Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Montenegro's delegation was having a party in Natcafeen The Duke and Sergej Cetkovic himself was playing the host welcoming all guests and being very available for photos and chats. Very nice guy! nd did I mention his song is very nice, one of the very few ones this year sung in another language than English, hooray for that! There was food and drinks of course, and Sergej obviously sung his entry Moj svijet and its English version My love . And what is a party without guests? Tijana from Macedonia was there and performed her entry To the sky .  Then came Georgia's Mariko and The Shin and gave a vy energetic performance on a chair - yes, you read right, the "stage" was a chair! Talk about inmitate atmosphere. Albania's Hersi and Azerbaijan's Dilara were also expected to appear, but we had to leave for a dinner, so....  Shame, as it was a great party! Oh, the Polish dancers were enjoying the party, too!

Last year Georgia tried the easy way: Taking two fine voiced singers, a sugary ballad bought by a Swedish Eurovision winning composer. All perfect on paper, less so in real life. This year they take a U-turn and send in a band that mixes traditional Georgian music with pop, world music and fusion jazz. The band exists since 1998 and has taken Mariko Ebralidze (30) as a guest vocalist for this Eurovision adventure in Three minutes to earth . Robert: Intriguing song from Georgia in 2014. I think it is the least typical Eurovision song of this year and that's why I took some effort to listen to it carefully and you know what?  I really started liking it. How you can brainwash yourself.:) I welcome non typical, unpredictable songs on the Eurovision stage and even more when the musicians are great and the singer is very skilled like Mariko. Let's hope the juries give this song some points so that it won't be last. Blogilkar:  In theory I should adore this song. But I do...

Georgia announced today that the band The Shin will represent the country in Copenhagen 2014 Eurovision with Mariko Ebralidze as lead vocalists. No news about the song yet, but now that they have the act they can go shopping abroad for the song. Last year Thomas G:son rewrote his success of the year before for them, who will they turn to this time around? Mariko and the group are now heading for Germany for the recording, and the video will be shot later in Georgia. Or maybe they will go for more authentic stuff finally, as The Shin is described as a group that "combines Georgian folk melodies with jazz, famous native polyphonic singing with scat, and tunes of the near Orient and flamenco with a modern Western sound." They have released six albums between 1999 and 2013. Their songs include Gelino and Potato story .I wish they bring at least a bit of Gelino to Eurovision! Mariko is a jazz singer as you can hear here , and this blogger is waiting for jammin' ses...