Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Saara Aalto has been around forever but international debut comes in a form of Wild wild wonderland album today. The album's cover is pure 80's Stock-Aitken-Waterman! (And not only the cover...) Thirteen songs in total, including all her UMK2018 entries Monsters , Queens and Domino , as well as her UMK16 runner up No fear as a bonus track. One song has curiously Finnish title, HÄN .  After being the runner up in Talent Suomi, The Voice of Finland, twice in the national final for Eurovision and X Factor UK she was internally chosen by YLE to represent Finland this year. This is her her fifth album following Blessed with love (2011), Christmas album Enkeleitä - Angels (2011), You had my heart (2013) and Chinese language compilation album  Ai De Zhu Fu (2013). Her only sales chart appearances so far are the You had my heart 's one week at #43 in album charts, and Monsters peaking at #14 in the singles' chart and dropping to #15 the week after before vani...

  So, YLE decided to go the Belarusian way and just throw out all the selection process ignoring all the over 300 submitted entries stating they "didn't find a suitable entry" even if "the interest was high and standard high" even this year. Instead they chose Saara Aalto and are looking for her three songs for the final on March 3, 2018 in Espoo's Metro Areena, to be judged by televoters and international jury. The eternal runner up gets her dream job finally. I wonder how much this has to do with her recent change of record label, and the rumors about her being asked by BBC as well to represent the UK. "Now my fans in UK have a chance to vote for me, too" ever chirpy Saara says.  Hmm, if UK votes in the other semifinal it won't be much of a help. And even in final it will be only 12 points (if she can push pass various diasporas that is). 12 points won't take very far..... Being used to finish second the equilevant in Eurovision...

A star is born. Steve Brookstein, Leon Jackson, Matt Cardle... and Matt. Or  is it better end up like Olly Murs, One Direction, Fleur East, Eoghan Quigg... Saara was born in May 1987 in north of Finland. (Photo from Aalto family album/Iltalehti) Coming from a musical and artistic family she wrote her first songs at the age of five, and at 11 she won her Kotkan Merilaulukilpailu (whatever that was) with self written song. She spent her teenage summers singing in weddings. 2004 she was backing Heidi Kyrö in the Finnish Eurovision selection 2004 she represanted Finland in Romania's Cerbul de Aur festival. No awards won. 2007 she finished second in Talent Finland. She didn't manage to get a record deal after that. 2008 she was backing Hanna Marsh in the Finnish Eurovision selection 2008-2009 she did High School Musicals 1 & 2 in Helsinki City Theater 2009 she was backing Riikka in the Finnish Eurovision selection 2010-2011 she did musical Wicked ...

Saara Aalto is breaking records in X Factor UK and in less than a week we know if she's an eternal runner up or will she take the trophy against all odds from Matt Terry and 5 after midnight and finally actually win something.  Today she was in Helsinki for her Homecoming shoot and it was something else; Finns don't get crazy often but when they do it's all out. The airport was packed and a certain hysteria was in the air. This evening she was at Helsinki's Senate's Square and thousends and thousends of people filled the whoLe square and chanted "Saara! Saara!" so that it was propbaly heard in the suburbs, too. DEspite the fact it was all delayed an hour, it was fReezingly cold and windy. But then she came and sung Let it go, Chandelier, No fear and Winner takes it all and talked. A lot. About believeing in your dreams no matter what. She was put down for 20 years but she never gave up on her dream and... look at her now!   The X Factor...

Remember Top of the world , an early fan favorite in the UMK 2014 performed by Clarissa and Josh Standing? The song didn't quite live up to its expectations live and finished outside top-3 and the couple went separate ways after some random performances together. Since then Josh has joined a boyband The First Kings and they are making headlines in the ongoing X Factor UK nailing it in the first audition. Let's see how far they will go... A very promising start for sure that might take Josh finally on top of the world..... Maybe.

Bonnie Tyler has revealed she was asked back in 1983 to represent UK in the Eurovision. But she was having a worldwide success with Total eclipse of the hear t and was too busy in the USA where the song also topped the charts for four weeks to do it. Wrong timing. But now she proud and honored to do it and believes Believe in me has the right title and ingredients to do well. "I'm still having success in Europe. I expect some votes from Germany, France and Scandinavia to start with. I hope I can win it, at least I'm gonna give my best shot!" She is known for her leather outfits but for the Eurovision we won't be seeing leather pants, Welch designer Julien MacDonald will take care of that. Bonnie admits being a fan of reality shows like X Factor and also follows Eurovision. "I watched Eurovision last year from my place in Portugal. I think Engelbert had a bad night. I don’t think the song was the best for him. It didn’t have any oomph. " She counts...

Rylan Clark of The X Factor UK fame has declared he wants to represent UK in Malmö 2013 because it would be "amazing" ! If Jedwards did it for Ireland and even twice, why not give Rylan a chance? What he lacks in voice department he certainly has in personality department and showmanship. Or judge yourself here and here  and here , too. I think it would be amazing, too! He would certainly be a fun addition to the short list of artists in the next Eurovision, and most likely would secure good ratings and visibility for BBC! And here's one more example of his fashion sense......