Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Camila Cabello is ex-Fifth Harmony Cuban-American singer and her Havana is very groovy and catchy indeed. This blogger's off to Havana and Cuba in the middle of Eurovision 2018 season early next year so how could I not love this song?  Rui Andrade , veteran in the Eurovision circuit already and who knows the one for Lisbon 2018, has released a video for his latest Comfia em mim . The song and especially the video is clearly aimed at Eurovision circuit and fan boys. Swedish song indeed, but sung in Portuguese it has a nice flavor. I must admit I dismissed this with the first hearing, but given another shot it's actually rather good! (Much better than Know me better , IMHO) Finnish teenage sensation Isac Elliot from this blogger's hometown Espoo keeps delivering and his latest Eyes shut continues his string of perfect pop hits. He has recently launched also a highly succcesful career in Finnish with Mikael Gabriel. Italian fan favorite Arisa has releas...

The Russian entry is written by Russian Philip Kirkorov, Greek Dimitris Kontopoulos, Swedish John Ballard and Ralph Charlie and Maltese Gerard James Borg. Cypriot Alex Panayi, Swedish Jenny Tärneberg and Anna Standberg along with Portuguese Rui Andrade will be the backing singers... how many other nationalities they will still have time to add into their team? Will it help and make people forget about Crimea? At least the singing Tolmachevy sisters are Russian.... Then there's the question of Crimean vote. EBU is having nightmares about it as the contest is and must stay unpolitical officially. When people of Crimea vote where will they vote go? Will they be counted with the Russian vote or the Ucrainian vote? Will it split depending of which telephone operator you use? Is that then fair? One votes as a Russian, another as an Ucrainian in one country? Will Ucraine end up giving "Russia 12 points"? EBU's Jan Ola Sand says they don't have an answer to that ye...

Portugal entertained us tilmthe early hours with their 50th anniversary show in Eurovision. Sadly most every previous entry presented in one way or the other during the night was better than any of the songs in competition tonight. This blogger wishes nothing more than a Portuguese win in Eurovision but it is not going to happen in 2014 either. The final was like a 1982 final, time stood still. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the songs weren't that good. Or rather original. One reason is some of them were written by the usual writers who seem to send their songs to anyone who will accept them hoping for a spot in the national selection. Unfortunately two of these made the top-3.... Leaving Zana out. But all is good in the end as Suzy won leaving them home :-). Hooray Portugal for choosing a local product! 1. Suzy 41,56% - Quero ser tua     2. Catarina Pereira 23,58% - Mea culpa 3. Rui Andrade 14,56% - Ao te encontro

In the aftermath of Swedish and Danish Eurovision galore also Portugal re-entered the Euromania. The semifinal took place late last night and ten became five. It's 50 years since Portugal's debut in Eurovision and as much as I would like to see them finally winning - they have surpassed Finland already by a large margin in number of years in contest without a win - it's not going to happen this year either. Somehow the whole show gave an impression of being thrown in a timecapsule back in time about 25 years. Sometimes it's good things don't change and indeed the evening was rather entertaining with songs that were timeless. For all the wrong reasons. Add some bad camerawork and you have it summed up. I was expecting maybe a bit more modern touch, and most of all more originality and boldness taking clues from the fantastic musical heritage they have but no. Anyways, I think the five best offerings did make the final. Now it may be more to an artist's likabi...

Portugal makes a very welcome return to Eurovision after last year's break and at least on paper has worked well for them. They invited ten composers for this year's Festival da Canção, who could then pick up their artists. Now the names are out. The semifinal that will ccut the songs to half will take place on March 8, 2014 and the final a week later in Convento do Beato. The artists include previous contestants and fan favorites Rui Andrade and Catarina Pereira, and among the songwriters some other familiar names from Eurovision from Marc Paelinck to Jan Van Dijk and Andrej Babic. Rui Andrade – Ao teu encontro (Marc Paelinck)   Suzy – Quero ser tua (como a lua é do luar) (Emanuel)   Zana – Nas asas da sorte (Jan Van Dijk)   Raquel Guerra –  Sonhos roubados (Nuno Feist)   Catarina Pereira – Mea culpa (Andrej Babic)   Madalena Trabuco - Coração de filigrana  (Tozé Santos)   Lara Afonso – O teu segredo (João Matos/Miguel ...

RTP has announced it will stage Festival da Canção again. It will be a two nights affair in March. The first night ten songs will be performed, by invited composers who can propose the artists but the last word is RTP's of that choice. The televoters cut the ten to five for the final night a week later. The voting will be going on all week and of course also during the final live show. Once again only televote will decide who will be the Portuguese artist that brings the country back to Eurovision after the break. Will it be finally Rui Andrade ? Whoever it is, will be Portugal's 47th entrant since 1964, marking also the 50th anniversary without a win.....

It's no secret the Spanish entry this year, Quédate conmigo by Pastora Soler is one of my favourites. She manages to make a rather standard ballad something special topped with her fantastic voice. All along I have been thinking it's because of her and the emotions she transmits that I like the song, but... But now we have a cover version featuring more or less familiar names from all over Europe - most of them having something to do with Thomas G:son to say the truth - making a cover and guess what? it's fabulous! The emotions are there. I just can't stop listening to it! And it has become overnight one of my winning favourites! We have Rui Andrade and Reidun Saether, Anael and Baltanás, just to name a few.   Here it is .

RTP has chosen the 12 finalist for the Festival da Canção 2012. The singers were chosen amongst the 400 hopefuls in castings held in Lisbon and in Porto. Amongst them also Rui Andrade who came 3rd last year with Em nome do amor . The Portuguese final will be held on March 10, 2012 and there will be 50-50 televote-jury. The songs and their authors will be published later. Gerson Melo Santos António José Fernandes Martins da Silva Pedro Ricardo Céu Portas e Susana Maria Soares Gonçalves Filipa Alexandra Nunes Alves de Sousa Pamela Correia de Brito Salvado Vânia Osório Arménio José dos santos Lameirão Pimenta Pedro Macedo Vidal Tomás Joana Filipa Leite Silva Rui Andrade Carlos Costa Ricardo Soler

Hungary did a mighty return to Eurovision with internally selected What about my dreams? by Kati Wolf, that deserved so much better than 22nd! Portugal on the other hand... oh dear. I really hope they will take this a bit more seriously again this year. The winning "song" that I don't even want to mention or remember anymore was selected even if they had some way more better choises. Like classy ballads Se esse dia chegar by Tania Tavares or Em nome de amor by Rui Andrade. Or a very Eurovision friendly uptempo number Sobrevivo by Carla Moreno. Now, I'm not sure if any of these would have reached the final anyways but at least Portugal would have kept their respectable record of sending generally good songs.  Portugal has been mistreated in Eurovision so many times and has sent so many great songs I keep my fingers crossed every year that the stars would be in right line and I'm so looking forward for the first Portuguese victory. As Portugal has already passed...

Portugal's Setùbal hosts already for the third time Eurovision stars live in concert on September 10, 2011. The guest of honour is none other than Marie Myriam , the French winner of 1977 of Portuguese origin and this bloggers most significant ever Eurovision entry's performer. Other guests who have already had the taste of the Eurovision stage are Jari Sillanpää from Finland, Marcin Mrozinski from Poland, Igor Cukrov from Croatia,  Lucia Perez from Spain, Chiara from Malta and Andrea Demirovic from Montenegro. On top of that familiar names from various national finals: Chen Aharoni from Israel, Jenny Silver from Sweden besides local stars Filipa Ruas and Rui Andrade . I see there several names I'd love to see besides lovely Marie M but sigh, have to skip this time again..... :-(