Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The vote for the best national acts to compite for the Best European Act is over and the winners are out. For Italy it's Marco Mengoni . He was also nominated back in 2010 when he also won the Best European act.  For Germany it's Lena again. She was nominated and also won the Best European act in 2011. The category has been won now five times out of six by Eurovision artists (maNga, Mengoni, Lena, Dima Bilan) so let's see if one of them will do a double and continue the trend!  Here are all the nominees. For Finland it's Isac Elliot . EMA 2013 will take place on November 10, 2013 in Amsterdam.

The European MTV Music award nominations are out and four names familiar from Eurovision are running for the Best European Act this time. Marco Mengoni is nominated in Italy (along with Fedez, Salmo, Emma and Max Pezzali). He already won this award in 2010. In Greece it's a battle among others between Greek Sakis Rouvas and Cypriot Mihalis Hadzigiannis while in Germany Lena is among the nominees. She won this award already in 2011. We also have Auryn in Spain against Pablo Alboran . Auryn was the runner up in the Spanish selection 2011 and Alboran was heavily tipped to do Eurovision this year....  In recent year the Eurovision stars of the past (or the near future) has often been featured also in this MTV affair proving Eurovision is up to date, at least in some cases :-) But one question comes to mind.... where's Dima Bilan ? Have Russian abandoned him? Or maybe after 7 national nominations and winning last year the Best European Act it's time to give away to oth...

Endless are the ways to select the Eurovision entry. November 2, 2012 a special advisory board will meet with the TRT committee to discuss the next Turkish entry. All this after TRT's general director İbrahim Şahin earlier this year said Turkey is done with Eurovision and will be in Baku 2012 only because it's Baku. He also criticized the televoting system maybe forgetting Turkey is one country that has benefited from it the most perhaps! All this is now past them and Turkey will indeed be in Malmö 2013.  The advisory board includes several previous Turkish represents along with other musicians, TV and radio personalities. I wonder what the outcome will be? I hope Turkey would bring back the real flavor of their music and hopefully also the language! Will they all agree it's time for Tarkan finally? :-) Can Bonomo (2012), Ferhan Akgül (maNga 2010), Harun Tekin (Mor Ve Ötesi 2008), Sertab Erener (2003), Kayahan Acar and Demet Sağır...

Since the list of participants for Sanremo 2011 came out featuring X Factor 2010 winner Nathalie amongst them it has cast a cloud over her Eurovision trip, and fans and speculators have started talking about the previous X Factor winner Marco Mengoni (22) instead. As much I love In punta di piedi and think it would be a great song for Italy's return Mengoni would surely attract more Italians to watch Eurovision, a show they hardly remember after absense of 13 years.  Already a megastar at home he is now aiming abroad and his record company is finalizing the marketing and promotional plan - what would be better than Eurovision to make him a household name all over Europe and beyond? Besides winning X Factor he can boast a third place and Premio della critica in Sanremo 2010 with Credimi ancora , two platinum selling EP albums, several hits and as icing on the cake MTV Music award as the Best European Act 2010 (Then we would also have two of these winner in a row in Eurovision as maN...

This looks completely different from anythign else and I hope people won't mistake it as an interval act as it comes last... However, the feeling that this could be the winner is back. I thought so when this was presented for the very first time but lost it a bit over the months leading here but yes, it could happen. All white and black, very MTV, very different - yet fitting in perfectly. Could that be the recipe á la Lordi to win this? Video .

Ferman Akgül, the lead singer of maNga, the Turkish band for Oslo 2010 from Turkey collapsed last night on stage in Istanbul's Ghetto Club. He was rushed to hospital and the band members were fearing a heart attack. This morning however he was released from hospital and his health is stable again as the doctors said. The band continues its promo tour to Sofia tonight, Athens tomorrow and Baku on Saturday. maNga has already been doing promo in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Romania. Their We could be the same isn't doing so well in fan polls but I believe they will end up in top-5 if they deliver on stage. Yet, the song seems to be missing little something to make it a real contender for the victory.

Manga has released a new version of their entry for Oslo 2010, We could be the same. I don't know what's new about it as it sounds the same to me as the previous one. That is: very good! Listen here .

We already knew rockgroup MaNga will represant Turkey in Oslo 2010 but their song titled We could be the same was only presented tonight. And here it is! Easy to the ear and catchy. I guess Turkey is heading another top-5 placement in Oslo!

TRT finally confirms rock band MaNga is the Turkish entry for Oslo 2010. So Turkey keeps changing from rock to pop to rock again - a succesful recipe so far! MaNga is 5 man band, fresh from vistory in MTV Music Awards as Best European act. The band was formed in 2001 and has released 3 albums so far. The band has been performing in various rock festivals in Turkey and abroad. So we get even more men in Oslo...

TRT launched an email voting for the fans to name their favourite singer for Turkey in Oslo 2010 some time ago and apparently these four names were the most voted for: maNga , the band that won the MTV Europe music award 2009 for Europe's favourite act, Armenian-Turkish alternative rock star Hayko Cepkin , Emre Aydin who won the same MTV Europe award maNga did a year before, singer-song writer Sebnem Ferah and pop singer Murat Boz . TRT is now negotiating with the artists in question - all of them mentioned many times the past couple of years as possible entrants, or wished for - and also trying to figure out what kind of an act would do in 2010: male, female or a band. If this top-4 turns out true it is quite remarkable Tarkan is not on it.... and why no one ever mentions Mustafa Sandal ?