Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Manel and his gang at the beach again Lindita and her hubby at the beach again Marija and her dog at the beach again Michele and his rastas at the beach again  Tamara did Paris Andras did try pirate's life Alexander did Niagara Falls Alma was prety as flower among flowers Isaiah is looking at the future just before releasing a new song Hovig is waiting for someone to take for a ride ... while Zoe is waiting in the forest.

Palais Hansen Kempinski Ball Room hosted last night a very special party: Ralph Siegel was celebrating with his latest protegees Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola his 70th birthday. He had also invited selected journalists and fans and supporters over the years and of course Valentina Monetta had flown in as well as a special guest prior her new adventure as the Sammarinese spokesperson next Saturday. Anita and Michele is sending greetings to you before..... .... giving us an acoustic version of Chain of lights. Ralph Siegel gave a very emotional speech..... ... and Valentina Monetta helped the magician.... Head of delegation Alessandro Capicchioni with Ralph Siegel Valentina Monetta

San Marino has its party last night with a chain of pizzas but this morning the kids are on stage giving their best looking as cute as ever. The backdrop, earth again, looks amazing and the effect on screen when they turn around and you can see the whole Wiener Stadthalle forming a chain of lights with their cellphone and little lights given to them will look stunning. Dismissed by most pre-Vienna the kids have managed to charm and conquer some of the press present, and the comments are getting better after every rehearsal as the kids also build up some confidence and get it right. All they need to do now is to nail the vocals and pronunciation on Thursday night and final is a possibility.

Sammarinese teenagers Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola spent the rainy day in Vienna the best possible way: giving interviews! The 1-on-1 or in this case 2-on-1 interviews you can read in various medias, like Wiwibloggs, ESCKAZ ,   EscUnited and Escbubble in due time. And don't forget the San Marino party tomorrow at Euroclub! 8pm

San Marino will have its party in EuroClub  tomorrow night. Be there!

Another earth in the backdrop, this time for San Marino, at night with the lights and spinning the wrong way apparently. Anita and Michele look young and fresh, casual at their age and the act has some what high school or should I say Glee print on it. If and when the audience will lit their cellphones and create a real chain of lights on the night the view will be stunning, joining the one in the backdop creating a 3D effect with all those lights. And of course we all at home will join the chain and light a candle, a cellphone or anything that gives light for hope and peace.  On internet mixed reviews and thoughts about it most seem to agree it's improving and better than expected. maybe. My heart goes boom for San Marino always for obviosu reasons, and as I have said before Siegel has created another earworm so just sing along in the chain of lights.... you know you want to!

After three years with Valentina Monetta - who is going to be present for the 4th year in a row as a spokesperson - San Marino sends two teenagers, San Marinese doc Anita Simoncini who just turned 16 and Italian Michele Perniola. Both have already represented the tiny country in the Junior Eurovision (Michele in 2013 with O-o-O sole intorno a me , and Anita as a member of The Peppermints in 2014 with Breaking my heart ). They will be now together performing Ralph Siegel's 23rd Eurovision entry and if they make the final, his 20th finalist, Chain of lights . 

The message the Sammarinese artists and composer Ralph Siegel want to speak or sing out is to create a chain of lights in our hearts for a peaceful world.  We hear it every day in the news on the radio and TV that people suffer from war. It is time to give those victims three minutes of thoughts and positive vibrations during an event that can reach millions of viewers and listeners from Iceland to Israel and from Russia to Australia.  Thanks to social media it is so easy to share your thoughts these days and with the hashtag #SanMarino2015 you can create your chain of lights  even online to let it shine in your own heart as well as the hearts of your friends and everyone else.  Visit San Marino  and Chain of lights   and enter  Chain of Lights Around the World - The Online Contest Let's build a Chain of Lights together! We are giving away 50 promotional press kits of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 entry Chain of Lights by Anita Simon...

The youngest duo for the tiniest country, Sammarinese teenagers Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola have been building bridges for a more peaceful world with their chain of lights in Moscow's pre-Eurovision party. Anita said in Moscow:  "Our message is peace. Together we can build a chain of light, with our smartphones and with our hearts and m ake the world a better place. "   If you are going to Vienna, be sure to light up your phone and join in. (Better than booing as a protest, isn't it?) Watch their performance here  giving us a glimpse of their chemistry on stage. The youngsters message of peace may sound a bit lame at first but it's more current than ever in the world we live in, even in Europe - just think about Ukraine and the radarless airplanes flying around Baltic Sea area violating other nation's territories for example, as well as submarines like the one caught near Stockholm last October, and yesterday just infront of Helsinki. A little ...

Who were the first Italian artists ever to be signed directly to an American label? Yes, Il Volo. Since then they have performed on the biggest and most important stages and shows in the world, with Barbra Streisand, Placido Domingo and Eros Ramazzotti just to name a few, topped Billboard charts, gathered Latin Grammy nominations and made it big in Americas. In Europe, and Italy it has been quieter. Until this year when they took Sanremo by storm and will now take Grande amore to Vienna. One of the biggest favorites to win, with over 20 milion Youtube views already, selling multiplatinum at home and for a change, a real eagerness to win it for Italy, and even RAI seems to ok with it this time. Are we off to Turin next year? For sure they will give us a full dose of something 100% Italian; melodic opera pop directly out of traditional Italian song book. A fact that bothers some Italian fans labelling it dated and kitchy. I say it's perfection.

Remember Johnny Blue , the blind singer Lena Valaitis sung back in 1981? He lives on in a musical staged in Czech Republic based on the music and songs by Ralph Siegel. The musical, written and directed by Stanislav Moša and arranged by Karel Cón, features countless Eurovision entries by Siegel from Dschingish Khan and Theater to more recent Crisalide and Maybe . This is in the German speaking world what Mamma mia!  is for Scandinavian – soundtrack of the life of those who grew up in the 1970s-1980s. The world premiere took place in Brno, Czech Republic on March 28, 2015 with many familiar artists attending the event: Katja Ebstein, Dorkas of MeKaDo fame, Valentina Monetta and Penny Mc Lean just to name a few. "For me it's a real priviledge that people still sing my songs, which I started to write 50 years ago. It's quite a long time ago but I still enjoy writing! It was a wonderful evening. It was my dream to see and hear what we have done. I love Eurovision for 20...

The first Eurovision song contest took place on May 24, 1956 in Lugano. Now 60 years later the 60th edition will be held on May 23, finishing on early hour of May 24 in most of Europe. The oldest participant this year is Finland's Pertti Kurikka, born on Boxing day the very same year 1956. He's 43 years older than the youngest artist this year, San Marino's Anita Simoncini who turns 16 just six weeks before the final in Vienna. The funny thing is the oldest one does punk, the youngest...  well, schlager.

Tomorrow evening SMRTV will have a special edition of Serenissima - The Smallest, The Youngest where they talk about their Eurovision 2015 adventure tomorrow night at 21.00 CET. You can watch it online here . Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola are of course present and interviewed but not only: they will answers questions sent by you! All you need to do is record a video by any mobile device (such as your smartphone or pads) send you question to eurovision@sanmarinortv.sm in the highest quality possible by noon tomorrow. The show will be of course in Italian but the questions section will be also in English so it will be a lot of fun for everyone!

After the leak yesterday night today San Marino has officially presented their entry with the video for Chain of lights . If you are interested you can see a longer version of it here with some backstage photos and the lyrics of the song. The video has been shot in various places around province of Molise in southern Italy, in regions of Campobasso and Isernia.  The singers at 16 are young and fresh but the writers are real Eurovision veterans. The song is once again penned by Ralph Siegel with the lyrics by John O'Flynn aka Bernd Meinunger. This is Bernd's 19th Eurovision entry, and Ralph's 23rd. This is also Siegel's fourth consegutive entry for San Marino and they have done better every year and finally qualifying for the final for the very first time (for any microstate) last year. Will Michele and Anita better Valentina Monetta's 24th place in the final last year with Maybe ? Maybe or maybe not, what do you think? 

Back in November SMRTV announced "the youngest duo in the Eurovision history" will represent them in Vienna 2015 Eurovision. Junior Eurovision veterans (that word used very lightly here) Michele Perniola (16) and Anita Simoncini (will turn 16 in mid-April) will sing together Chain of lights.  The faith is this year also Ireland and Israel send 16-year-olds, both of them younger than Perniola but the youngest duo status remains and Anita is still the youngest of them all.  Chain of lights was presented, or a snippet of it, in SMRTV's news tonight. Tomorrow the official presentation in the head of delegations meeting in Vienna and on both eurovision.tv and smtvsanmarino.sm with all the information on the writers and the rest. Ok, full song leaked here 

The youngest for the smallest, that's the slogan for SMRTV for Vienna 2015 Eurovision song contest when Michele Perniola and Anita Simoncini were revealed as the chosen artists today. The slogan could also be from JESC to ESC as both have done Junior Eurovision song contest representing San Marino in 2013 and 2014. Without much of a success I might add. This fact confuses even more the line between JESC and ESC. There are the age limits for both, but at the age of 15-16 there can be huge differences in kids... I guess it's already rather clear this blogger is not very fond of the JESC. Anyways, both Michele and Anita will be 16 in Vienna next May. And they both look the age (or older). Michele Perniola (class of Diva ) comes from southern Italy, near Taranto. In 2012 he won the Italian talent show for kids, Ti lascio una canzone, and then in 2013 was picked by SMRTV to be their debut entrant for the Junior Eurovision song contest with O-o-O sole intorno a me finish...

Michele Perniola will be the San Marino spokesperson during the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. The Italian teen singer represented San Marino in its first ever partecipation at the Junior Eurovision song contest held in Kiev last November with O-o-O Sole intorno a me . "Representing San Marino at the JESC has been an incredible experience" , stated Michele, "it was funny and engaging. Being asked to be the San Marino spokesperson is a pleasure and an honor". You will be seeing Michele on May 10 during the Grand Final of the 59th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Btw, Michele would be of age for the 2015 Eurovision.....

Marco Mengoni is set to conquer the Latin market and he has released also a video for Incomparable , that has a totally different look from the original L'essenziale . The song is already entered the Italian classics songbook sung by everyone, including Marco Epicoco in Ti lascio una canzone , the very contest that gave us Michele Perniola ....

The show's over for another year and ... well, what can I say? The best bits were Zlata Ognevich . It's no secret I'm not a big fan of this contest but I try to listen and watch it in a way "would I enjoy listening this song once the TV cameras are off" and in this category I would still only put Russia and San Marino . Ukraine and Belarus would come close and no doubt Gaia from Malta has a big voice but the song gives me nothing. This said, it was kind of refreshing the victory went to somewhere else than the ex-Soviets for awhile, for the second time in the past 9 years.... And just for the fun of it, here are some images of ever beautiful Zlata.... and Emmelie was there, too. PS. If you wann see 8-year-old Gaia belt out Tina Turner's Proud Mary, click here .

It's coming again after all, the troubled Junior Eurovision song contest. The 2013 edition is the 11th and EBU has managed to lure in 12 countries, same as last year's 12 but yet far cry for the record of 18 in its second editon back in 2004. San Marino joins in while Albania, Belgium and Israel stay home this time. Macedonia and Malta on the other hand return so one could say there's a real revolving door.... Kiyv is the host city this year and the final's on November 30, 2013 . The host will be again Timur Miroshnychenko who did the job already in 2009 when he was joined by Ani Lorak. Now he gets Zlata Ognevich to his side. For the first time it's not happening at 9pm CET but more sensible time slot for the kiddos. Also, for the first time there will be awards for the top-3 and not the winner only. As an added bonus apparently the winner will also be involved in the real Eurovision song contest in May 2014 in Copenhagen somehow... Will that breath life to thi...