Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

In our exclusive interviews in Malmö 2013 Eurovision we asked the artists who would they like to represent their country next year in Denmark. Latvian PER gave us two names, and we start with Gustavo .  Gustavs Butelis, aka Gustavo is a 7 time Latvian Music award winner for his songs and videos, and has been making music since 1995 and being a DJ in clubs since 1997. He has also done some TV and is known also for extreme sports. he has released four albums, latest being Pilsētas portāls (2011). His songs and videos include Jau-tā-jums , Evita , Taisnā tiesa , No lūpām las , Mūsu soļi , Esi brīvs , Daudz laimes and Mainīt pasauli . Do you think hip hop and rap would be the key to success for Latvia? Listening his discography one can notice he has moved to somewhat more melodic songs with time, so maybe a nice collaboration with someone would do the trick?

Have you checked the exclusive in depth interview we have done with the stars of the Second semifinal? All of them will also reveal who would they like to represent their country next year! The links are on the right hand side panel. Click away!

Last night the Israeli party took place in Glasklart and many stars made an appearance from the hostess herself, Moran Mazor from Israel to Marco Mengoni from Italy, PeR from Latvia, Dorians from Armenia, Gianluca from Malta, Robin from Sweden... Even Carola was there! Scroll down for the performances! (Grazie OGAE Italy!) Armenia, Latvia, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Malta, Germany, Albania and Israel performed. Some delegations left as the night was dragging on and timetables were just a memory.... Moran Mazor - Halleujah Moran Mazor - Rak bishvilo Cascada - Glorious   Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko - Identitet Gianluca Bezzina - Tomorrow   Esma and Lozano - Pred da se razdeni   Koza Mostra and Agathon Iakovidis - Alcohol is free    Gor Suyjan and Dorians - Lonely planet    Elitsa and Stoyan - Samo shampioni

 Hey, we found some more lost photos in our archives this morning... Enjoy!

Belarus had invited most everyone to their Planet Solayoh and party were promotional items were brought in in industrial quantity; chocolates and biscuits and all you can get! A buffet and drinks were avalable, too, and many artists showed up. Here are the Red Wall photos: Ryan Dolan and Natália Kelly were having a cozy time..... Serbian girls looked stunning in flashlights.... Esma and Lozano were holding court... And it's Ryan Dolan again. Will he bring the trophy back to Ireland? Coming up next..... the performances!

Here we go again. The second semifinalists get their second chance to rehearse. All wearing their actual dresses and stuff.  LATVIA - PeR - Here we go The boys have pretty much same amount of energy on stage as Krista Siegfrids has outside stage and they are all over the place in their glittery outfits but there's enough cordinated choreography to keep it together. The robot walk when they go to the catwalk will surely look amazing on telly, and yes, Ralph does the dive as well, another sure crowd pleaser.  I am beginning to believe they will make the final after all.... Anyways, want to read their exclusive Blogilkar interview? Here . SAN MARINO - Valentina Monetta  - Crisalide (Vola) She starts the song in the dark cold stage with her lamp only, dressed in black. Then it all changes to an explotion of red dress, red backfdrop and wind machine and change of tempo. Her two backing singers are imitating her hand movements and it's all very effective indeed. ...

I curiously followed already last year various photos on eurovison.tv featuring artists shoes. And yes, this year the shoe pics are back. On top some ladies fashion and below some men's....  ... and these ladies here take it the next level. Can you pick up who is who or who is wearing what?

Here we go! Next act to get the Bicycling reporter Robert's in depth treatment are the Latvian boys of PeR. They talk beatbox, spanking, their continuous presence in the Latvian selection, jazzy songs in Eurovision, how sporty can you be if you only read about it and watch it? And how fast driver Edmunds really is? How about the dive? What's the main idea behind their act? And they drop names for next year like if they have given it a serious thought! Read it here: (Ralph is doing most of the talk unless marked) PeR! Here we go. Ralph is the blond one and Edmunds is the dark one, right? Yes! Could you describe the style of music you play and explain the name of the band.... Our music style is basicly everything with beat box. Even if we have a fast song like Here we go in Eurovision it doesn't mean all our songs are like that. We have released our debut album and there are different songs in it; some of them are alternative, some ore indie, afrobeat, pop. We...

Latvia - PeR - Here we go These guys should sent some flowers to SVT as the opening act is clearly the best slot they could ever be. A perfect opener that will get the audience wild while waiting for their favorites, I think this would result a bit annoying placed anywhere else. And otherwise it works better as a video than straight live performance. A tricky one this is. It has some nice things, but it sounds a bit too familiar and rapping has never worked in Eurovision so far. Unfortunately this isn't my cup of tea but Latvia has done well, even won, when I haven't liked them at all, so.... But, a non qualifier for me but this said, I wouldn't be so surprised if it qualified after all.... but I doubt it! Serbia -Moje 3 - Ljubav je svuda I must admit being a big fan of Serbian Eurovision but it took me awhile to warm up to this. Maybe I was (like many others it seems now) too stuck on the Serbian ballad formula? Anyways, this is one of the songs that has been pla...

What a weekend, ragazzi! I just realized I have spent over 21 hours in front  of the screen blogging and watching Sanremo.... no wonder my shoulders, neck and head are aching like there's no tomorrow. But all is fine when things end well. My favorite won the Newcomers Friday night, namely Antonio Maggio with Mi servirebbe sapere . Then I was having cold sweat for the Big category's superfinal when Elio & Co and Modá made it but Marco Mengoni made it all up by winning it and even going to Eurovision. For the first time since Jalisse Italy will be represented by the latest Sanremo winner, even if he will most likely pick up a song from his coming album. L'essenziale wouldn't be bad either; a classic Italian song but how would it fit into 3 minute formula? Latvia also selected their winner and I must say I'm not pleased at all.... PeR and Here we go didn't impress me before nor after their win..... Shame.  In Hungary they also selected the last semifina...

Latvia had its final last night as well. PeR won with Here we go and am I impressed? No. Rather annoying and useless piece of a song with first hearing. I didn't even bother hearing it til the end in semifinal but here we go, Here we go won and goes to Malmö 2013. Maybe the song will have a rebirth with proper listenings?