Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The missed Hungarian entry 2020

  The all Danish boy of Cliche love song Basim sounds completely different in his latest  Comme Ci Comme Ça ft. Gilli going full front to his Moroccan roots. It paid off, it's already #2 hit in Denmark  Armenian Sirusho 's latest Huh-hah is also filled with exotic sounds. The video also takes full advantage of the rich Armenian culture and looks like ... well, Eurovision promo video, doesn't it? It even clocks just over 3 minutes..... Nearly ten years have passed from her Eurovision adventure but she keeps going strong releasing hit singles and picking up awards on annual basis. Maybe a comeback to the contest would be an idea? Another Armenian diva Iveta Mukuchyan has released  Depi Nor Irakanutyun , aka Towards a new reality she wrote herself and it comes with a fancy futuristic video. Quite interesting and catchy, in the same way her Eurovision entry was but less dramatic. Another Danish boy to close this video post, with a link to Africa as ...

Francesca Michielin returns with Vulcano, first new track since her last year's album (where from her Eurovision entry came as well). A step to more upbeat sounds with a lot of V words ahead of a new album! Ira Losco goes OMG in Oh my God featuring also a Maltese rapper Shyli. Like Francesca she's sounding very 80's. And very Ira. In good and in bad.  Sirusho teams with Sebu in Voy Aman - another song filled with summer nostalgia and 80's vibes. It's something very sad about the song. In a good way. Also Tijana Bogićević goes also nostalgic and old fashionably dated in her latest Ti imaš pravo. You were right indeed. Dated in every way maybe but highy enjoyable thanks to her voice that makes the song alive. 

Armenia revealed it's artist - but not the song - at last night's New Year's show. Rumoured Sirusho it isn't but a rather multitalented showman, singer, X Factor and Armenian Idol presenter, comic, actor.... Aram Mp3. Aram Sargsyan is actually a pharmacist, but he moved from youth theaters to TV and made himself known already in 2007 when he imitated famous singers on TV, and later won a talent show 2Stars. Musically he started from jazz and blues clubs of Yerevan but soon started making his own songs and videos like If I tried , Shine with rather electronic music but he's also known to do this kind of stuff ... Hmm, this is going to be rather interesting....

Eurovision stars Sirusho and André from Armenia, Harel Skaat from Israel and Sarbel from Greece have released recently new videoclips. Sirusho goes with self-penned I like it and apparently is sponsored by Air Armenia. She will also be the guest star in Yerevan's Junior Eurovision song contest on December 3, 2011. André has teamed up by Georgian Nini Shermandini , also familiar name from national selections. Ov shirun, shirun recalls Argentinian tango and Buenos Aires more than Yerevan I think. Great track anyways, almost Gotan Project-esque, isn't it? And a very stylish video, too. Sarbel of Helsinki 2007 fame is making a comeback to the scene with Pou na girnas , a very Greek sounding song indeed. Very simple video but the song's nice. Last but not least Harel Skaat . His 21st century also features a very low budget video displaying the virtual life we lead these days.... But a very catchy nice song that grows with a couple of listenings. And Hebrew sounds great...

The guys of 3Js have apparently announced they are soon to record a duet with Raphael Gualazzi. The fate of the two acts couldn't have been more diverse in the Eurovision - 3Js last in their semifinal (very unfairly if you ask me as Never alone deserved much more!) and Gualazzi surprisingly runner up in the final with his Madness of love . Anyways, they hit it off on the boat trip and it seems the talks of collaboration are not mere talks but reality soon. Meanwhile 3Js have released their follow up single De stroom , also from the national selection. This isn't the first time the Eurovision acts of the same year find each other and collaborate after the contest. Like Boaz Mauda, Sirusho and Jelena Tomasevic in Time to pray .

Armenia will choose internally its represant for Dusseldorf 2011. The council of arts in ARMTV will pick up the artist and then a song. Whoever it is will have a though job to keep up the excellent Armenian record in Eurovision since their debut in 2006 when André took Without your love to 8th place, Hayko followed suit with Anytime you need , Sirusho did better with Qele qele reaching 4th. Inga and Anush stayed in top-10 with Jan Jan and Eva Rivas scored 7th place with Apricot stone in Oslo 2010. Nothing less would be good enough and the last two years their rival Azerbaijan has beaten them in the scoreboard.... In beforementioned Azerbaijan things are going to the opposite direction. A lenghty selection process has already kicked off and out of 120 hopefuls 90 have been picked up for the televised weekly heats - 12 artists in each - and the winners will move on to the next stage. Eliminations and heat go on until February 2 when we should know the Azeri artists for Dusseldorf 20...

Sirusho has released her fourth album since her debut in 2000. Havatum em (I believe) is the title track and the first new single off the album but it also includes Erotas , her Greek single last year, her Eurovision 2008 song Qele qele (Yerevan remix) and Time to pray , the song she recorded together with fellow Eurovision stars Boaz Mauda and Jelena Tomasevic. The album moves from title track's ballad mood to Erotas's greek dance beat to Qele qele's etnopop and everything in between. She's at her strongest when not singing in English I must say. The album maybe lacks a bit of hit potential Qele qele being clearly the best offering but she's vocally fine and it's very fresh if compared to Safura's somewhat overproduced debut presented here a couple of days ago.

In 2008 Aremnian Sirusho, Israeli Boaz and Serbian Jelena got togerher after Eurovision and recorded Time to pray . This time Bulgarian Miro and Croatin Feminnem made a duet before Eurovision, Mil amantes . They will be both in the second semifinal on May 27 almost back to back. I personally hope they both will qualify, let's see.

Boaz Mauda from Israel, Jelena Tomasevic from Serbia and Sirusho from Armenia performed last night finally the song Time to pray in the Serbian final. It is just as I expected it to be: beautiful with three matching vocals. There should be more collaborations like this with the Eurovision artists.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ja-99wyb4

The Serbian final this Saturday will feature as guests all the other artists from former Yogoslavia and as a special treat the song by last year's entrants from Serbia, Israel and Armenia. Jelena Tomasevic, Boaz Mauda and Sirusho will perform Time to pray , a song co-written by Israeli president Shimon Peres.

Not much is know yet about the Armenian national final to be held next Saturday. The rumours on internet that System of a down would be interested in the job have been definately denied by the band. It all started from misinterpreted words by a Finnish journalist.... But another name in circulation, Arame , seems to be on the list along with Tigran Petrosyan, Sergey Grigorian , Shprot, Mehr, Beautiful Project and David Minosyan . I guess there will be more information over the next week to who will follow the Armenian success story in Eurovision this year: André took the country straight to the final in 2006 and finished 8th, so did Hayko the year after in Helsinki. Last year Sirusho was one of the favourites in belgrade and took the 4th place in the end.

The annual ESC Radio Awards have been given out for the third time and the radio listeners all around the world seem to agree with the real winner as Dima Bilan wins the best male and Believe the best song award. Ani Lorak is the best female artists and Euroband the best group. Dima Bilan wins over Boaz Mauda and Paolo Meneguzzi in best male artist category, while Dustin the Turkey beats Rodolfo Chikilicuatre in the bottom of the list. In best female Ani Lorak, Sirusho, Gisela and Vania Fernandez fought for the top places while Czesy, Geta Burlacu, Teresa Kerndlová and Hind fought for the last place. In groups Euroband, MioDio and Elnur & Samir were on the top, and Krajlevi Ulice & 75 Cents and Kreisiraadio on the bottom. In songs Believe was a clear winner followed by Qele qele and Casanova . Real fight for the worst song but Lato svet clear the way for that, thus making the Estonian team win two last places: worst song and worst group! Full results here: http://www.escradi...

A real reunion of the Eurovision artists has been on in Belarus where Slavianski Bazaar 2008 contest/festival/whatever has been taking place: Sirusho from Armenia , Pirates of the Sea from Latvia , Boaz Mauda from Israel , Mor Ve Ötesi from Turkey , Ani Lorak from Ukraine , Ruslan Alehno from Belarus and Dima Bilan from Russia were all there from Eurovision 2008. Add Dima Koldun from Belarus 2007, Ruslana from Ukraine 2004 and Kostas Martakis from Greece 2009 to the list and you have so much Eurovision goodies you feel sick. Greece 2009? Well, I think, predict and hope it's Kostas instead of Sakis next year after all... :-) Have a look what he could offer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwDH__8IlD8 and here why he should have won already in 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jPsTGYpE8I