Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Four Eurovision song contest icons selected randomly to celebrate Paris Olympic games opening tomorrow - with Slimane giving a free concert as warm up show (and I am hoping he will also perform in the opening ceremonies  as well!) ? Not quite so.  Slimane has dueted with all of them, besides co-writing the songs. Let's have a listen! LA ZARRA / SLIMANE - LES AMANTS DE LA COLLINE PATRICK FIORI / SLIMANE - PROMESSE MADAME MONSIEUR / SLIMANE - DIS-MOI QUE JE SUIS PATRICK FIORI / YCARE /CLAUDIO CAPÈO / SLIMANE -  QU'EST-CE QU'ON ÈTAIT BEAUX Slimane has literally dozens of duets with other singers so it's no wonder he has ended up with these previous Eurovision stars. Maybe they have had a word to convince him to do it, who knows?

  Jean-Jacques Goldman, one of my great musical loves. I came across him thanks to the French Cultural Centre in Helsinki, where I used to go and borrow vinyls... He has written such great music that it was hard to choose the four songs here. My love for him continued all the way to the end of his recording career (as we know it) and his various projects and songs written and produced to other artists, like Céline Dion whose French success is mainly thanks to him in her adult life, Patricia Kaas and Patrick Fiori. Sadly his last studio album is from 2001 but he's still active somewhat writing and producing, and made an appearance in Fiori's Les gens qu'on aime video. Hopefully he will still release his music as a singer, too. Pretty please? He has had a huge impact in the French music industry and in 2012-2013 for example two tribute albums were recorded by the young talents under title Genération Goldman , both hitting #1 in the French charts and selling about one m...

Once again some more or less new releases from Eurovision artists A top-10 hit for Emma Marrone with Mondiale , a single off re-release of her latest  platinum selling #2 album  Essere qui . Patrick Fiori has released another single of his 2017 album Promesse , and re-unites with Jean-Jacques Goldman as songwriter for this  Les gens qu'on aime . His career continues strong already for 26 years.  Soraya Arnelas released late last summer  Yo brindo and as summer is approaching it's a nice tune to get into the right mood!  Lior Narkis has released with Itai Levi and Vivo  מסיבת רווקים /Mesibat Ravakim (Bachelor party) which is as title suggests a party song with propably not so many words of love....

  French Patrick Fiori is back with a new album this year, and Oú je vis is the lead single of it. A song that grows and grows and gets stuck in your head. Another Fiori goodie. He should do Eurovision again! Sweden's Eurovision winner Loreen continues releasing singles off her coming album and 71 charger is out now. This is a far cry for euphoric feelings, but a lot more enjoyable than her other latest efforts, mainly thanks to its mysterious atmosphere. Slovenian Marayya are trying to go international with their latest Diamond Duck , an obvious reference to the orange man in the white house. Filled with emojis and stuff, the video is far more interesting than the song that sounds more like an idea of something that never became a proper song. But sometimes these things work and become hits. Released already awhile ago it seems this is not one of those, Shame. Russian Serebro has released a song about "the love between us" in the middle of yet anot...

Patrick Fiori's  career kick started with the Eurovision 1993 when this Corsican-Armenian young talent sung for France his love for Mama Corsica. Despite becoming respectable 4th he still didn't set the charts on fire. A hit musical Notre Dame de Paris followed with #1 single Belle and since then he has been among the top male singers in France with succesful collaborations with Jean Jacques Goldman (who also made Céline Dion in France for real). Earlier this year he released his ninth studio album Choisir, that reached #2 in France and charted also in Belgium and Switzerland. The lead single of the album was Elles and now he has also released the second one featuring Tommy, J'espère que tu vas bien.  You can also enjoy a little look back to his 20 years in business here , and yes, Eurovision is mentioned! This blogger has always been very fond if this little older Fiori-Goldman collaboration: 4 mots sur un piano . Another #1 hit by the way.

Tout le monde chant contre le cancer , amega charity event for cancer gathers together 50 artists, two nights each with 3 hours of entertainment takes place in France next month. Among artists several Eurovision veterans like Amandine Bourgeouis, Amaury Vassili, Patrick Fiori and Michele Torr . And there are several names this blogger would love to see on Eurovision stage sometime soon, like M Pokora - presenting his megasuccesful Robin Hood project -, Emmanuel Moire and Florent Mothe . Just to name a few. You can follow the event news here .

Husky and sassy Amandine Bourgeois (33) will represent France in Malmö 2013 with L'enfer et moi , a song written for her by David Salkin and Boris Bergman who returns to the Eurovision for the third time. She hopes to relaunch her career that started with a bang after she won La nouvelle Star in 2008 and delivered an album that sold gold in France and hit the charts also in other French speaking countries. This is the moment for the girl who studied flute and learned the profession singing in covers bands while dreaming a duet with Whitney Houston but ended up dueting with Scorpions in Still loving you instead and working with Amy Winehouse's team in London for her second album. She has already done Royal Albert Hall, soon she will rock Malmö Arena. Recently she also took part in the musical phenomenon of the year in France, Génération Goldman singing Jean Jacques Goldman's Au bout de mes rêves with Emmanuel Moire. Her other songs include Envie d'un manque des pr...

Armenian TV has selected internally Gor Sujyan as their represent. He will perform several songs in a national final on March 2, 2013 and jury+televote will pick up the one he will bring to Malmö 2013. He's 25 and lead singer of rock group Dorians. His father is a famous jazz musician Mkrtich Sujyan, so the talent runs in family. Gor has also been voted the best male singer in Armenia back in 2010 and is known for his voice besides being concidered the best rock singer in the country. Judge yourself here , here , or covering Beatles and singing with Eurovision veteran Patrick Fiori . Update: He will perform four songs, one of them making a travel guide publisher very happy if selected Toy Planet  Lonely Planet  No Time  Lying

Jean-Jacques Goldman, the French superstar who saved Cèline Dion's career in French. What can I say? I came across, can't remember how, to his debut solo album Démodè (1981) with hits like Il suffire d'un signe as well as follow up Minoritaire (1982) with Comme toi , Quand la musique est bonne and Veiller tard but when Positif (1984) came out I was totally sold and continued my adoration to this guy well to the 1990's. Envole-moi (and the international release Love me away ), Nous ne nous parlerons pas , Dors bébé dors , Encore un matin , Ton autre chemin and most of all Long is the road  ( Americain ) are all songs from this album I knew by heart and still do... well, sort of (age doesn't come alone...). The album sold over one million copies in France alone and made him a megastar for years to come, especially when his following albums were filled with hits as well. He opened the French music to me and I was hunting several artists who remain favourites...

One of the many Eurovision rumours on the internet the past few days has been that France would sent to Oslo 2010 someone who has already done the honors previously, an Eurovision comeback. The names of Sandrine Francois , Natasha St Pier and Patricia Kaas (which only cements this as a rumour IMO) have been mostly mentioned and Natasha would be quite logical and possible choise whereas Sandrine... what has she done since 2002? But how about Jonathan Cerrada ? Or even better: Patrick Fiori . My guess is he could give it another go! He has gone a long way since 1993 and would follow nicely La Kaas's megastar footsteps.

Patrick Fiori, who represanted France in 1993 with Mama Corsica has gone a long way since, both as musical star and recording artist. After 7 albums and a couple of best ofs, several musicals and important collaborations he's releasing an album with music from the movies under title Les choses de la vie , that follows up his Best of album in 2007 and 4 Mots album earlier this year with the valuable collaboration with Jean-Jacques Goldman. Check him out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTrgv5rVsb8 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rex54EGM_3Q&feature=channel , and here the fantastic Belle from the musical Notre Dame de Paris that made both Garou and Fiori, amongst others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUXGVfmrEN4&feature=related