Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Finland's Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman may have not made it to the final, but Finland is well present anyways. Sweden may have their songwriters, producers and dancers all over the place but Finland has its special effects, pyros and rains of fire. Oy Pyroman Finland is again behind most of all that, just like they were in Helsinki 2007, Belgrade 2008, Moscow 2009, Malmö 2013, Stockholm 2016, Kiev 2017 and now Tel Aviv 2019, and of course they were behind the most pyroesque performance ever in the Eurovision history, namely Lordi's winning performance in Athens 2006. But that's not all. The secret fourth member of KEiiNO from Norway is songwriter-producer Henrik Tala . A Finn.  And Ambra Succi , despite her name another Finn, is behind Malta's performance for Michela. She's no newbie either having done that for Jana Burceska, Poli Genova, Robin Stjernberg and most notably Loreen's winning performance. Among others. 

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!

 Croatia - Roko The dream ** One can't say much about the video above as you don't see the dancers and how they interact with Roko, who today looked and sounded rather tired. In a perfect world this wouldn't have any chance to qualify but I'm afraid the world nor the Euroviison bubble is perfect and this will hit the right cords in certain age and ethnic groups and sail to the final if some judges decide to award his big voice. I'm not that impressed of that either. Three minutes to showcase he can do those big and long notes is about two minutes too much.   Malta - Michela - Chameleon *** I must say I like the graphics and all that explosion of colors, just like in the video. Still I don't care that much for the song so I may dismiss this unfairly. Just like Croatia above this will appeal to certain age groups but will it be enough? Shoudl qualify but how far this will go in the final....? Lithuania - Jurij Veklenko - Run with the lions ** ...

Now that we have seen all but the Big5+1 performances it seems it's mainly recycled ideas (Moldova, hello? Snow or sand it still looks the same old...) and props such as wings and huge drums, so early 2000's, and robots (So San Marino)... Even Russia that was expected to bring something revolutionary has only got mirror images (that re-enter the stage a few songs later thanks to North Macedonia) and borrowed boxes - all such dejavús.... Augmented reality and holograms could still change the game - if someone is using them and we haven't yet seem them in proper use....  Wings.  Jungle fever.  No lions.  Multiple Sergey.  Egyptian warrior queen.  Northern lights I presume.....  Winning simplicity? Multiple Tamaras. Robots.

We move on the upper mid table with the review. Malta - Michela - Chameleon *** Chame chameleon Chame chamelon Chame chameleon Yalla yalla yalla la la la Michela Pace (18) from the beautiful island of Gozo won the very first Maltese X Factor that was used as selection method for the artist. Then they shopped for the song from international team of usual Eurovision writers. The result is radio friendly up to date pop with elements I never liked that much aka the chorus - maybe I'm just old? The video is this season's prettiest by far but will this work on stage? This can go either way, I have no glue but I have a feeling Malta might be disappointed once again when the final is over.... if they make it that far. Portugal - Conan Osiris - Telemóveis *** Eu partia telemóveis Mas eu nunca mais parto o meu Eu sei que a saudade tá morta Quem mandou a flecha fui eu I used to break cell phones But I will never break mine again  I know that 'saudade' i...

From 16 to 54, that's the (known*) age range of this year's Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv.  Zena from Belarus is the youngest turning 17 in September while San Marino's very own Turk Serhat will celebrate his 55th birthday in October. Malta's Michela, Belgium's Eliot and Croatia's Roko are also born in the 2000's. The oldest artists besides Serhat come from the north: Finland's Darude (43) and Sebastian Rejman (41) with Tom Hugo (39) of Norway's KEiiNO. They're also the only artists born in the 1970's (and  Serhat the only one in the 1960s). Nineteen artists were born in the 1990s - 1994 being the most common year (Ester, Luca, Nevena, Duncan, Srbuk and Sarah). Thirteen were born in the 1980's with 1989 having the most (Katerine, Oto, Lake Malawi's Albert, Paenda, Conan and Fred of KEiiNO).  One could say it's a very youthful edition. And a very masculine one, too. It's also a year of masks, crowns and und...

Malta has revealed its entry for Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv by X Factor winner Michela Pace (18) and it's called Chameleon - no, not the Ira Losco song she won with in 2016 before they changed it into some random Walk on water . Michela is good but loses this blogger once the chorus hits in - I have always found that kind of sounds irritating and this is no excption. Maybe I'm just old, I don't know. But the video is rather fab featuring all trends what comes to interior design this season: exotic flowers and parrots, palm trees and other animals. And a lot of flowers everywhere! Spot on in that department, looks like a shoot for some department store's spring/summer catalogue. And I know a thing or two about those!

The favorite hold strong and won the very first X Factor Malta and besides recording deal got a ticket to Eurovision song contest 2019 in Tel Aviv.  Michela Pace is 17 and comes from the island of Gozo. Her entry will be revealed later. She beat Owen Leuellen in the last sing-off, after Petra and Nicole Frendo had been sung out earlier in the final.