Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The long, loooong Swedish Melodifestivalen reached its climax after six weeks. In the end it was set to be a duel between Eurovision veteran and winner Måns Zelmerlöw and his utterly polished and perfect revolution and fresh and crazy nonsense by the Finnish band KAJ. KAJ was clearly the winner is streaming and video views and chart action beforehand. Also the only song in Swedish this year in the final, and even a Swedish dialect spoken in a small area in Finland only. In the end KAJ won. This is a bit like Cha cha cha phenomenon. Finland is the new Eurovision superpower; we have Finland, Estonia and Sweden in Basel! How I like happy endings! KAJ is a Finnish group from Swedish speaking Ostrobothnia region and sing in their Vörå dialect. The trio is Kevin Holmströn, Axel Åhman and Jakob Noorgård and they have been working together since 2009. They pop-folk.rock-schlager music is often spiced up with satire and humor. They have produced two musicals for Wasa Theater and have been award...

Swedish Melodifestivalen goes ahead as usual with the same songwriters and even three previous winners in the line up: Arvingarna, Måns Zelmerlöw and John Lundvik, Måns of course being also an Eurovision winner and host and ever present anyways.  Minor changes to the procedure: Five heats with six songs each. two will qualify for the final and the third placed ones will have a second chance in the end of fifth heat two making it to the final that will have 12 songs. A 50/50 televote/international jury will determinate the winner and the Swedish entry in Basel 2025 Eurovision. The heats start on February 1 each Saturday until the grand final on March 8, 2025. Another change is all the songs will be released to the streaming platform the day before their heat.  A total of 2.794 songs were submitted and yet majority of the songs are written by the usual songwriters in various combos. Jimmy Joker Thörnfeldt and Anderz Wrethov both are behind 6 songs, Thomas G:son 5, David Lindgren...

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...

Eurovision song contest winner Måns Zelmerlöw has released a new album, his first since 2016's Chameleon . Time is a sort of concept album going through his life starting with On my own , an open letter to the young Måns and with the songs that follow he sings about his life until now with its ups and downs, dark periods and good times after.  At the same time a new single, One , has been released following the previous Walk with me, Better now and Grow up to be you . 

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....

Here are some sounds to fight PED. Enjoy! Jalisse covers another Eurovision veteran, Matia Bazar

Whoever got the idea of that backdrop is a genius! L-o-v-e! Last night's interval act included 1979 winner Gali Atari singing her entry Hallelujah joined by other Eurovision winners Conchita Wurst and Måns Zelmerlöw and runner ups Eleni Foureira and Verka Serduchka. (From 8mins 45) That was already third time the song has featured in the Eurovision final as also last time Israel hosted the show back in 1999 it was there, and even closing the show - the only time the show has ended with some other song than the winner btw - when then winner Charlotte Perrelli then Nilsson was joined on stage by all the toher artists to sing it for the memory of Balcan war victims (on video from 3h 10mins onwards) And of course it was also sun in 1979 contest when it won at home soil in Jerusalem. The song is a true classic with many meanings. 

Love Tel Aviv is forever. This time the Danish made it to the sign. Sandstorm Armenian style? Sandstorm Azeri style? Carousel has arrived to Jerusalem. Jurij feeling hot and pale at Tel Aviv beach. Verka & mama causing commotion. Chingiz strikes again. Awful lot of Eurovision royalty!

It seems Israelis have dusted off the Turkish opening of the Eurovision final as Dana International will arrive "by plane" to the stage flown by Netta singing Tel Aviv ya habibi/Diva during the flag parade with all the finalists. Remember Istanbul when Sertab Erener arrived by helicopter to the stage singing amazing Leave ( Aşk ) after with her winning entry Everyway that I can? It seems it has also been confirmed Madonna will perform Like A Prayer  ( read more ) and a new yet unnamed song, but most likely I rise , not Medellin as speculated at first.  However it seems she has watched Eurovision lately and got some hologram ideas, as apparently for the American audience they are something new and exciting while for us Eurovision viewers nothing new anymore :-) Medellin gets its spotlight in Billboard Music awards on May 1, 2019 with a huge show featuring holograms and virtual reality so Eurovision is a good chance to premiere a new song with equally spectacula...

Once again some more or less recent releases from Eurovision stars. Enjoy! Anna Rossinelli has kept her career going nicely and this Hold your head up comes from her Swiss #1 album released this January. The video has an interesting floating in the milk kind of imaginary, that Italian Dolcenera took a step further in her Piú forte .... Also Laura Rizzotto has been very active post-Eurovision and her latest is Tightrope . As usual she has written the song herself. There's also a remix Severina has been dropping hits the past two years including Halo , and finally released a new album this year. She keeps on breaking regional records on Youtube, like having 1,3M views in a day of a new video. Not bad. And no wonder. At 46 she still shows the girls who's the hottest.... Michael Schulte is another example that Eurovision won't hurt your career. He has been going strong ever sinc his top-5 finish. Back to the start is excellent catchy pop song, a bit th...

Last few weeks have had some Eurovision related releases outside the national final bubble from previous winners and other well placed acts. Enjoy! Dima Bilan released last year his yet another addition to his endless string of hits at home soil.  Океан (Ocean) is an atmospheric ballad and comes with a nature filled beautiful video.... Fabrizio Moro has released today video for Ho bisogno di credere (I need to believe), first offering from his new and 10th studio album Figli di nessuno , out April 12. It's a melancholic ballad with some pseudo rapping (and no trademark screaming) and video that fits nicely with the overal mood. Very good! Last year's Eurovision 3rd placed César Sampson has finally released a follow up to his Nobody but you called Stone cold . Maybe not as catchy as his entry was but this has all the same ingredients from beats to gospely choirs and César's beautiful vocals.  Eurovision winner and all around man Måns Zelmerlöw is pr...