Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

After two years of Lena and one year of Lena-like selection won by Roman Lob Germany returns to a multiartist national final. The songs have been out already awhile and quite interesting selection it is. And most of all it's all open, anything can happen tonight. There is a three-way voting where radio listeners (nine different ones), jury (Anna Loos, Mary Roos, Peter Urban, Roman Lob, Tim Bendzko) and televoters all provide their votes. And among the artists we have everything from Cascada to Gregorian chanting priests, from a Swedish songstress disguised as a German bimbo from the 60's to simil opera.... The show starts at 20.15 and we should have the winner out at 22.15. You can watch it online at eurovision.tv for example. Anke Engelke is presenting and there's pre- and post- shows online, too. This blogger will follow Sanremo's third night though.... Ben Ivory - The righteous ones Betty Diettrich - La la la Blitzkids mvt. - Heart on the line Cascada - G...

I don't know how it is where you are but here the summer's over. The non existing summer of 2012. So we need Roman Lob to Call out the sun and hope for a few sunny days still to come......

EFR12 radio will once again broadcast one of the interviews my flying reporter Robert did in Baku 2012. This time it's Roman Lob from Germany. 9pm  here . You can also read the edited version  here .

Blogilkar had the pleasure to interview the Italian Head of delegation Nicola Caligiore. How did he live those two last editions in Baku and Dusseldorf? Will Italy be back in 2013? Will there be an Eurovision night in Sanremo? What are his favorite Eurovision songs? What does he think of Italian fans behavior? Here is the interview in Italian, the English version will follow shortly. L'anno scorso l'Italia é tornata con diciamo euforia generale, accolta a braccia aperte da tutti a Dusseldorf. Come vi hanno accolto quest'anno? Siamo stati accolti benissimo, per me oramai tutto il management dell'evento e gli altri capi delegazione sono come una grande famiglia. Nel 2011 l'Italia non era tra i favoriti ed é finita seconda. Quest'anno invece la Zilli era tra i superfavoriti e finita nona. Come mai? Non so dirti con esattezza, è un concorso… si può vincere, si può perdere… fa parte delle regole del gioco, d’altronde arrivare noni su quaranta...

I can only say. Wow what a season! My blog broke all the previous records this season in daily and weekly hits and it's easy to predict a significant raise in the annual hits as well.  Only the top days (or the Sundays after the final) of 2011, 2009 and 2010 resisted in top-10 while the rest was replaced by 2012 days and the Sunday after the final registered more that twice the previous record! For these three Eurovision weeks (from the start of the rehearsals until today) the raise in hits was more than 54%! And in total more than 120.000. New countries found me and climbed to top-10 followers, namely Turkey, Azerbaijan and Russia. Also Serbia and Australia figured well.  Hottest names that attracted readers more than others were not surprisingly Loreen and Jedward but also Donny Montell, Roman Lob and Eleftheria Eleftheriou had their fair share! Eternal to do well Dima Bilan did zero impact on number of hits - is his time over? A special  huge thank y...

Nina Zilli is back in Italy where many expected a victory but she came home with a respectful 9th place, or "nono posto" and it's that what she has now taken as her new nickname, Nona Zilli, 9th Zilli. "I knew I was considered a candidate for the victory but it didn't come. But it's ok, I'm happy anyways. I managed to make my music known in many, many countries and everything went well, that's all that matters. I have played basket ball for many years and I know how to take defeat. You win and you lose. You just have to level with it and go on."   She also tells she prefered in Baku the old town to the new town but unfortunately she had to spend more time in the new one. "From my hotel room I saw the Flame towers and a boutique with all the luxury labels but just around the corner was the old city, alleys from the 6th century, echoes of the minarets, people who love Italy and like in Italy, those you have little are easier to share the ...

Here it is again, what's another year? In semifinals we have said good byes to Montenegro, Latvia, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Israel, San Marino, Austria, the Netherlands, Belarus, Portugal, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Georgia and Slovakia - no big surprises there really. Tonight the grand final at 21 CET for the 57th time. The biggest favorite of them all to win this is Sweden followed by Russia and Italy, but we can't rule out United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and Serbia either. And what about Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Romania? I guess we can't rule out Ukraine, Estonia and Iceland either... Can Sweden keep up with the hype and win it after all? Or will the Russian grannies melt the hearts of the juries as well? Or will Nina Zilli boom boom her way to the top and give RAI something to think about? Tonight we will know... 01. UNITED KINGDOM - Engelbert Humperdinck - Love will set you free 02. HUNGARY - Compact Disco - Sound of our hearts 03. ALBANIA - Rona Nis...

Here it comes, the interview number 20 from my flying reporter Robert who I wish to thank here publicly and I hope we can do this again! :-) But to the business. German hope Roman Lob had a chat with him, too and they talked his music taste, holiday plans and how does it feel to be a sex symbol? Read it here: Who is Roman Lob besides the singer we know? Hobbies, interests..? Who is Roman Lob? Me and myself and I! My greatest hobby is singing but I like also extreme sports, snowboarding, biking and... that's all I guess. Did you concidered stydying after high school or was it clear that you would go for the music business right away? No, I have done studies, industrial mechanic. But I have been singing since I was 13 and it's cool, I like it a lot. What kind of music do you listen to yourself? I like heavy metal music, hardcore, deathcore... but I like also pop, rock'n roll, electro.... bands like Kiss, AC/DC, Metallica.... So we can maybe expect different...

Are the days of the super parties over at Eurovision? wonder Robert in Baku. Here is his photo reportage from last night! Yesterday, the opening party of the new Eurovision season was held at the Euroclub. The Euroclub? Yes, the Euroclub! Baku has so many prestigious buildings but the party ended up in the Euroclub which cannot be compared at all with the venues we had in the past. Out of my own experience, the venues in Helsinki, Oslo and Dusseldorf were far more stylish. Was the organisation saving money here because they went over their budget? I don't know but many guests were complaining and this must be marked as the worst opening party in recent history. Many artists and delegations did not stay long. On the other side, it was still a better party than a regular evening out and many people were enjoying themselves anyway.  The red carpet scenes were very enjoyable to watch and many artists looked great in their evening dresses/costumes...

Germany also pulls a very good second rehearsal. Roman is likable, the song is easy even for the first hering, the act is simple and effective. This year all the Big5 are very strong and I wouldn't be surprised if we had a winner among them and if they all did top-10. Now wouldn't that be something? But then most likely obsessed fans started to talk how EBU has tricked the voting and bla bla bla. How very boring! But Roman Lob is great! And so is his song. And with him it's a wrap for today. Tomorrow it's time for the full show dress rehearsals for the first semifinal already! More here . 

Germany is the first of the Big5 to take the stage. I think this is one of the underrated songs this year. The whole thing is kept very simple creating a rock club gig feeling when Roman is on stage with a full band illuminated by the spotlights only. In the refrain there are red lights travelling about in the backdrop. Vocally he is very good and all in all, a very good first rehearsal for Germany! From the series less is more. Great stuff! Another top-10 perhaps? More here .

The winners of the Roman Lob competition have been sorted out and informed.* The singles will be mailed asap. The questions seemed to be a bit hard, or the last one. Most of you failed to give the right answer as you didn't read the question well :-). Congratulations to the winners and thank you all for participating! 1. How many times Roman has tried to get into the Eurovision before? Correct answer twice. In 2008 as a member of boyband G12P and in 2012. 2. How high did  Standing still  peak in the German charts? Correct answer: #3 3. How many times has Ralph Siegel's song represented Germany in Roman's life time? Correct answer: Six. Roman was born in 1990 , after Eurovision so Siegel's German entries have been in 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2003.

The German Eurovision 2012 entrant Roman Lob has released his debut album Changes . A total of 13 tracks, including obviously Standing still (album version). It may be a hard task to follow Lena's footsteps Roman who looks forward for Baku experience with curiosity - and hopes to have some time off to go to the beach, too. He names before mentioned Lena and Lordi as his Eurovision favorites and tells his staging will be simple and fairly straight forward. He fell in love with his entry Standing still , written by Jamie Cullum, the first time he heard it. The song's about a couple who unfortunately split up and the guy has to come to terms with the fact the woman has left him.  This blogger thinks this is one of the most underrated entries this year and is a wonderful little tune that has something special from the first notes that make me always think about Adele for some reason.  Stay tuned for a Roman Lob competition coming up!

I guess no one is surprised Roman Lob won the German final last night. He was leading the chart from the second show time after time. Roman is 21 and this wasn't his first reality show as he already took part in Deutschland sucht den Superstar five years ago. He was already in top-20 when he had to quit for vocal cord imflammation. But now he's going to Baku with Jamie Cullum co-penned Standing still . Nice song indeed sung well by Roman who comes across very likable. Germany should feel pretty safe in Baku. Not a winner but will do well, me thinks.

The German star search comes to an end tonight when the two finalists battle it out. Can Ornella de Santis beat the hot favourite Roman Lob? And most of all, what kind of songs do they have? The show starts 20.15 CET and you can follow it here .

Four names are left in the German selection show and tonight's the semifinal and this Thursday the final. Roman Lob (21) is the big favourite but there are three ladies with him fighting for the final three places: Yana Gercke (20), Ornella De Santis (27) and Shelly Phillips (20). You can listen their previous performances here .

Last week the elimination continues in Germany's Unser Star für Baku. Leonie Burgmer and Rachel Scharnberg didn't convince the televoters and were kicked out - but you can see it was a very close call as ALL the participants were within 2%.  But it looks like the 21-year-old Roman Lob is attracting the most attention and indeed emerged as the winner of this round after being 2nd in the first show. It is worth mentioning Rachel won her first show and now was left last. Anything can happen! You can watch the performances here . This Thursday another two will leave the show and any hopes of Baku 2012. 11.4% Roman Lob  – Easy 10.3% Céline Huber – How come you don’t call me 10.1% Ornella de Santis – I want you back 10.1% Yana Gercke – Roxanne 09.9% Sebastian Dey – Amnesie 09.8% Shelly Phillips – Fuck you 09.8% Umut Anil – Weitergehen 09.6% Katja Petri – Lego House 09.6% Leonie Burgmer – I love your smile 09.4%  Rachel Scharnberg – Like A Star