Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Harrogate in North Yorkshire hosted the 27th Eurovision on April 24, 1982. The opening of the contest was used to tell people where Harrogate is as no one ever heard of the town before (or after for that matter). Only 18 countries took part when France, Italy and Greece decided to stay home. Two songs of peace are remembered from this contest; Finland's  Nuku pommiin and the winner, Germany's Ein bisschen Frieden . Finland scored a flat zero while Germany took the most convincing win ever at that point. It got 1,61 times the votes the runner up  Israel got. Ralph Siegel finally won after  Dschingis Khan (4th in 1979),  Theater (2nd in 1980) and  Johnny Blue (2nd in 1981) and Nicole started a very succesful career as the ultimate German schlager queen that continues even today. The song charted all over Europe selling over 3 million copies in various languages Nicole recorded (German, English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Russian...) and is the l...

One word: Stunning. Three hours of hits and so much energy. If I will have 1/4 of her energy when 69 I will be very happy! Vocally fantastic. She will repeat the treat in sold out Hartwall Areena again tomorrow. More exclusive photos here tomorrow.

Just after 4 days after Patricia Kaas I will have an opportunity to see Tina Turner (69) live. After she announced she would retire back in 2000 I thought I had missed my chance to see her but here she is. Stunning as always and kicking her legs like her granddaughters would.... Can't wait to be back in Hartwall Areena and Tina! Tour promo Pround Mary Opening night What's love got to with it?

What is the first thing you remember from Munich 1983? Propably the insane presenter Marlene Charrell! She presented the Eurovision that she thought was the Marlene Charrell show on April 23, 1983 in Munich in the ugliest setting ever and most of the time it seemed the songs and voting were only on her way. Many familiar names returned to the contest or did their first appearance: Carola, Guy Bonnet, Jahn Teigen, Mariella Farré and Gary Lux in Westend. Some songs are still remembered well today and some become big hits: Carola's Främling , Ofra Haza's  Hi and Daniel's Dzuli . Turkey's song is remembered as being the most horrible Eurovision song ever, and Remedios Amaya for scoring a flat zero. Propably  Quien maneja mi barca was too much ahead of its time and too different. But also Turkey got a null points! But Corinne Hermes won with  Si la vie est cadeau and history would prove with this song that the era of French ballads and also Luxembourgish succeses was over...

Birthday time in Azeri team: Arash has his birthday on April 23 and AySel on April 25. As a little birthday gift they have a new website here. They have also visiting Moscow with a secret visit to Olimpiysky... Happy birthday to both of you!

Andorra's Susanne Georgi has released the CD-single for her entry La teva decisió/Get a life and besides the Catalan/English and English version it also includes a very good Andorran Midnight Club remix .

Ilta-Sanomat recently interviewed Waldo and here are some of the things he said. "The song came in the last minute. We had another song that we had already sent to YLE but then like 2 weeks before deadline Lose control came out of nowhere. Listening to the piano version of it it was clear this is the one for Eurovision, the melody was so catchy and immediate. We didn't want to write a song especially for Eurovision but just take a song from our new album that felt right. Many have tried to write the perfect Eurovision song and it never works that way." "The show on stage in Moscow will be massive. The stage is something like 27 meters per 15 meters so we have to fill it. I guess I must do some workout before Moscow just to be fit enough. We will move around the stage and will have a certain kind of free choreography." "We are not afraid of being labeled as an Eurovision act. At this point of career no worries. If a young artists is taking part and Eurovis...

Three more OGAE clubs have voted and shocking news: Andorra gave Norway only 6 and Switzerland only 5! Spain put the things back in track though giving it the usual 12. Sweden and UK climb up and Iceland continues to pick up votes from most everywhere. Will the same happen in Moscow? Here are the votes from Andorra - Switzerland - Spain) 01. NORWAY (6 - 5 - 12) 161 02. FRANCE (0 - 0 - 8) 78 03. SWEDEN (4 - 10 - 10) 71 04. SPAIN (12 - 0 - X) 67 05. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (8 - 0 - 2) 64 06. AZERBAIJAN (7 - 0 - 4) 53 07. ICELAND (3 - 0 - 6) 47 07. TURKEY (5 - 0 - 7) 47 09. GREECE (0 - 0 - 1) 42 10. UNITED KINGDOM (1 - 12 - 5) 38 11. ESTONIA (0 - 1 - 0) 37 1 2. FINLAND (10 - 0 - 3) 28 1 3. LITHUANIA (0 - 8 - 0) 24 14. PORTUGAL (0 - 3 - 0) 23 15. ISRAEL (0 - 6 - 0) 15 16. MALTA (0 - 4 - 0) 13 16. DENMARK (0 - 7 - 0) 13 18. SLOVENIA (0 - 0 - 0) 7 19. ROMANIA (0 - 0 - 0) 5 19. MONTENEGRO (0 - 0 - 0) 5 19. GERMANY (0 - 0 - 0) 5 19. ALBANIA (0 - 0 - 0) 5 19. MOLDOVA (0 - 0 - 0...

April 22, 1978 Palais de Congrès de Paris hosted the 23rd Eurovision. Twenty countries taking part when Denmark returned after a long absense. France didn't seem to be very interested in the show and didn't get great reviews for the rather boring stage and several tecnical problems. Most interesting part was the rotating orchestra - most fun provided by seeing if the conductors managed to jump on their place without falling off. Something new the French did bring to the contest: a presenter duo! Léon Zitrone was also the first male presenter since 1956! Baccara sung for Luxembourg and were as big as T.a.T.u was when singing in Eurovision many years later. Norway's Jahn Teigen almost stole the show by scoring the first null points in the new (and still in use) voting system. The songs in French ruled (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 10th) but Israel won clearly with an up tempo song and a real choreography. Izhar Cohen & The Alpha Beta shared the victory in Israel and was sent to Pa...

Here is the first guest review of Eurovision 2009 in my blog. Marcello is a dear friend of mine from Italy, devoted Eurovision and European music fan, active member of OGAE Italy and he is Parisian in his heart. MONTENEGRO - Finally they have a decent song with good rhythm... even if it is in English >8 CZECH REPUBLIC - Too ethnic and too gipsy for my tastes! >4 BELGIUM - Very 60's rock in true  Elvis style. Nothing new. > 6 BELARUS - A song that highlights the vocal capacities of Petr. I like it and hope he will be able to nail it live in Moscow. > 7 SWEDEN - From schlager to pop opera. Hope this will reach the final as I can't imagine an Eurovision final without Sweden! > 9 ARMENIA - The song is nice and danceable but I'm bored with it already after 2 hearings. > 6 ANDORRA - I would have sung it all in Catalan. Chorus in English has no sense. > 6 SWITZERLAND - I adore this kind of rock! I hope this gets into final. > 8 TURKEY - The...

The Nordic team (well Swedish plus one Finn, see previous post here ) listened and judged the rest of the first semifinal songs. Thomas Lundin gave for the first time Finland full points in the history of the programme that started six years ago. He also loved Portugal while the other didn't and also Malta divided votes. In all the qualifiers for the final by them would be: 1. Finland 22 2. Bosnia-Herzegovina 20 3. Turkey 19 4. Iceland 18 5. Sweden 17 (in reality also Sweden got 22 points but Björkman took 5 points off as 4 out 5 judges are Swedes) 6. Malta 16 7. Romania 15 8. Belarus and Portugal 14 10. Switzerland, Andorra and Armenia 13

Serbia's Cipela is becoming the song with most versions in different languages. After the remixes and French version here come the Finnish (!!!), Greek and Russian ones. Hebrew and Latin versions are to be expected shortly.Listen to the Finnish version here and the Greek version here. The Russian version is here and the French one here. Last time someone bothered with a Finnish version was of course Serbia's winning song 2007 Molitva sung by Beauty Queens without Marija, and before that Latvia 2004 when Fomins & Kleins did a Finnish version of their entry Dziesma par laimi amonst the zillion versions they did of the song.

Check out my photos from last night's concert in Helsinki on my photoblog by clicking the link on the right.Or simply click here.

Georgia's disqualified/withdrawn entry We don't wanna put in has its video out, too. Actually it's kinda funny.Watch it here.

Also Russia has finally released its official video clip for Anastasia Prihodko's Mamo . Watch it here.

Three more OGAE clubs have voted and Norway gets the lowest vote so far: 8 from the rest of the world club! OGAE Rest of the world gives also quite different votes from the others by giving votes to Israel, Moldova and Slovakia. Norway still clearly in lead followed by France and Spain but Bosnia-Herzegovina is catching up on them. As always, here are the votes from Lithuania - Rest of the world - France: 01. NORWAY (12 - 8 - 12) 138 02. FRANCE (10 - 4 - X) 70 03. SPAIN (0 - 0 - 0) 55 04. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (5 - 7 - 5) 54 05. SWEDEN (0 - 3 - 7) 47 06. AZERBAIJAN (6 - 0 - 8) 42 07. GREECE (2 - 0 - 4) 41 08. ICELAND (3 - 0 - 10) 38 09. ESTONIA (0 - 10 - 1) 36 10. TURKEY (0 - 0 - 0) 35 11. PORTUGAL (7 - 0 - 0) 20 11. UNITED KINGDOM (8 - 2 - 0) 20 13. LITHUANIA (0 - 12 - 0) 16 14. FINLAND (0 - 0 - 6) 15 15. MALTA (0 - 0 - 0) 9 15. ISRAEL (0 - 6 - 3) 9 17. SLOVENIA (0 - 0 - 0) 7 18. DENMARK (0 - 0 - 2) 6 19. ROMANIA (0 - 0 - 0) 5 19. MONTENEGRO (0 - 0...

Lordi has just returned from another succesful trip to Japan. They played two sold out concerts in Tokyo and Osaka and will be back on stage this Thursday in Espoo, Finland. Listen Lordi's cover of Dingo's Autiotalo here.

Hanna Pakarinen's fourth album has sold gold some time ago and she has released a new video clip Love in a million shades . It is also title song for a new movie Kielletty hedelmä . She is currently touring Finland. Watch it here.

Jippu's last Jippu Café this spring will be an homage to late Kirka (1950-2007). Jippu and her band with guests will perform Kirka songs, including Hengaillaan , in Bulevardin Kahvisalonki in Helsinki next Friday April 24. Jippu is a big Kirka fan herself.

La Kaas was fabulous as expected. Very well done show, she's amazing on stage and it all works very well. Two hours of pure entertainment and emotion and no, it's not the same thing as on Kabaret live CD recently published. There is more! More songs and quite rightly Et s'il fallait le faire is now the second encore. More exclusive photos and thoughts from the concert coming tomorrow. Right here. S'il fallait le faire, no?

And I'll be there. This is my second Patricia Kaas concert here. I saw her in 1993 in Kulttuuritalo, now in Finlandiatalo. How come it can be 16 years? And Il me dit que je suis belle is still such a touching song, and she's going to sing it tonight.... Must get ready with Kleenex... Have a look here of the show! Il me dit que je suis belle live in Kabaret , Et s'il fallait le faire

April 19, 1980 Den Haag hosted after Israel (and Spain) declined to host the show for the second year in a row, and actually didn't even participate. Morocco appeared for the first (and last) time and Monaco also didn't show up... until 2004 again. Finland came last beated by one point by Morocco so Finns hold the record there, being the only country that ever lost to Morocco! Also Turkey was close to withdrawing when already in the venue. Germany and Ralph Siegel scored a 2nd place after last year's 4th place and would be again 2nd in 1981 and finally win in 1982. He wrote also the Luxembourgish entry that came 9th. Katja Ebstein on the other hand finished in the top-3 for the third time! Johnny Logan won for the first time even if at the beginning of the voting it looked like the Netherlands would win themselves when Maggie Mac Neal scored 42 points from the first 4 countries! Her Amsterdam would drop to 5th place in the end. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoUvO4g7Xzo

Waldo told Helsingin Sanomat that Nik Kershaw's publisher has indeed contacted him asking for compensation for Lose control that is accused of being copy of Wouldn't it be good , Nik Kershaw's 1984 megahit. "They can't prove it so they were just trying their luck" I guess. " There's no way they can prove it . Accidents happen and there might be some similarities in the melody line but the songs are otherwise completely different. " Waldo is not scared but thrilled. "I passed the request to my label's lawyers and their answer to the British was: Go ahead and sue us! I think that would be just awesome PR before Moscow! " Listen and judge yourself here. I still can't make myself to find any particular similarities.

Iceland has also made a video after all and you can watch Yohanna asking Is it true here

Malena Ernman and her team have finalized the videoclip for La voix. Watch it here