Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Let's continue the series and kill some time having a look at the last decade and see who were the Top-10 best scoring countries in the Eurovision song contest in the past ten years. The ways to calculate are many and here I have used the simple average placement method (and it's not all so serious). Next up is Norway at n.o 7. Norway has been sending a steady string of successes after a rocky start of the decade that started with a NQ and then a last place in the final.. Those who didn't qualify were fan favorites no matter what, and this blogger thinks Agnete's NQ was very much undeserved. Five top-10 finishes ending with a televoters winner in 2019  is a great result no matter how you look at it.  2011 Stella Mwangi - Haba haba - NQ (17th in semi-final) ** 2012 Tooji - Stay - 26th *** 2013 Margaret Berger - I feed you my love - 4th **** 2014 Carl Espen - Silent storm - 8th ***** 2015 Mørland & Debrah Scarlett - A monster like me - 8th ***...

  Norway has it's Melodi Grand prix final tonight and the songs are picked out of over 1200 submissions. Among them three previous Eurovision stars, Stella Mwangi, last year's Alexander Walmann this time solo and with his own name instead of credited only as JOWST,  and Alexander Rybak who won the while contest for Norway back in 2009. International jury and Norwegian televotrs will decide on the winner 50-50.  I have three favorites: Talk to the hand follows last year's Grab the moment nicely, and sounds like a song that wasn't written Eurovision in mind which is like a bit of a fresh air these days. Vidar Villa's urging for MILF is just a good feeling bomb I just love to hear it and then Rybak - not the best song in the world but cool idea, well written and constructed with a tongue on cheek and it works. Nicoline, Charla K and Tom Hugo all have decent songs but just missing something extra to make them really stand out. And then we have Tengo otra . Love...

NRK released the names and songs of MGP 2018 on January 15 and among them we have Alexander Rybak (Eurovision 2009 winner), last year's JOWST is back at it, credited as the singer Alexander Walmann this time, Roxette 's Per Gessle has co-written Charla K 's song. Kjetil Mørland (ESC 2015) hs written Rebecca 's song. Stella Mwangi (ESC 2011) is another veteran re-trying. Only one song in Norwegian this time.  This blogger loves Chilean Alejandro Fuente 's Spanish language entry Tengo otra with it's beat - must be the recent Cuban influence and the beat is pure Gente De Zona . Love it! But maybe it's not the way to go, even if Norway has sent some Latin stuff before. Other ones to look out Walmann , Rybak (but I doubt this groovy number would set European wide audiences to voting frenzy.... or would it? Hmm...), Charla K and Vidar Villa .  All in all a good selection of songs a quite many potential winners :-) Alejandro Fuentes - Tengo otra ...

While the Finnish media has been delighted today and also rather surprised Paradise Oskar actually did make it to the final in some other countries it's a different story. Ask Norway. Ask Stella Mwangi. She was quoted commenting "Shit happens" before bursting into tears. The Turkish guys seem to have taken it easier but has anyone seen Emmy for comments? Turkey misses the final for the first time and after 6 top-10 finishes in the past eight years including one winner and one runner-up. Armenia misses the final for the first time, too. They have scored 5 top-10 placements in the past 5 years. And more importantly lose the personal battle with Azerbaijan that went on to the final and is one of the favourites even for the victory. Last night's qualifiers brought some surprises. Who would have thought Lithuania would make it? Evelina is a mighty singer but the song was concidered maybe a bit dated. And then we have a trio of good mood rather acoustic simple songs Switze...

Germany is well know for it's punctuality and that things work. Eurovision 2011 apparently has proved that image wrong. And the worst happened last night when several countries were left without their commentators when the sound faded. Like Finland. We had two commentators, Asko Murtomäki, an Eurovision expert and newcomer Tarja Närhi (who was absolutely fabulous!!!), they got tired of the problems and the German saying just "We'll fix it" and 5 minutes before the start took their mobile phone and the whole show was commented by phone. It ment that most of the time only Tarja was speaking and they couldn't use their written script but had to improvise mostly - but they did a great job! Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Norway, Spain, Croatia and Serbia were amongst the countries that were left without commentators according Iltalehti.  And that brings us to protests. Norway was one of the biggest favourites to win the contest and instead didn't make it past the semif...

Poland started the second round of technical rehearsals. Magdalena and her team were wearing the outfits for the real thing and unfortunately they are rather horrible vision of white and silver. Vocally she wasn't in top form today either and with that drops in my list from a possible finalist back to non-finalist. Stella from Norway lit up her smile today and it makes all the difference. The song is fun and happy and will surely get the whole arena dancing and singing along. Will it make people also vote for it? I think it does and Norway's in the final. Like Poland there are no visible changes to the set or the choreography.  Aurela from Albania has also changed to her outfit and it's the one seen on the video with the matching very blue make up.  She's vocally as stunning as always really not holding back but giving it all even if this is just a rehearsal and there's the biggest danger: she's on the edge of overdoing it going over dramatic. But I think Alb...

So, the first day of rehearsals is over. They might be "only" technical but already give hints what to expect how things will turn out later. This first part of the first semifinal turned out to be a solid pack and when five songs were presented I had five possible or sure qualifiers. Disturbing! Of course it's not going to be like that when tomorrow we have another nine songs to go through ( btw, tomorrow I can't be blogging until the evening so tomorrow's comments and posts will all come together, not as the day progresses ) and the things may look a bit clearer - or then not.  The biggest positive surprise today was maybe Albania . I didn't count much on it but it did make an impact. I was also very relieved Finland did look stunning and sounded as good as I hoped it would. Way to go Axel! I have to admit Armenia gave a good show without being over the top and as much as I wished it would be a disaster it's a contender. Not for the victory but for a g...

As expected a very colorful background for the Norwegian Haba haba team. Stella and her five backing singers/dancers are dressed in red, gold and black that might be also their actually outfits? Stella is vocally limited as we know by now but pulls of a decent performance but this is a kind of song that comes alive with live audience singing and dancing along and when Stella turns on her smile so a stripped rehearsal does not give it credit. Should make the final. Watch the AKOE video here . And here is the official video.

Eurovision has a long history with insane song titles and lyrics. It all started very quickly when the songwriters realized they needed a hook that could be understood in all corners of Europe, in every language. So, put something that means nothing (or sounds in other languages like it means nothing even if in your language it does, like Oui, oui, oui, oui , Pomme, pomme, pomme   Bana bana or Qele qele ) and preferably repeat it over and over again until boredom or irritation and you were at least noticed. 1960's and 1970's were the golden era with this stuff when songs like Voi voi , Tipi-tii , Boum badaboum , Ring-dinge-ding , Tom tom tom and Daili dou were sent with variable success. Simple La, la la or Boom bang-a-bang and Ding-a-dong proved more popular. Yet by the critics Eurovision is just this; nonsense lyrics but then doesn't it just prove the fact they are memorable? The 1980's didn't count much on this strategy when one can only pick up Bem bom an...

Norway is doing well in polls this year but will the televoters go for it? A lot depends on Stella's vocals when it counts as they're rather limited, even said by herself. It's fun when you hear it but easily forgettable in the end. Anyways here's a video for the Haba-affair now. In a few weeks we will know if it will follow the footsteps of another Norwegian fan favourite, or Stella's twinsister some 20 years ago. With a very different results.

Bosnia-Herzegovina - Dino Merlin - Love in rewind ***** When I heard this for the first time I thought this is it, a possible winner. But Bosnia hasn't managed to win yet even if they have had some great songs. Could it be this time they have got it right: not too weird, not too ethnic but the right ingredients to be liked by everybody even if not the one that takes a lot of 12s but many 10s and 8s, enough to take it home in the end? Dino is a charismatic performer and there's enough of sing-a-long and a touch of weirdness to make this memorable. And he is wellknown in the Balcans to secure votes from all the neighbours - and don't talk about voting blocks this time when it is well deserved (just like Serbia 2007). It could just be so in the end. Qualifier: Sure . Russia - Alexej Vorobjov - Get you ** Such a let down from Russia. This is propably the worst Russian entry since... well, last year excluding, 1995. The song's like a Melodifestivalen reject and Alexej is n...

Norway goes all Haba haba and selects a very Norwegian entry for Germany. Is this Joelle Ursull all over again, doing Waka waka? Whatever it is it's fun. Not Norwegian fun but fun. 1. Stella Mwangi - Haba haba   280.217 2. Blacksheeps - Dance tonight   155.059 3. The Luckybullets - Fire below   115.793 4. Sie Gubbe - Alt du vil ha   94.884