Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Mediterranean Conference Center in Valletta hosts tonight the 14th Junior Eurovision song contest. Ben Camille and Valeria Vella will be leading the show with last year's hostess Poli Genova and last year's winner Destiny Chukunyere performing as interval acts. This is the one show I just can't myself to excited or so much interested in. So many things are wrong with in my opinion (I pretty much prefer the Nordic original version of it where kids are kids and singing kiddy songs instead), This said I did have a listen, and watched the first rehearsal video recap and the ones I kinda liked in no particular order are Macedonia, Ukraine, Serbia, Italy, Israel enad Belarus... I won't even try to guess who will win.... This year the voting system has been changed. Instead of a televote there will be 50-50 professiona-kids juries in each country, and all this topped ny three professional jurors Christer Björkman, Mads Grimstad and Jedward.  Ireland - Zena Donnelly - ...

Reigning Eurovision song contest champion and the host of the next contest in May 2016 in Stockholm Mäns Zelmerlöw bares it almost all in GT following some other Eurovision stars like Blue and Jedward ( see more here ) All for the good cause of course, prostate cancer - something this blogger can also relate having experienced it in my closest circle. Nothing to laugh about.  The annual Naked issue of GT or Gay Times features also several other celebrity men out of their designer fashion and stage or sports outfits. I guess Christmas came early to some fans when they can unwrap their most wished gift already now.... Maybe.  But it's not the first time he gets naked.... he did so when hosting the annual QX Gala some years ago. Who knows what he and Petra have in store for us in May?!

Ireland, once the power state of Eurovision, is looking for their winning entry this Friday. Like in the previous years five acts chosen by as many mentors. The field is wide open this year as Jedward is not taking part this year either. Five quite pleasant songs and I must admit I have no clue who will win in the end.   Heartbeat is the big fan favorite but will regular TV-viewers buy it? I think it's quite good. I wished they would have dared more in the production and arrangements, now it's a bit bland. Promising but not delivering. Don't hold on is oldfashioned but a good solid song sung well. The movie song I like a lot. Apparently Eoghan isn't loved much as a person (but what do we European voters know about that?) so it might play against him, which is a shame. Be mine makes me think of Bon Jovi for some reason. Also very catchy after a couple of listenings which means he might be lost in the crowd. Laura thinks I don't remember her but hey, I do. Si...

Ireland joins in with its artists and songs (tomorrow) and soon we have run out of countries we have no confirmed news yet (Russia, Poland, Slovenia) or hot gossip like Greece, Portugal and UK. Once again the irish Tv uses the same mentor-artist approach and the names are: Mentor Valerie Roe: Patricia Roe - Don't hold on Mentor Mark Murphy: Eoghan Quigg - The movie song Mentor Hazel Kaneswaran: Can-linn feat Kasey Smith - Hearbeat Mentor Cormac battle: Andrew Mann - Be mine Mentor Billy McGuinness: Laura O'Neill - You don't remember me The line up includes two runner ups; Patricia Roe was the runner up both in 1992 and 1993 when the Irish winners Linda Maertin and Niamh Kavanagh went on to win the whole thing, will she be third time lucky? Andrew Mann lost to Jedward in 2012.  Eoghan and Laura have X factor past

It's not very unusual that an artist returns to Eurovision , we have dozens of returnees over the decades. It's less common that the same artist returns two or more years in a row. That was more of a norm in the old days when Lys Assia for example did the honors for Switzerland for three years in a row (1956-58) or Udo Jürgens who apparently decided to sing for Austria until he wins and was eventually third time lucky in 1966. And what to say about the Belgian couple Fud Leclerk and Bob Benny who between them provided the Belgian entries five years in a row (1956-60-62 for Fud, 1959-61 for Benny)?! But it's the first time we have three artists doing a double in three years a row, or how to put it? We had Lena Meyer-Landrut for Germany 2010-11, Jedward for Ireland 2011-12 and now Valentina Monetta for San Marino 2012-13... As we see the trend has been about -10 places but as Valentina can't go down -10 places she will gain at least 10 positions then? Will San Marin...

Tonight the most victorious country in the Eurovision history will selects its entrant. Orphans of Jedward this year the competition is open to everyone involved even if the system and procedure is the same as previous years with mentors and song out already for a couple of weeks. Regional juries, five of them, and televoters will pick up the winner 50-50. Curiously Ireland is flirting with Turkish music the year Turkey is absent....?! It's also my least favorite of these so propably it wins seeing how my predictions go this year... :-) I do have one clear favorite though, but won't say it alound for the same reason ;-p And Lordi will be as guest stars! 22.30 at eurovision.tv Inchequin - Son kez Aimée Fitzpatrick - Crashing down Zoe Alexis Bohorquez - Fire Ryan Dolan - Only love survives Kasey - Kiss me

RTÈ has announced the acts for this year's national selection. It's the old recipe with the mentors and singers. Jedward is not taking part this year so someone else will win. The songs will be made public tomorrow. The singerssongs and mentors are: Kasey - Kiss me there (mentor: Mairead Farell) Inchequin - Son kez (The last time) (mentor: Shay Healy) Aimée Fitzpatrick - Crashing down (mentor: Mark McCabe) Zoe Alexis Bohorquez - Fire (mentor: Niall Mooney) Ryan Dolan - Only love survives (mentor: Stuart O'Connor)

Diandra Flores (18) is the big pre-contest favorite to win UMK 2013 and the only name one can consider big among the artist, or at least a household name in Finland. Her entry is Colliding into you and it's written by Patrik Sarin, Leri Leskinen and Sharon Vaughn, who has co-written Jedward's Waterline and also Release me by Agnes. Diandra or Didi herself shot to fame from Idols 2012 where by most critics she really didn't have any competition to challenge her. Her father comes from Chile that explains her name, and she suffers from synesthesia, meaning she sees the music as colors and shapes! She started with violin at age of six, later won a kid's singing competition and her talent has caught also the eye of American vocal couch David Lee Brewer who took her under his wings a few months ago and she flew to Berlin to work with him. His previous students include Didi's idol Beyoncè. She is also a devoted fan of Lady Gaga. Her debut album ...

The season is in a full swing and so are the rumors. The most bizarre one is that of Lys Assia going fro San Marino instead when she failed to qualify in Switzerland for the final and win it. Hello, how's the flow? would be a nice follow up to last year's Facebook , wouldn't it? :-) It's true Sammarinese tv is in a difficult situation being partly owned by RAI and Italy going into elections again and all is out in the open and the money for the participation just isn't coming in.....  Ireland is heating up as well when Damien McGinty of Glee fame and Melanie McCabe of X Factor fame are frequently dropped. Now Shane Filan of ex-Westlife has been put into the spotlight but apparently he has already denied the rumors in his Twitter. But then, Eurovision is full of denies and confirmations. We'll see. Anyways, Ireland is repeating the five artists selection with mentors like the past two years. Jedward are not in so someone else may win this year....

Rylan Clark of The X Factor UK fame has declared he wants to represent UK in Malmö 2013 because it would be "amazing" ! If Jedwards did it for Ireland and even twice, why not give Rylan a chance? What he lacks in voice department he certainly has in personality department and showmanship. Or judge yourself here and here  and here , too. I think it would be amazing, too! He would certainly be a fun addition to the short list of artists in the next Eurovision, and most likely would secure good ratings and visibility for BBC! And here's one more example of his fashion sense...... 

Jedward has released a new single and video, Luminous . It's the third single off their second album Young love . And quite different from their previous offerings....  And the guys just turned 21. Congrats!

Stockholm Pride is over once again and was filled with music, and a lot of Eurovision. Loreen was there performing a rather interesting version of Euphoria , Jedward  was there, so was Agnes , Ivi Adamou ,  Eric Saade , Eleftheria , Star Pilots , ... and many more! Lena Philipsson theme song Du följer väl med? gets a flash mob treatment here . And it was indeed Lena Ph who stole the show in the end and bounced back after her divorce to the arms of her loving and adoring fans. Here . 

Well, almost. The boys celebrated their 650.000th follower on Twitter by being photographed fresh from shower as promised. It's not the first time they drop their clothes as you see here . Meanwhile their second album is nearly here and the title track Young love is hitting the charts....

After two Eurovision participation Jedward fans can enjoy their new single Young love that is quite a different sound from Lipstick and Waterline . And their hair is down. Will it take their career down or up again?

Jedward got some palm to their wounds when they were chosen as one of the 41 Olympic torch carriers in Dublin in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics later this summer. They may not have "lighten their fire" in Baku 2012 but with London 2012 it went better when thousands of people gathered in the streets to cheer them up! And of course they were very excited and it was all awesome! More here . 

I can only say. Wow what a season! My blog broke all the previous records this season in daily and weekly hits and it's easy to predict a significant raise in the annual hits as well.  Only the top days (or the Sundays after the final) of 2011, 2009 and 2010 resisted in top-10 while the rest was replaced by 2012 days and the Sunday after the final registered more that twice the previous record! For these three Eurovision weeks (from the start of the rehearsals until today) the raise in hits was more than 54%! And in total more than 120.000. New countries found me and climbed to top-10 followers, namely Turkey, Azerbaijan and Russia. Also Serbia and Australia figured well.  Hottest names that attracted readers more than others were not surprisingly Loreen and Jedward but also Donny Montell, Roman Lob and Eleftheria Eleftheriou had their fair share! Eternal to do well Dima Bilan did zero impact on number of hits - is his time over? A special  huge thank y...

Are the days of the super parties over at Eurovision? wonder Robert in Baku. Here is his photo reportage from last night! Yesterday, the opening party of the new Eurovision season was held at the Euroclub. The Euroclub? Yes, the Euroclub! Baku has so many prestigious buildings but the party ended up in the Euroclub which cannot be compared at all with the venues we had in the past. Out of my own experience, the venues in Helsinki, Oslo and Dusseldorf were far more stylish. Was the organisation saving money here because they went over their budget? I don't know but many guests were complaining and this must be marked as the worst opening party in recent history. Many artists and delegations did not stay long. On the other side, it was still a better party than a regular evening out and many people were enjoying themselves anyway.  The red carpet scenes were very enjoyable to watch and many artists looked great in their evening dresses/costumes...

Things you only see in Eurovision: The Irish Duracell bunnies Jedward spent some time with Latvian Anmary and Finnish Pernilla while waiting to get on the red carpet last night and all of sudden we have a new ABBA! They were also craving for Finnish chocolate and I don't blame them! Here . 

Ireland is still blue and the guys are jumping around like there's no tomorrow, the fountain works this time and and this is just insanely good. Or should I say "amazing"? This is Eurovision. I'm still not tired with the guys, they amuse me and I want to be amused every now and then. I think they are better than last year and the song... It's different. I don't think you can compare it to last year's as they are so different, which is good. Only the performance is pretty much the same but it doesn't matter as i haven't seen it since. Nor have the televoters so I think they will fly to the final and maybe even do better than last year. One can only hope the fountain works the right way, and it's timing or the guys will end up wet... And the backdrop is maybe the best this year. Fits nicely my blog, too! :-) More here . And one not so usual boring press conference here . AND I heard a rumour the guys will eventually jump into the fountain com...

What to say about Albania and Rona Nishliu? Stunning vocals, simple presentation with just a work with spotlights really and beautiful emotional song. Is this what she's going to wear on the big night? No. And her jewelry is special, too, very 1980's neon acrylic things.... Interesting. And I love her hairdo as well. And one can't be but blown away by her vocal skills time after time.... Will televoters by it is another thing but I hope enough of them will so that with the jury votes she would sail to the final. She deserves it. One of the most original songs in Eurovision ever, and no doubt one of the most skilled vocalists ever to grace an Eurovision stage. Stay tuned for her interview later today! Update: it's here . More here . Romania all of sudden starts to sound and look like a possible winning candidate. The backdrop works, the choreography works, it's happy and catchy and if Elena nails her vocals when it matters... Who knows? All white for the guys...