Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Oh dear, that was a bit unexpected even if Bulgaria rose to the Top-3 in odds the day of final and had its momemtum rising after the rehearsals. Bangaranga everyone indeed. She was fuegoed. And it won both jury and tele , that didn't happen since 2017! Israel was beaten, maybe that's what matters in a way. Next thought is can they afford to host next year? Weren't they away for financial reasons mostly anyways until this sudden return just when other countries stayed home? Another returnee Romania finished third - who would have thought? Makes one wonder how come these two returnees did so well all of sudden and if they were too broke to participate before how they ended up in 2026? Just saying.  Australia and Finland and most of all Greece as well as Denmark bombed a bit. Is it the time of the odds being right is over? Last year the clear #1 favorite finished 4th, now 6th. But then again Finland 6th place is our 4th best placing ever (compared to number of participants) Th...

Ebu and Eurovision world just avoided a bullet and in the end Finns have only a small tiny consolation that the winner JJ's outfit was Finnish design and made as well was the staging and he even rehearsed it in Vantaa, Finland over the spring. He only managed 5th in the semifinal but it all changed in the grand final. I leave the vote analyzing to else but ..... This was a weird weird year. But dear Lord the jury voting was all over the place! Austria managed only 8 full sets of 12s, Italy six (I told you so! read more here ) and France 5, Greece 4, Switzerland and Latvia 3, Germany (!!!) 2 and Israel, Armenia (!!!), Finland, Albania, UK and Sweden one. A bit like here's something to most everyone! Then the televoting: Only 50 to France (!!!), Switzerland zero!!!! I mean... what the hell just happened (oh yes, zero to them, too, but that was already a norm). I have no words. Final results (jury votes/tele votes) 1. AUSTRIA (258 + 178) 436 2. ISRAEL (60 + 297) 357 3. ESTONIA (98...

Eurovision song contest winners Måneskin has been a center or split rumors - promptly denied by all members - after Damiano David and Victoria De Angelis both have released solo material and done their own thing.  The most attention is of course on lead man Damiano. He first released Silverlines , a moody ballad and out of the blue right after comes this wonderfully pastel colored Born with a broken heart where he really can showcase his showman and entertainer skills in true Hollywood musical style. Enjoy!

After yesterday's chaos the television broadcast went by without too many hic ups. With booing to Martin Österdahl and Israel. A huge sign of relief when Ukraine passed Israel in the scoreboard. Overpowering jury support to Switzerland that made Croatia's Baby Lasagna even more a Käärijä, part 2. He even got a hero's welcome back party at home just like Käärijä. Meanwhile in Switzerland Geneva and Basel at least have already stepped up to host next year's contest. Apparently Swedish police has let Joost Klein go. But Eurovision song contest is in crisis after all this. It's everywhere, even in the Finnish tv-news as I just watched. Eurovision is broken and needs fixing. Fandom is asking Österdahl and all Reference group to step out and be replaced. Several artists have come out now afterwards that it's been a traumatic experience rather than the best time of their lives and fun.  So many questions open until everything can go on and start getting ready for the n...

All is good that ends good. Israel didn't manage to win the televote being second to Croatia with 323 vs 337. Ukraine was third with 307 and France 4th with 227 and Switzerland 5th with one point behind. But Switzerland totally dominated the jury vote scoring 21 times 12 points and 365 total. France was second with 218 and Croatia 3rd with 210. Only nine countries manages to score 12 from the jury. Besides the 21 by Switzerland France 4 times, Portugal 3 times, Ukraine and Croatia twice and Luxemburg (from Israel), Ireland, Sweden and Cyprus (from Greece) once.  And here is the jury result: Here are the televotes: Croatia  337 Israel  323 Ukraine  307 France  227 Switzerland  226 Ireland  136 Italy  104 Greece  85 Armenia  82 Lithuania  58 Sweden  49 Cyprus  44 Estonia  33 Serbia  32 Finland  31 Latvia  28 Luxemburg  20 Georgia  19 Germany  18 Portugal  13 Slovenia  12 Spain...

  Angelina Mango beats Geolier and has won Sanremo 2024. And there's no reason to think she wouldn't go to Eurovision. The song is co-written and produced by Dardust, just like the Luxembourgian entry. 1.Angelina Mango 40,3%   (televote 16,1%/Media jury 1./Radio jury 1.) 2. Geolier  25,2% (televote 60,0%/ 4./ 5.)) 3.Annalisa 17,1% (televote 8,0%//2./2.)) 4.Ghali  10,5% (televote 8,3%/3./3.) 5.Irama  6,9% (televote 7,5%/5./4.) As expected Geolier score a huge televote. It seems the other two juries backed Angelina heavily. Angelina Mango won also The Lucio Dalla award (Press/Media award) and the Giancarlo Bigazzi award (Best composition) Mia Martini critics award went to Loredana Berté (Mia's sister btw) Award Sergio Bardotti (Bst lyrics) went to Fiorella Mannoia Premio Lunezia went to negramaro Award Enzo Jannacci (Best performance) went to Clara Strangely this year there were minimal changes during the first results (Nights 1-4) and the final night, many just...

  Eurovision winner (and runner up) Gigliola Cinquetti teamed up with another Eurovision winner France Gall in Sanremo 1969 and their song La pioggia . Despite this being one of Gigliola's biggest hits and reached #2 in the Italian charts in Sanremo it only placed 6th.... 

Fiordaliso did a bit Ricchi e Poveri/Sará perche ti amo with this song. Placing only 5th in Sanremo 1984 it came a huge success both in Italian and Spanish in Latin America outselling the winner in longevity , a real evergreen that has been covered in various languages ( here's Eurovision winner Carola's take on it ) and artists. And here's the latest one from 2023 by Marco Guazzone .  Did you know this is co-written by Zucchero?

Eurovision 2023 runner up and televote winner Käärijä and #teamFinland returned home this afternoon and there were hundreds of people waiting for him chanting WINNER! WINNER! and non stop singing Cha cha cha.  This morning he published on social medias he's sorry he didn't win, which made Finns appreciate and love him even more. Therefor many fans interviewed on spot said they wanted to come and welcome him back as in their books he's a winner. He may have not won the contest thanks to juries but he won the televote and people's hearts. You can say he was surprised! All this was broadcast live by Yle, as they also did a Käärijä special this morning. I think they were ready for an eventual victory and with the on going Käärijä hype the second place is worth broadcasting everything anyways.  You can watch it here

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try. First time since 1957 the reigning champion returned the year after to defend the title. That's what German winner Lena Meyer-Landrut (31) did after 2010. And she was internally chosen, too, and had her own national final as well. How cool. The newcomer who won with Satellite with a landslide had become the hottest thing on German soil after winning, breaking records, hitting number one in both albums and singles so her second participation just continued the trend. She ...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try. Alexander Rybak (36) came back in 2018 and so insignificant his comeback was that I had already completely forgotten about it! This said, he scored one of the biggest and most memorable wins in modern times with his Fairytale in 2009. Just like he had done in the Norwegian final. After winning he kept busy performing, releasing songs, collaborating with other (Eurovision) artists in various countries, even wrote a few songs to various national finals. He was working in Norwa...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try. Charlotte Perrelli (48), ex Nilsson went solo in Melodifestivalen 1999 after having sung with several dancebands since she was 13. Her heavily ABBA inspired schlager banger Tusen och en natt won and went on winning in Jerusalem as well 17 points ahead of Iceland's Selma, the hot pre-contest favorite whose song was very up-to-date instead. Nostalgia won and Sweden took its 4th win. She gained great success at home and some abroad touring Europe and Middle East, was voted ...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try. Dana International (Sharon, previously Yaron, Cohen, 54). Now we can easily say for her coming back wasn't maybe a good idea. If her first time and win in 1998 was a triumphant ground breaking success despite a very small winning marginal: 172 for her, 166 for Imaani and 165 for Chiara.  But this big fan of late Ofra Haza tried already in 1995 to get to Eurovision placing second in the national final with Layla tov Eropa, and had been already scoring hits by then and esp...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Ireland dominated Eurovision in the 1990's and Niamh Kavanagh (55) scored the second win of their triplet in 1993 at home in Millstreet with In your eyes. She dropped her plans to move to the US and instead released a successful album and enjoyed her newfound fame for a while before settling into quiet family life and children a few years later. Occasionally she was involved in the Eurovision celebrations until she was convinced back to the Irish selection in 2010. She...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Rarely you see such "a star is born" moment and mass hysteria that followed like when only 16 year old Carola (56) won Melodifestivalen 1983 and went to Eurovision for the first time placing third. I was there, in Sweden that night at my aunt's and remember it well. I also went to see her on her summer tour in Sweden that year and it was something else.  But in a decade things went sour and she went from everyone's darling to a religious freak that needed...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   We don't give enough credit for Elisabeth Andreassen/Andreasson (65) as this Norwegian-Swedish woman has an incredible Eurovision track record: 8-1-6-2. Four Top-10 finishes, two of them after winning in 1985 together with Hanne Krogh as Bobbysocks, the legendary feel good first win for Norway after having the last one for so many years. But it was her second Eurovision duet, having represented Sweden with Kikki Danielsson in 1982 . She would return with yet another du...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Seán Sherrard (68) aka Johnny Logan. Mr. Eurovision by some. He's the only one so far who has managed to win Eurovision song contest twice. Or three times as he wrote another winner, Linda Martin's 1992 winner Why me? (And also her second placed Terminal 3 in 1984 for that matter). But he didn't write his first wining song What's another year. He may have won but his promising career as a newcomer didn't quite get going. He blames poor management and su...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   If several winners in 1950's and 1960's came back for more in the 1870's only Anne-Marie David (70) did so, even switching from Luxemburg for her native France. In 1973 she secured Luxemburg's 4th win and second in a row in a very tight battle. Tu te reconnaitras got 129 points, runner up Spain 125, third UK 123. Her song became a massive international hit and launched her career abroad, especially in Turkey of all places. Six years later she was back, for ...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Closest winning for the second time so far has been Italian Gigliola Cinquetti (75). Just 16 she took an overwhelming victory in 1964 with Non ho l'età scoring 49 points vs runner ups 17. She launched a successful international career singing all over the globe in multiple languages scoring hits here and there and everywhere. Ten years later she was chosen internally by Rai (whereas Non ho l'età was Sanremo winner) with Si. Weird choice in a way as Rai self censore...

Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back  after  winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.   Just like Lys Assia for Switzerland, also late Corry Brokken (1932-2016) did three years in a row for the first three editions. Her placement in 1956 is unknown but she won in 1957 with Net also toen and came back again the year after with Heel de wereld, that didn't impress the juries who gave her only one point and shared last place or 9th. That makes her the only Eurovision artist ever who has finished both first and last! On top of that she also hosted the Eurovis...