Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Royal Albert Hall in London hosted the 13th Eurovision song contest on April 6, 1968. That year Eurovision was broadcasted in color for the very first time! Strangely there were no new countries debuting, no countries withdrawing nor returning.  Spanish Massiel ended winning with La la la . There have been talk about vote rigging ever since. Spanish dictator Franco would have bought votes all over Europe and thus finished above UK's own Cliff Richard by one vote. One should remember also that Massiel was not to sing the song originally but Joan Manuel Serrat . He insisted on singing it in Catalan, and was replaced by Franco's regime.  After winning Massiel released the song in four languages, and quite a few cover versions were made in other languages. She continued her career until mid 1990's and have done some occasional recordings even after her retirement announcement in 1996, like this remake of La la la As said, Cliff Richard came second with evergreen Congra...

Second Big5 to get treatment by The Bicycling reporter Robert is the Spanish group El Sueño de Morfeo, nicknamed ESDM for this Eurovision adventure. Raquel (vocals), David (acoustic guitar) and Juan Luis (electric guitar) form the band. Eurovision. Canarias. Asturias. Sanremo. Latin America. Luca Barbarossa.... It's all here. And who would they sent to Eurovison next year for Spain? Robert: Hola ESDM! Thank you for this interview. What does your name mean? David: Morpheus brings dreams to people. We liked it as our dreams to make music came reality! Robert:How long have you been together? And how did you meet? Raquel: Ten tears already. I first met David in my country, in Canarias.... David: ...I told her to come up north where we are from, Asturias.... Robert: Did you have a relationship... David: Yes! ha ha ha. You're a good detective! Robert: That's how it usually starts, ha ha ha! So you went up north. Is that still your base? Raquel: Yes, we live...

Rafael De Alba (41) is one of the many artists trying his luck for the second time in the Spanish MySpace selection. He’s a language teacher living in both London and Madrid and also a true Eurovision fan who has travelled to both Helsinki and Belgrade to see it live. His effort for this year, One more chance , has been making its way up the voting lists and is in top-80 in overall voting and top-10 in his category at the moment of writing this. Read in this exclusive interview more about him, his songs and his views on Eurovision. So tell me, who is Rafael? Rafael is a Spaniard who went on a stage for the first time at the age of eight, with a guitar that was too big. After a few attempts at music he studied English at university and became a Languages teacher. So that explains the English..... Sure, and I have lived in the UK for a long time now, I am between Madrid and London I think I noticed the song being recorded in London? Yes, that's right. My friend Hugo did the second...