Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Now that we have heard all the songs in Finland Mikael Konttinen is still in the lead and the pre-contest favourites Cristal Snow and Teräsbetoni didn't impress all the fans. Here's again the unorthodox ranking based on viisukuppila.fi's viisumittari: 1. Mikael Konttinen - Milloin +45 finalist 2. Movetron - Cubido +24 finalist 3. Cristal Snow - Can't save me +17 4. Teräsbetoni - Missä miehet ratsastaa +16 5. Vuokko Hovatta - Virginia +7 6. Kari Tapio - Valaise yö -6 finalist 7. Ninja - Battlefield of love -8 second chance 8. Hanna Marsh - Broken flower -9 second chance 9. Crumbland - Pleasure -34 second chance 10. Jippu - Kanna minut -37 second chance 11. Jenna - Sinua varten -58 12. Kristian Meurman - Jos en sua saa -69 f inalist

UPDATE: THE SERBIAN SELECTION HAS BEEN POSTBONED DUE TO POLITICAL SITUATION IN SERBIA AND KOSOVO... The host country is the next one to choose its entry starting with a semifinal tomorrow and final on Wednesday. It seems beforehand there are only two favourites: Jelena Tomašević with Željko Joksimović penned Oro and Beauty Queens , the succesful backing group for Marija in Helsinki with Zavet . See & hear here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZc-mtKP4_w , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So8J9DJH3zc

UK is going for a three battles to find out the three finalists for their selection for Belgrade. Let's see if their hopes to avoid the bottom places this year will come true with these six artists: Soloists: Michelle Gayle - Woo (You got me) Andy Abraham - Even if Girl Groups: Loveshy - Mr Gorgeous The Revelations - It's You Josephs Vs Maria: Rob McVeigh - I owe it all to you Simona Armstrong - Changes Michelle is the biggest name in the list. Andy is known from X-factor talent show, girlgroups are... err... girlgroups and the Rob and Simona are musical hopefuls. A jury will pick up one of each group for the final and will grant a wildcard to a fourth one. The a televote will choose two to the superfinal and will go for another televote... Simple?

Spain has adopted after Misiòn Eurovision Salvemos Eurovision to select their entry hoping they will score better than bottom-5 this year for a change. Over 500 entries have been submitted to MySpace and now anyone can vote for their favourites to get into the final. I would note in no particular order these ones that I for a reason or another listened to: La Casa Azul with La revolucion sexual that is leading the poll at the moment and the runner ups Coral with Todo está en tu mente and Mayte with Eternamente . Sex bomb Malena Gracia with Un poquito mas is worth mentioning,too. Mei Ming ´s Sirena is very Mecano like track and Carlos Barroso with Embrujo de luna is very Azucar Moreno instead. Jorge Gonzales with Celos is not bad either and last but not least two rather similar tracks: Baltanas with Te prefiero and Arkaitz with Un olé. I prefer the latter just because it hasn't got the certain Swedish touch :-) Check them out here http://www.myspace.com/eurovision...

The Swedish trio Biondo triumphed in the second Romanian semifinal tonight taking an easy win. The other Swedish song Dr Frankestain qualified already last week but Rednex was kicked out this week (thank you!). The final line up looks like this: From the first semi: Nico and Vlad Mirita - Pe-o margine de lume - 284 points Simona Nae - The key of life - 229 points Catallin Josan - When we're together - 217 points Leo Iorga & Pacifica - Prea mici sunt cuvintele - 206 points LaGaylia Frazier - Dr Frankenstein - 174 points Tabasco - Love is all I need - 170 points From the seond semi: Biondo - Shine - 278 points Paula Seling & Provincialii - Seven days - 228 points Nicola - Fairytale story - 206 points Catalin Josan - Run away - 206 points Zero - Come this way - 189 points VH2 - Follow me - 186 points See & hear Biondo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZmk2qSQC0s

Snowstorm on stage, Russian dancers and vodka for The Nicole. Shame she lost her voice somewhere along the way....

Two best songs went to final in Sweden. How that can be? I tipped Ola to the final but after seeing his performance no way and he ended up in the second chance. Carola & Andreas also managed the second chance and now that can be called a real Eurovision bomb! However, Sanna Nielsen was fabulous and mind you, I never was a fan of hers! Rongedal was also really really good and both these songs would be a great entry for Sweden in Belgrade. As expected The Nicole was very weak on stage but it was fun! The horror moment was provided when Andra Generation went into top-5.... Will Carola fire her manager now? This is what one can call a bad career move....

Mikael Konttinen did it and scored 46,1% of the votes and deserved each of them but when will Finns learn to appreciate a little bit of camp and vote for acts like Ninja? Instead they preferred Kristian Meurman (26,8%) with his forgettable, boring, dull mediocre song that looked like taken from some Balkan finals (no offence, folks!). Jippu unfortunately lost the race before it started but once again she was wonderful and proved less is more and filled the stage all alone (well, with a little help of her red wool socks!) and delivered a song full of emotion and feelings. So, guys to the finals and girls to the second chance.... See & Hear here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=draN99SL7Ps , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luYpw0nB-0M , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0UQrS746d8 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ie1f2WKaQI

Turkey has just presented their entry Deli and yes, it is rock in Turkish by Mor Ve Ötesi. What I could hear and see from the poor webcast it seems to be quite ok.... this year!

Jippu's debut album Salaisuuksia joita yksinäiset huutaa unissaan (Secrets the lonely shout in their sleep) has gone gold just in time for tonight's semifinal where she will be singing Kanna minut (Carry me). Her first single Kii (Close) came out in the fall 2005 followed by Kukkakaupan kulmalla (At the corner of the flowershop) , Kaksi kauneinta (Two of the most beautiful ones) in summer 2006. Enkelten kaupunki (City of angels) was released in September along with the album and 5th single Piiloon (Hide me) in January 2007. Sixth (!!!) single off the album was Vanha kaunis mies (Old beautiful man). And now Kanna minut will be the first single from her second album to be released in April 2008. She also won an Emma ward (Finnish Grammy) for the best debut album.

The Nicole in tomorrow's Swedish Melodifestivalen shows how to sing about vodka in a good way (take note maltese Morena !) and will challange the dream team Johnson & Häggkvist who have turned into U2 wannabes. This 2nd semi also features Roxette, Scissor Sisters and Celine Dion wannabes besides some emigrant pop, sounds from the 80's and a few yawns... However, a better semi than the first one! If it was up to me The Nicole and maybe Ola to the final, Rongedal and Schöld to the second chance but hey, where that puts Carola & Andreas ???

When I was in Tallinn last month I bought the debut album of Laura and it's fantastic! I loved her Eurolaul entries Moonwalk (2nd in 2005) and Sunflowers (3rd in 2007) (and hated the Suntribe song, the winner in 2005 she sung in, btw) and the album includes both with other great songs. I like each and every track on the album which is very rare these days. She seems to have a thing for the moon but it doesn't matter as I'm a bit lunatic, too. She's studying in Boston these days but I hope she will be back in Eurolaul 2009 and save Estonia! See & hear some of her here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uvkDOJaAvc4&feature=related http://youtube.com/watch?v=quiU8sEjq8M&feature=related http://youtube.com/watch?v=CzncSXPrMKc http://youtube.com/watch?v=BupifNwdETk&feature=related

Despite fancy first showing, huge advertising - the streets of Helsinki are covered with movie posters - Lordi's movie hasn't lived up to its expectations. It was only the third most watched movie on its first weekend with 6.824 tickets sold when more like 20.000 were expected. Also the critic hasn't been very good. "Boring and childish monster promo video" being the sum up of most of them. The people behind the movie are not happy: no one plays attention to the scenografia and special effects. It's a horrow movie, the script isn't the main thing!" They also what to stress the movie's market is abroad. Right now it's being presented in Berlin film festival and later this spring in Cannes.

Jaana Pelkonen is not moving abroad after all despite the job offered in the Finnish embassy in Madrid. She's got a job at the Finnish parliament. She might also run for a seat in the parliament itself in the next elections in fall 2008 under Kokoomus flag. Maybe next Europarliament?

Now that we have heard 8 of the 12 songs in Finland let's see what the fans in Viisukuppila forum have to say. The infamous "viisupuntari" ranks the songs as only diehard fans can. To make things simplier I have added the percentages of 4-5 stars given to songs (5 being the best) and 1-2 points to see who's in the lead and who's on the bottom. Let's start with the bottom: Kristian Meurman reigns here as 82% of voters gave him only 1 or 2 stars. Jippu comes close with 65%. However Meurman has no 5 stars and Jippu has no 4 OR 5 stars! Crumbland comes third on the bottom with 54% of low votes. Mikael Konttinen (who talks a lot about everything here http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/10479 ) leads the poll now as he has got 57% of top votes but only 6% of bottom votes. Movetron comes second with 49% top votes but scores also 28% of bottom votes. Ninja has 48% top and 16% bottom votes. In total taking off the bottom votes from top votes and ignoring the middle (3 s...

It all started in October but here we are finally: the Icelandic finalists have been chosen! I am all for two very different entries: Mercedes Club's europop with drummer boys, or a typical Eurovision ballad by Magni (and maybe Birgitta will join him again?). Here is the full list: Páll Rósinkrans - Gef mér von Magni Ásgeirsson - Nuna veit ég Davíð Þorsteinn Olgeirsson - In your dreams Baggalútur - Hvað var það sem þú sást í honum? Eurobandið - Fullkomið líf Dr. Spock - Hvar ertu nú? Mercedes Club - Ho, ho, ho we say hey, hey, hey Ragnheiður Gröndal - Don't wake me up See & hear the goodies here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCfiI64vHpA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmjesf4vbGg

I finally got around watching some Belgian selections. They already had two semis and the third one is tonight. And what did they offer? A lot of weak vocals and catchy songs! All in all none of them is really horrid so far and quite a few are pretty good. Well done, Belgium! The first semi was clearly better than the second one and both my favourites come from that one: Katy Satyn with Magical sensation - a very ABBA-esque catchy song with Irish influences and sounds very familiar, in a good way - and Femme Fatale with Décadence . I'd love to see that S/M fetish show in Belgrade! (Poor Svante!) First she has to hope for a wildcard though. Shame! The best from the 2nd semi was Tanja Dexter 's Addicted to you . Nothing special but the others were rather boring. You can hear and see the songs here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwTp83BlOF0 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic3CPudx7sI and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7ukX2PZL9g

Well now, Moldova was in for a surprise tonight. Away with the plastic discogirls and here comes an older lady with a jazzy ballad. The contrast with last year couldn't be bigger but... it is hard to believe they will survive the televote with this one.... but I like it! Here are the televotes, that Alexa actually won. The juries places her only 3rd and 4th so in overal she was left third. Geta won the specialist jury and was 3rd in TRM jury, while Olia was specialists second and won TRM jury but lost in televotes.... 1.Geta Burlacu - A century of love 4293 2.Olia Tira - Always will be 2603 3.Alexa - We are one 7665 4.Galina Şcoda - Your own vision 1329 5.Elena Demirdjean - Living creatures 1350 6.Edict - I believe 1124 7.Catrina Pâslaru - Dance with me 644 8.Dana Marchitan - Your name 1223 9.Jay Mon - Point of view 773 10.Cristina Rujiţcaia - You make me feel crazy 829 11.Liusia Znamensky - Don’t deceive my heart 410 12.Scroom - Jane 458 See & hea...

Just when I was thinking this is going good (Veronika Akselsen, King fo Trolls and Torstein Sødal already in superfinal) they chose as the fourth one Maria of Pop Idols fame when I thought it was going to be Crash or Ann-Mari Andersen ... But then this Maria goes and wins with huge margin we were back to basics. I don't get Norway! 1. Maria Haukaas Storeng - Hold one be strong 195.661 2. Torstein Sødal - Eastern wind 118.095 3. King of Trolls - Far away 4. Veronika Akselsen - Am I supposed to love again See & hear her here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNaljlZOYIw

The oldest and the youngest made it to the final from the first semifinal. And both made their Melodifestivalen debut this year. Christer Sjögren (57) has a horrid song and his votes can be only credited to housewives finding their cellphones in the Swedish suburbs and being distant cousins to the ones in Finland who voted Kari Tapio last night Amy Diamond (15) is compared to Carola but I see nothing in common except sex, age and stage presence. The song's nothing special. Suzzie Tapper who had the best song went to 2nd chance with E-Type & The Poodles . Velvet with the other good song this week came 5th. Face-84, Brandur and Michailoff can pack up, stop dreaming and go home empty handed.

We have 13 out of 43 songs by now and it's not really looking so good, and tonight's Norway and Moldova ain't gonna change it much, I'm afraid. However, Slovenia and Switzerland top my list right now so let's see the official video for Rebeka's angry break up song Vrag naj vzame here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhiDJrWKUPc

At least one of my favourites won when Csézy narrowly beat Adrien Szekeres and will go to Belgrad with Szívverés. She was jury's number two but televotes turned it into her favour. Here is the overal top-6: 1.Csézy - Szívverés 2.Adrien Szekeres - Piszkos tánc 3.Vágó Zsuzsi Zsuzsi Mészáros Árpád Zsolt - Két szív 4.Antal Zsuzsa & Fishers Company - Falak között 5.Fiesta - Gyűlölve szeretni 6.Lola - Legszebb nap See & Hear here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvSR0QMh2bc

I don't get anything anymore. I was just saying Hanna Marsh and Crumbland will qualify and the results proved me all wrong in a nanosecond. Kari Tapio scored shocking 46,7% of the votes and Movetron 20,3%... How can it be? Ok, both have their fans but the songs? I must admit Kari's was better than I expected but Movetron's is a far cry from their best efforts in the 1990's or even their come back single last year! Crumbland is not my cup of tea but it is a good song, I can hear that and Hanna Marsh was the best of the lot tonight. Sigh... I am scared now! See & hear here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBh25Bu6R3k , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_sz-kUGFtc , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iyep1bZhtg , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXdxO98b1s0

Johanna Pakonen, who charmed many fans in 2006 with Kerta viimeinen , is back in this year's Euroviisut, as Kari Tapio's backing singer! Meanwhile enjoy Johanna here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWV_kW8WibA