Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Remember Johnny Blue , the blind singer Lena Valaitis sung back in 1981? He lives on in a musical staged in Czech Republic based on the music and songs by Ralph Siegel. The musical, written and directed by Stanislav Moša and arranged by Karel Cón, features countless Eurovision entries by Siegel from Dschingish Khan and Theater to more recent Crisalide and Maybe . This is in the German speaking world what Mamma mia!  is for Scandinavian – soundtrack of the life of those who grew up in the 1970s-1980s. The world premiere took place in Brno, Czech Republic on March 28, 2015 with many familiar artists attending the event: Katja Ebstein, Dorkas of MeKaDo fame, Valentina Monetta and Penny Mc Lean just to name a few. "For me it's a real priviledge that people still sing my songs, which I started to write 50 years ago. It's quite a long time ago but I still enjoy writing! It was a wonderful evening. It was my dream to see and hear what we have done. I love Eurovision for 20...

This year Jedward returns the year after hoping to make it better than last year's 8th. But what are the odds in Eurovision? We have a recent example of Germany's Lena who returned the year after winning and managed only 10th place. This seems to be the trend anyways if you look the bis makers over the decades.  In the 1950's Germany Margot Hielscher scored 4th and 7th while Italy's Domenico Modugno went from 3rd to 6th, and later returned for the third time - he probably wished he didn't: 17th and zero points!  In the 1960's Norway Nora Brockstedt also did 4th and 7th while United Kingdom's Ronnie Carroll did a solid 4th both times.  The 1970's were the same. Germany's Katja Epstein did twice in a row 3rd place but would later return to claim a 2nd place. That's also an Eurovision record of a kind; three top-3 placements. Sweden's Family Four did 6th and 13th while the Norwegian Bendik Singers did 7th and 14th, the second t...

Katja Ebstein (66) holds a record in the Eurovision history no one is very likely to break anytime soon: she has been in top-3 three times never winning! Now think about that! I'd be rather mad. Her first two attemps in 1970 and 1971 placed her third, and her final one in 1980 made her runner up behind Johnny Logan. Some 30 albums later, work in theater and TV, musicals, cabaret, books, politics and more she is still around even doing Let's dance in 2007. Her latest album Witkiewicz is from 2005 and includes a new version of Wunder gibt es immer wieder .Several compilation albums have been released since. 1970 Wunder gibt es immer wieder (3rd) 1971 Diese Welt (3rd) 1980 Theater (2nd)