Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Eric Himan (remember You're gonna need me from the Swiss selection?) is back with Red hot tears that is rather brilliant song indeed with a simple but effective video. Croatian Nina Badric released earlier this year Ceznja , that fits very nicely to this late summer filled with heat and sun and nostalgic atmosphere. Hannah Mancini has joined with Vanillaz and Kosta Radman in Back 2 life . A perfect club anthem for those hot summer nights, isn't it? OGAE Second chance winner Anna Eriksson will release a new compilation this month including some new songs performed live, including Je suis malade/teit minusta sairaan . She proves once again she's one of the most touching and best vocalists in Finland!

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to see representing their country in Denmark 2014. Hannah Mancini from Slovenia would like a come back. That of lovely Maja Keuc.  Maja Keuc did Eurovision 2011 with No one, originally Vanilija and scored Slovenia's best placing in the past 11 years. Since then this Talent runner up has released her debut album Indigo and several singles, including Zmorem , You're a tree and I'm a balloon , Get the party started , Go with the flow , Ta planet , Na pol poti , Krog , Ta čas , Tako lepo mi je . ... No doubt a great voice, pretty face and a lot of star quality. Maybe another go in Eurovision would be a good idea? UPDATE: Maja's answer to this post was "Never say never!" :-)

I curiously followed already last year various photos on eurovison.tv featuring artists shoes. And yes, this year the shoe pics are back. On top some ladies fashion and below some men's....  ... and these ladies here take it the next level. Can you pick up who is who or who is wearing what?

Today all the first semifinalists have their second rehearsal so it's going to be a long day! Slovenia started the party instead of Austria as they had switched places  for some reason. Is it me or is the stage looking more and more like Helsinki 2007 with a hint of Oslo 2010 now that we see it better? SLOVENIA - Hannah - Straight into love Hannah and her three dancing boys are all dressed in futuristic black outfits while the stage remains blue and white all throughtout the performance. Hannah does a good job and the choreography is good, if not extremely original. She has also two female backing vocalists but hidden away somewhere it seems. Looks and sounds like a rather polished entry. Let's see if they add some pyros or something for extra oomph for the semifinal. Blogilkar interviewed Hannah yesterday, here . ESTONIA - Birgit - Et uus saaks alguse Birgit and her windmachine blown white dress start the song in the catwalk - and shot in black and white apparen...

Straight into interview with my Bycycling reporter Robert goes American born Slovenian represent Hannah Mancini. The chatty lady tells us how she ended up from LA to Slovenia and how it is. She does also some serious name dropping. Talks about Slovenian music business. And has her husband turned into an Eurovision maniac?! And how Slovenian does she feel actually? And who would she like to grace the Eurovision stage for Slovenia again? Read it all here: Thank you Hannah for this interview. You're an American woman singing for Slovenia. How on earth did you end up there? I married a Slovenian man! Actually he lived in the States when I met him. I always loved the idea of living in Europe and it was kinda perfect as I met an European man! And he always wanted to come to Europe, his parents emigrated when he was a small child so eventually when the opportunity came, he had a good business thing happening there and also I had some music contacts in Amsterdam and in the UK an...

Slovenia - Hannah Mancini - Straight into love American born Hannah does the honors for her adoptive Slovenia and I wasn't so into this one until they released the improved version along with the video (the previous simil live performance was lacking some oopmh, me thinks) Club anthems haven't really done so well in Eurovision and this may be way too hardcore for general European televoter - Euphoria was and is a schlager-like affair. The live performance will be crucial; her vocals, the staging. If they play the gay card like in the video it may easily turn against them, on the other hand if she's alone on stage.... I'm glad I'm not in charge of that as I wouldn't really know what to do with it! I like the song but I'm afraid Slovenia will miss the final once again even if it does stand out very well in the first semifinal between Estonia and Croatia. Ukraine - Zlata Ognevich - Gravity I loved Zlata with The Kukutshka but have had some trouble g...

Two more acts joins the (nearly) sold out Eurovision in Concert in Amsterdam: Italian Marco Mengoni and Slovenian Hannah Mancini . That brings the amount to 22 out of 39, or well over the half of them :-) The concert takes place in Amsterdam's Melkweg on April 13, 2013 and will be presented by two Eurovision veterans Marlayne and Linda Wagenmakers and the line up will also feature as a supermega guest star Carola ! And PeR, Cezar, Valentina Monetta, Nodi & Sophie, Elitsa & Stoyan, Klapa s Mora, Koza Mostra & Agathonas Iakovidis, Dina Garipova, Ryan Dolan, Zlata Ognevich, Natália Kelly, Gianluca Bezzina, Andrius Pojavis, Roberto Bellarosa, Krista Siegfrids, Adraijan & Bledar, Amandine Bourgeois, Takasa, Esma & Vlatk o and Alyona Lanskaya . More info here .

Over the past years we have been talking about the Swedish influence in the Eurovision but another one has been floating around maybe a bit unnoticed, Italy! We have had songs sung in Italian, songs produced in Italy, sung by artists like Paolo Meneguzzi who is associated as Italian despite having a Swiss passport, or Roberto Meloni... not to mention all the song in Italian in various national finals! All this when Italy itself was absent. And this 2013 is no exception with Italian touch. The Croatian song was recorded in Italy by Italians, the Lithuanian artist lives in Italy,  the Romanian one has done his vocals studies in Italy, the Belgian singer has clear Italian roots (once again), as has the Slovenian one. The Spanish lead singer's claim to international fame is she was singing in Sanremo a couple of years ago... On top of that both Italy and San Marino will sing their songs in Italian this year (finally!) and both are in top-10 in most every poll. And we can't f...

Slovenia chose internally Hannah Mancini some time ago and today the published the song and it's called Straight into love . Frankly it sounds like a Melodifestival reject. Not very impressed I'm afraid. And I wonder how well she can perform this live?! And here's the video . 

More ladies for the Malmö stage. Slovenian TV announced today briefly that American born Hannah Mancini will represent the country. She's no stranger to Eurovision as 2011 she took part in the Slovenian national final with Ti si tisti . This is the first time Slovenia goes for an internal selection and there will be more information and press conference on February 14, 2013. So, more information then! There isn't much to tell about her yet but her favorite quotations include "I live in Slovenia not Slovakia. go check yo map, fooool!!!" Gotta love her already!