Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

UPDATE: The annoucement has been postboned to the original date of August 1, 2016. Over the decades since 1956 we have had 53 different venues hosting the Eurovision song contest, from prestigious old concert halls to imperial palace's concert hall to insignificant TV studios, especially bult arenas to excisting congress centers. So many different venues in size and style that only one thing may be common to them: they all had a roof. (Even if built for the occasion.) Only seven venues have had the honor to host it twice, and one - yes, Ireland again! - three times and even twice in a row. If Kiev's Palace of Sports will be chosen it will be the 9th multi host. We should know next Wednesday..... 1959 + 1961; Palais des Festivals et des Congres - Cannes, France 1962 + 1966: Villa Louvigny - Luxembourg 1973 + 1984: Grand Theatre de la Ville de Luxembourg - Luxembourg 1976 + 1980: Nederlands Congresgebouw - The Hague, the Netherlands 1979 + 1999: In...

  Belgium proves that when it qualifies, it's a success. 6 th , 12 th , 4 th , 10 th . In short: send a good one or a total crap, no need to get 20 th  something places. Same goes for Bulgaria . If you make it, make it good. 5 th  and 4 th  in the final. All the other failures to qualify. Czech Republic on the other hand shared San Marino's (2014) fate: once you finally qualify it's at the bottom. 24 th  and 25 th.  And that leaves us only with Andorra as the only participating country that has never been in the final..... Big 5s Spain (22nd), United Kingdom (24 th ) and Germany fail again (26th). Germany last for the second year in a row..... Just imagine Australia won and the contest went to Germany for real - backed up by two last places! Ukraine wins without winning neither televote nor jury vote. If the last year's voting system was still in use, Australia would have won. Sergey Lazarev does Il Volo, wins televote b...

Tonight's the night! We will find out who wins the 61st edition of the world's longest running international music fest. Where are we heading next year? Russia after all?  Australia is in as a regular participant, all Nordic countries except host nation Sweden are out. China and the USA are broadcasting live. Justin Timberlake and his world premiere as interval act. The presenters Petra Mede and Måns Zelmerlöw are in top form. Lynda Woodruff returns. And most of all there's a new voting system! Can't wait to see how that works out. Grab your towels, it's time to #cometogether 9pm CET. I'll be back right after the show with resuts, comments and all that music. Meanwhile check out all the finalists below.  01 Belgium: Laura Tesoro – What’s The Pressure 02 Czech Republic: Gabriela Gunčikova – I Stand 03 The Netherlands: Douwe Bob – Slow Down 04 Azerbaijan: Samra – Miracle 05 Hungary: Freddie – Pioneer 06 Italy: Francesca Michielin –...

Well, I have been waiting for this. The photos have been online for years. The British rubbish media has made a story of Sergey Lazarev's "fetish porn past". LOL. How funny. Kreml and Putin are apparently very worried and denying their entrant has a lurid past. And trying to get them off internet. Yeah right. LOL. Photos are explicit. Yeah, you can see his bare bum. All in all this is just so funny. And for you enjoyment here are the "porn" pics.    Oh Daily Star,  You are the only one, such a source of joy! I have originally posted this photo already in January 2011

We in Europe (and China and Australia among other countries) will see the interval act in the Eurovision song contest or American superstar Justin Timberlake singing it away in two of his songs. But the viewers of LOGOtv in the USA won't due to lack of these rights in the agreement. LOGOtv has potential 50 million viewers in the USA. His native fans will miss the world premiere of his new comeback single Can't stop the feeling.  Justin himself says he's very excited about Eurovision: It is going to be fun. It's kind ... crazy huh? It's a crazy, crazy race.  So, I look forward to see how big it is.

Is semifinals were hard to predict - and I did 9/10 in both with a bit of luck, I admit - the final is a bit of a nightmare. I have said it before and I repeat: this is an amazing year! I just did my personal ranking and nine songs get a full five stars, seven get four, six get three and only two each get only 1-2 stars. Usually it's quite different looking ranking..... And that doesn't even include the songs that dropped out in the semis, a lot of 3-4 star stuf there, too. But back to prediction. Another factor making it difficult is the new way of giving out the points.  It's always hard to separate what you want and what you think will really happen. How much are you coming together personally with the wide European taste. Always tricky.... But... here goes, my own usual spot the slot system (in no particular order) with a couple of very risky wistful thinking slots, too: 1st-5th  - Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Austria, Armenia 6th-10th - Netherlands, Italy, Sw...

So it seems Justin performs Rock your body and Can't stop the feeling. Have a look at the video for a fel of the party mood inside Globen!

This year's Eurovision song contest final running order has been revealed. Belgium ended the second semifinal and goes on to open the final. Armenia's visually stunning entry will close the show with a bang. Czech Republic's ballad got the feared number two slot. In general this is the strongest final line up since forever..... and then there's Justin Timberlake. I'm glad Europe will show him a trick or two what comes to staging and having great musical ideas :-)  1. Belgium 2. Czech Republic 3. The Netherlands 4. Azerbaijan 5. Hungary 6. Italy 7. Israel 8. Bulgaria 9. Sweden 10. Germany 11. France 12. Poland 13. Australia 14. Cyprus 15. Serbia 16. Lithuania 17. Croatia 18. Russia 19. Spain  20. Latvia 21. Ukraine 22. Malta 23. Georgia 24. Austria 25. United Kingdom 26. Armenia

Did you see it? Måns Zelmerlöw had apparently planned something to do on stage when Petra Mede was reading the rules of the contest (or something) and he was about to enter the stage when she said doing it naked is strictly forbidden. And off he goes....with his tail between his legs... All this of course to make fun of Belarusian Ivan who wanted to perform naked with live wolves.....   

What would be the worst nightmare for an Eurovision blogger and fan? How about failure in the internet connection that takes away the television signal as well as they are by the same company? That happened yesterday to me and I do apologise for the lack of posts. It was a major one effecting a larger area of greater Helsinki region. In most parts it was fixed over the day or evening but mine lasted from 10am yesterday until this morning. The phone connection was also coming and going but I did manage to watch the show on my phone grom the Youtube feed. Thank heavens for that! Now that was an experience I don't want to repeat. Ever. Again.  Cut out of the Bubble :-(

Here we go. Time has come. Once again after waiting for so long, all those long months of preselections and then the very hectic week in Stockholm it's here. All of sudden. I'm not ready. Haven't even done my prediction yet! But here goes: I think the ten qualifiers are, in no particular order: Russia, Armenia, Malta, Czech Republic, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Croatia, Austria, Greece and Hungary. But then again this is such a great year that I think also Iceland, Estonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina are all possible, as is Finland. I wouldn't even be surprised San Marino being a shocker qualifier. Or Montenegro. That leaves us Moldova and Azerbaijan and I have nominated everyone. And Azerbaijan makes it anyways, kicking out some more worthy, like Austria? The Netherlands? On the other hand the ones I want to qualify are, again in no particular order, Russia, Armenia, Estonia, Czech republic, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Hungary, Croatia/San Marino, Austria and Finland, o...