Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

While Sweden's Melodifestivalen 2026 has received 3.888 entries only to have then some 20 out of 28 written by same 5-6 names in various combos Finland's UMK is way more unpredictable and you never know what we have in store for the next edition. We have already noticed the selection team tends to have a sort of trend for the season. If 2025 was very pop oriented and 2024 quite rap influenced it's curious to see where they put the focus on in 2026.  This said the fandom is already speculating and so far Yle has kept quiet and there hasn't been any leaks or bitter comments by artists that they applied and were not taken ( Vilma Jää this year for example). Anyways, here's my first prediction/wish list for possible names added with the first rumored names! If I get 2-3 out of 7 right I'm happy, LOL.      Ladies Vesta - She's in Van elämää this fall and already making it big, could it be that she's doing both back to back? Her career has taken an upright di...

This post is purely gossipy and #drama. The 75th festival della canzone Italy kicks of tomorrow and even before it started, even before the artists were revealed in fact. Social media figure and Sanremo 2023 co-hostess Chiara Ferragni and Fedez, in competition this year - and runner up in 2021 with Francesca Michielin and  with a song Chiamami per nome co-written by Mahmood, btw - are going through a very stormy and public divorce. Apparently she's having/had an affair with Tony Effe, in competition this year. Enough drama? No! It is rumored she'd had before "that the thing Erika Vikman is singing about" with another competitor, none other than Achille Lauro! She clearly has a thing for tattooed bad boys. Expect some tension in backstage..... Enough of gossip. How about some drama? The killer stairs! Yes, first Francesca Michielin fell down the stairs and hurt her leg, hopefully her song didn't require a choreography! But she's not the only one as also Modà...

Today we finally got also Youtube videos to see how it looks on stage for semi-final one participants when they rehearsed for additional 20 minutes from Albania to Greece. No major changes what we can say (and we can't say much as we didn't see the first ones, of course) but judging the photos that told more of the first rehearsal stupid TikTok videos some costume changes and hairdo changes were spotted. If someone still complains about the sun or the stage I say go get a life: It's beautiful!  Otherwise the Albania drama continued; were they censored (photos or choreography) or not?Unnecessary drama that I suspect is played out by the delegation, too,  to keep them in the spotlight, as are Ronela's dresses in the delegation bubble. Unnecessary attention seeking, but then again this is Eurovision!  Season's first Covid-19 case is in the Portuguese delegation, luckily not Maro and hopefully none of her backing singers! Their rehearsals was apparently saved as the las...

Marry me , she sung to the whole of Europe back in 2013, when she and Janne Grönroos had been together already almost ten years. The year after Janne finally took the hint and proposed to her in Maledives but it would take another three years when they finally got married late 2017. Less than two years later the marriage is sadly over. Krista comments on her social medias: We got to grow up together with Janne. He has taught me a lot and made me a better person. We have experienced a lot together, downhill and uphill. Life changes people, as well as their needs and dreams.  We have decided together to continue the journey as friends. I am really grateful that we have shared all these years together. I will appreciate and love you forever Janne.❤ We hope that we will get the peace we need to recover from our divorce. We do not comment on this further. Janne shared pretty much the same text in his social media while both shared the same aphorism: Janne has been workin...

The controversy with Russia and the entry ban against the Russian Julia Samoylova probably has a post-match for Ukraine: The chairman of the EBU Reference Group Frank-Dieter Freiling considers it is not excluded that the Ukrainian TV station is awarded with a participation lock until 2021. But the same goes for Russia, as he commented the possibility for ZDF. The Ukraine and the hosting station PBC have committed themselves to welcome all countries - therefore, in the case of the Russian singer Julia Samoylova, who was not allowed to go to Kiev, a breach of the EBU statutes must be sanctioned. It is a basic value of the ESC that any EBU member can participate, "no matter who the host is". "But there must also be sanctions against Russia, because the Russians had not participated in several our presidency meetings in Kiev. Because of the violations of the statutes on both sides there should be penalties. EBU statutes provide for a number of violations, from a fine,...

What would be Eurovision without rumours? When these people spend time together for two weeks, and even meet each other all over Europe the weeks before every year there are some minor or major romances, some getting public most being kept secret. Not all end up Like Finland's Kaija Kärkinen falling for her composer Ile Kallio under the magic spell that is Rome 1991. Ten albums and two sons later they are still together..... The whispers from Stockholm tell Moldova's Lidia Isac and yet unnamed member of Cypriot Minus One are hitting it off ..... so it's not Juri, the cosmonaut. Is she seeing falling star with an alter ego? And then every year someone seems to be pregnant, or at lest rumored so. Lat year it was the Dutch Trijntje Oosterhuis. This year it's apparently Malta's own Ira Losco. That would explain that horrible sack she's wearing and the shapeless rack under it. Oh, we do like a bit of a juicy gossip. Stay tuned. Update May 8: Ira Losco ...

Finally some concret names in the rumor mills. Israel shortly confirmed its presence in the Eurovision song contest 2015 in Vienna - even though there seem to be some minor issues to be sorted out before they can make it happen, like the very existance of IBA come May 2015 - and that the selection would be done internally by radio station Radio 88FM. It didn't take them long to come out with a name, by no means a new one when it comes to Eurovision gossiping: Marina Maximilian Blumin (27). This jazzy singer of Russian origin came second to Boaz Mauda in a talent show and since then caused some eyebrows by not doing the military service, a fact that played against her in the past and propably will do so this time again. Her songs include Maurin , Tango  and Silence . The second choice is Ester Rada , an Ethiopian born singer currently working on her debut album. he's also doing ethno-jazz mixing Israeli music with her Ethiopian heritage. Her songs include Life happens , Co...