Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  This is probably the most boyband-esque Sanremo winner ever. Brothers Diego e Luca won Sanremo Newcomers with L'amore in 2008 and later gained a great success, released albums in Latin America, Brazil and Japan, treid Sanremo again and flopped. I have lost track on them after this song but according Wikipedia they are still active. Who knew? I just know I liked this song back in the day.

One of the true Italian music legends Milva has passed away. Besides her immense international career she also holds the record of Sanremo festival presences: 15. No other artist, male or female, has done 15 festivals solo. She also holds the record of consecutive participations: 9 (from 1961 to 1969. Her last participation was in 2007. Born Maria Ilva Biolcati in summer 1939 she won a contest organized by Rai in 1959 for new voices and the rest is history in Italian pop, German schlager and French chanson. Add theater, films, television, Brecht, Morricone, Battiato, Theodorakis, Vangelis.... She has recorded and releases a total of 173 albums, another record for an Italian artist, in various languages when counting studio (35), live and various compilations. She met success especially in Germany but also France, Japan, South Korea and Latin America.  To this blogger personally she's known thanks to her collaborations with Franco Battiato, and obviously Sanremo. of those entries my...

  Carola turns 53 today, and I have been a fan for 36 years. I happened to be in Sweden visiting my aunt when she won Melodifestivalen 1983 (actually Kikki Danielsson's Varför är kärleken röd, the runner up, was my favorite...) The next summer I was back in Sweden and was taken to see her live in her first record breaking tour. Ever since I have seen her live in Finland a few times and followed her career ever since. Funny how despite her PR in Japan and an album with BeeGees she never really made it outside the Nordics... ah yes, that Guy came in between.... maybe. Even if her debut album is maybe the album I have ever listened the most I chose these songs outside of it, just for the variety. And as an extra vids from her latest Finland gig by moi.  Rendezvous Check out also:

Not only the spokesperson is a job for the previous Eurovision stars but some of them also end up as commentators. This year we have at least four. Freddie from last year returns for Hungary from stage to commentator box. Same goes for France as Amir is in the box wishing well and commenting the success of his friend Alma. Sebalter from Switzerland sung for the country in 2014, he was the spokesperson last year and this year he does the commentary for the Italian speaking television. And finally Måns Zelmerlöw, he has done it all: participant, winner, spokesperson, host. Now he's commenting. What next? Producing? Besodes the participating countries at least China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, United States and Greenland are broadcasting the show. 

Il Volo hasn't really stopped since their Sanremo 2015 win and Eurovision song contest in Vienna. Last month they released their latest live album+DVD Notte magica - A tribute to the three tenors recorded live last summer in Florence. The album entered the Italian charts at #2. Next they are taking the show all over the world.  Below are the confirmed dates so far starting from New York's legendary Radio City Music Hall. Next is some concerts in Italy, followed by an European leg of the tour in April-June  (dates and venues yet to be confirmed). Then it's time for Latin America (July-August) before Australia, China and Japan later in 2017. 

SBS is in charge and it seems the very first Asian-Pacific Asiavision song contest will take place in Sydney in March 2017, just in time that the winner could possibly maybe in theory take part at the 2017 Eurovision song contest as well. This blogger thinks it's an interesting idea and won't say No right away. The original plan may have been 2018 kick off but Dami Im's 2nd place this year has caused the speed up in the process. Let's see how this will turn out.... They are hoping to get at least 12 countries taking part (out of 68 possible). Australia is set to form the reference group with China, Japan, South Korea and India. And yes, an European country could be also invited to take part at the Asiavision.... Turkey is also a member of ABU, will they make a comeback here? And so is Azerbaijan. And Kazakhstan. Associate members include France and Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Switzerland and United Kingdom.  Lots of ideas and a lot of talk. This blo...

Marco Mengoni is already having success in Spain and taking over the Latin American market with Incomparable is the most logical next step. But now there's interest also in Japan! The plans are in early stage and it's not sure if he should try it there with the Italian, Spanish or English version of the song and the album. As this blogger has some knowledge of the Japanese market and their likes I would say the Italian version would be the best. Japanese are like Finns, they love all things Italian! Mengoni wouldn't be the first Italian Eurovision artist to release music and have success in Japan as Gigliola Cinquetti was big in Japan in the 1960's and 1970's and even recorded in Japanese for the market, like this one . Or this one . Also Alice released an album Kusamakura for the Japanese market in 1988. More recently the Sanremo 2008 newcomer winners Sonohra released their debut album in English version in Japan a year after their win. This might we the way...

Remember Saara Aalto who was the runner up behind Paradise Oskar with her Blessed with love ?  Since then she has been busy with her career in Finland and also in Asia, mainly in China of all places. Now her latest album will be released in China titled Ai De Zhu Fu 爱的祝福 . The album includes 13 songs: 1. 前进的脚步 （Qianjin de jiaobu） 2. 宽恕 （Kuanshu） 3. My Love 4. 来呀来呀飞起来 （Laiya laiya feiqilai） 5. 你让我无助 (Ai ni rang wo wuzhu) 6. 十点 （Shi dian） 7. 爱的祝福 (Ai De Zhu Fu) 8. 受伤的心 （Shou shang de xin） 9. 我心慢慢沉 （Wo xin manman chen） 10. Out of Sight, Out of Mind 11. You Gotta Go 12. My Bird 13. Je Suis Malade The lead single is the very Bond-esque 受伤的心 （Shou shang de xin） , that is the Chinese version of You had my heart .  But she's also singing in Japanese, like in Blessed with love . She's been the runner up in Talent, Voice and Euroviisut, will she finally make it - in China? She's gaining success there also with  Out of sight, out of mind . The album releas...

Jessica Wolff tried to get to Eurovision for Finland in 2012 with Better . Being one of the wildcards it didn't qualify for the final stages of the contest. She was a pretty blond with a lot of ambition and interesting curriculum including being a stuntwoman and having kungfu and motorbikes as a hobby. A rough life but a lot of positive energy and will to do music. Does it sound a bit like another blonde's life? Ding dong! Anyways, since then she has worked hard, travelled the world, been in n a streetfight in Los Angeles when she was attacked by two at night. Needless to say the bruised kungfu girl sent those two into hospital as well. Long story short: she has released her debut album in Japan! She just came back from promoting it there and will be back in the end of this month performing in Loud & Metal festival with alongside Nightwish and Mokoma. Here are some of her videos: Broken wings , You should get over me , I want you out of my head ,

Saara Aalto, who has tried her luck in several national Tv programmes including Talent 2007 (2nd), Euroviisut 2011 (2nd with Blessed with love ) and The Voice of Finland 2012 (2nd) is aiming for the Chinese and far East markets. She performed in China last November and apparently charmed the local promoters and now she's secured a gig with José Carreras there singing the Phantom of the Opera in Shanghai in May. Previous time she duetet with local star Jie Ruhan. She is currently finishing her new video You had my heart, that will be released in three versions: English, Chinese and Japanese. And guess what? It's not the first time as she already released Blessed with love in both Japanese and Chinese already! How many times a national final song has been recorded in those languages? Not many I bet. It is said her image and style fits those markets.... and indeed if you didn't know better.....

Loreen has had, ok let's say it, euphoric , year in 2012. First she won Melodifestivalen, then Eurovision, then debut album Heal followed and Euphoria has been one of the biggest hits of the year in several European countries. But she's not to stop now. While still doing gigs and prepairing for her coming trip to Japan, she's already writing and planning the next album to be released this fall. She tells in Expressen recording takes time so she's going to the studio shortly. "I want to experiment even more with the production and sounds, and that takes time. I don't want to use the existing sounds but create new ones. The lyrics will handle mostly human relationships as before, I find it very stimulating. You can't take material things with you when you die, but relationships stay with you. It inspires me, all kind of relationships. And everything that happens around me, the people I meet. So writing songs when travelling the world is just natural to ...

Loreen's Heal album is being released in Japan and it includes in a local fashion a few bonus tracks. Or in this case special versions of Euphoria : Single version, Acoustic guitar version and Acoustic strings version. Listen them here . The strings version is familiar from her live performances but the guitar one is something new and sounds very nice indeed!

Janne who I hear you ask? If I say he has written more Euroviisut entries than anyone else (except Lasse Mårtensson or did Janne pass him already this time with Jessica Wolff's Better ? Someone correct me?). He has tried since 2004 with songs like A little crazy and Cider hill , just to name a couple. His song Birth by KAT-TUN, a Japanese boyband topped the Japanese charts last week. But hey, he wasn't the first Finn to achieve that: just two weeks earlier Samuli Laiho wrote the Sexy Zone's number one single, With you . Both songs have been co-written by Japanese Daichi. But there are still more Finnish songwriters with success in Asia right now. In Taiwan Rainie Yang had a number one album this fall in South Korea and one of the songs is written by Jussi Nikula, Jaakko JS16 Salovaara and Popparazzis. In Taiwan Super Junior boyband scored also a number one album recently and Be my girl from it was a #3 hit, written by Aku Rannila, Henry MGI Lanzi & co. And we aware,...

I was going through my stuff and came across the 45 of Carola's Fushiki na hitomi (Don't tell me what to do)/Rendez vous , the single she recorded back in 1985 for the Japanese market. It didn't make her big there and this episode in her career is rather forgotten, even if she did a few lines in her 25th anniversary show. But she was dreaming of Tokyo already a year before in her first TV-show. (And that show has one of the most memorable opening acts ...) I remember back them someone blamed her boobs were too big for the Japanese market..... or wasn't the song just strong enough? I personally always preferred the B-side that unfortunately I couldn't find on Youtube.

Cardiant is one of the three acts that qualified from the open internet selection and brings some metal to Euroviisut 2011. Cardiant was formed back in 2000 and through several changes in members have come to its present formation. Singer Erik Karhatsu joined in 2008 after his participation to Idols 2008 where he was dropped during the rehearsal weekend. The other members are Antti Hänninen (guitar), Mikko Mänttäri (bass), Marko Lindroos (keyboards) and Lauri Hänninen (drums). The band has recorded several demos and their first full album Midday moon was released in 2005 - in Japan only. Second album Tomorrow's daylight was released in 2009, again in Japan and elsewhere sold only from band's website. Their only video so far is Stars upon your life . Their Euroviisut 2011 entry is Rapture in time .

Lordi has just returned from another succesful trip to Japan. They played two sold out concerts in Tokyo and Osaka and will be back on stage this Thursday in Espoo, Finland. Listen Lordi's cover of Dingo's Autiotalo here.

This is so yellow it nicely fits with Easter so I just had to feature this Japanese girlgroup and their divine version of Dschingis Khan ジンギスカン again :-) http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzmFMOS8Qtg