Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Another milestone reached: 5.500.000 visitors on this blog. That happened a couple of days ago and the faith is I just happened to check on it the right moment! What can I say again?  Thank you! Grazie! Kiitos! 

Another milestone, 2 million clicks on Blogilkar's Life after Helsinki 2007 . I can't thank you enough all of you who keep coming back every day and keep following me, it's been quite a journey. A few times over the past year or two I have been ready to stop blogging but even if I have slowed down a lot I guess I just can't stop it completely as the boost you get from a hit post or the pure joy of playing with photos and words and keeping up with all things Eurovision and Sanremo and the rest.... So, here I am. Next goal 3 million! Together we can make it! Meanwhile there's Vienna, and somewhere else after that and oh, so many songs! And it's time to refresh also the image and I hope dogdesign won't mind I borrowed a bit more of their design this time around - after all this blog is also to keep the spirit and memory of Helsinki 2007 Eurovision alive! Let's not let this kaleidoscope be forgotten. 

EFR12 radio will once again broadcast one of the interviews my flying reporter Robert did in Baku 2012. This time it's Roman Lob from Germany. 9pm  here . You can also read the edited version  here .

Yet another flag colected for Blogilkar's Life after Helsinki 2007: this time it's Burundi! Welcome!  That means I have still 35 missing, mostly islands and territories I have barely heard of... Anyone in Northern Korea or Antarctica interested in Eurovision? Click me! :-)

EFR12 radio will once again broadcast one of the interviews my flying reporter Robert did in Baku 2012. This time it's Sinplus from Switzerland. 9pm  here . You can also read the edited version here .

Here we are. You are over one million!  Special thanks to Ding Dong Eurovision who was the one millionth visitor!

Today is a special day on this blog. Another milestone reached, a one I never even dreamed about when I started this some time ago.... One million visitors since I installed the counter! From 207 countries. Million . That's all I can sing today... millimillimillion millimillion.....

Yet again another country makes a debut on Blogilkar's Life after Helsinki 2007. This time it's Comores. Welcome!

EFR12 radio will once again broadcast one of the interviews my flying reporter Robert did in Baku 2012. This time it's Donny Montell from Lithuania. 9pm here . 

Once again a new country visit Blogilkar's Life after Helsinki 2007 and this time it's Gabon! Welcome!

Blogilkar's partner radio EFR12 has a brand new look and website, have a look here . And this is how my blog is introduced to the French speaking audience :-)  EFR12 radio est le partenaire officiel de nombreux sites ou blogs. Vous pouvez retrouver en bas de cette page la liste et les liens de ceux qui accompagnent votre webradio. Rendez leur visite de notre part... : )   Parmi les fidèles de la première heure, ilkar.blogspot.fr  Le blog finlandais né après la victoire de Lordi en 2006 vous invite à découvrir l'actualité de l'Eurovision et de ces stars. Le site et riche en information et à la présentation soignée notamment dans le choix des photos.  Vous y trouverez en bonne place, le lecteur d'EFR12 radio pour parcourir les articles en musique.

And another country from Africa visits Blogilkar: Swaziland! Welcome! :-)

I can only say. Wow what a season! My blog broke all the previous records this season in daily and weekly hits and it's easy to predict a significant raise in the annual hits as well.  Only the top days (or the Sundays after the final) of 2011, 2009 and 2010 resisted in top-10 while the rest was replaced by 2012 days and the Sunday after the final registered more that twice the previous record! For these three Eurovision weeks (from the start of the rehearsals until today) the raise in hits was more than 54%! And in total more than 120.000. New countries found me and climbed to top-10 followers, namely Turkey, Azerbaijan and Russia. Also Serbia and Australia figured well.  Hottest names that attracted readers more than others were not surprisingly Loreen and Jedward but also Donny Montell, Roman Lob and Eleftheria Eleftheriou had their fair share! Eternal to do well Dima Bilan did zero impact on number of hits - is his time over? A special  huge thank y...

Blogilkar's Robert had a chance to talk to Latvian representative Anmary and her team after her rehearsal yesterday and here it is: What does Eurovision mean to you and why did you want to participate? Wow, this is a great experience. This is another country. I like travelling and I have never been to Azerbaijan so it's interesting for me. But I'm musician first and I just want to sing. Latvia isn't so big and somehow you have to expand over the borders to survive and Eurovision is a chance to make myself known abroad.  There are 42 countries and only one can win. With what result will you be happy with it? We've done it. As far as I'm concerned we already did it by being here. We won in Latvia. We are very happy with all that's happening. For example Shay Healy, the writer of What's another year ,  already wrote a song for me, I have recorded a song in Azerbaijan, I have an album to record....  I'm already a winner! So you are planning...

This is a first for this blog, I have my man on the spot! Robert, who already did fantastic job with the Amsterdam concert and also interviewed Kurt Calleja , has just landed in Baku and as soon as his luggage will be found will start reporting directly from there for me and for you, folks! Stay tuned for specials, photos and interviews! I will be covering via internet the daily happenings in Baku from home once again. Tomorrow it starts for real once again! How time flies! And just before we get to see the songs on stage maybe it's time to reveal the personal favorites? Generally I think this is a very good and solid year so most songs get good marks: ***** Italy, Spain, Serbia, Sweden, Estonia ****1/2 Latvia, Albania, Denmark, Russia, Macedonia **** Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Norway, Belarus, Malta, Ireland, Hungary, Cyprus, San Marino, Switzerland, Iceland, Montenegro, Germany, United Kingdom, Slovenia ***1/2 France, Romania, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovakia,...

Good bye 2011, welcome 2012! Blogilkar's Life after Helsinki 2007 has now been running full time four years and once again a new record of visits has been recorded, over 240.000. Over 1.000 posts, nearly 2.300 Facebook friends. Visitors have come from 202 countries or territories listed in Flagcounter. Germany has taken the number one spot in number of visitors followed by Finland, United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Turkey. Another milestone was passed in December when the counter hit 725.000 visits since I added the counter. All this is way beyond my wildest dreams when I started this blog for fun. My sincerest thanks to all of you who come back, read and comment and even you who "borrow" my posts to your websites and blogs. Baku is ahead of us this year and I'm waiting for the one million visitors mark. I used to joke I will stop when that happens... let's see! Thank you all of you who have contributed to blo...

The city of Helsinki had 558.941 inhabitants on January 31, 2011, the latest official record. Today as many visitors have visited the Eurovision world of BlogIlkar in Life after Helsinki 2007 since the counter was added on May 19, 2008. Cool, ha?

Todays's Iltalehti refers to Blogilkar's Life after Helsinki 2007! :-) Here .  Iltalehti is Finland's 4th biggest newspaper.

Another milestone! 300.000 hits! And visits from 179 different countries/territories so far! The hitcounter has been working overtime this year: in January I have had in average 629 daily hits, in February so far already 770. Thank you for following me and I can't wait for May and the hectic times! By this rate I should reach 400.000 in Oslo!