Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

    Catharina Zühlke is the best known name for the Eurovision fandom this year in UMK. She was the runner up in 2017 with Perfect villain and in Finland made a name already back in 2013 in Idols placing fifth. She's been full time singer and musician ever since despite not really scoring a major hit yet, nor has releasede an album yet. She's given us two EPs and a string of singles like Die again ,   Imaginary me , Doing Dubai and Closer ,

  It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.9 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. Zühlke is the reigning runner up with Perfect villain and definitely deserves a second chance.  Since then she has released Closer (below) and Die again .  Woman's got the voice and the talent. Sanni has been one of the most succesful female artists in the past few years; three alnums and 13 Top-5 hits to prove it. She also did Vain elämää reality show that made her a household name and curr...

The prevotes have been counted and Emma emerges as a clear winner. The voting was open for a month and closed earlier today and was revealed in the #umk17 pre-show online. These votes will be added to the televotes on Saturday and together they will provide 50% of the result, the rest being given by the ten international juries .  It looks like we are going to get a fine looking show on Saturday, with proper staging for the acts. Watch out especially for Gunther & D'Sanz who make it the right kind of kitch, Norma John's simple but effective drama, Emma's fireshow and Zuhlke's pole dancers.... And then there's Club La Persé.... Are you getting excited yet? I am! 1. Emma: Circle Of Light 30,4 2. My First Band: Paradise 15,0 3. Zühlke: Perfect Villain 12,5 4. Günther & D'Sanz: Love Yourself 8,4 5. Norma John: Blackbird 8,3 6. Club La Persé: My Little World 6,9 7. Alva: Arrows 5,9 8. Knucklebone Oscar & The Shangri-La Rubies:...

YLE is publishing rehearsal clips from the #UMK17 final that takes place Saturday in Metro Arena in Espoo. Have a look (and vote in my poll on the right side when you still can!) and see what to expect! Emma - Circle of light Alva - Arrows Günther & D'sanz: Love Yourself Errr.... It seems YLE has taken the videos down....??!!  :-( (5pm local time) Oh, apparently wrong version went on and will be replaced with the right ones.  Stay tuned! to be updated....

Less than a week to go and we will know who will win #UMK17 and become the Eurovision song contest entrant for Finland this year. Since the beginning there have been two major fan favorites: Emma and Norma John , two completely different approaches to the contest. One Eurovision by numbers, almost manufactured to perfection to fit the form, one the complete opposite. Curiously, these two were also this bloggers first instant favorites that have been later with further listenings joined by Lauri Yrjölä , Anni Saikku and My First Band . The others don't impress me that much to be honest. I had a little fun with the various polls on the internet, be they newspaper or fan websites or blogs oincluding my own little poll here on the blog (where you can still keep voting). All numbers are percentages. And indeed Emma and Norma John alone take the half of the votes in combined chart.  In the Finnish votes alone My First Band and Gunther & D'Sanz benefit from the huge boos...

Now this is surprising. One would think Sandhja's Sing it away was a kind of a flop, but here comes Radio Yle Suomi's most played songs chart of 2016 and guess what? It's number one! And even more so, Eini's entry Draamaa is n.o 3. Now that pretty much sets the tone this radio channel is; schlager and and pop schlager.  Further down the shart Kuunkuiskaajat's Unelmaa is n.o 24, Laura Voutilainen at n.o 35 with Miks ei and at n.o 49 with Olet mulle enemmän . This year's UMK entrant Zuhlke is n.o 54 with Huominen on meidän . Eurovision winner Celine Dion is there, too, N.o 68 with L'étoile . Previous Euroviisut entrant Mikael Konttinen n.o 82 with Ei koskaan and Hanna Pakarinen n.o 84 with Herrojen kanssa pellon laidassa , UMK entrants Hukka ja Mama n.o 91 Sun pitäis olla mun ... Check out the full listing here

Zühlke has released her #umk2017 entry Perfect villain in various mixes: Cinema, Happy and Midnight. And we can't forget the Xmas version ! Which one is your favorite? Listen.   Here .  Check out our review on Perfect villain here 

59/120 Catarina Zühlke (25) is already known from Idols 2013 where she reached fifth place but left her mark. She has been gigging a lot and released her debut EP this year with some Finnish music (like Kauneimmat with Jore Marjaranta, and Haave ) but her fur´ture album will be international rough urban pop, just like her entry for #UMK17. If this is your favorite, vote for her in my poll on the right, or here for real  She's an avid Eurovision fan and her dream if to bring the trophy and the contest back to Finland in 2018. She's self declared superhero and she's eyeing a career especially in Germany where her father is from.  So, what did our international* jury think of it? She's one of the four songs that was no one's number one. Generally midtable lower scores Marco and Valentina giving it the highest score but Robert said it's "awful song". Jack find her sassy with fabulous voice but the song itself doesn't live up to the...