Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

I'm liking the sound of it. If Finns went all for heavy rock in Helsinki 2007 - that being the most succesful Finnish music genre abroad and besides, Finland has the most heavyrock bands per capita in the world - Portuguese are doing the same with their very own music genre: fado. Besides the reigning Eurovision winner Salvador Sobral also fado megastars Ana Moura and Mariza will perform in the final, and even together. For the first time. Ever.  Ana Moura (38) has beeen around for 15 years already. She has sung with The Rolling Stomes and late Prince travelled to Lisbon to work with her. Five albums to date (two #1's and 4 top-5). She has also collaborated with Italian Pacifico in Pioggio sul mio alfabeto .  Mariza (44) has sold over a million albums globally and continues to tour the world. After legendary Amália Rodrigues death Mariza explodes as her musical heiress and soon became the queen of new fado. She sung with Sting in the Athens Olympic games  H...

Tonight's the second night in Sanremo. The opening might scored a share of 52,1%, or 11.603.000,  the highest since 2005 so this edition of Baglioni has started with a triumph! The peak was 17,2 million when Baglioni sung with Fiorello. The pressure is high to continue as strong..... There has been also a bit of a drama, when Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Mori's song is a bit too similar to a sing Silenzio from 2015, that even took part in Sanremo Giovani 2016. And there's more: one of the writers, Febo, is behind that song, too. But case closed: their song won't be disqualified as it has new lyrics and it has been altered and apparently Febo had asked Rai to remove it from the site already before etc. Now it's apparently gone. Last night. Just like that. UPDATE: Their entry has been suspended while waiting for final decision. They won't be performing tonight as scheduled! This blogger enjoyed last night a lot. Beautiful stage, fantastic graphics, not too m...

The Friday night in Sanremo festival is dedicated to duets again after a few years pause (in recent  years the artists have covered Italian classics) and the list of Big artists duet partners is out. Alice is back to Sanremo for the 4th time (1972 Il mio cuore se ne va , 1981 Per Elisa - winner, 2000 Il giorno dell'indipendenza ) and duets with Ron , with a song co-written by late lagend Lucio Dalla, Almeno pensami , and described by the media who has already heard the songs as one of the front runners for the victory.  Also many other returns to Teatro Ariston stage by names like Michele Bravi, Giusy Ferreri, Simone Cristichhi, Neri per Caso, Arisa, Sergio Cammariere and Marco Masini , and some big names elsewhere, like Midge Ure . Annalisa with Michele Bravi Avitabile and Servillo with Avion Travel and Daby Touré Decibel with Midge Ure Diodato and Roy Paci with Ghemon Elio e le Storie Tese with Neri per Caso Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro with Simone Cris...

He didn't quite sting in Melodifestivalen but now he's back with all the Swedish girls. Sweden is hot in pop circuit right now even more than usual, thanks to Heroes by Måns Z so why not beat it while it's hot? The song has the brassy arrangement that was the best part of Sting , some whistling, a lot of Swedish girls, a moose, some fika , every possible vehicle to reach that one girl... yet it's not as catchy or uplifting as it's propably ment to be. Witthout the brass section also this one would be rather forgettable and boring. But hey, it's summer, anything goes!

Anouk has been announced as the main artist in this year's Symphonica in Rosso, a Dutch affair that has offered us likes of Lionel Ritchie, Diana Ross, Sting, Marco Borsato and Paul De Leeuw in previous years. As the title suggest, artists perform with full symphonic orchestra. Anouk comments: "This came just in the right time! I'm releasing my new album Sad singalong songs and I really want to perform them proparly, with a big orchestra! " If she will perform them also as the first Dutch Eurovision winner in 38 years, we will know in a few weeks.... Meanwhile, listen Birds .

Bosnia-Herzegovina selected internally one of the best songs of the season, Dino Merlin's Love in rewind . But in Austria they did have a national selection and pretty good it was, too, to mark country's welcome return to Eurovision. Nadine Beiler's The secret is love charmed many and sailed to the final and we were all happy for them. Another good choice might have been Paris, Paris by Klimmstein ft. Joe Sumner. It may have been labelled as novelty act but it is a fun song, a bit like L'amour à la Francaise in Helsinki 2007. And the fact Sting's son Joe Sumner was doing most of the singing would have created a media buzz. Besides, they have one of the best videos of the season!