Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Mia Renwall, a familiar name from The Voice, has the honor to belt out this year's official Pride tune. 

The Kiev Pride 2016 starts tomorrow under slogan Security of a person - development of the country! The program includes exhibitions, films, discussion forums, seminars and all the usual Pride things and topics. There's of course also the Opening party, Pride Party on Friday night and most visibly the Equality March on Sunday. And this march has been threated by bloodbath by local Neo-Nazis and the narrow minded local Orthodoc Church isn't very amused either. Earlier this year a LBGT right conference in Lviv was shut down after an attack with rocks and fireworks. Police was called on the spot, yet no one was arrested and the conference was shut down instead.  Let's see how this ends. The NTU and EBU meeting about the 2017 Eurovision song contest takes place in Geneva right after, JUne 13-14..... UPDATE: The march went reasonable well. There were 700-1500 marchers (dependig on source) and some 5500 policemen to secure it. Apparently 57 people have been detaine...

Eurovision 2014 winner for Austria Conchita Wurst is headlining various European Pride festivals this summer. And she already did Zurich Pride . Among others.  Next week (June 27) she will be taking part in the Pride festivites in Dublin before headlining the London Pride the day after (June 28).  In July she will be present in Shangay Pride in Madrid (July 7) reuniting with her Eurovision collegue Ruth Lorenzo. They have confirmed a collaboration on Ruth's worthcoming album - will we get a preview already? In August it's time for Amsterdam Pride (August 2-3) and a week later Antwerp Pride (August 10).  She was present last year in Stockholm Pride and who knows she will be back there, too? Update June 22: Indeed she will be there for the opening day concert (July 30)!) And there's time to add more events to her calendar .

YLE is celebrating next week the Pride Week with series of Pride themed programmes all week long on YLE Teema channel and on other platforms. One of them is a documentary Conchita Wurst - Queen of Austria , that will be aired on Friday, June 27 at 9pm local time. The documentary tells how she became the symbol of tolerance and freedom, and what Austrians think about her, especially the poeple from her home village. We also get to visit her home village, her family and more. This said, I think it's the same documentary that has been doing rounds of internet already for some time. In that case we will also see her sausage one more time! For an old fart like me, seeing it on television always makes it a bit more real.... ;-p

Hercules Club once again hosts some Eurovision related artists when on Saturday, June 28 EFN and DJ Ohrmeister are not only playing Eurovision favorites but also fan favorite Brequette Cassie and Javi Soleil will perform giving the Pride weekend a Spanish taste. Brequette Cassie came close second in the Spanish final this year with Run (Mas) . This blogger was especially taken by her outstanding performance and Diana Ross-esque hair.  Javi Soleil returns to Helsinki after being part od D'Nash, the boynad that represented Spain that year with I love you mi vida . He's going solo now with songs like Ya no te puedo olvidar and EGO . Helsinki Pride 2014 takes place from June 23 to 29. More info here .  Hercules Club has something going on all week as well, like on Tuesday night Jari Sillanpää performing.

Krista Siegfrids has been everywhere this weekend! It's even hard to keep track about her whereabouts as she has been to Stockholm Pride , doing Tv-show Sommarlov in Malmö , DJing as Queen Bee  on NRJ @ the sea cruise from Helsinki to Tallinn , doing a gig in Hanko for her Ding Dong Tour, Pride in Amsterdam ...  Four countries and five gigs. All this in four days! She sure is one busy bee.... Ding dong! Maybe now after Amsterdam we can say Amen ? (Until Friday when the tour hits Hyvinkää, that is...)

Krista Siegfrids will get the Helsinki go ding dong when she headlines the Helsinki Pride 2013 main event in Vanha, the venue of Euroclub in Eurovision 2007 in the heart of Helsinki. LCMDF and Beverly Girl will share the stage with her while in the MiniDisco Finland's best drag queens will keep court. Cristal Snow and NikoLa will be the hosts.  After that Krista will bring her ding dong all over Finland for the rest of the year (full list here ). The gigs include before mentioned Helsinki Pride on June 29 after a Midsummer gig in Kalajoki on June 22. A month later she will be in Mariehamn, in Åland islands, and July 27 in her hometown Kaskinen. August 2 she's back in Helsinki, and again on September 21. She's also doing shows on various cruise boats between Helsinki, Stockholm, Turku and Tallinn, including M/S Silja Europa, M/S Viking Grace, M/S Viking XPRS.... And on August 31 she will onboard the Eurovision Cruise as well! Ding dong!

Stockholm Pride is over once again and was filled with music, and a lot of Eurovision. Loreen was there performing a rather interesting version of Euphoria , Jedward  was there, so was Agnes , Ivi Adamou ,  Eric Saade , Eleftheria , Star Pilots , ... and many more! Lena Philipsson theme song Du följer väl med? gets a flash mob treatment here . And it was indeed Lena Ph who stole the show in the end and bounced back after her divorce to the arms of her loving and adoring fans. Here . 

Stockholm Pride is happening and the line is pretty amazing as usual. We have Lena Philipsson, Loreen, Eric Saade, Ott Lepland.... see the full list below....

Lena Philipsson 's divorce hasn't been a nice one and she's been through some rough times. Due to this she has cancelled her participation in Tomas Ledin 's 60th anniversary concert next Tuesday in Skansen, Stockholm. that will be broadcasted live on SVT. "She's not ready to meet the TV cameras and the media interest yet" her publicists told the press. Tomas Ledin himself told he has talked to her and is sad she can't make it but understands fully. The other guests, among others Niklas Strömstedt , Eva Dahlgren and E-Type will be there.  Let's hope she can get herself together for the Pride concert on August 4, 2012!