Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

And last but not least, Mahmood wins tonight's Sanremo Giovani and joins the Sanremo 2019 cast. He won also the Critic's award.  Enrico Nigiotti - Nonno Hollywood (2nd time, first Big) Nino D'Angelo & Livio Cori - Un'altra luce (2nd/Debut) Francesco Renga - Aspetto che torni (5th tim, Winner 2005) Boomdabash - Per un milione (Debut) Achille Lauro - Rolls Royce (debut) Arisa - Mi sento bene (6th time, Newcomer winner 2009, Winner 2014) Daniele Silvestri - Argento vivo (6th time) Ex-Otago - Solo una canzone (debut) Federica Carta & Shade - Senza farlo apposta (debuts) Patty Pravo & Briga - Un po' come la vita ( 11th time & debut) Negrita - I ragazzi stanno bene (2nd time) Einar Ortiz wins tonight's show and gets the ticket to the festival! Il Volo - Musica che resta (Winner 2015) Ghemon - Rose viola ( Debut) Nek - Mi farò trovare pronto (3rd time) Motta - Dov'è l'Italia (Debut) Ulti...

Not only Melodifestivalen and Sweden but also Italy's Sanremo rumor mill is already in full swing. Several papers have hinted the same names so maybe there's some truth to it, then again who knows? As we know, even the artists will find out if they have been accepted only when we common mortals do, too. Usually in live television when the list is read out. We also have one certain no goer as Emma has declared she won't be there but on tour and as she has been a participant, the winner and the presenter she will only return as an invited superguest.... (Good luck with that!) Arisa is widely rumored and her dream to do Eurovision is no secret. She also won Sanremo the only year Rai decided to fish outside the pool and went for Emma..... Time for a revenge?  Other welcome names would be  Nek ,  Giusy Ferreri ,  Paola Turci  and  Loredana Bertè  (late Mia Martini's sister) who at 67 can still deliver hit songs, like  Non ti dico di no . ...

The Friday night in Sanremo festival is dedicated to duets again after a few years pause (in recent  years the artists have covered Italian classics) and the list of Big artists duet partners is out. Alice is back to Sanremo for the 4th time (1972 Il mio cuore se ne va , 1981 Per Elisa - winner, 2000 Il giorno dell'indipendenza ) and duets with Ron , with a song co-written by late lagend Lucio Dalla, Almeno pensami , and described by the media who has already heard the songs as one of the front runners for the victory.  Also many other returns to Teatro Ariston stage by names like Michele Bravi, Giusy Ferreri, Simone Cristichhi, Neri per Caso, Arisa, Sergio Cammariere and Marco Masini , and some big names elsewhere, like Midge Ure . Annalisa with Michele Bravi Avitabile and Servillo with Avion Travel and Daby Touré Decibel with Midge Ure Diodato and Roy Paci with Ghemon Elio e le Storie Tese with Neri per Caso Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro with Simone Cris...

Yawn. In a Million years I wouldn't have thought this could happen. That's the first reaction. Not really, lol. For a change it's a worthy winner and was one of my faves in Melodifestivalen.  Sweden wins with Mariette the OGAE Second chance contest for the 16th time. Add nine 2nd place sand one 3rd places and that leaves us only six Swedish participations that didn't land the Top-3. The lovely surprise is Italy's second place. Paola Turci 's anthem for loving yourself Fatti bella per te is Italy's third second place (added to two wins and one third place).  Check out the full results after the jump.....

Latest Amici winners Riki and Andrea (the dancer, he won it all while Riki won the singers) have a joint affair in Riki's latest Balla con me . Well, he's just fooling around in this party summer video while the rumors of their bromance heats up the web more than Lucifer.... Samuel continues his string of hits with very summery La statua della mia libertà . The video makes me think of Cuba but I suppose it's Palermo? Paola Turci covers Anna Oxa's classic Un'emozione da poco from Sanremo's cover night.  May I say this is almost better than the original...? Marco Carta is trying hard to have a succesful comeback but Il meglio sta arrivando promises the best is yet to come. When? Nothing wrong with this groovy radio friendly song either, it just didn't really go anywhere, did it?

Paola Turci (52) makes a welcome comeback to Sanremo after 16 years. This will be her 10th time and her Sanremo history is quite a strange one: She did the newcomers three years in a row (1986-88) never making the final but winning the critic's awards only to come back in a new category Emergenti that existed only once, in 1989. Some say it was invented for her. And indeed she won it with Bambini . Then she made five festivals between 1990-2001, always finishing in top-10 except in 1990 with Ringrazio Dio .  This year she's back with Fatti bella per te (Make yourself pretty for yourself). She has released 11 studio albums, one cover album, various live and compilations between 1988 and 2012. Her new album will be released later this spring. Her other Sanremo entries have been Stato di calma apparente (7th), Volo cosi (10th), Solo con me (4th), Saluto l'inverno (5th)

The vinyl albums have been making a comeback for some years now, and I read somewhere they sold globally more than in past 20 years in 2016. Mostly collector's stuff, and those who feel nostalgic for the sound. Oh, those were the days when you played your favorite albums so much they got scratched and jumped here and there and you just knew after awhile where and when and how. That made it your very own version of the song..... Anyways, recently one has seen some 45 tours, aka 7" singles reappear here and there, once again for collectors and included in special editions..... And now Sanremo is right at the top of things, hip as one could say. Sony/Warner is making an experiment with their artists in Sanremo and four entries will be released as a limited edition vinyl single, too: Paola Turci, Francesco Gabbana, Alessio Bernabei and Raige ft. Luzi. How cool is that?

As usual the carefully selected media and journalists have had a chance to listen the songs in Sanremo festival in advance to be able to write at least something about them before the festival starts. The songs will be heard by common people only when performed for the first time on stage in Teatro Ariston, from February 7.  Our friends in eurofestivalnews have been busy checking out all the papers and what they have written counting the positive and negative comments, the no comments and the neutral comments. If we just put those comments in a chart like a medal table it looks like this (positive-negative-neutral): FIORELLA MANNOIA 22-0-0 MARCO MASINI 21-1-0 ERMAL META 19-1-0 PAOLA TURCI 18-3-1 SAMUEL 17-3-2 FRANCESCO GABBANI 17-5-0 FABRIZIO MORO 15-0-10 GIUSY FERRERI 15-2-5 RON 13-2-6 CLEMENTINO 13-4-5 CHIARA 13-5-3 RAIGE & GIULIA LUZZI 11-5-6 ALBANO 9-8-5 SERGIO SYLVESTRE 8-8-6 ELODIE 8-12-2 MICHELE BRAVI 7-9-6 NES...

The 67th Sanremo festival has 22 Big artists. Let's have a look at some interesting facts. The oldest is Albano (73) and the youngest Alice Paba (19) There are seven debutants: Alice Paba, Michele Bravi, Raige, Giulia Luzi, Ludovica Commello,  Sergio Sylvestre and Elodie Most debutants are from various reality talent shows: Alice Paba - the Voice of Italy winner 2016, Michele Bravi - X Factor 2013 winner,  Sergio Sylvestre - Amici 2016 winner, Elodie - Amici 2016 runner up and Giulia Luzi made herself a name in Your face sounds familiar Talking about Amici 2016 - the whole top-3 is in Sanremo as besides Sergio and Elodie also third placed Lele is among the Newcomers There are four previous Newcomers amongst the Big this year:  Michele Zarrillo (1987), Marco Masini (1990),  Fabrizio Moro (2007), Francesco Gabbani (2016) Three previous winners are in: Albano (1984), Ron (1996) and M arco Masini (2004) There are se...

Franco Battiato is organizing a charity concert, Note di merito, in Auditorium Parco della musica in Rome on June 25. He will be joined on stage by Alice, trio Marina Rei-Carmen Consoli-Paola Turci, Etta Scollo, Radiodervish and Roberto Cacciapaglia. The orchestra will be conducted by Paolo Buonvino. Tickets here . Here are some videos from the stars: La cura , Luci lontane , Pirati a Palermu , Musa , Fiori d'arancio , Attraversami il cuore, Voglio vederti danzare , Open your eyes

My favourite Eurovision flop, Domenico Modugno's Dio come ti amo , that scored a flat zero for Italy in 1966 gets its about 154.753rd cover version when Paola Turci does it in her new album Attraversami il cuore with Paolo Fresu, a regular collaborator in Alice's albums since Park Hotel in 1986. My favourite version though remains Gigliola Cinquetti's .

The rumours and speculations are running wild while waiting for the announcement of the artists in Sanremo 2009. The latest "sure" names are Paola Turci (winner of Emergenti category back in 1990), Dolcenera (winner of newcomers in 2003), Marco Masini (winner of newcomers in 1990 and winner of 2004), Francesco Renga ( winner of 2005) and Neri per Caso (winner of newcomers 1995). Also ex-Eurovision entrants Albano Carrisi (as Albano & Romina Power) and Antonella Ruggiero (as in Matia Bazar) are also given out as quite sure names. Other names include Mondo Marcio (or Rotten World ), who would bring something else to the stage of Teatro Ariston with his rap, and not so hard pop-rap by Gemelli Diversi . Also Velvet, Sugarfree, Nicky Nicolai & Stefano Di Battista and Anna Tatangelo circulate in rumours.