Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Estonian superstars, the hardest working and performing male artist Koit Toome and the most played singer on radios, Laura, fresh from Eurovision song contest 2017 in Kyiv are coming to Helsinki's Aleksanterinteatteri on October 23. Will they get lost?

Milla Jovovich apparently was in negotiations to host the Eurovision song contest 2017 - just like Lady Gaga to perform as interval act - but the deal wasn't made in the end. Money. It's always about the money, isn't it? Milla, a worldfamous model and actress was born in Kyiv in 1975, then Soviet Union as daughter of a Russian actress and a Serbian father. She however spent her childhood in Moscow and the family immigrated to London for political reasons in 1980, and moved on to Los Angeles soon after. Milla has declared she feels more Russian than Ukrainian, having only born there but spending her early years in Moscow, so in this light it seems a bit unlikely Ukrainians would have chosen her at this time and place of the world so I label this "only rumors".... Wasn't she rumored also in 2008 as a host for the Belgrade Eurovision?

Now this is just a rumor that got out now nd most likely untrue, but it's a fun one. Last year Stockholm got Justin Timberlake to perform for free apparently in exchange of the television audience of 200 miliion at the Eurovision song contest final. The purists didn't like it, and indeed what does he have to do with Eurovision, especially as he didn't even know what it was prior taking the stage really? Like as if Sweden didn't have world stars of their own to show..... But that aside, this year it could maybe have been Lady Gaga. To claim that is Jamala's manager Igor Tarnapolsky who gossips he heard it from Eurovision 2017 producer Stuart Barlow himself...  Anyways, it fall down to Lady Gaga's "free" performance as she demanded a rider of 100.000-200.000 dollars to make her spectacular performance. One can only wonder what she would have given us with that money....  certainly she would have fitted Eurovision a bit better than Mr Timberlake ...

Mixed results for viewing figures across Europe. Some broke records in positive, some in negative. And it will be interesting to see how much the Russian non-broadcasting effected in the end once EBU publishes the total figures.... Good Portugal got over half the nation watching the historic first Eurovision win, 57%. An average of 1,4 million watched the show going up to 1,8 million when Salvador Sobral was on stage and peaking at 2,5 million when the voting ended.  Italy got the best viewing figures since their return in 2011. 3.741.000 (20,17%) watched the Grand final beating Amici in the other channel which is major news. Over half a million viewers watched the semifinals on Rai4, and those who watched the shows at least for a minute nearly 15 million! France got good figures when 4,7 million (26,3%) French preferred Eurovision over The Voice and tuned in. Even the semifinals scored more than half a million viewers (573.000 and 572.000) Hungary: The viewing f...

The guy who mooned the whole world during live Eurovision song contest final in Kyiv, professional prankster Vitali Seduyk may be having the last laugh. According the Ukrainian law he could have faced anything from a fine to up to five years in prison. Instead all he had to do after 72 hours in arrest for aggravated holiganism was to surrnder his passport and report to police if he changes recidence.  He said he has nothing against Jamala. She was only performing in the small stage among the audience (just like the winner Salvador Sobral btw) and he happened to be close by.  Below are some other activities of his in the past....  Bradley Cooper  Brad Pitt  Kim Kardasian  Will Smith

The annual crazy day of Eurovision chart action is here. In iTunes there's a lot of action today. Portugal's winning entry has hit #1 spot in 14 different countries and is in Top-10 in additional 15 countries, charting altogether in 46 countries from Mozambique to Canada, from Kirkhistan to Hong Kong. Belgius is in charts in 34 countries (#1 in Belgium, Estonia and Austria). Bulgaria is #1 in Bulgaria and in charts in 32 countries. Moldova follows with 26 presence but no #1s, Sweden with 24 and no #1s. Wide chart action also my Norway, Hungary, Italy, Romania, France, Australia, Austria, UK, Cyprus, Israel, Croatia, Azerbaijan, Netherlands and Denmark with more than ten presence. Armenia, Greece, Belarus, Germany, Poland and Estonia also have a few, while Spain, Finland, Ireland, Ukraine, Switzerland and Latvia have just domestic support and maybe a couple of others.  In comparasion in Spotify Belgium leads with 14 countries, followed by Bulgaria (11), Portugal (10), ...

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...

RAI got the best viewing figures since Italy's return to the Eurovision song contest last night when the show was moved back to Rai1 and up to 15,1 million watched the show at least for a minute, and the average of 3,7 million watched it properly, that's +13% to last year! Call it Gabbamania but also RAI was giving bigger effort than ever with advertising the show beforehand.  The most watched moment was the ending of Gabbani's performance when 5,3 million Italians were clued to their television screen, and the biggest share (32,2%) when Portugal was declared the winner. Most importantly, Eurovision beat the worst enemy, Maria De Filippi's Amici! The show was also a social media success with 739.000 interactions on Twitter and Facebook - that's +259% people! And all that by about 200.000 individuals (+600%!).  The Director of Rai1, Andrea Fabiano who was present in Kyiv, declares he's very satisfied with the result and considered Eurovision a priority p...

The streaker who jumped to the stage while Eurovision winner Jamala was performing last night and lowered his pants showing his arse to the world in live broadcast has been arrested and identified. He's journalist Vitalii Sediuk, a know streaker who seems to be doing stuff like this as a hobby. Recently he has been caught grabbing Gigi Hadid and trying to kiss Kim Kardasian's bum. He has also harassed bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt and America Ferrara among others, and was expelled from the USA. Now he can expect a heavy fine or even prison up to five years, confirms Ukrainian minister of the interior according HS . Sediuk says he only wants to entertain people.....  Kudos to Jamala who didn't miss a note and kept a straight face all through it! Last time something like this happened was in 2010 when Spain got an extra dancer on stage when infamous Jimmie Jump entered and joined the choreography before being chased off by the guards. In Helsinki 2007 someone tried t...

Let's have a look at the finalists and their placings in the final. The whole Top-3 trio Portugal , Bulgaria and Moldova made their best result ever, which I find wonderful. It's always a pleasere when a new country wins and some other breaks the previous record. Winners (finalists) Belgium can be happy, their third  consegutive Top-10 finish, and second in Top-5. Romania scored its best in six years. Hungary was its 3rd best ever. Sweden scored sixth Top-5 in seven years..... Croatia scored its best since 2006 Norway got it's fourth Top-10 in five years...  Netherlands was again around 9th-11th, third time in five years (add the silver in 2014) UK got its best since Blue in 2011. Germany gets better every year: 27th, 26th and now 25th.... :-) Losers (finalists) Italy was expecting better so 6th place might be a let down but we have to remember  it's their 5th Top-10 in seven years.... France got their 2nd best since 2010...

Portugal's Salvador Sobral gave them the first victory with their 50th entry since 1964. After so many delusions including three last places, and sitting out at home last year to think it over they totally deserved it. The song Amar pelos dois won also two Marcel Bezençon awards. Artistic award voted by the commentators and Composer award voted by the competing composers. Plus it was both televoters and juries number one all over Europe. When you finally win it, win it BIG (just like another historical underdog Finland back in the day, winning with its 4th entry in 2006) Salvador's trip to Eurovision was inusual one. For the technical rehearsals he wasn't even in town due health problems. Apparently he has a severe heart issues and is in line to get a new heart. His sister and writer of the song Luisa stand in for him and they performed the winnng entry again as a duo. Now that's also an Eurovision first! If Conchita's icomic words after winning on sta...

 So, Finland finished 12th. Would have qualified with the televoting only, as would have Czech Republic with jury only. Portugal won both easily.Georgia was 11th while Latvia last. Bulgaria reigned in the second semifinal, even more convincingly thatn Portugal in the first. Serbia was 11th and San Marino last with 1 (one) point! Big differences here. malta qould have qualified for the jury, Estonia for the televote. Denmark was liften to the final by the jury. 

Portugal has just won the 62nd Eurovision song contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. Out of 42 countries 26 made it to the final after two semifinals held earlier this week Tuesday and Thursday. Total points minus Portugal's 376, same as Bulgaria! Two points more than Moldova! So that means 758 for Portugal! Finland and Portugal, the underdogs. If you win, win it BIG! Here are the jury votes Televoting separately: 1, Portugal   376 1. Bulgaria  376 3. Moldova  374 4. Belgium  255 5. Romania  224 6. Italy  208 7. Hungary  152 8. Sweden  126 9. Croatia  103 10. France  90 11. Azerbaijan  42 12. Poland  41 13. Belarus  33 14. Cyprus  32 15. Norway  29 16. Greece  29 17. Ukraine  24 18. Armenia  21 19. Netherlands  15 20. UK  12 21. Denmark  8 22. Israel  5 22. Spain  5 24. Germany  3 25. Australia  2 26. Austria  0 More in...

And then this happened...... After second recap  After first recap

How times flies. Two weeks of rehearsal madness is gone and dramatic semifinal, too. Here we are. The final night. Besides the 26 entries we can expect  performances from all of the Ukrainian Eurovision royals (except Ani Lorak (2nd in 2008 but she's apparently on the Russian side of things, you know). The winners Jamala (2016) and Ruslana (2004) both are performing, and Verka Serduchka (2nd in 2007) reappears with her mom and Zlata Ognevich (3rd in 2013). Instead of self eliminated pro-Russia Ms Lorak we have ONUKA, an Ukrainian electro-folk band.  The hosts have showered and are ready, are you? ISRAEL POLAND BELARUS AUSTRIA ARMENIA NETHERLANDS MOLDOVA HUNGARY ITALY DENMARK PORTUGAL AZERBAIJAN CROATIA AUSTRALIA GREECE SPAIN NORWAY UNITED KINGDOM CYPRUS ROMANIA GERMANY UKRAINE BELGIUM SWEDEN BULGARIA FRANCE I will publish my prediction table later tonight.....

"Occidentali's Karma" is Best Song according to The Collective voting of the accredited press and wins  Marcel Bezençon Press   Award! Thank you! Portugal's Salvador Sobral won the Artistic award voted by the commentators, and Luisa Sobral the Compose award voted by the other composers.