Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  I was in the Jeanne Mas team for a long time but Mylene Farmer came like a storm and kept releasing fantastic songs and amazing epic short historic film videos with Laurent Boutonnat, the most expensive ever in French language beating likes of Michael Jackson in budget. I became a huge fan in the 80's and 90's but since then I have lost a bit touch, but not the French audience: 15 #1s and 45 top-10 hits and counting. And I still keep eye on her new releases hoping she will reconquer me again.  Check out also:

Amir, who represented France with success - for a change! - at the Eurovision song contest 2016 in Stockholm released his debut French* album during the Eurovision holabaloo. The album includes besides his Eurovision entry J'ai cherche also his  single Oasis but ignoring his The Voice single All of me and video Candle in the wind . Nor this wonderful David D'Or affair is included. Twelve songs with a nice mixture of French pop, a hint of oriental especially in the way he uses his voice at times. Some English here and there. There are several songs that would have been worthy the Eurovision stage in Globen. This blogger enjoys the whole album and it's difficult to pick up songs to highlight but Tres haut, I know, Ma vie ma ville mon monde, Lost and Il est temps qu'on m'aime are all excellent and playing in this household in repeat. If you haven't got this album yet and liked J'ai cherche even a little bit you will like this album. Buy it. Amir deser...

France has made public its method of selecting their entry for the Eurovision song contest 2016. In short an open song submission for (almost) anyone, but the final choice will be strictly internal. But - a couple of things in the rules are worth pointing out. First, anyone can send in songs, but the artists must be able to sing and promote the song in French. And in English. The song must be in French with max 20% of its running time in other language. All fine here. French should stick to their French, oh oui! Also, France2 wants to have all the power in the song's visual promotion and marketing and all that, yet it must be all paid by the artist's record company/artist/management. I suppose that will make many turn down the opportunity to send a song. I propably would pass it, if I have no say on anything but still have to pay for what someone else decides for me..... Not cool. Finally, the strangest rule is about the age. If BBC went for minimum age of 18, which i...

In this new feature I will present new and old Eurovision related and not videos that have caught my eye over the week - for any reason, good or bad. Enjoy! Here we have Myléne Farmer with Je te dis tout , second offering from her latest album Monkey Me . Will it be her 13th #1 in France? Eurovision winner Dima Bilan & Nikki Jamal have finally released the Russian version of their duet as video, Obni menya . Cascada is aiming for Eurovision this year for Germany with Glorious and finally Krassimir Avramov , well remembered for his performance in ESC 2009 has released a new single and video where he goes Michael Jackson, Loving you this way . A must see! :-)

I have been wondering where a fine Israeli singer and songwriter Ivri Lider has gone and finally decided to check on him. He has become The Young Professional! He and Jonathan Goldstein form this electro duo that is set to become the next big thing, signed in France and already scoring hits. And they even have remixed the new Mylène Farmer track Á l'ombre ! So, one can only say things are going fine with them.... All this reminds me a bit of Pet Shop Boys remixing Madonna in the late 1980's. Even their photo shoots are clearly inspired by PSB but I have always loved and adored PSB's sense of style and image so I totally forgive TYP! And to tell the truth PSB have grown a bit tired and uninspired the last decade, maybe TYP will fill that hole? Or are they a bit too similar? Here's their new single and video Be with you tonight which is excellent, and here are TYP D.I.S.C.O and  20 seconds , 

Italy did once again well in a contest organized by Eurovision fans, this time the video contest. After the 2nd place in the real Eurovision song contest and third place in Second Chance here's another third place with fabulous Giorgia. And was there any doubt Mylène Farmer would win this for France? 1. France - Mylène Farmer - Lonely Lisa - 96     2. Andorra - Manel - Aniverari - 85   3. Italy - Giorgia - Il mio giorno migliore -   82 4. Poland - Pola - You disappear - 71 5. Greece - Helena Paparizou - Baby it's over - 63   6. The Netherlands - Afrojack ft. Eva Simons - Take over control - 49   7. Rest of the world - Candy B - Styver vas - 47    8. Russia - DJ M.E.G ft. Timati - Party animal - 44    9. Malta - Fabrizio Faniello - My heart is asking you - 42   10. FYR Macedonia - DNK ft Ena - Od utro do mrak - 32   11. Austria - Clara Luzia - Love in times of war

Mylène Farmer goes from success to success and this RedOne production Lonely Lisa is her third single off her latest album Bleu noir . Will it be her 8th #1 in row and 12th in total in France? UPDATE: Yes indeed. This song went to #1 again!

France just has announced its Eurovision artists for 2011 and I'm still speechless. They would have so much to offer like these NRJ Music award winners like Joyce Jonathan , the newcomer of the year. Or Jenifer , the female artist of the year beating names like Shy'm and Mylène Farmer . Or the male artist of the year M Pokora . Or Christophe Mae , David Guetta . Or Christophe Willem . Emmanuel Moire . Or almost anybody.... Mind you the opera guy could turn out to be great but I'm a bit sceptical.... And of course the purpose of this post was just to showcase some of my favourite French singers :-)

I will post in coming days some number one songs from all over that I have liked, starting with Mylène Farmer's newbie Oui mais... non . Another great song from her. It's off her new album, Bleu noir . It's her 8th studio album and 10th #1 album if we include compilations and live recordings. And this is her 9th #1 single in France!

She didn't disappoint. Great concert. All the hits. All the rest. I guess she did all the songs from her two albums, some with a rockier arrangement, some like Mun koti ei oo täällä with totally different one. Sometimes it is a good thing rearranging, sometimes it isn't but in this case it was very good indeed. Maybe some sound problems in the first part of the show but the second half was perfection.  The most stunning moment was no doubt Yksinäisen keijun tarina that she sung alone on stage with her grand piano.... She was visibly moved herself at times during the night and even so as this was the last concert of tour that has had over 150 gigs so far. Oh hang on, she will have an extra concert tomorrow night in the same place due to huge demand of tickets so it was second to last.... Now she deserves a break... or is she heading for studio to record her third album?  I have always thought she is the Finnish Myléne Farmer and indeed these two have a lot of in common. But t...

Anna Eriksson was chosen by Seal to duet with him in You get me off his new album. This version will be released in Finland and Norway, as Seal is using the old trick of recording with several artists for various markets. In Italy the song gets a treatment with legendary Mina . For the latin market there's Concha Buika . This is not the first time Seal duets with European stars. Les mots with Myléne Farmer is a classic masterpiece in my books. Maybe we will get Mrs Seal or Heidi Klum to present Eurovision 2011?

I don't know if she doesn't want to, or didn't YLE ask. Chisu would be so great for Eurovision! She is the Finnish version of Myléne Farmer (and yes, that i s a compliment). Not meaning that she would be a copycat, just that she makes her own kind of music and being rather unique in her own recognizable sound in Finland. She has written songs and produced artists like Jippu , Antti Tuisku , Kristiina Wheeler , Tarja Turunen and Kristiina Brask before finally releasing her debut album Alkovi (#5) last year.She basicly recorded it alone in her bedroom. It delivered a megahit Mun koti ei oo täällä that stayed #1 for 8 weeks, Muut and Tämä rakkaus . The second album Vapaa ja yksin (#10) was released not a long time ago and its first single Baden-Baden is already a #3 hit.

Jeanne Mas was - and still is - one of my favourite artists from the 1980's. I adored her! And now Kate Ryan, the queen of covers from the top female French artists has covered her first hit Toute prèmiere fois after doing Mylène Farmer, Desireless and France Gall. And it's good but missing the Jeanne magic of those her early years when she scored a hit after hit, breaking records and making firsts to female artists in France - and making way to artists like Mylène Farmer. Anyways, here's Jeanne doing it partly in italian and live. And ladies and gentlemen, la Mas has her Eurovision connection! More about that tomorrow... .

Kate Ryan has been having occasional Europeanwide hits since 2001. When she went to the Eurovision 2006 the expectations were high and she was a clear pre-contest favourite. However Je t'adore flopped and didn't even make to the final... Yet she scored another big hit. Her career has been build however on covers: Mylène Farmer's Desenchantee and Libertine , Cock Robin's The promise you made , Desireless' Voyage voyage and at the moment France Gall's Ella elle l'á . Each song has been a big hits previously, and has done really well after the Ryan treatment, too. July 30 Kate will finally come to Finland where she has had a lot of fans since the early days of her career... Enjoy some Kate videos here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdJN0ss7jA0 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60RzAR8I6kU&feature=related , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x65k9dQScT8&feature=related , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Hi1R1w1Pc&feature=related , http://www.youtu...

Some of you may have asked that question after my previous post. And what is OGAE? OGAE (Organisation générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision) is the international fan club of the Eurovision Song Contest . It has branches in 37 European countries. It all started back in 1984 in Finland and now most participating countries have their own clubs. Lebanon also has one and then there's "OGAE Rest of the world" for all the fans in countries that don't have one. Yet. The OGAE Song contest is an audio contest where each and every club can sent an original song for their country released in the previous 12 months. Naturally, as the fans are Eurovision fans, many Eurovision artists are involved every year but the songs themselves cannot be Eurovision related. Unlike in Eurovision itself the "old Eurovision countries" have done well: France and Spain have 4 wins, Italy 3, Germany and Greece two. Only 12 countries have managed to win in 22 editions, and if Sweden rule...