Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

   Gabbani and dogs  Demy and a dog  Naviband and dogs  Amir won at EMAs  ... and so did Loic. And Blanche got Border breakers award  Imri did Copenhagen and met the Little mermaid  Jari Sillanpää's got an extra job in Bangkok    Dana International met Boy George's karma Chameleon  Sergey and Dima back together again  Lena Philipsson met... err, Lena Ph? Manel met Pablo Alboran Sergey and Polina are ready for the New Year's show on TV Svala's fashion choice for this week Valentina becomes Mina Movember is here again.... And yes, Gianluca and Vanessa partied it away in their wedding. How was your week?

Francesco did Milan..... Vaclav did a video shoot.... Maraaya did Warsaw... Dami did Nashville.... Donny did Dundalk (that's Ireland btw)...  Mørland did beach... Poli did Prag... Sin+ did JazzAscona... Cascada did Budapest (shopping)... Vaidas did India... Gigliola will do Tokyo... Michal did... errr.... Helena and Tamta did a duet... Francesco did get good news... (one day she will share with us hopefully) Musiqq did celebrate 8 years together... Gigliola did Toto's make up for a photo shoot... Demy did a video.... Eric did have standars... Loic did a video shoot, too... Senhit did wear fake fur and sat on a fake leather.  Just to be clear!

When you are riding high on success, everyone wants to be part of it. If Belgium - like so many other countries - may have been struggling to get big names taking part in the Eurovision, a few years of success has changed it all. After the success of new, fresh and rather unknown talents of Loic Nottet, Laura Tesoro and Blanche most every Eurovision wannabe of the yesteryears is lining up now from Natalia to Kate Ryan, from Gene Thomas to Isabelle A, De Romeo's, Belle Perez and Ozark Henry, most adding "if the song is right".  Peter van de Vleire however revealed VRT will be delecting once again internally and this blogger thinks they might stick to the young, fresh and new talent formula instead. (Something like Emma Bale for example!) Maybe they should, too, judging the videos below.... But then who knows? Maybe Kate Ryan does deserve a new chance after her 2006 disaster?

Pictured is the national flower of Belgium, poppy Belgium's French speaking television is in charge this year and as usual selected internally their artist. This time it's Blanche, yet another artist for The Voice Belgique. Her song City lights was also internally selected among the songs she was working on for her debut album. It's written by Pierre Dumoulin and Blanche herself.  Ellie Delvaux (17) aka Blanche for the artistic life. She entered The Voice Belgique last year but unlike previous Eurovision starts Roberto Bellarosa and Loic Nottet she didn't get that far in the competition, but her special dark voice left a mark. She won't pass unnoticed at the Eurovision either for sure and with some luck might have an international hit in her hands. I have to stress again I'm writing these reviews mostly before the live performances in the promo events. It seems the fans have been a bit disappointed by Blanche's stage presense and vocals, but e...

Just like neighbouring the Netherlands also Belgium seems to have found the right cards for the Eurovision success in the past years. And if it works, why change it? Once again they are apparently selecting internally the artist and once again from The Voice contestants.  Two very different artists with different styles are rumored to be the ones they are trying to figure out who would guarantee a better success and keep Belgium in the Top-10 for the third consegutive year. 20-year-old Pierre Lizée would follow the footsteps of Loic Nottet by being a bit on the alternative side and has gained success and fame after the show despite making only the semifinal. 23-year-old Olivier Kaye did make the final, and has belted out various musical styles with ease, and may have not such a clear genre and profile as Pierre and is more traditional. It is reported songs are being written and produced for both artists so in the end it might be a question who gets a better and mor...

Download chart that is, these modern days. The only one bothering the official singles chart is the winner, Måns Zelmerlöw with Heroes entering at #16 . He also is the only one entering the radio play chart so far, shyly at #57 . In the album charts the Eurovision song contest 2015 compilation climbs to #11 . In the beforementioned download charts Måns re-enters straight at number one (after charting already a couple of weeks after his Melodifestivalen win and peaking then at number 11). Estonia's Stig Rästa and Elina Born enter at #2 with Goodbye to yesterday . Belgium's Loic Nottet enters at #13 , followed by Slovenia's Maraaya at #18 , Russia's Polina Gagarina at #23 and finally Italy's Il Volo at #25 . Let's see next week who resists another week...

Loïc was also very happy and satified after his qualification for the grand final and took some time to greet all of you, my lovely readers! Got rhythm inside? Vote for Belgium on Saturday!

Belgium has sorted out their problems, the choreography is now as it should be and it is very interesting one! Surely, and hopefully, TV-viewers will be hooked on watching what's going on as it is a very interesting and powerful one. Loic's vocals are great and his quick pirouette that comes out of nowhere is kind of a Wow factor in it. Also the lights and bacgdrop with simple moving lines compliment the whole affair. Loic is wearing a long black jacket and the backing singers/dancers are in white futuristic costumes. This won't let you indifferent. Love it or hate it but people will notice it. Well done. Should qualify easily if there is any justice.

Minimalistic. Avantgarde. Modern. Amazing. Disappointing. All these words I saw when checking out what other have said. Apparently Loic wasn't quite in the top form in rehearsals what comes to remembering the choreography but then this is only the first technical one. He has five backing singers with him and engages to some very original choreography himself with them. Simple but effective black and white backdrop gives it a bit surrealistic feel. I can't wait to see this on TV screen! One question remains: Will this be all too modern and different for an average European televoter? 

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...

Loïc Nottet and his entourage has been keeping quiet how his performance will be and look like in Vienna. A few days ago he performed in the Boice of Belgique and gave us a little glimpse. Or did he? “My act on The Voice Belgique was inspired on what I will do on the Eurovision Song Contest but my performance in Vienna will also be very different. I am going to keep it simple but modern with new technologies. It’s going to be something new for Eurovision,” tells Loïc, “I will only have support from 5 backing vocals. ‘Rhythm Inside’ is a really complicated song and I need a lot of voices to back me up. The main rule on the contest is that all the vocals in the song should be sang live. Another rule is that only 6 people are allowed on stage,” Nottet explains.  Also Loïc’s look remains a big mystery. Loïc can only reveal that he will be dressed by the Belgian fashion label ‘ Les Hommes ’ on the red carpet in Vienna. His suit will be mainly black with an edge, but yet very ref...

Loïc Nottet is one of the youngest and unexperinced artists this year. This 18-year-old came second in the The Voice Belgique last year and then in the fall was approached by RTBF if he would be interested in Eurovision. He didn't say yes immediately as he confesses he didn't quite know what Eurovision is! He documented himself and said yes, as it is an opportunity to make a huge show for the whole of Europe. Even if he is well aware his entry Rhythm inside isn't a typical Eurovision song he hasn't listened the other songs to avoid comparing himself to others and get stress for it. And how will his staging in Vienna be...?

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.

Also Belgium has released the audio of their entry Rhythm inside by Loïc Nottet. It's certainly something different and stands out among all the female ballads and duets we have this year.... This blogger yet needs to digest it a bit before decided which way it goes.... And here's the video !

Belgium took us by surprise and out of the blue announced its prepresant for the Eurovision song contest 2015 in Vienna. Following Roberto Bellarosa's footsteps another The Voice Belgique artist gets the job, 17-year-old runner up Lo ï c Nottet. Listen him here: Chandelier , Love me again , Stay and Diamonds .