2012 - most of them said contest participations - she's finally getting to Eurovision. Checking back her songs one notes she sings in Latvian, English and Russian and the songs in English tend to be more up beat and pop, while in Latvian more ballady. Same goes for her looks: in English a fashion pop diva while in Latvian a girl next door looks reign mostly.....

Indie pop-rock group The Roop is riding high in the pre-contest charts with On fire and could be aiming for the best Lithuanian finish in the Eurovision song contest so far? Anyways, this blogger loved already their first try in 2018 with Yes, I do that finished 3rd in the national final. The band made of Vaidotas Valiukevičius (vocals), Robertas Baranauskas (drums) and Mantas Banišauskas (guitar) was formed in 2014 and has released two albums and one Ep along with a string of singles so far. All three guys have been involved in music a lot longer though.

Jessica Alyssa Cerro (24) aka Montaigne is true Australian mix with Argentinian, Spanish, Filippino and French in her heritage. She started with music in her teenage years and soon chose Montaigne as her artists name in honor of 16th centery French philosopher and esseyist Michel de Montaigne.  She released her first single and EP in 2014 and has released two albums since with a string of singles, her Eurovision 2020 entry being the 10th. On top of that she's been featured and/or provided vocals to several other songs, including Australia's #2 hit single 1955 , that was also nominated for the Song of the Year and Best Video awards in ARIA music awards. Montaigne won the award as Breakthrough artist herself and was nominated for the Best Female artist. But now four years later she's represanting Australia in the Eurovision with her Don't break me . 

Tom Leeb (30) has just started his career as a recording artist being better known as an actor and comedian. He's a son of a famous comedian Michel Leeb and journalist Béatrice Malicet and also his sister  Fanny is a singer. Tom started his career on theater stage at the age of  13. In his early 20s he spent five years in New York studying acting, music and singing. Since then he has starred in nine feature films, eight short films, three tv-series, done some more theater and entertained people with Kevin Levy as comedy duo Kevin et Tom.  He debuts as a recording artist in March 2018 with Are we too late and his debut album Recollection  was released in 2019. And out of the blue he flies the French flag in Rotterdam's Eurovision song contest 2020 with a song written by the usual Swedes Thomas G:son, Peter Boström and last year's entrant John Lundvik. French Eurovision veteran Amir is among the lyricists of this bilingual song. The song came first and Tom...

Benny Cristo or Ben Ben Cristóvão (32) has been around over ten years after making himself known in 2009 in talent show Superstar. Son of an Angolan father and Czech mother and brother to stand up comedian Bianca, Ben is also a medal winning athlete in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and even before that in snowboarding.  In his musical career he has released three albums, three EPs and 20 singles including his latest, the Eurovision 2020 entry Kemama .

It may be quite safe to say already at this point that Hooverphonic will be maybe this Eurovision season's most seasoned act. Formed in 1995 they have released ten studio albums, a few live albums and compilations and their Eurovision 2020 entry is their 46th single release. Alex Callier and Raymond Geerts have been in the band from the beginning but these days Luka Cruysberghs is already the sixth lead singer. Funny fact: Madame Monsieur's Emilie Satt is guest vocalist in Badaboum.