Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Svala Sergey Claudia Deen and his fancy phone Emma Freddie and a furry friend Ira Cezar Lindita Sinplus+ Tamara Vaclav

Francesco did Milan..... Vaclav did a video shoot.... Maraaya did Warsaw... Dami did Nashville.... Donny did Dundalk (that's Ireland btw)...  Mørland did beach... Poli did Prag... Sin+ did JazzAscona... Cascada did Budapest (shopping)... Vaidas did India... Gigliola will do Tokyo... Michal did... errr.... Helena and Tamta did a duet... Francesco did get good news... (one day she will share with us hopefully) Musiqq did celebrate 8 years together... Gigliola did Toto's make up for a photo shoot... Demy did a video.... Eric did have standars... Loic did a video shoot, too... Senhit did wear fake fur and sat on a fake leather.  Just to be clear!

Lithuania may have started their selection last Saturday but no results or eliminations were given, it's Switzerland who really kicks of the season tonight. Namely the Swiss Italian RSI. Tonight at 9pm the selection will take place in Living Room in Lugano and seven songs will be performed. One song will be selected by a jury, the other by public vote to the Swiss national final in December in Kreuzingen. You can listen the show here . And pre-listen the songs here . Guest stars will be Sinplus! Update: People's choice was Chiara Dubey and the jury picked Ally (maybe she was second behind Chiara also in their list, so it sounded....) 2L  –  Smoke out Vanda Palma  –  La farfalla va Theo  –  My wonderful life Sohaila  –  But who Marilise  –  Nobody Chiara Dubey  –  Bella sera Ally  –  Catch me

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

My flying reporter Robert had a morning chat with the Broggini brothers Ivan and Gabriel aka Sinplus. What have they been up to since winning the ticket to Baku 2012 five months ago? Whose song could they cover? What is their parents favorite band? And what their aim is? And why don't they sing in Italian? Find it all out here: Why are you interested in participating in the Eurovision? There isn't much of a chance for a young rockband to get noticed so we decided to participate and everything's going well! And now that we are here, Eurovision can help us also to cross the borders, Switzerland is such a small market. And if you don't qualify for instance, will it hard your career? We just signed with Warner to release our album in Europe after we won the Swiss selection, some 100 million people will see us now here, so no. Eurovision is a good start for this band. Of course it's important to reach the final but it's already good to be here. When d...

Switzerland gives the pretty much same performance as they always has given. Straight rock band staging but the backdrop mainly with blue-green-red lights and lines looks pretty amazing. The guys are wearing black and green leather among others and the foxy lady is in a miniskirt. The ending of the song is a little anticlimax. It's hard to say if they will qualify. Unfortunately  have to lean on no more than yes even if I like this one a lot. Robert met the guys this morning and the interview is coming up so stay tuned for that! Update: it's here . More here . Belgium follows on blue and purple and Iris in white. She has also dragged out the pink bubbles from Oslo to her backdrop. And there's the old fashioned left to right, right to left swinging with her three backing singers taking us back to circa 1975. Unfortunately this says nothing to be but what's in the fridge? Why I get the feeling that she doesn't like the song herself that much? I might be wrong ...

The lunch break is over and we go on with the first technical rehearsals. Albania proves less is more. If you can only use the word "less" and Rona's voice in a same sentence. Breathtaking performance already in the first rehearsals, tasteful use of lights and that's it. Perfect. Fantastic. Not much else to add.... More here . Romania on stage next and a total change of atmosphere. The stage is filled with drums, bagpipes and people doing a choreography that at least at this points looks not enough learned by heart that it would look natural at all. This kind of song needs room for spontaneity. But then, maybe it will look like that come next Tuesday? Elena sings surprisingly well and the song is catchy and summery. Why am I still lacking something and not quite going crazy for this? More here . Last in this slot before a coffee break is Switzerland . It looks and sounds like expected. The brothers are doing the rock band performance walking a bit here and ...

Blogilkar's special guest Robert is at the spot in Amsterdam today for the 4th annual Eurovision in concert and send these exclusive photos to get into the mood....

The already annual Eurovision in concert , the biggest pre-Eurovision gathering and pretty much the official kick off for the event takes place on April 21, 2012 in Amsterdam. It's the 4th edition and once again some 20+ artists from this year's contest will meet and greet the fans, sing their songs and get to know each other in an unofficial way. Already Ivi Adamou from Cyprus, Can Bonomo from Turkey and ever present Sinplus from Switzerland have confirmed their precence along with the yet unnamed Sammarinese artist. More info later right here or go to the website here . Ruth Jacott and Cornald Maas will present the show.

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.