Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Greece has chosen Klavdia and her Asteromata (Αστερομάτα) for Basel 2025 Eurovision song contest. She beat another fan favorite Evangelia by 2 points. The show was hosted by Sakis Rouvas and Helena Paparizou and featured besides them belting out their respective Eurovision entries most every other Greek Eurovision entry plus the Cypriot entrant Theo Evan belting out in play back Fuego. Klavdia Papadopoulou /  Κλαυδία Παπαδοπούλου (23) is yet another The Voice alumni. She went all the way to final stages of contest in Eurovision winner Helena Paparizou's team but failed to make the top-4. in 2018. She secured however a recording deal and has been delivering hits ever since. She released her debut EP last year and has released six singles before her Eurovision entry Asteromata. Enjoy her previous hits below: Ethnikos thelikos results: 1. Klavdia - Asteromata  44 2. Evangelia - Valé  42 3. Barbz - Sirens  30 4. Dinamiss - Odyssey  24 5. Xannova Xan - Pla...

Celine Dion didn't know what to wear to Vogue photoshoot and joined the long list of naked Eurovision stars..... This week's birthday boy is Juri and this week's coverboy is Manel Dima enjoyed some sun as did Imri and Alexander. Hovig enjoyed the moon instead and Emma the sunset and Francesco the crowds and Freddie woke up happy Sakis got married Måns built a sauna (waiting for some sauna pics now.,. aren't we?) Isaiah is back to studio for some new music while Douwe enjoys some superstar gig glamour. Not. 

The European MTV Music award nominations are out and four names familiar from Eurovision are running for the Best European Act this time. Marco Mengoni is nominated in Italy (along with Fedez, Salmo, Emma and Max Pezzali). He already won this award in 2010. In Greece it's a battle among others between Greek Sakis Rouvas and Cypriot Mihalis Hadzigiannis while in Germany Lena is among the nominees. She won this award already in 2011. We also have Auryn in Spain against Pablo Alboran . Auryn was the runner up in the Spanish selection 2011 and Alboran was heavily tipped to do Eurovision this year....  In recent year the Eurovision stars of the past (or the near future) has often been featured also in this MTV affair proving Eurovision is up to date, at least in some cases :-) But one question comes to mind.... where's Dima Bilan ? Have Russian abandoned him? Or maybe after 7 national nominations and winning last year the Best European Act it's time to give away to oth...

The one to impress today, it seems, was Azerbaijan. The song it is what it is and it isn't bad, and the staging is once again very clever, done by Greek Fokas Evangelinos who has already done some memorable stunning numbers in the contest for Helena Paparizou, Ani Lorak, Sakis Rouvas and Dima Bilan - and how did they all end up? Anyways, this blogger may have pronounced the words "we might well be back to Baku in 2014, hopefully Chrystal Hall is still standing?" already weeks ago and now the fear of that is bigger than ever. Judge yourself here . No wonder he looks so happy with his HoD in these photos ny Bycycling reporter Robert....

Belarus is planning big for their Eurofest final. There are only five names left to represant Belarus in Baku 2012 - Alena Lanskaya, Gunesh, Viktoria Aleshko, Litesound and Uzari - but the guest list is impressive: Eurovision 1956 winner Lys Assia , 2004 winner Ruslana , 2007 winner Marija Serifovic , 2009 winner Alexander Rybak , 2010 winner Lena and 2011 winners Ell/Nikki along with Koldun , Belarus best placed artist so far (6th in Helsinki 2007), fan favourite Sakis Rouvas and Switzerland's this year's represant Sinplus . The Eurofest final will be held next week, February 14, 2012.

Greek Nikos Ganas (or Nicko) has been telling everyone and every possible situation he wants to go to Eurovision and one can only ask Why not? This blogger would be quite pleased most likely. He has just released a new single This love is killing me following Break me and Last summer . He easily dances and sings certains Sakises and Erics to oblivion....

Theocharis Ioannides is only one of the names rumoured to be in negotiations with ERT. With the difference he has apparently said so himself. On the other hand his manager is the same one that made Sakis Rouvas and Kostas Martakis so it would be more than unlikely that he would push Theocharis into Eurovision at some point, despite the fact he is an actor....  He was even born in Dusseldorf and what he lacks in voice he has always make up in looks like the other, too, as well, if that's your cup of tea.  He is also backed by Eurovision veteran Elpida . You can see him in action here and here . Let's wait and see!

Marco Mengoni beats likes of Dima Bilan, Sakis Rouvas and Enrique Iglesias and was voted the Best European act in the 2010 MTV European music awards. Marco (21) won last year the Italian X Factor and got a ticket to Sanremo 2010 where he places third with Credimi ancora and also won the critic's award Premio della critica given out my the journalists and radio speakers present in Sanremo. Since then he has been also elected Man of the year in TRL Awards and he also won two Wind Music awards earlier this year. He has released two EPs and both have sold platinum and recently he released Re matto live CD that made it #1 in the charts. His debut single Dove si vola was a #1 hit, and his Sanremo entry Credimi ancora made it to #3. He has also released Stanco (Deeper inside) and In un giorno qualunque . More videos here . Here is Marco's thank you speech. Auguri Marco!

European Music Awards by MTV will take place in Madrid tonight. But looking at the list once again one can only ask: What's so European in this awards? Out of nominations only 13 are for European artists! That's 19%  folks. If it wasn't for the Best European act we might end up having zero European winners. Why don't we have all European nominees instead and have the Best Non-European act instead with nominees from various continents like we have now for various regions of Europe? These about 80% American acts already have their own awards, and considering 11 out of these 13 European acts come from UK, we have astounishing 2 acts from non-English speaking regions nominated, that's less than 3%. European music award my ass! Anyways, running for the Best European act are amongst others Dima Bilan (Russia), Enrique Iglesias (Spain, Ivri Lider (Israel), Sakis Rouvas (Greece) and Marco Mengoni (Italy). If Iglesias wins this even this one goes to America in my books....

I got an email complaining about the idea of this "naked singers" in this blog as it has nothing to do with Eurovision. Well, I must admit it was not my original intention but to present some songs for summer I like or felt are fitting. Then I discovered one naked singer after another and the series took a little turn to that direction. But to say it has nothing to do with Eurovision is not right. Above we have pictures of Ruslanas Kirilkinas, Azis, Gary Revel J r and Marco Banderas , all international and national Eurovision veterans or wannabes. Ruslanas was to take part in Lithuanian selection this year but withdraw (and he has been in the Finnish Idols). He's done some gayporn in the past. Azis backed Mariana Popova in ESC 2006 and has proudly displayed his enlargement results of his privates in photos besides many other controversial photos and videos. Gary Revel Jr's participation in Euroviisut 2005 was in danger after someone published some old porno photos of ...

Well well. Greece has it all polished now and it worked fine. The lift ending is nice, as well as the moving runway but what's it with those "fly" jumps? Wasn't one enough? Sakis is clearly and definately playing the gaycard as well but his pants aren't quite formfitting and full as Zoli's and his shirt not so tight. And most importantly for me, this still feels so serious and forced, lacking all the fun and excitement one should have "on our night". I'd rather go and dance with Zoli than go party with Sakis on our night if it is this serious! I smell desperation to win in the air... http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Sphs4p2ng

To complete the back to back dance trio is Greece and Sakis Rouvas. Hot pre-contest favourite has failed to impress in various fan polls the way expected. More than for victory I think he cound be claiming Kate Ryan award but the Greek disapora will save him from that. We all know Sakis isn't the best singer in the world, and if he has a coreography like this it isn't helping the things. He should let the dancers do their job and concentrate on singing himself. The song itself wasn't anything special and not heard zillion times before. There are many risky moments: all those jumps! If his microphone drops? And that chest bouncing looks just comic. He already fell off the platform they are using and... well, judge yourself: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2jlHZo6wk0

Very entertaining show last night in Greece. Those crazy ladies who presented were again hilarious even if I didn't understand a word! Also the countdown of ALL the previous winners worked even if it might have looked a bit boring on paper.... And it was quite useful to see the entrants from Cyprus, UK, Montenegro, Turkey, Belarus and Malta perform their entries one after another - some sounded stronger, some less. Anyways, after the opening miniconcert Sakis took the stage again after what felt like eternity and performed playback his entries. In the end This is our night was chosen as the winner and goes to Moscow. But it doesn't sound like an Eurovision winner at all to me. And so far it's the song most similar to Finland (talk about 90's!) so far, only that I actually do prefer Finland much more.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baCwdReNg8c

The Greek songs were presented in Athens today and I cannot but feel a bit disappointed. It's no secret I'm not a big fan of Sakis and never liked Shake it but still I expected a bit more. Right on time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWQtCeIdN8Y Quite nice pop rock radio friendly tune that he will never be able to sing live the way it is on record, I'm afraid. Three minutes can be so long... This is our night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FASs3bk3d48 Cheesy Europop. But where's the hook? Of course a huge stage show will cover up the fact there isn't much of musical stuff under it.... Out of control http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfzqxtoyXto The most interesting of these three. There's a melody and it's quite catchy one. The arrangement is good with its r'n b influences and rough sound. But even this isn't a winner in Moscow. Sorry Greece.

Here are finally titles for the three songs Sakis Rouvas will perform in the Greek final on February 18. Sakis, who took Greece to 3rd place in Istanbul 2004 was announced the Greek entrant already last summer. All songs are composed by Dimitris Kontopoulos and Alexandra Zakkas has written the lyrics for Out of control , while Craig Porteils & Cameron Giles-Webb have penned the other two: Right on time and This is our night . As titles suggest don't expect any ballads....

Have you noticed Hadise from Turkey and Sakis Rouvas from Greece have more in common that just going to Moscow 2009 for their countries next May? Both are X-Factor hosts! Sakis of course in Greece and Hadise in Belgium where she was raised and lives. Let's see in May if they have the x-factor to win Eurovision song contest....

In five days it's the annual OGAE Song contest again happening in Spain, last year's winner. As usual there are many Eurovision stars involved: Russia sends Serebro , Israel Shiri Maymon , Greece Sakis Rouvas , Malta Miriam Christine and Austria Petra Frey . Geir Rönning represants his native Norway for a change and Poland Blue Cafe but with a new leading singer. Macedonia was ment to be represanted by late Tose Proieski, but was later disqualified as the song was released before the deadline . More information and videos of the songs here: http://www.ogaesongcontestspain2008.com/banderas.html