Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

After the highest scoring televote Top-10 (see previous post) here comes the ten highest scoring jury favorites.  Here Salvador Sobral from Portugal still reigns but this year's winner Nemo came close with his endless string of 12 points by juries. One can question does the juries favor Sweden but indeed here we have four Swedes in the Top-10. Does it feel like right? No, if you ask me. Australia's runner up is featured here as is Norway's Alexander Rybak and Kristian Kostov but indeed the Top-10 differs from the televote one as there are only four songs in common: Amar pelos dos, Fairytale, Euphoria and Beautiful mess.  Salvador Sobral - Amar pelos dos  382 (Portugal 2017 /winner) Nemo - The Code  365 (Switzerland 2024/winner) Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes  353 (Sweden 2015 /winner) Loreen - Tattoo  340 (Sweden 2023/winner) Dami Im - Sound of silence  320 (Australia 2016 /2nd) Alexandr Rybak - Fairytale  312 (Norway 2009/winner) Loreen - Euphoria...

It's happening: Eurovision 2023 winner Loreen of Sweden and runner up Käärijä of Finland will perform together for the Eurovision song contest 2024 final's interval act announced by SVT tonight in Bngolotto show. In their joint medley Loreen will Cha cha cha with Käärijä's original staging and choreography while Käärijä will recreate Loreen's Tattoo as well and with the magic of live television the performances will melt together at some point.  Other interval or opening acts haven't yet been confirmed but Eurovision 2003 winner Turkish Sertab Erener confessed she's one of them in a medley that is rumored to inlude also Cypriot runner up Eleni Foureira among others.  Käärijä will be also present in Malmö performing in Eurovillage and Euroclub. There is still no news whether Loreen will appear somewhere as well during Eurovision week. 

  Justice be done, Käärijä beats Loreen's Tattoo to second place with a clear margin in the annual fa voting #ESC250, the one and original one.  Cha cha cha scored 22.440 points against Tattoo's 19.446 and Loreen's previous #1 for 11 years Euphoria was almost beaten by last year's #1 SloMo, 17.986 vs. 17.913. Käärijä got 991 12s versus Loreen's 765. Käärijä has had an excellent year: more than 120 sold out gigs in Finland and an European tour. The most streamed song in Finnish ever with nearly 122 million streams on Spotify alone. Cha cha cha was also the most watched video on Eurovision.tv's Youtube channel beating again Loreen.  Cha cha cha topped the official Finnish charts for 9 weeks staying in Top-5 for 30 weeks, still at number 38 at its 48th week. In Radio play charts in was #1 for two weeks, staying in Top-5 for 16 weeks, 11 of them at #2 behind another UMK2023 act, Kuumaa's Ylivoimainen.  On Christmas Eve Yle broadcasted his summer gig in prime tim...

How did it go in the semi-finals? First of all Finland took an easy win in the first one, 42 points ahead of Sweden followed by Israel so the Grand Final's Top-3 was already Top-3 here. Serbia was last to qualify, 3 points of Latvia and then there's a huge cap for the bottom four. Finland was in Top-5 in each and every country with seven 12 points (Norway, Latvia, Ireland, Croatia, Israel, Sweden and Germany). We got 10 points from Serbia, Portugal, Switzerland, Netherlands and Rest of the World. Eight points from Azerbaijan and Czech Republic, 7 from Malta and France and finally only 6 from Moldova. Sweden got only twice 12 (Malta and Netherlands), four times 10, three times 8, twice 7, twice 6, twice 5, twice 4 and 3 from Italy. Australia won the the Second semi-final ahead of Austria and Poland with minor differences. Estonia was the last to qualify with a huge cap to those bottom six that didn't qualify. Romania and San Marino even scored a big flat zero. I guess Romani...

Sweden with Loreen may have won Eurovision song contest 2023 thanks to juries but Finland stormed the televote. Finland won the televote in 18 countries, was second in nine, third in four. The worst score was six points, meaning Finland was 5th. Top-5 in every country! That means Finland scored the second highest televote ever, second only to last year's Kalush Orchestra fro Ukraine - a deserved winner but televote highly powered by the war. So how did countries vote for Finland: 12: Latvia, Netherlands, Ireland, San Marino, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Iceland, Serbia,                  Norway, Australia, Denmark, Spain, Israel, Sweden, Lithuania, United Kingdom 10: Ukraine,Portugal, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Rest of the World 8: Malta, Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Georgia, Czechia, Slovenia, Greece,  7: Moldova, Cyprus 6: Italy, France, Armenia, Albania A total of 376 In comparison Sweden didn't score one single 12 points, let's see ...

F*ck, so close in the end. Finland's Käärijä hoovered the televotes but the juries showed so much love for Loreen pitch perfect, sterile and soulles performance of perfection there was no room for real creativity, fun and joy of Cha cha cha as they left it 4th with a huge margin. A difference of 190 points was cut down to 57. So close. But how amazing it was to hear the audience in arena chatting Käärijä! Käärijä! each time Finland got 12 points and Cha cha cha! several times just out of pure joy! But let's not forget this was also Finland's second best placing ever. And even in Finnish! Finland scored 12 points from Norway and Sweden, 10 from Netherlands, Austria, Estonia and Iceland. 8 from Malta, Ireland, France, Armenia, Denmark and Israel. 7 from Croatia and Serbia, 5 from Belgium, Australia and Czechia. 3 from Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Lithuania and finally 1 from Spain and Georgia. A total of 14 juries left Finland without points. And I said all along Italy will end up ...

Tonight's the night. Will Sweden's Loreen become the very first female (and only second) Eurovision winner to take the trophy again? And bring Sweden its 7th victory that equals Ireland's record. Or will Finland manage to win against all odds after all and take its second victory? Finland's Käärijä with Cha cha cha stormed to top all polls and odds once it was published late January and only Sweden managed to pass it when it was released over a month later. Sweden tops the odds while Finland tops the Eurovision scoreboard app. It is commonly believed Finland wins the televote but Sweden the jury vote. How will it be? It's been all so much about these two countries that other countries have been completely over shadowed by the whole duel. Could we have a surprise winner and in that case who? Here are the song, with the odds top-10 (when writing this) videos displayed, for the other click the title. In brackets the odds placement 24 hrs before the final. 1. AUSTRIA - ...

Käärijä does what Käärijä wants and while getting ready for the second rehearsal he decided to show Loreen how it's done - I mean Loreen's own Tattoo performance. If I was nasty I would say it clearly shows how simple and nothing it is really compared to Käärijä's crazy party performance but I'm nice and say nothing. Just watch yourself..... (giggle). No wonder Finland climbs in the odds while Sweden comes slowly down..... 

Here it is! The incorruptible, infallible and most reliable Blogilkar's Home Jury made of people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's, mainly Finnish and mainly those who turn into Eurovision only on that one Saturday night, enjoy the show and that's it. Most everyone heard the songs for the first time so this was a true first impression judgement. And thus they had no idea about the fan polls, betting odds and trivial information and expectations. And boy did they turn those pools and odds around mostly, sinking some major favorites and enjoying some real underdogs. I will countdown the full ranking day by day until we have our winner out just before Liverpool is in full swing. This year I publish very few comments or opinions. Just the average score (we voted 1 to 10). In short this year is considered a bit poor by the jurors compared to for example last year and it may show in the somewhat low scores. Anyways: Enjoy! 5. SWEDEN - Loreen - Tattoo  (Avg. 6,...

Save the best for last is the case in the Eurovision song contest 2023 semi-final one running order: Finland with Käärijä's Cha cha cha will close the show with a bang! Norway's Alessandra will open, as I took for granted and Sweden's Loreen is buried 11th between Moldova and Azerbaijan. It's looking good. Not so good for the division of the two semi-finals as most every favorite is in the first one that is also stronger in the betting odds. Only three songs shouldn't make it to the final from the first semi-final, while eight shouldn't make it from the second! Below in brackets the current position in the odds for comparison (March 22, 21 CET):  Semi-final One 1. Norway (4.) 2. Malta (31.) 3. Serbia (15.) 4. Latvia (35.) 5. Portugal (27.) 6. Ireland (26.) 7. Croatia (16.) 8. Switzerland (14.) 9. Israel (5.) 10. Moldova (17.) 11. Sweden (1.) 12. Azerbaijan (25.) 13. Czechia (8.) 14. Netherlands (19.) 15. Finland (2.) Semi-final two 1. Denmark (30.) 2. Armenia (1...

She did it. Sadly. Loreen has won Melodifestivalen 2023 with Tattoo. And I still don't hear what everyone is hearing. I find it shouty uninteresting piece of music that borrows the intro from ABBA's Winner takes it all a bit and that's the best bit in fact. Oh well.... Results (jury/televote) 1. Loreen  - Tattoo (92 + 85) 177 2. Markus & Maretinus - Air (71 + 67) 138 3. Smash Into Pieces - Six feet under (53 + 59) 112 4. Jon Henrik, Arc North, Adam Woods - Where are you (23 + 58) 81 5. Theoz - Mer av dig (42 + 36) 78 6. Kiana - Where did you go (37 + 39) 76 7. Paul rey - Royals (56 + 1) 57 8. Mariette - One day (35 + 16) 51 9. Maria Sur - Never give up (10 + 37) 47 10. Panetoz - On my way (22 + 25) 47 11. Nordman - Släpp alla sorger (8 + 36) 44 12. Tone Sekelius - Rhythm of my show (15 + 5) 20

Let's continue the series and kill some time having a look at the last decade and see who were the Top-10 best scoring countries in the Eurovision song contest in the past ten years. The ways to calculate are many and here I have used the simple average placement method (and it's not all so serious). Number one is of course Sweden. Two wins, two bronzes and four additional top-7 finishes makes Sweden the most succesful Eurovision country in the 2010's, the only odd one out being the home entry in 2013 (14th). But let's see how long this will last; fandom isn't anymore equally mesmerized by Melodifestivalen and the Swedish entries, and certainly not the televoters in the recent years while the juries still back them up no matter what. This blogger has pretty much lost interest in Melodifestivalen the past few years to be honest, and think Sweden's been overrated for way too long. But times are changing, let's see how their 2020's will be. I persona...

Most of Europe, and world, in in various stages of quarantene or lockdown (except Sweden...) and Eurovision artists and winners are finding ways to spend their time at home like the rest of us. Social medias are more vivid than ever and home made concerts and performances are in offer almost every day if you just keep up with them, including EBU's Eurovision Home Concerts series that you all are surely following every Friday, and last night's PrePartyES at home .  Let's have a look at some winner's activities during this #COVID-19 aka #Coronavirus pandemia, including reigning champion Duncan Laurence (above) who celebrated his birthday. Alone. Taking an extra long shower..... Dima Bilan has been entertaining himself with the dress challenge. Check his Instagram for more and in motion pictures as well, aka videos.....  Salvador Sobral will be having tomorrow already a third (and last) episode of his live Instagram concerts at 22.30 CET singing Spanish so...

Here it is finally, eagerly waited follow up to Duncan Laurence's Eurovision song contest winner Arcade . It seems the midtempo Love don't hate it has surprised many who thought he'd release another ballad and has met with general praise. And indeed, it's a good one. The wait for the follow up has raised also a lot of talk in the Eurovision bubble why the winners take so long to release a follow up.  Duncan's five months is in line with the others, or even a bit faster than average. On the other hand it is only the second song he has released so we can talk about a real debutant. The 2018 winner Netta released her follow up Bassa sababa only in February the year after and has released a total of three singles so far. Salvador Sobral, the 2017 winner, for obvious reasons, released his follow up a year later. Mano a mano was followed by his second studio album and two more singles. After Eurovision he released a live album of his debut album based tou...

He did it. Soldi has been streamed over 122 million times beating Loreen's Euphoria and Måns Zelmerlöw's Heroes and has become the most streamed Eurovision entry ever. Another record to the already very long list of record broken.  And Italy also holds the top of Youtube views with Francesco Gabbani's Occidentali's Karma , followed by Il Volo's Grande amore so one could say Italy rules! Let's see if in time Mahmood will catch up on them, too.  Meanwhile Mahmood is getting ready for the European tour and besides his chart topper Barrio he has recently co-written and performed with Gemitaiz and MadMan in Karate , re-recorded Barrio with Lalo Ebratt and co-written Marco Mengoni's latest hit Duemila volte , Parolaccie for Sergio Sylvestre and written and performed  Fa paura perche è vero  with Myss Keta....

Darin is no stranger to Eurovision having participated in Melodifestivalen 2010 with You're out of my life , six years after his breakthrough in Idols , and being part of the interval act in 2013 Eurovision semi final. He has become one of the most succesful if not the most succesful Idols born artist in Sweden despite being only runner up (to Daniel Lindström - who? and beating Loreen among others). He started in English but switched to Swedish (and more acoustic sound) in 2014 and it made him even more popular. Seven out of his 8 albums went to #1 so far, and he has also 10 top-10 singles to his credit. He has also written songs for other artists and was even asked to write a song for the Crown Princess Victoria's wedding, Can't stop love . Tvillingen was the most played song in Swedish radios in 2017. His career is also going strong in Asia.  Check out also Nobody knows , Lovekiller , Mamma mia , Ta mig tillbaka  and F your love . If only SVT could manage him get...

Salvador contiues on his path of feelings, not fireworks..... even if this song sparks at moments... Lena jumps into Juan Magan's and Topic's Latin pop when you least expect it.... Dima Bilan goes very eletric in his Девочка, не плачь aka Gil, don't cry. The girls in question is Miss World 2008 Ksenia Sukhinova Loreen is dark and mysterious on her ride, that is a lot more interesting than most of her stuff ever....

The biggest and best Eurovision song contest related chart show's here again. Thousends of fans all over the globe have voted for their favorite songs from 1956 to 2017 and the results are out tomorrow. The marathon broadcast of Eurovision Top 250 starts 11:00 CET tomorrow and just before 2018 we will know if Loreen keeps her crown still...... Below is the last year's Top-3. Join in the fun! Here . 

Jamala is pregnant. Congratulations! Isaiah turned 18. Congratulations! Loreen has a new haircut and a new album. Congratulations? Emmelie has a new hair and a new music out. Err... congratulations? Mengoni is returning. In an epic duet with Giorgia. Out tomorrow! Mr Lordi has finally a mask on. Kiss mask! Kristian went to Miss World but prefers a photo and thank you to firemen... Sergey thanks his mom Saara joins forces for Linnea Deb, but it's not for Eurovision Aisel has a doggie, Zulya Levina is off to Abu Dhabi ... while Tamara gets into X,as mood in Paris Lindita keeps posing... ... as does Svala. Sertab. Is it cold or is this a half statement?