Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The tiniest of them all once again had the biggest and longest national selection of them all. San Marino's 3rd edition of  Una voce per San Marino started in October 2023 and ended February 24, 2024 and was won by Spanish group Megara. Over 700 submissions from 31 countries were received and after countless auditions we had five semifinals plus second chance round before the final with added Big artists and even one AI song.... If someone had patience and managed to keep up with it all - good for you! Megara is a group from Madrid founded in 2015. Their music is described fucksia rock, or alternative metal. Kenzy Loevett is the colorful lead singer.  Other members are Tio Rober Bueno (electric guitar), Vitti Crocutta (bass) and Raphaela Tacce (drums). They released their debut EP back in 2015 followed by an album in 2016 and another one in 2018.  Four years later they released their third one and in 2023 they took part in Benidormfest with Arcadia placing 4th. They tried...

Megara 11:11 From Benidormfest to Una voce per San Marino (and vice versa for Nebulossa) was the winning card for Megara, a Spanish alternative rock band who won last night ahead of Loredana Bertè and La Rua. I had a sneaky feeling La Rua was the pre-contest designed winner with a song co-written/produced by Dardust (who would then have had three entries in Malmö: Luxemburg, Italy and San Marino) until Loredana Bertè entered with the wildcard with her Sanremo song Pazza so she could "go to Sweden and annoy her ex-husband Björn Borg". Well, that's a reason like no other I guess. This said, I'm happy she didn't win. Mind you, I have nothing against her and I love some of her songs but I just think first of all the song wasn't good enough and secondly this La Bertè adoration in fandom has gotten a bit out of hand already. And most of all I think her winning  would have done nothing but harm to the credibility of UVPSM, the little it has managed to gain in the p...

Una voce per San Marino 2024 gives a second chance to Loredana Bertè to get to Eurovision song contest in Malmö, Sweden, as she has declared her wish to go there and annoy her ex-husband Björn Borg in every possible way. SMRTV said they invited her due public demand and her before mentioned wish. The other artists had to apply unlike in previous years when they were invited. However, due to this fact it is yet uncertain La Bertè will be able to make it as she's already booked for gigs and promotion here and there and other work. The final decision will come in coming days when he's got her schedules sorted out. UPDATE 22.2.2024: Loredana Bertè confirmed with her Sanremo song Pazza Jalisse has tried to get back to Sanremo for almost three decades now without luck, and apparently also to Eurovision via San Marino and here they are finally. This blogger loved them back then and their debut album was fab. The material after that so and so. I hope they have something good to give us...

Last night 15 acts performed and the voting was 50-50 by radios and televoters and the ranking went all upside down on the top: Geolier first, Irama second. Annalisa, Loredana Berté and Mahmood managed to keep their Top-5 going on.  The Fantasanremo thingy is getting very annoying as the artists are collecting points by wearing black, sunglasses, giving flowers to conductors, kissing people in the audience, taking the broom on stage and other stupid things that get very tiring in the end. Especially in the wardrobe as if I counted right 11 out of 15 wore black. Clara stands out even more so as the real beauty of elegance this year sporting another stunning gown last night. That was not black. Today's news is John Travolta didn't sign the permission to use the footage they have of his visit never ever anywhere again and totally understandably. It was ridiculous. As Fiorello admitted after it was probably the most stupid thing ever seen on Italian television. I don't think Tr...

Tonight the second Sanremo 2024 night takes place in Teatro Ariston. Next to Amadeus will be singer and Sanremo winner Giorgia who has the hard task of following Marco Mengoni who seems to have convinced everyone last night as a showman, comic and host besides singer. There's already a demand for his own show on Rai1 sometime i the future, or at least his presence every night this year in Sanremo. Poor Giorgia. The real reason for her presence is however to celebrate her Sanremo debut (7th among newcomers) with classic E poi... that turns 30 this year. She was back in Sanremo the year after and won. Then she came back as a reigning winner and placed 3rd. And then she returned again in 2001 and placed 2nd. She finally got back last year placing 6th. Tonight as there are only 15 songs to perform there are a lot of guests on stage and outside Teatro Ariston: John Travolta, Giovanni Allevi, Bob Sinclair. Rosa Chemical, Leo Gassmann, Matteo Bussola, the cast of Mare fuori tv-serie (that...

  Like Ricchi e Poveri also Loredana Bertè is a real Sanremo veteran. Ten participations plus one disqualification leads to her participation in 2024. She has scored huge hits and evergreens on her career but somehow they haven't come from Sanremo where she usually has landed on bottom bits. Her best is 4th, both her last two participations in 2012 and 2019. This Amici non ne ho in 1994 placed 13th but is my far my favorite of her entries along with the latest, Cosa ti aspetti da me .

  This week Italian tormentoni goes tropical with Boomdabash featuring Annalisa, Elisa jojns Matilda,  Loredana Bertè joins Franco123 and finally Giuni Russo delivers the summer banger of bangers, written by Franco Battiato 40 summers ago and hit ever since every year. Boomdabash / Annalisa - Tropicana Elisa / matilda de Angelis - Litoranea Franco123 / Loredana Bertè - Mare malinconia Giuni Russo - Un'estate al mare

Italy took its well deserved third victory - finally! - at the Eurovision song contest 2021. Over the years several other Italian entries would have been worthy winners. In this series I will go through all of them from the worst ranking to the winner s. Mia Martini (1947-1995) did her second Euroviison and it went much better than the first  time  in 1977 . In Malmö the home audience was very intrigued not for her artistry but simply because she was the sister of Loredana Berté, tennis legend Björn Borg's ex-wife! But she handled the situation graciously with elegance and won over most everyone and landed a 4th place out of 23 with Rapsodia , a song Rai picked for Eurovision. She came 2nd in Sanremo with already evergreen Gli uomini non cambiano won by Luca Barbarossa and Portami a  ballare .  Poor Mimi's career was made of highest heights and deepest lows until it came to a sad end in spring 1995. Her legacy lives on and she has left us with several evergreens an...

It's summer time and Italian airwaves are filled with summer rhythms and beats. Enjoy! Fedez, Achille Lauro, Orietta Berti - Mille Emma, Loredana Berté - Che sogno incredibile Annalisa, Federico Rossi - Movimento lento Samuel, Francesca Michielin - Cinema

Tonight's the final of 69th Festival della Canzone Italiana aka Sanremo. Who's going to win? The race is still very open and the revealed partial votings per night haven't but confused the matters even more. If we go for standing ovations Loredana Bertè should be the winner but she's been unlucky in Sanremo before even though this year it seems like she might do it, there's strange - but well deseerved - let's support Loredana thing going on. While the various groups may have very different preferences the winner is a compromise that must be liked by all of them, unless someone really dominates the televotes, like Ultimo or Il Volo, while press votes for Cristicchi and Mahmood... The top contenders to make the top-10 I suppose are in no particlar order Bertè, Silvestri, Ultimo, Cristicchi, Irama, Il Volo, Nek and Renga not forgetting Arisa, Mahmood, Turci and Carta/Shade. My favorites are Bertè, Mahmood and Irama. Tonight all 24 for sing again and after t...