Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Four Eurovision song contest icons selected randomly to celebrate Paris Olympic games opening tomorrow - with Slimane giving a free concert as warm up show (and I am hoping he will also perform in the opening ceremonies  as well!) ? Not quite so.  Slimane has dueted with all of them, besides co-writing the songs. Let's have a listen! LA ZARRA / SLIMANE - LES AMANTS DE LA COLLINE PATRICK FIORI / SLIMANE - PROMESSE MADAME MONSIEUR / SLIMANE - DIS-MOI QUE JE SUIS PATRICK FIORI / YCARE /CLAUDIO CAPÈO / SLIMANE -  QU'EST-CE QU'ON ÈTAIT BEAUX Slimane has literally dozens of duets with other singers so it's no wonder he has ended up with these previous Eurovision stars. Maybe they have had a word to convince him to do it, who knows?

It seems every year some artist does a video of his Eurovision journey and this year it's Jurijus.  Salt to the wounds of unfair non qualification?

The local favorite Youtuber Bilal Hassani won the French national final Destination Eurovision 2019 with his Roi , a song co-written by last year's winners Madame Monsieur . The international juries weren't that impressed placing it only 5th. And for a reason. The song has its moments but the problem is Bilal himself. The character will keep average European voters guessing is it a boy or a girl even if it shouldn't matter in 2019, and the rest of us will be only listening if and when his voice breaks and will he make it to the end of the song. The French delegation better think a proper back up for him in form of backing singers and rethink the whole staging again as how it is, it isn't good. Shame. International juries preferred Seemone's French ballad filled with fragile emotion and Silvàn Areg's French cabaret and even Emmanuel Moire's and Chimène Badi's more radio friendly pop tunes. But televotes changed it all.... Time will tell how wise th...

France's Destination Eurovision is again one of the best national finals with lots to offer in terms of today's radio hits and modern music yet having a clear French sound and enough variety to make it very interesting. Corsican makes a comeback as a possible Eurovision language with Battista  Acquaviva. After three liveshows two semifinals will follow with nine eantries each, four of them advancing to the final after 50-50 televote-international jury. Among songwriters we have last year's Madame Monsier for Bilal Hassani and Alma of 2017 for Naestro, who is my front runner with Emmanuel Moire who I have wanted for Eurovision for years, sadly his song isn't as strong as I'd want it to be. Below is my first hearing ranking. Sadly, most my favorites are in the first semi-final.... Update 1: The first semi-final gave rather surprising results, and my faves are already out. On the other hand the night deliveres a lot of weak vocals and uninspired performances to...

As usual these awards were handed out just before the final show and we have three winners. The Marcel Bezençon Award, named after the founder of the Eurovision Song Contest, was first handed out in 2002. The Awards are divided into three categories – the Composer Award, the Press Award and the Artistic Award. Composer Award : Rewarded for the best composition with special consideration given to originality and national identity in music and lyrics: Bulgaria 's EQUINOX with Bones . Press Award: Given to the best song according to the collective vote of the accredited press: France 's Madame Monsieur with Mercy . Artistic Award: Presented to the best artistic performance and voted by the commentators from all countres: Eleni Foureira from Cyprus with Fuego . I totlaly agree with the two of them, but Composer award and "national identity" to Bulgaria that is pure America? really?

GERMANY - MICHAEL SCHULTE - YOU LET ME WALK ALONE I was born From one love of two hearts Vocals **** Staging **** Song **** Overall **** Left side of the scoreboard ITALY - ERMAL META & FABRIZIO MORO -  NON MI AVETE FATTO NIENTE Perché la nostra vita non è un punto di vista E non esiste bomba pacifista Vocals **** Staging **** Song ***** Overall ***** Left side of the scoreboard FRANCE - MADAME MONSIEUR - MERCY Je suis née ce matin Je m’appelle Mercy Vocals ***** Staging **** Song ***** Overall ***** Left side of the scoreboard

The Big5 first rehearsals continue with top-3 favorite France and very much underrated Italy.... Germany - Michael Schulte - You let me walk alone Germany seems to have scored well with it's improved staging; a lot of close ups of Michael, screen graphics and powerful delivery. Seems they are the second country with home brought LED wall for the projections in black and white and red, the photos were submitted by his fans earlier this spring apparently.  The duplicate image of Michael spreading his hands gets kinda psychedelic and disturbing but for the rest it looks pretty nice. At least they make the stage look very different from anyone else. Oh yes, you can't quite see it behind the LED wall, that's why... Casually dressed (for now?) and vocally strong. Did we witness some teary eyes, too? Some are putting Germany up there among winning candidates but let's not get over enthuastic here, maybe top-10 at best, right? And of course some opposite reactions: l...

Luckily Serbia, Spain, France and Hungary will be all singing in their native languages in Lisbon 2018 but meanwhile they have released also English versions of their songs. While Spain, France and Hungary just adapt the song, Serbia goes a bit further with their rework....

Italy - Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro -  Non mi avete fatto niente Italy sends again the Sanremo winner and their platinum selling #1 manifest against terrorism Non mi avete fatto niente . Albanian born Ermal Meta (37) and Fabrizio Moro (43) both have very succesful and flourishing career already and both have been busy touring and promoting their respective albums after Sanremo skipping all Eurovision related pre-parties - so did Loreen, too, didn't she? I prefer the studio version to the live performance to be honest, when especially Moro goes a bit too shouty for my liking. Despite this one of the strongest songs by far this year with an interesting half spoken verses that turn into light folk rock a la Hop hop somerello , another song with apparent lightness with heavy lyrics. Italy will score another top-10 easily this year. If not, it'd be as unfair as Russia making the final again. Italy could also be fighting for victory in case the jury and televotes sp...

  The French entry's video has been out there for already some time but now they have presented the three minutes Eurovision version and it works wonders. This song was one of the first selected but it has resisted against the competition nicely....

The official music video has been released for the French entry for Eurovision song contest 2018 in Lisbon. Here's Madame Monsieur's Mercy. ....

Who is Mercy? Read her story here What is the best way to overcome jetlag but watch some Eurovision? The French final took place last night and took quite a long time but was rather entertaining show anyways as far as I can recall while dozing off a few times ;-p  Each of the finalists performed twice, first with a guest star and then their entry. In the end the international jurors gave out their points before the televoters votes were added, and the voting did keeep up the drama til the end. The international jurors votes went all over the place but in the end Madame Monsieur scored big with the televoters and jumped from the juries 3rd place to a win. Worth noting is Eurovision General Christer Björkman gave them only 2 points underlining what I was thinking myself: Mercy is a lovely atmospheric song, very chich and elegant, very French and I do like it a lot but.... will European televoters get it or will it be lost in the crowd? My guess is it will do a lot poore...