Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, the collest princess ever! Surely she's got an colorful life from running away with a circyus, marrying her bodyguard, being a model and designer and on the other hand losing her mother in a car accident that some say she was driving.... All this put aside, she also was a singer for a period. Her debut Ouragan might have been a Jeanne Mas reject but it was a huge hit anyways. A few followed, both in French and in English. 

  Jeanne Mas was one of my biggest idols in the 80's and she had a huge career for a few years (before Myléne Farmer came along) and kind of revolutionized the French pop with her sound, image and look and trademark choreographies scoring hits and picking awards, with the help of Italians. Born in Spain she started her career in Italy and found fame in France. Today, she's still recording and releasing music , living in Arizona. I still keep eye on her, even if her last major hit was back in 1991 .... Worth checking out also Femmes d'aujourd'hui , rumored to have been sent to 1986 Eurovision selection for France.... if so, what where they thinking?!

France has made public its method of selecting their entry for the Eurovision song contest 2016. In short an open song submission for (almost) anyone, but the final choice will be strictly internal. But - a couple of things in the rules are worth pointing out. First, anyone can send in songs, but the artists must be able to sing and promote the song in French. And in English. The song must be in French with max 20% of its running time in other language. All fine here. French should stick to their French, oh oui! Also, France2 wants to have all the power in the song's visual promotion and marketing and all that, yet it must be all paid by the artist's record company/artist/management. I suppose that will make many turn down the opportunity to send a song. I propably would pass it, if I have no say on anything but still have to pay for what someone else decides for me..... Not cool. Finally, the strangest rule is about the age. If BBC went for minimum age of 18, which i...

Jeanne is back with pop sound and over acted videos with Les Dimanches , the first single off her brand new album Bleu citr O n aimed for the French market. The album is good (for a change) and this song's a nice first offering from it for a lazy Sunday, n'est pas?

I have heard many many years ago from a very close source that Jeanne Mas proposed Femme d'aujourd'hui for Eurovision 1986 but was rejected. One can only wonder who were in charge if they then came up with this! She was the hottest thing on earth in France back then, just about to release her second album after selling 900.000 copies of her single Toute prémiere fois , hitting number one with Johnny Johnny (the first female arrtist ever in France) and selling over 500.000. Her debut album sold almost one million and the third single Couer en stéréo was hot in charts. And they said no merci? ? The album went to number one and stayed there for two months selling over one million as well and singles En rouge et noir , L'enfant and Sauvez-moi followed the success in charts but Femme d'aujourd'hui was never released as a single....Anyways, I think we would have had a all French top-4 in Bergen but who would have come out as the winner? Sandra Kim , Daniela Simons...

Jeanne Mas was - and still is - one of my favourite artists from the 1980's. I adored her! And now Kate Ryan, the queen of covers from the top female French artists has covered her first hit Toute prèmiere fois after doing Mylène Farmer, Desireless and France Gall. And it's good but missing the Jeanne magic of those her early years when she scored a hit after hit, breaking records and making firsts to female artists in France - and making way to artists like Mylène Farmer. Anyways, here's Jeanne doing it partly in italian and live. And ladies and gentlemen, la Mas has her Eurovision connection! More about that tomorrow... .

One of the three European lilliputs has finally confirmed a NO for "financial reasons" or rather a lack of a sponsor. TMC would participate if the government gave them funds as it did in 2004-2006 when Monaco returned from its long absense. Apparently Prince Albert himself was behind the comeback in 2004. And that's a good enough excuse to enjoy some fabulous music from Princess Stéphanie: Ouragan written by Romano Musumarra and rejected by Jeanne Mas , Winds of change , Flash , I'm waiting for you - shame she didn't do the horors back then! Liechtenstein and Luxembourg are still in the running for a debut and a comeback.