Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Hurricane was a big pre-contest favorite and totally ruled the Beovizija 2020 votes gaining full marks by both the jury and televoters already in the semi-final, and repeated the same in the final. And for a change there's nothing fishy about it. If not the fact the televoters and juries didn't agree pretty much on anything else....(except Naiva and Marko more or less in the mid table) Sanja Vučić, Ivana Nikolić and Ksenija Knežević or the Hurricane girls have been performing together since 2017 and as a funny coincidence their Eurovision history is quite linear: Ksenija's dad Knez sung in Eurovision 2015  Adio , Sanja herself 2016  Goodbye and now they are doing Hasta la vista together! Hurricane has released a string of singles so far but no album yet and are apparently very popular in the region. Check out below the results and performance videos (and here the semi-final results ) 1. Hurricane - Hasta la vista (televote 12 + jury 12) 24 2. Naiva -  Ba...

The Temptations would take this song to #1 and win three Grammys in 1973 with it, but it was originally recorded by another Motown group: The Undisputed Truth in 1971. Their  original version only went to #63, and pretty much forgotten these days as the Temps made it theirs so well.  Anyways, this is a real weird single track as even the single mix almost 7 minutes long, and the album one over 12 minutes! It also has four different lead vocalists and the instruments keep changing and variating.  It would also be The Temptations fourth #1 and also the last. In UK this went to #14.    Countless cover versions have been recorded and performed throughout the decades, including Bill "Wolf" Wolfer with backing vocals by Michael Jackson, Issac Hayes with Soul II Soul's Charlotte Kelly,   Seal , Was (Not Was) , George Michael , Craig David and many others. Run-D.M-C sampled it to their Papa Crazy as did Montenegrin Eurovision star Knez in Autom...

Knez is competing tonight in the seond semifinal and he surely won't be saying Adio to the final on Saturday if it's up to me. meanwhile, here are his best regards and best wishes especially for you! (Vote, vote, vote! - that's my message for you!)

No trace of yestaerday's party in Knez voice today. Being one of the most seasoned artists this year he did a great job with his entry. The staging is the same we saw already, with a long violin intro in a very Joksimovic style and quite a dark stage. His five ladies engage in a Balcan style dance/choreography behind him when the song progress and the backdrop changes from cold blue to hot red. During the instrumental break he also joins in with the dance and the backdrop mixes red and blue. Simple. Effective. Beautiful. Extra points for singing in native language. Joksimovic Balcan pathos has done always very well so far, has Europe grown tired of it? I don't think so. At least I haven't. Finalist and hopefully top-10 again.

Besides the Nordic Party and the San Marino Party also the Montenegro party took place earlier in the evening. My flying reporter Robert passed by there, too, and got this upside down video of Knez singing Adio , and also Slovenian Marayya was there. 

Montenegro brings us some traditional dancing, stunning images of blue and red lit mountains and the sea while Knez and his five dancing backing vocalists belt out the Joksimovic tune. Beautiful. Convincing. Elegant. Black, green and beige are their outfit colors and the ladies will be wearing some local jewelry. Me likes. 

Here we go. Tomorrow the things start in Vienna for real and it's time to have a little round up. The past weeks I have been presenting my favorites from this year's Eurovision song contest and it's a weird year; the favorites stand out easily, so do the bottom ones and then there are awful many entries that are totally forgettable, uninteresting and .... well, forgettable.  Bubbling under on the list below these favorites I have in random order Portugal, Ireland, Georgia, Austria, Romania, Lithuania, Macedonia and United Kingdom. I want to see them live on stage before giving any further judgement. As usual I will post my rankings before each semifinal with the ones I want to qualify and the ones I think will qualify. Only that at this point it feels harder than ever.... Let's see how it goes :-) Here are direct links to my favorites and the joker San Marino, always close to my heart.  Italy - Il Volo - Grande amore Azerbaijan - Elnur Huseynov - Ho...

Knez has released English and French versions of his song Adio that will represent Montenegro in Vienna 2015 Eurovision. You can listen to them here . His backing group has also been revealed and Dunja Vujadinović, Jelena Pajić, Lena Kuzmanović, Ivana Vladović and  Ksenija Knežević will join him on stage. After promotional tour in Amsterdam, Moscow and London he is now prepairing for Vienna. 

Nenad Knežević or simply Knez was internally chosen to represent Montenegro in Vienna 2015 Eurovision. For the occasion he got Adio , written by Željko Joksimović, who needs no presentation. Knez has taken part in various local competitions in his early career and won Budva 2000 with Vjeruj . His latest hit is Donna . He did his first contest when he was six years old! After several experiences in bands he went solo in early 1990's. Since then his fame and music has spread all over ex-Yogoslavia. His most selling album is from 1997 but he has released 11 albums so far (including compilations) and a new one is coming this summer. Once again Balcan brings in the big guns!

The first Eurovision song contest took place on May 24, 1956 in Lugano. Now 60 years later the 60th edition will be held on May 23, finishing on early hour of May 24 in most of Europe. The oldest participant this year is Finland's Pertti Kurikka, born on Boxing day the very same year 1956. He's 43 years older than the youngest artist this year, San Marino's Anita Simoncini who turns 16 just six weeks before the final in Vienna. The funny thing is the oldest one does punk, the youngest...  well, schlager.

And today also the very last entry has been revealed with audio only, the video should premiere this weekend. Knez for Montenegro was the very first artist announced for Eurovision 2015 and has the very last song to be heard.   Adio is written by Željko Joksimović and you can really hear it. In a good way. I'm a sucker for his style and obviously like this one a lot, too. This is his 5th Eurovision entry and his worst placing so far is 6th, the Serbian entry at home in Belgrade 2008 Eurovision. Will he keep his awesome track record with Knez?

Namely writing the song for Knez who has been announced the Montenegrin artist already last year. When he was asked to write the song for him Zeljko told it was an offer too good to turn down and so he returns to Eurovision for the 5th time as a composer or a singer. On top of that he of course was the host in Belgrad 2008 Eurovision. And we must remember he has scored on silver, wo bronzes and one sixth place with his entries. So I'm sure he feels no pressure at all to do well.... ;p Apparently this time we won't get a big Balcan ballad but something more uptempo. Let's remember Zeljko's Eurovision adventures so far: 2004 Serbia & Montenegro  - Lane moje (artist & composer) 2nd (2005 Serbia & Montenegro - Jutro (composer) - Jelena Tomasevic 2nd in national selection) 2006 Bosnia & Herzegovina - Lejla (composer) - Hari Mata Hari 3rd 2008 Serbia - Oro - (composer) - Jelena Tomasevic ft Bora Dugic 6th (2008 Eurovisison song contest host in ...

And here we have it, the very first artist for the Eurovision 2015 in Vienna and it's Nenad "Knez"  Knežević   for Montenegro. The song will be revealed later. This 48-year-old (when in Vienna) singer is as usual, well known and popular in the ex-Yogoslavian countries. After makng his debut as a singer at tender age of six he later joined and formed several bands before going solo in 1992. Since then he has released several albums and participated in many local festivals winning some. He has also been active in producing and writing for other singers. Last year he ventured into TV when taking part in local "Your face sounds familiar". Step from that to Eurovision is short. His latest songs seems to be Znam da nisi ona and   Donna .