Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Valentina sung at the beach with her band..... ... and Slavko gave it bums up Piero was striking a pose.in Sicily... ... as was Sergey somewhere Nina Z got to the beach as well as did Imri. Again. Did you notice the bird? Isaiah enjoyed the pool life instead Amir gave us amazing new song this week. And another amazing photo! Omar visited Turkey Nina B looked gorgeous and Nathan widened his horizons Anja dreamed of being a real viking Dima manages to look cool even in the dirt Emma enjoyed Roman sunset and we are back to Valentina's stage.  This beats every Eurovision stage she's been on to....  maybe?

Eric Himan (remember You're gonna need me from the Swiss selection?) is back with Red hot tears that is rather brilliant song indeed with a simple but effective video. Croatian Nina Badric released earlier this year Ceznja , that fits very nicely to this late summer filled with heat and sun and nostalgic atmosphere. Hannah Mancini has joined with Vanillaz and Kosta Radman in Back 2 life . A perfect club anthem for those hot summer nights, isn't it? OGAE Second chance winner Anna Eriksson will release a new compilation this month including some new songs performed live, including Je suis malade/teit minusta sairaan . She proves once again she's one of the most touching and best vocalists in Finland!

Iceland - Eythor Ingi - Ég Á Líf One of the most underrated songs this year. I admit this wasn't my favorite in the Icelandic national final but it was a good runner up for me. The song has a quiet beauty about it and luckily it also stays in Icelandic that sounds especially soft and delicate in this particular song. Eyþór himself comes across rough and sweet at the same time. Like a heavyrocker daddy singing a lullaby to his kid, and the song is indeed a lullabylike one that works also well live . Hard to say how the televoters react to this, and will the jury overlook it as well. This said, one of the better songs this year, and one of the best singers, too. No matter what happens, Iceland should be proud! Croatia - Klapa s Mora - Mižerja Croatia surprised us all with their choice (anticipated by last year's Nina Badric exclusively to Blogilkar here ) but like Iceland, whatever happens they can be proud of it. The song is similar to the Icelandic one in the way that...

Mižerja is the title of the song selected to represent Croatia in Malmö 2013. It is written by Goran Topolovac. HRT is now looking for a suitable performers for this klapa styled song. Hopefully it won't be filled with too much misery even if this blogger likes the Slavic melancholy. Curiously, they also announced a reserve song, Cili Svit Za Bili Civit written by Miroslav Buljan. Curiously, last year's Croatian entrant Nina Badric told in an exclusive Blogilkar interview in Baku 2012 that she would like to see her country represented by klapa music, as you can read here . And her wish came true!

Nina Badric released the Pointer Sisters cover I'm so excited already back in 1998 with the most dubious video. Who had the idea of urinals and Nina checking the guys out and all that? Check it out here . But now it's 2012, Nina has been to Eurovision with the beautiful Nebo  (and should have done so much better!) but she's still excited as you can see and hear here . The new video is less dubious and seems to be an Italian production. This said she sounds much better in 2012 but nothing beats the energy of the original , one of my all time set-me-into-the-party-mood songs.....

My flying reporter had a great interview with Croatian hopeful Nina Badric. They talked about Dora, how she got selected, what does she do besides singing. And did you know this is not her first time on Eurovision stage against common belief? And that she's one helluva party girl! Here: Yesterday was the opening party. Did you have a good time? Great time! The red carpet was like in Monte Carlo! Lots of beauiful dresses, so many people. For me it was a first time but it was ok. Did the location meet your expectations? The open terrace was nice. The rest... puff.... ha ha ha! Nina, you clearly wanted to participate in Eurovision because you participated already when Yogoslavia existed as a backing singer.. . How do you know that?!? I'm well informed :-) You also tried in 1993 so you wish to be here for a long time. Now that you are finally here, how does it feel? Ok! :-) Back then I was just starting my career and the most famous song festival was Dora. I wa...

Day seven. Today the Big5 and Azerbaijan will take the stage for the first time but before that we still have five semifinal 2 songs to go through. First Slovenia. Slovenia sounds and looks good. I'm liking this more and more, and I like it a lot to start with. It's a bit dreamlike and the shots in blue with the ladies lighten up from the behind in their nearly transparent dresses looks fantastic. It's dramatic, melancholy, she sings well. it really pulls all the right strings in my head but will televoters be convinced? Are they scared by the lamenting lady that appears every now and then? Maybe so. More here .  Croatia  bring in another Balcan drama in a blue lit stage. Nina and the boys are in black while the girls are in short white things. Also the boys have rather interesting outfits looking like they didn't know if they were going to a disco or to a butcher's shop to work. As nice as it looks along with the rather confusing choreograhy it may take t...

Slovenia kicked of the fay four rehearsals and they have the youngest singer this year, 16-year-old Eva Boto. The whole affair is a bit dreamlike with a clever use of lightning and wavy fabric in the backdrop at first. Gone are the strange head pieces and the whole choreography has been redone which is only a good thing!  It's kinda renaissance with those flowers in the dress and all. Why am I thinking Feminnem (as in Lako je sve )? Hard to say if this will qualify. I like it, mind you but is it typically finishing 10th-12th everywhere = not many points. But I hope they do, they deserve it! More here . Croatia follow and Nina has brought three female backing singers and two male dancers with her. There's no doubt she has a fantastic voice. I also like the song even if it may not be the most immediate to appreciate. The backdrop is clouds like in her video and time will tell if the dancing guys will be dressed up - or down - like in the video as well? They all stay close...

Croatia chose Nina Badric beforehand but last night we got to hear her song, and as previously rumoured it is off her latest album, Nebo . It's a... well... dramatic ballad? I like it though. The rumour is it will be translated into English and reworked but I don't necessarily find that necessarily. On the other hand the song isn't very instant and catchy thinking of televoters but it's classy as it is.

Croatian TV went for internal selection in the end and chose Nina Badrić. She has been around for almost 20 years and has released ten albums between 1995 and 2011. She has also treid to get to Eurovision four times already without a win (1993, 1994, 1995 and 2003). She is popular also in the other ex-Yogoslavian countries so let those 12s run in.... Listen her here: Moje oci pune ljubavi , Dat ce nam Bog , Nebo and Mama . And lovely Carobno jutro .