Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Oh what a night! What a voice! Slimane came to Helsinki on his world tour that is sold out most everywhere he goes and Helsinki was no exception. I bought my tickets the first day they were on sale and to my great surprise it was already almost sold out already and all I got were seat too far for my cellphone for any decent photos so sorry for the bad quality! :-) Scroll down to a video recap - decent sound, poor picture.  The new world tour differs from the French arena tour he has been for a year or more that ended in early January. A new set list was prepared for this international adventure and smaller scale staging. There were only Slimane on stage with three excellent backing singers, a drummer and a keyboardist but it sounded great anyways, and after all with Slimane and those fantastic singers it was all about the voice anyways. Simple yet very clever lighting as icing on the cake that played with little tricks creating just right atmosphere. As he may not be as well known ...

Mahmood already co-wrote several songs on Marco Mengoni's #1 and double platinum selling Atlantico album, and there's more: Mengoni is releasing a double-CD packaging of the album that includes three new songs and live recording from his #AtlanticoLive2019 tour, and a new single Duemila volte , co-written again by Mahmood. The other new songs are Calci e pugni and Il destino davanti .  The live CD includes 19 songs, a mix of his biggest hits like Ti ho voluto bene veramente , Guerriero and Io ti aspetto , and the songs of Atlantico. Among the songs also obviously L'Essenziale .  The single Duemila volte will be released October 4:

  Carola turns 53 today, and I have been a fan for 36 years. I happened to be in Sweden visiting my aunt when she won Melodifestivalen 1983 (actually Kikki Danielsson's Varför är kärleken röd, the runner up, was my favorite...) The next summer I was back in Sweden and was taken to see her live in her first record breaking tour. Ever since I have seen her live in Finland a few times and followed her career ever since. Funny how despite her PR in Japan and an album with BeeGees she never really made it outside the Nordics... ah yes, that Guy came in between.... maybe. Even if her debut album is maybe the album I have ever listened the most I chose these songs outside of it, just for the variety. And as an extra vids from her latest Finland gig by moi.  Rendezvous Check out also:

Franco Battiato (74) returns with a new release, his first since the accident at home in November 2017 when he broke his hip. Rumours and gossip has been wild since then, as he hasn't really appeared in public ever since. Occasionally collegues and friends like Alice have stated he's fine and very amused about the rumours that have had even dead a few times already.  The album, recorded in London together with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra two years ago, includes only one new song, the title track Torneremo ancora (We will be back)  giving as hopeful greeting he's coming back for real sometime soon, while the others are re-arranged versions of his classics.  The release date is October 18, 2019. It seems the release is taken care by Battiato's brother Michele and his daughter Grazia Christina, as his health conditions are still considered fragile. This is his 91st album release and 9th live album. He has released 29 studio albums, 18 compilations, 12 albums in...

Francesco Gabbani proved it's slippery when wet  when he almost fell off the stage after the summer rain wet the stage in Verona's amphitheatre. But the tens of thousends of people inside didn't mind the occasional rain and the fabulousness of the best of Italian pop continues tonight on Rai1! Watch the last night's show here  (with Giorgia (0'49), Eros Ramazzotti (0'54), Il Volo (1'50), Ermal Meta (2'18) and Raphael Gualazzi (2'24) among the stars :-) ) The show continued on Tuesday night with Emma, Riccardo Fogli with i Pooh, Massimo Ranieri, Umberto Tozzi (2'09) and Il Volo again, this time under pouring rain with Grande amore (0'57) , among others like Nek (0'23) Watch the whole show here

Alexander Rybak has made a fantastic violin version of Jamala's last year's Euroviison winner 1944. It underlines once again what a beautiful song it is.  Last night Jamala herself reperformed the song in the Eurovision song contest 2017 first semifinal with a new symphonic arrangement.

Here we go again, moment of truth. The juries have voted already last night but the televoters have their say tonight and in the end of the show we have the ten finalists while for eight delegations it's game over.  Trying to guess the finalists is harder than ever, I have like six sure entries and seven maybes when writing this, and I may change my mind before the show starts, and then again during the show. It's a very good year! And that's a problem, I like 13 songs out 18 a lot, and they are  not necessarily the ones I think will qualify, so.... sigh. But more about that later.... What I have seen it's going to be a great show, but that bloody break just before Finland! Not happy. Not at all. It breaks the flow and Finland would have been such a contrast after Montenegro, but than again, I'm confident we will make it anyways because it's just so fantastic! We will get to see also one minute footage of the last night's performances of Italy, Spain and...

Eurovision is also all about parties and as usual many delegations host their own themed parties and last night was Moldova's turn. Not only did Sunstroke Project act as hosts they also performed and had brought along a lot of Moldovan Eurovision royalty: Aliona Moon, Pasha Parfeny and Olia Tira! Many other artists from Slava to Slavko performed, and others from Demy to Hovig and Kristian came to party and enjoy the company, food and drinks. Oh, Eurovision parties, nothing like them!     Pics and vids by the Flying Reporter Robert

Marco Mengoni's latest, a live album with some added new tracks debuts at #1 in the official Italian charts continuing his enourmous success and becoming his sixth #1 album - out of six!  In iTunes he also went straight to #1 and four songs off the album entered the iTunes Top-10. The album includes five new songs; a duet with Paloma Faith and his latest single Sai che among them, that reached #3 in the official singles chart and has already 11 million views on Youtube. Mengoni is currently touring sold out venues in Italy before hitting some European cities before Christmas from Frankfurt to Amsterdam, Paris, Luxembourg, Zurich, Köln, Vienna and Warzaw. 

Sai che is Marco Mengoni's new song and video from forthcoming live album next month that includes some new tracks and a duet.....

Marco Mengoni has finally revealed details about his November 25 release. After multiplatinum albums the circle closes with a box with two live CDs and a DVD, and also five new tracks and a duet, as he releases a new single Sai che already next week, October 14. The album box is released in three different formats: the "simple" one with 2CDs+DVD, special one with 2CDs+DVD+the 2 previous albums Parole in circolo and Le cose che non ho + photo book. The third one is a very limited edition including all of above + extra DVD Tutto in una notte , and special gadgets and even more goodies through his App. Sai che comes also with a video shot in five different states in the USA, reflecting the various emotions in the song from canyons to forests. The song almost forms a trilogy with his previous lead singles Guerriero and Ti ho voluto bene veramente . In November he will also start his new tour that will reach Italy and various cities in Europe

Carola kicks of the sumer leg of her Min bästa... tour following the hugely popular and sold out Christmas editions and the best of tour last year. This summer some of the concerts are a joint affair with another Eurovision song contest winner, Månss Zelmerlöw. Are you ready? July 1 - Västerås July 15 - Varberg - with Måns Zelmerlöw July 29 - Lysekil August 3 - Halmstad August 12 - Stenungsund - with Måns Zelmerlöw and Peg Parnevik August 13 - Helsinki (Finland) August 14 - Floda - with Måns Zelmerlöw and Peg Parnevik This blogger enjoyed her show in Kulttuuritalo last year, check out some videos after after the jump... Maybe the best concert ever I attended what comes to atmosphere. Loved it!

Barei was going all yay yay yay at the Eurovision Village

The Dutch runner ups in Copenhagen 2014 joined Douwe Bob in his bar last night and needess to say it's was yet another fantastic and crowded night at Douwe's place, the place to be to slow down..... the right place for some calm after the storm.... Calm after the storm sing-a-long :-)