Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Iceland - Eythor Ingi - Ég Á Líf One of the most underrated songs this year. I admit this wasn't my favorite in the Icelandic national final but it was a good runner up for me. The song has a quiet beauty about it and luckily it also stays in Icelandic that sounds especially soft and delicate in this particular song. Eyþór himself comes across rough and sweet at the same time. Like a heavyrocker daddy singing a lullaby to his kid, and the song is indeed a lullabylike one that works also well live . Hard to say how the televoters react to this, and will the jury overlook it as well. This said, one of the better songs this year, and one of the best singers, too. No matter what happens, Iceland should be proud! Croatia - Klapa s Mora - Mižerja Croatia surprised us all with their choice (anticipated by last year's Nina Badric exclusively to Blogilkar here ) but like Iceland, whatever happens they can be proud of it. The song is similar to the Icelandic one in the way that...

Over the past years we have been talking about the Swedish influence in the Eurovision but another one has been floating around maybe a bit unnoticed, Italy! We have had songs sung in Italian, songs produced in Italy, sung by artists like Paolo Meneguzzi who is associated as Italian despite having a Swiss passport, or Roberto Meloni... not to mention all the song in Italian in various national finals! All this when Italy itself was absent. And this 2013 is no exception with Italian touch. The Croatian song was recorded in Italy by Italians, the Lithuanian artist lives in Italy,  the Romanian one has done his vocals studies in Italy, the Belgian singer has clear Italian roots (once again), as has the Slovenian one. The Spanish lead singer's claim to international fame is she was singing in Sanremo a couple of years ago... On top of that both Italy and San Marino will sing their songs in Italian this year (finally!) and both are in top-10 in most every poll. And we can't f...

Also Croatia presented its song today and also the band's name has been confirmed as Klapa s Mora, The song Mizerja is a traditional one and very pretty indeed. And certainly more autenthic than most every other song in the contest and feels like a breath of fresh air. Hopefully it will be rewarded in points, too!