Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Tonight's the night for Sanremo giovani semi-final where the 12 become six for the final. ( Read more here ). The songs have been out in the platforms awhile now and the most streams so far has Settembre (1.865.600), followed by Alex Wyse, Tancredi, Mazzariello and Mew - all between 340.000 and 444.000. Then we have a significant drop to Angelica Bove's 85.000. Let's see how they correspond to the final verdict.  UPDATE 18.12.: The final duels: MEW Vs. Vale LP & Lil Jolie                                             Alex Wyse Vs. Selmi                                                Angelica Bove Vs. Settembre From AreaSanremo:              Maria Tomba Vs. Etra             Oh what? They w...

Let's have a look at the finalists and their placings in the final. The whole Top-3 trio Portugal , Bulgaria and Moldova made their best result ever, which I find wonderful. It's always a pleasere when a new country wins and some other breaks the previous record. Winners (finalists) Belgium can be happy, their third  consegutive Top-10 finish, and second in Top-5. Romania scored its best in six years. Hungary was its 3rd best ever. Sweden scored sixth Top-5 in seven years..... Croatia scored its best since 2006 Norway got it's fourth Top-10 in five years...  Netherlands was again around 9th-11th, third time in five years (add the silver in 2014) UK got its best since Blue in 2011. Germany gets better every year: 27th, 26th and now 25th.... :-) Losers (finalists) Italy was expecting better so 6th place might be a let down but we have to remember  it's their 5th Top-10 in seven years.... France got their 2nd best since 2010...

This wonderful thing happened exactly ten years ago. hell froze over and cows flew after Finland won the Eurovision song contest after 45 years of trying. And finally Finland got a chance to host the show and did it. The Finnish way..... Jaana Pelkonen and Mikko Leppilampi were hosting, the best hosts of the 2000's as voted by eurovision.tv readers! Watching the show again one can only be proud of the opening and interval acts; they still look good. A right doze of national clichés, modern dance and stage tricks, beautiful colors and Finnish folklore and culture, not forgetting Kalevala, after all the stage is also inspired by that! The semifinal was the hardest and most cruel ever: 28 countries! Eurovision veterans Evridiki and Edsilia Rombley among others were kicked out. Here's the recap of the semifinal: And here are the ten qualifiers: Enjoy the whole fabulous show here:

May 18, 2006. Athens. The monster from Finland qualified for the Eurovision song contest final. Later we would learn they had won the semifinal with 292 points. beating second placed Bosnia & Herzegovina with 25 points, and third placed Russia with 75 points. The sad and unsuccesful Finnish Eurovision history was about to change in 48 hours.... In the semifinal six times 12, nine times 10 and eight times 8 points. Only Armenia, Monaco and Albania didn't fall for these creatures..... Check out on this video the Finnish commentators reaction. No need to translate......

Finally, after delays and who knows what behind the scenes drama, here they are..... The running order of the first semi final is as follows: 1. Finland 2. Greece 3. Moldova 4. Hungary 5. Croatia 6. The Netherlands 7. Armenia 8. San Marino 9. Russia 10. Czech Republic 11. Cyprus 12. Austria 13. Estonia 14. Azerbaijan 15 . Montenegro 16. Iceland 17. Bosnia & Herzegovina 18. Malta The running order of the second semi final is as follows: 1. Latvia 2. Poland 3. Switzerland 4. Israel 5. Belarus 6. Serbia 7. Ireland 8. FYR Macedonia 9. Lithuania 10. Australia 11. Slovenia 12. Romania 13. Bulgaria 14. Denmark 15. Ukraine 16. Norway 17. Georgia 18. Albania 19. Belgium

Germany had asked to vote in the second semifinal, and thus Sweden was allocated in the first one, Israel had asked to be in the second semifinal.

Malta is having its semifinal tonight. Twenty songs made it through out of 153 submitted. Fourteen of them will make it to the final tomorrow, and the winner of course travels all the way to Stockholm and Eurovision song contest 2016. It seems there's not much competition as everyone takes granted Ira Losco wins. With Chameleon . Let's wait and see...  You can listen to all entries here . Watch here tonight at 20.45 CET Chameleon (Invincible)  - Ira Losco Falling Glass  - Corazon (Mizzi) Light Up My Life  - Stefan Galea Empty Hearted  - Domenique Azzopardi I Love You  - Dario Mifsud Bonnici Under The Sun  - Daniel Testa The Flame  - Jessika Alive - Jasmine Abela Flashing Lights  - Raquel Galdes Golden  - Brooke Lighthouse  - Kimberley Cortis Right Here With You  - Sarah Crystal Frontline  - Danica Muscat Kingdom  - Christabelle Borg Little Love  - Franklin Calleja Fire Burn  - Domini...