Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

We already know Carola has been several times in Greece, and in the island of Kos especially helping the incoming refugees. She has also helped those who have managed to make their way to Sweden by giving them shelter in her home. She had met those 10 Iraqi and Ugandan christian refugees in Kos and given them her address telling them to look her up if they get to Sweden. One day they were at her door and true to her word she welcomed them to her house.  Now she tells it hasn't all been so easy.  Once she got in trouble by trying to stop some people stealing the incoming boat's engine. Long story short she  managed to get it back from thieves and they got very angry at her. She jumped to her car and was driving away with eight refugees through the village seeking help from the local police. Instead she and those Pakistani refugees were all jailed! The thieves in question who hunted her all the way to the station blamed Carola for taking money from the refugees to he...

Kirsten Joy has submitted a song - clearly the best one so far if you ask this blogger! - to the Swiss selection, One life . Born in South Africa to missionary parents she describes herself today "culturally confused", thus being a perfect represent for Switzerland! Her name might ring a bell to some of you and yes, she's no stranger to television nor competitions. But now it's all about Eurovision and she sat down to tell a bit more about herself to all of you. Here goes:  Kirsten, from South Africa via UK to Vienna 2015?  Yeah...long story, lol! Describe Kirsten in five words:  Culturally confused, singing, pink* lover. (*as in the colour although I do like Pink the artist...OK way too many words!) How about your professional CV. You have a lot of experience of various kind, don't you? From backing some major names to singing demos and releasing your first EP. What's next? Yes, I've been very fortunate to have some pretty cool oppor...

Carola has returned from her long trip to South Africa with her adopted baby girl Zoe, whose new full name is Zoe Rose Janita Maria Häggkvist. Janita is mix of Carola's late parents Jan and Anita, and Maria is Carola's own second name. Prior leaving they celebrated in Johannesburg Zoe's 3rd birthday, and she got another party yesterday in Sweden when the exact date was. Zoe, that means "life", has learned some Swedish already and seems to come to her mother and she loves to sing, dance and perform! You can follow the saga here . 

Carola will be mother again. No, she's not pregnant but her son Amadeus (14) will have an adopted sister from  South Africa. Carola is in Johannesburg this Easter to pick her up. Zoe is the girl's name and her parents are unknown. Carola's process to adopt a baby girl has been going in secret for four years and now everything is ready. "I'm very happy. Life goes on so fast and soon you realize you aren't forever young and the time to have own children is gone. I always thought I would have more children but the right man hasn't come along " says 45-year-old Carola.

Carole flew to holidays in Capetown last week and now we can read in her Twitter that she has been robbed and bruised when entering her rented farm. At least her cellphone was stolen. Despite all that she later twittered she still loves South Africa. Carola, who is one of the judges in the Swedish The Voice has also a new boyfriend Marcus Werjefeldt it seems and apparently she's also in a look out to buy a... church!

The South African pop opera boyband Romanz is also trying their luck in the Swiss selection. The French local TV already picked up them as their finalist from the open selection. Their major credit so far seems to be singing Umberto Tozzi's Ti amo in Prince Albert's wedding to Charlene this summer but there are two major reasons I'm featuring this song in my blog. First, South Africa seems to have a very vivid Eurovision following going on so it's time they do get their represant there. As I am usually a bit against foreign artists singing for any random country but Switzerland has done it always, way before the others started so I can accept it. Secondly, if anyone sings about building Rome for me it gets credit. As their song is For you (I will build Rome)

Carola's 2006 Eurovision entry Evighet aka Invinvible seems to become a popular cover song for many artists. Latest is the Dutch version Laat mij voor jou de laatste zijn by Elz Bakker, hot in the charts in the Netherlands right now. In Canada Marcelle Alexis has done a French cover to be released on her worthcoming album. Previously Aiste Pilvelytè, the eternal national finalist in Lithuania, did Su tavimi . In Slovenia the song got treatment by DNE ft.Manika as Nepremagljiv and in homeground Tomas Andersson gave it a fantastic acoustic sound as Wij . And of course South Africans have done the Afrikaans version 'n Ewigheid - twice: Hi-5 and Juanita Du Plessis . Which one is your favourite? (Source: Eurocovers , a great blog!)

The Swiss selection for Eurovision 2012 in Baku is in full force and again the three different language televisions are having their own selections and even if the full picture is still rather confusional as same artists are often in several selections here are some facts: The German speaking SF will select six songs with an internet voting from 16 to 30 October and you can listen to the songs here . The French RTS has selected 11 songs that will be here . Three songs will be selected through internet voting between October 5 and 20. And still three songs will come from DRS3 radio station. They use a jury and the songs are picked from the songs sent to SF. Confused yet? All that matters there will be 12 songs in the final. As the Swiss selection is open to everyone we do have artists from all over involved. Like a band from Espoo , Finland. Or the guy who sung with Laura Voutilainen Kosketa mua in the Finnish selection 2007. Or American discodiva . Or Idols from South Africa and Can...

South African artists are real Eurovision fans as the most cover versions come from there these days. David Fourie has recorded several like Norway 2003 I'm not afraid to move on and MoniQue covered amongst others Finland 2009 as Ek val vir jou with Snotkop. Now they have joined forces and covered Azerbaijan's winning Running scared as My hart het klaar besluit . And in my opinion it's much more interesting than the original, rougher arrangement and Afrikaans just sounds so great!

The Finnish entry 2009 Lose control gets an African treatment. Stefan Ludik, a Namibian actor, musician, cricket player, the Bachelor of the year and Big Brother Africa contestant just to name a few of his activities has coverd Lose control on his album Burn this town . You can listen to it here .(with the help of a search)

South Africans have been doing a lot of Eurovision covers and now Dominec has released a full album of Eurovision tunes, 15 of them! Amongs them we have also the Finnish entry in 1989, La Dolce vita , as well as Torneró (Romania 2006), Io senza te (Switzerland 1981), Love me tonight (Belarus 2005), Mr Nobody (Slovenia 2006), Se på mig (Sweden 1995), You are the only one (Croatia 2004) and Never let you go (Russia 2006). Listen to bits of all songs on this album Dans ons op splinterglas here and the full story on this excellent blog here .