Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

It has taken awhile but this 2024 has been the year of Mahmood. He may have not won Sanremo this time but his Tuta gold has been by far the biggest success from Sanremo entries despite him placing only 6th missing out the Top-5 super final. The past week it was revealed that nearly 6 million votes were uncounted that night, most of them those that exceeded the number of votes one could vote but still there are almost two million mystery votes left uncounted. Could those have changed the fate? Mahmood won Sanremo 2019 somewhat surprisingly and was faced with a lot of racist hatred among other things that continued even after his second win 2022. But all of sudden in 2024 it seems even the haters have admitted he's good and goes from success to success. In 2024 he has sold already over 700.000 copies, over 400.000 of them Tuta gold , that has become his biggest hit to date after Brividi (800.000+), Soldi (200.000+) and Calipso (200.000+) collaboration. It's worth remembering ...

The reigning Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands came to Helsinki's Nosturi in his European tour on November 28, 2019. The chosen venue was Nosturi amongst the ship building docks by the sea, a venue that will be sadly closed by the end of the year and torn down. The day was also one of the darkest and rainiest possible so outside the atmosphere was all but joyous. Also, going there knowing only the two singles he had released so far the expectations weren't very high to be honest. Paul Elias of UMK's Satin Circus fame (runner up to PKN) was the warm up artist and his gig didn't really go well from broken guitars to missing vocals..... Also, the venue was barely half full, among them many local Dutch obviously.... I had also read some reviews in search for information on set list etc and one reviewers note stuck in mind "he hardly took any eye contact and it seemed like there was a invisible wall between him and the public" I wasn't s...

  Whitney, do I need to say more? I was lucky enough to see her live on her last tour in 2010 but sadly she was only a shadow of what she was at her prime, I sippose. Yet, the magic was there and I'm still angry at those people who booed and left mid concert. So sad. As is the path she took in life.... but her voice stays and lives forever. This said I think her best albums are the 90's one while her early 80's repertoire is continuation right where Diana Ross left it when moving on to other things and Whitney got her backing team to work with. Check out also:

Back in the 1980's Alice made it big in Germany and all the way to the 1990's she toured not only Germany but also Scandinavia and Finland, Benelux and of course also other German speaking countriess Switzerland and Austria. It's 2019 and she tours Germany again! This blogger crosses fingers it's a start of a longer tour that would reach further north later on... Viaggio in Italia is based on her 2003 album on the same name where she covers meaningful songs from Italian cantautori, or singer-songwriters like Franco Battiato, Lucio Dalla, Fabrizio De Andrè, Francesco De Gregori, Giorgio Gaber, Ivano Fossati, Lucio Battisti, Giuni Russo and herself of course. She's been touring Italy on and off ever since with occasional concerts, and new songs have been added to the line up including old classics like Per Elisa and Messaggio - by public demand. She will perform with Carlo Guaitoli (piamo and keyboards) and Antonello D'Urso (acoustic and electric guitars a...

Francesco Gabbani has revealed what his new release will be about: A special edition of his latest album Magellano  + Sudore, fiato, cuore , a live CD recorded during his tour. There are rumors also of possible new songs on the album, but maybe that will be a Christmas surprise? Release daye November 17, 2017. Besides that he announced a special concert in Florence on January 20, 2018 to celebrate together his incredible year.  How's your collection? Will you have Magellano in all its colors? (Yellow being the international verison including Amen )

Where to start? Occidentali's Karma is the clear favourite by both fans and betting odds still after all songs (except Armenia) have been revealed.  The single has went double platinum in Italy.  The video has been seen already by 60,7 million times.  The video on eurovision.tv clicks at 4,5 million at the moment.  The special autographed limited edition of the cd single with a gorilla t-shirt sold out in a couple of hours....  The parodies and more or less serious covers of the entry keep coming up on Youtube.... like this . Or this . Or this: While he's giving finishing touches to his third album to be released just in time for Eurovision, on April 28 , he's already planning his summer tour and will be attending the fan events in both Amsterdam and London. Meanwhile he keeps his fans updated with the video messages..... His tour curiously starts from Verona, a city that Estonia sings about this year, and next stop is Torino, the city tha...

Il Volo hasn't really stopped since their Sanremo 2015 win and Eurovision song contest in Vienna. Last month they released their latest live album+DVD Notte magica - A tribute to the three tenors recorded live last summer in Florence. The album entered the Italian charts at #2. Next they are taking the show all over the world.  Below are the confirmed dates so far starting from New York's legendary Radio City Music Hall. Next is some concerts in Italy, followed by an European leg of the tour in April-June  (dates and venues yet to be confirmed). Then it's time for Latin America (July-August) before Australia, China and Japan later in 2017. 

ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus are planning and considering a possible comeback concerts and tour with the British music mogul Simon Fuller - as holograms. "Nobody wants to see us old people on stage" they have stated many times before and are searching through the material from their 1977 and 1979 world tours that could possible used for the project. Techically it would be possible as likes of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra regularly keep on performing in Las Vegas shows these days. Björn and Benny and their represants don't want to comment the plans at the moment except with "there are always all kinds of plans in the air"....  Meanwhile you can enjoy them as holograms in Stockholm's ABBA Museum. 

Marco Mengoni has finally revealed details about his November 25 release. After multiplatinum albums the circle closes with a box with two live CDs and a DVD, and also five new tracks and a duet, as he releases a new single Sai che already next week, October 14. The album box is released in three different formats: the "simple" one with 2CDs+DVD, special one with 2CDs+DVD+the 2 previous albums Parole in circolo and Le cose che non ho + photo book. The third one is a very limited edition including all of above + extra DVD Tutto in una notte , and special gadgets and even more goodies through his App. Sai che comes also with a video shot in five different states in the USA, reflecting the various emotions in the song from canyons to forests. The song almost forms a trilogy with his previous lead singles Guerriero and Ti ho voluto bene veramente . In November he will also start his new tour that will reach Italy and various cities in Europe

... but hold your horses, it's not a new pop album* but yet another Christmas album. But then again, no one belts out Christmas songs like she does! Drömmen on julen (Christmas dream). This one differs from her previous Christmas albums - especially Jul i Betlehem series that she recorded in Betlehem and had some interesting modern arrangements - being mostly piano and strings driven affair, with new unreleased songs mixed with some classics and even instrumentals. The album is a collaboration between Carola, producer Peter Nordahl (Agnetha Fältskog, Måns Zelmerlöw, Jill Johnson etc), and composer Ulla-Carin Nyqvist.  She will hit the road agai with Drömmen om julen tour, that starts from Stavanger (Norway) on November 16, and continues until December 18 with the final gig in Uppsala.  *Her latest pop album is Från nu till evighet (2006), while her latest album release is the tribute album Elvis, Barbra & jag (2011). In 2014 she recorded cover songs for the t...

Patricia Kaas is back! I mean the Patricia who's not doing cabaret or paying hommage to Edith Piaf. She's back as herself in a new album (propably titled La langue que je parle) to be released in November, her first of that kind since 2003's Sexe fort . Even if 13 years cap may sound a lot she's been busy in between with Kabaret album (2009) and Kaas chante Piaf (2012), Eurovision song contest 2009 and two world tour,s writing an autobiography L'Ombre de ma voix .....  Here are the first two singles off the new album: She will be touring from January 2017 again all over France

One would have thought Marco Mengoni would like to take some time off after releasing two albums last year, scoring countless hits, touring Italy with two sold out tours and all the rest but no. In October  comes a new album that follows the multiplatinum success of Parole in circolo and Le cose che non ho (the 5th and 8th most sold albums in Italy in 2015). The new leg of his tour #MengoniLive2016  starts on November 12 with ten dates in Italy and then continues to Lugano (CH), Frankfurt (D), Brussels (B), Amsterdam (NL), Paris (F), Luxembourg, Zurich (CH), Köln (D), Wien (A) and Warzaw (PL) on December 20, 2016. 

Marco Mengoni has since long sold out all of his spring tour that starts on April 28, but that's not all: it's been announced a second leg of the tour starting in November and including also an European tour. Most Likely more dates will be added later.  This follows his triple platinum selling second album within a year, Le cose che non ho.  Meanwhile he has also released his first album for the Spanish market. Liberando palabras , the Spanish version of triple platinum selling  Parole in circolo, his first album in 2015 .  He's also having a concert in Madrid on May 25 among other European dates. Check out the dates after the jump.....

Loreen starred in My life my story feature by Ellos this spring ( here ) and now for the Christmas special they have hired the Christmas herself, Carola . In the short video she talks about her life and her Christmas while wearing Ellos fashion with her adopted daughter Zoe and decorating her home with other stuff you can buy from this postal order company. Meanwhile she has made headlines in Finland not only for her Christmas tour Min bästa jul (Turku on November 25, Helsinki on November 26) but also for the fact she has taken ten refugees to live in her house. She met them this summer when visiting Kos to see the situation herself and help refugees wo arrived across the sea. She gave them her phone number and told them to contact her if they ever make it to Sweden and then this fall one day her phone rung.... they had arrived.

After releasing the second part of his album project that is. Another must! Meanwhile his latest single that shot dirextly to #1 in all download and streaming charts has made it straight to #1 also in the official Italian charts.... 28.04 Torino PalaAlpitour 30.04 Padova Kioene Arena 01.05 Bologna Unipol Arena 03.05 Firenze Mandela Forum 04.05 Genova 105 Stadium 06.05 Milano Mediolanum Forum 10.05 Perugia Palaevangelisti 12.05 Roma Palalottomatica 15.05 Acireale Palasport 17.05 Eboli PalaSele 19.05 Livorno Modigliani Forum 21.05 Verona Arena

Next winter-spring sees a joint tour by Alice and Franco Battiato with Ensemble Symphony Orchestra. Tickets are on pre-sale with Battiato's megabox and signed posters here . The pair has collaborated in many ways ever since Battiato produced and co-wrote Alice's 1980 Caponord album. They have recorded several duets and the most famous is of course I treni di Tozeur from Eurovision 1984. In this tour they will both give their own concerts but will also join each other on stage several times. Below are the dates confirmed so far.... This blogger may have to start planning another trip to Italy after all.... February 13, 2016 - Carpi February 15, 2016 - Trieste February 17, 2016 - Bergamo February 19, 2016 - Brescia February 21, 2016 - Lugano (CH) February 22, 2016 - Torino February 26, 2016 - Padova February 28, 2016 - Firenze February 29, 2016 - Firenze March 3, 2016 - Cesena March 4, 2016 - Ancona March 5, 2016 - Ancona March 8, 2016 - Milano ...

Following her very succesful spring and summer Det bästa av mig tours with her greatest hits over the decades Carola is set to tour Sweden, Norway and Finland again with one of the things she does best: Christmas songs. Min bästa jul - en nära julkonsert med Carola will be an intimate affair and kicks of from Karlskrona on November 11, 2015. November 24 she will be in Mariehamn in Åland islands, 25th in Turku and 26th in Helsinki's Finlandiatalo. She's in Stockholm on 28th before moving on to Norway for several concerts before continuing in Sweden and finishing it off in Linköping on December 20. 

It has been revealed this weekend Måns Zelmerlöw will be touring Finland this summer, following his performance in the The Voice of Finland final last night. But..... he'll be the supporting act to Tomas Ledin ( ESC 1980 ) on August 14 in Porvoo, and the day after in Tammisaari, as well as July 17 in Maarianhamina in Åland. All three major Finnish metropolies. Not. 

Il Volo announced their summer tour in Italy just before Sanremo and even opening the ticket sales and one date looked very strange: Arena di Verona on May 21! ( More here ). Arena di Verona is a very important stage and now after winning Sanremo and having been conformed the Italian entrants in Vienna 2015 Eurovision with Grande amore , the date has been postponed to September 21. Who knows if they will walk on that stage as Eurovision winners then? You can buy tickets here . Meanwhile their video is nearing 10 million views in less than two weeks! Here are their confrmed dates on Il Volo - Live tour 2015 so far ( with new added dates Feb 28) (new dates added March 22) June 12 - Locarno (Switzerland), Piazza Grande June 22 - Rome, Auditorium Parco della musica                                 June 23 - Rome, Auditorium Parco della musica June 24 - Rome, Auditorium Parco della musica July 1...

Lordi released their latest album Scare Force One for Halloween 2014 and now they will hit the road again in Europe. But not in Finland. Their tour manager tells there are no suitable venues in Finland for them; they can't do small  rock clubs and are just too expensive with their stage show and pyros. They were supposed to kick off the tour in Jyväskylä's BeatCon fair but the fair's sponsors withdraw the last minute and its music part had to be cancelled altogether. In Europe Lordi is still selling well and filling clubs - and paid what they are worth.  As for the record sales their latest three albums Scare Force One (2014), To Beast or not to Beast (2013) and Babez for Breakfast (2010) have features equal. "Of course the sales don't match the sales of Hard Rock Hallelujah times" says Sony's Sami Rikala in today's Metro, "but it would be very unrealistic to think they would be." The figures are good enough to keep releasing new Lord...