Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Ankie Bagger may have been a bit of an one hit (or album) wonder, at least for me but she has left a long lasting mark with those songs that I enjoy hearing even today after all these years....

Once upon a time we had Eric Saade and Danny Saucedo competing against each, kissing it good  and also shared girlfriend Molly Sanden - separate times thankfully!  These days we have younger version of them in Benjamin Ingrosso and Felix Sandman. Also they scored the top-2 in Melodifestivalen, became kissing good friends and are now touring Sweden together. No Molly in between them but a lot of bromance. They even released a song together, Tror du att han bryr sig . Now they both have a new song out....  Meanwhile Danny is out with a Latin flavored number Undantag that fits his Bolivian roots,  while Eric's latest offering is from last summer, Another week . 

This year's Eurovision was the usual love love peace peace fest it always is. It seems also that the many promotional events from London to Amsterdam, Madrid to Riga and especially the long one to Israel has bonded the artists together more than ever. Or so it seems following their social media updates as they sing together, they spend time together, they praise each other, they promise future collaborations together. That's the beauty of Eurovision. Uniting people. Europe. Artists. Love love peace peace indeed. This year was a special one on screen, too. First the Macedonian postcard, kept secret until the live broadcast, revealed lovely Jana is pregnant (and she may not be the only one....) but a bigger secret and revelation came later: her boyfriend proposed her in Green room in front of all of us and she of course said Yes! And can we forget the passionate kisses after their performances by Navi Band's Arciom and Ksienija, and Romanian Ilinca and Alex? if a...

A minor drop in the share and viewing figures for Sanremo last night. The second night was scored a share of 46,6% or an average of 10.367.000 viewers, a drop of 3,4% which is however better than in 2015, Conti's first festival, And 2016's second night was one of the best scoring ones ever so no worries. The after show DopoFestival is still doing well, 40,60% or an average of 2,4 million viewers... at 2am. Not bad at all. One possible reason if of course foorball, there was a Serie A match last night.  One of the highlight of the evening was the surprise kiss Robbie Williams gave to Maria De Filippi. Apparently ti created some 70.000 tweets in the seconds after..... 

Russian trio from Helsinki 2007 Eurovision may have changed line up and had its share of drama over the years but one thing remains: They release insanely catchy hits for summer. This year's offer is Chocolate . We move from cherry cake to chocolate cookie :-) Still remember Mi mi mi , Mama lover and Kiss ?

The Russian trio of Song #1 fame from Helsinki 2007 Eurovision have released their summer hit for 2015: Kiss . It follows Mi mi mi and Mama lover to European charts, or at least Italian ones were they seem to have already a steady place....  And indeed they have a good thing going on, these songs are insanely catchy, even if Kiss is a bit more melancholy with a lovely lazy lounge atmosphere.....  but surely there will be remixes for every hour of the day.  Who would have thought this trio put together for Eurovision would be still here scoring hits eight years later - even if only one original member is left and there are already three ex-Serebros around... but that's only a minor detail. 

Lithuania is back with their joyful, somewhat silly celebration of love and that kiss. Apparently in rehearsal Monika was so taken by Vaidas' kiss she forgot to continue singing. Can you blame her? Anyways, minor changes in outfits, major changes in the backdrop that has been tuned down a little in its explosion of colors. Now they are also holding hands and there are more close ups it seems. For the "one kiss" moment the backing singers switch places forming all female and all male couples but instead of kissing high five each other - could they pull a Krista in the semi and actually kiss? Now that would be a stunt to use.... Do it! All in all very nice in every way and should sail to the final without major problems.