Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The 2008 edition provided a perfect Eurovision entry in both categories when Gianna Nannini penned  Colpo di fulmine by Gió Di Tonne and Argentinian Lola Ponce won the main category, and Sonohra's L'amore the newcomers. Anna Tatangelo came second with a gay themed Il mio amico , and third.  Fabrizio Moro.  Toto Cutugno was there as well (4th) and Paolo Meneguzzi (6th), Mietta (11th), L'Aura (13th). Mia Martini's sister Loredana Berté took care of the scandal as she presented a song she had already recorded back in the 1980's and was disqualified but still performed her song on stage, also along with Ivana Spagna .

Cypriot superstar continues to deliver beautiful music and this time in English. Listen More than beautiful here . Isn't it time for him to do Eurovision again?

Alexander Rybak returns to Finland in December and will give two full concerts with Frikar. On December 5 he will be in Helsinki's Kulttuuritalo and the day after-  that is also the Independance day in Finland - in Tampere-talo in Tampere. Both venues are also known for Eurovision fans for various Euroviisut finals. The tickets (38-45 euros) will be available here from September 21.

Another band that is at them moment recording a new album. Von Hertzen Brothers is indeed three brothers playing progressive rock together after playing in various bands separately. They have released three albums so far. The second one sold gold and won an Emma award as the best rock album in 2006. The third album went to number one. Here are some of their hits: Kiss a wish , Freedom fighter and Let thy will be done A wild guess: Could they have a spot in Euroviisut 2010? PS. This is the last tip. What I know now after this afternoon's meeting with someone is YLE is sitting on the list of the 12 invited artists and it's ready. In 2 weeks we will know. Until then I try to keep my mouth shut... .:-)

Back to normal. Or two categories that is but with a surprise winner. Last year's runner up in Newcomers Simone Cristicchi  takes revenge in Big and wins with Ti regaleró una rosa , followed by veteran Albano with Nel perdono and another practically unknown, Piero Mazzocchetti and his Schiavo d'amore . Paolo Meneguzzi is only 6th with his masterpiece Musica that maybe was the moral and the commercial winner of this festival. Antonella Ruggiero is there once again but scores a last place in the final (10th). Elsa Lila tries for the second time to break through in Italy in Newcomers with Il senso della vita but doesn't reach top-3 but a place in the final only. For me this is a poor and weird year and Paolo Meneguzzi deserved so much more, snobbed by the so called Jury of quality - of course!

Alexander Rybak has managed to fit into his busy schedule also a little role in a movie. Yohan - the child wanderer ( Yohan - barnevandreren in Norvegian) is a big budget family film based on true stories about child wanderers in Norway between 1800-1910 directed by Grete Salomonsen. The film is made both in Norvegian and in English and the distribution rights have been sold to 30 countries already. It will premiere in Norway on December 11, 2009 and rest of the world in summer 2010. The film is a huge production with 100 specific roles - Alexander will play Levi - and 400-500 extras and 100 animals. The animal scenes with wolfes and bears were filmed in Big Bear Mountain in California under direction by Steve Martin. Here's Alexander in set and here is the trailer. So, Alexander follows Lordi's footsteps to the silver screen!

I have heard many many years ago from a very close source that Jeanne Mas proposed Femme d'aujourd'hui for Eurovision 1986 but was rejected. One can only wonder who were in charge if they then came up with this! She was the hottest thing on earth in France back then, just about to release her second album after selling 900.000 copies of her single Toute prémiere fois , hitting number one with Johnny Johnny (the first female arrtist ever in France) and selling over 500.000. Her debut album sold almost one million and the third single Couer en stéréo was hot in charts. And they said no merci? ? The album went to number one and stayed there for two months selling over one million as well and singles En rouge et noir , L'enfant and Sauvez-moi followed the success in charts but Femme d'aujourd'hui was never released as a single....Anyways, I think we would have had a all French top-4 in Bergen but who would have come out as the winner? Sandra Kim , Daniela Simons...

Osmo Ikonen came second in Euroviisut 2009 with Signmark and Speakerbox . He is at the moment recording his second solo album so is he going to return to Euroviisut as a soloist? I hope so! Here is his solo effort Storm and All by myself

The same confusing category mess was used as last year, but this time only top-2 of each category went on to the final, meaning there were only 8 songs! Also the Classic category was dropped. Death matches once again lead to the final 2 and eventually the winner, again from the Men category when Povia's Vorrei avere il becco beats - as rumoured - Nomandi's Dove si va with only 2% of the votes! Apparently Anna Tatangelo's Essere una donna was third most voted and Riccardo Maffoni with Sole negli occhi 4th. Previous winner or Eurovision artists taking part were Ron and Anna Oxa . Worth mentioning also Dolcenera , Ivana Spagna and L'Aura who would later be considering Eurovision for San Marino. Or so they insist. In all a rather mediocre and forgettable edition IMO.

Alexander Rybak tells in Metro he will be touring Europe in the end of September and wished to visit Finland again. So far dates in Kiev, Odessa, Minsk, Vilnius and Riga are confirmed. He says he has been very surprised about people's reactions in his two visits to Finland. "This is the most energetic country what comes to concerts" he tells laughing. "I have never heard teenage girls scream so much!" Hel also admits he has no spare time in his busy schedule. "I try to think everything is vacation. Every concert, every sign I give, every interview is vacation for me. I try to relax all the time because otherwise this won't work. I would go insane and in the end this all would destroy me " he says.

Jeanne Mas was - and still is - one of my favourite artists from the 1980's. I adored her! And now Kate Ryan, the queen of covers from the top female French artists has covered her first hit Toute prèmiere fois after doing Mylène Farmer, Desireless and France Gall. And it's good but missing the Jeanne magic of those her early years when she scored a hit after hit, breaking records and making firsts to female artists in France - and making way to artists like Mylène Farmer. Anyways, here's Jeanne doing it partly in italian and live. And ladies and gentlemen, la Mas has her Eurovision connection! More about that tomorrow... .

Ilkka Alanko was the lead singer of Neljä Ruusua band that was very popular in 1990's. Now he has just released a solo album Elektra with the hit single Etsin sua . The next single/video will be Kullanhuuhtoja that you can hear here . I guess he's very unlikely for Eurovision but then you never know...

Alexander Rybak has a new video out to his concert favourite Roll with the wind . A very nice song indeed and the video fits nicely with its imaginery of a Norvegian summer!

In 2005 Sanremo got rather confusing with the introduction of all sort of categories; Men, Female, Groups, Classic and Newcomers. Top-5 of each went on to the final and winners of each category had sort of death matches... After all this confusion Francesco Renga's Angelo came out as the winner (Men) with 54% of the televotes, followed by Come noi nessuno al mondo by Toto Curugno & Annalisa Minetti (Classic), Echi d'infinito by Antonella Ruggiero (Female), Che mistero é l'amore by Nicky Nikolai & Stefano Di Battista Jazz Quartet (Groups) and Non credo nei miracoli by Laura Bono (Newcomers). Many previous winners and/or Eurovision artists were there, too: Marco Masini , Paolo Meneguzzi , Umberto Tozzi , Alexia , Matia Bazar (once again a new singer!) and Peppino Di Capri. Worth mentioning is also Paola & Chiara who's A modo mio was eliminated the first night.... Laura Bono went on to have success abroad and would have been great for Eurovision. Or Alex...

The last two Swedish Eurovision divas - with minor success in Eurovision - will join forces for a concert in Stockholm in October 22-24. They will be joined by comedian Sissela Kyle and Anders Berglund conducting the Radio's Symphony Orchestra. Tickets have been selling so well they have added an extra concert already. Malena will be performing in Sweden also in Gothenburg September 4-5 and back in Stockholm's Opera November 15. Watch their Eurovision efforts again here and here .

The ABBA tribute concert was held in London's Hyde Park yesterday and Kylie was there, too, doing Super trouper and When all is said and done with Benny :-) and practically stole the show, the reports tell. About 30.000-40.000 people attended the concert that celebrated ABBA's songs from the past four decades.

Ville Laaksonen is a vocal couch, composer and musician who has worked with Antti Tuisku and Nightwish. He also wrote Riikka's Toarie in Euroviisut 2004 and Meren in 2009. He represanted Finland in Jurmala New Wave festival in Latvia this year with Empty streets , The Rasmus's In the shadows and Lara Fabian's I will love again in front of 100 million TV viewers. In this competition it's all about singers, not songs. Each artist performs 3 songs: one from their own repertoire, one international hit and one hit from his/her own country. Dima Bilan is only one of the regular gala performers in this festival and Alla Pugatsova is amongst the organizers. (And now this is what I call a wild guess!!)

Sanremo hit the disaster in 2004. Tony Renis was in charge and for some reason all the major record companies boycotted the festival so in the end there were just one category, and most of the artists were unknown or has-beens. Also the rating were the poorest ever. The most famous of the singers, Marco Masini won easily with L'uomo volante making a comeback to the scene, new comers Mario Rosini and Linda followed and Paolo Meneguzzi took 4th place. Mietta joined Morris Albert in the last minute and they scored 8th place. Marco Masini could have made his second appearance in the Eurovision but this time in the spotlight and not in the shadows in the back of the stage like in 1987. And the song would have been very suitable, too. Linda instead would went on to win Festival Mediterraneo in Turkey.

Regina Lund's new video Jag är osynlig was censored by Youtube only minutes after it had been uploaded. In the video she was playing a female Jesus who gets crusified in the end. "I was shocked!" she says. "There's nothing more naked in it as in every church! It's ok to have naked man hanging on the wall but my nakedness is too much on internet? ". Oh well, no comment. She's prepairing a new album Dare Regina Lund and we of course remember her from her Melodifestivalen 2007 adventure with Rainbow star .

Alexia took the trophy with her megaballad Per dire di no after debuting in Sanremo as the runner up last year. So if Matia Bazar went to Eurovision in 2002 she would definately done it in 2003. But 2003 was filled with other good and interesting songs, and ex-Eurovision artists as well.  Alex Britti came second with 7000 caffe and Sergio Cammariere third with Tutto quello che un uomo . Both would have been also very interesting entries. Enrico Ruggeri came 4th with his girlfriend Andrea Miró , Lisa 6th, late Giuni Russo with Moriró d'amore 7th. The song was produced by Franco Battiato and a sort of a testament. This would be sadly one of her last performances, 35 years after her first and only appearance in Sanremo as Giusy Romeo back in 1968. Antonella Ruggiero came 9th,  Luca Barbarossa 10th, Fausto Leali 13th, Anna Oxa 14th, Bobby Solo 16th and Iva Zanicchi last and 20th. Worth mentioning is also the presence of europop band Eiffel 65 but their efforts left them...

I guess I have been featuring both Antti Tuisku and Anna Abreu as possible Euroviisut candidates every year since I started blogging and this year's no exception. Only that now the news are they are hitting the road together in February for a series of concerts. A big production with show, music and lights, dancers and fancy cloathing, the whole set. Could that be a follow up to Euroviisut 2010 and prelude for Eurovision 2010? There's no doubt Tuisku is one of the best stage performers in Finland while Abreu's live performances have left a lot to desired lately but if someone (Antti) will tell her what to do and how the duo might turn out a winning formula.  Antti Tuisku came 3rd in the first Finnish Idols won by Hanna Pakarinen . He has since become the most selling Idols artist in Finland with all of his albums selling gold, platinum or double platinum. His 5th album (or 6th if you count in the Christmas album) will be released in two weeks. He will also represant Finland...

Peter Jöback moved to New York this January and inspired by the new environment and people he has recorded a new album Eastside stories to be released October 22. Besides new songs it also includes several covers: Everybody hurts (R.E.M), Wicked game (Chris Isaak), Sing (Travis) and Somebody (Depeche Mode). Excellent choises as I like all these songs, especially Sing! Wouldn't it be time for Peter to return to Melodifestivalen, too? And here's Peter with his latest success Stockholm i natt .

The French territory of New Caledonia becomes the 152nd "flag" to visit this site. Looks like French flag to me but it comes up in Flag counter as a new flag, never mind (But then where is the Åland flag?) Bienvenue Nouvelle Caledonie anyways! And the rises the question: how many countries there are in the world? A quick check in the internet got me only more confused: CIA lists 266 countries or territories, the list by population 223, another list gives 203 sovereign states while the UN has 193 in its list... Flagcounter has 237 in its list so I have had visitors from 64% of them.

Matia Bazar won Sanremo for the 2nd time with their 10th participation with Messaggio d'amore but as the band has been through several member changes including the lead singer only the drummer Giancarlo Golzi is left from the original and Eurovision band back in 1979. The singer in this period was Silvia Mezzanotte following Antonella Ruggiero and Laura Valente. The real revelation is however Alexia, the runner up with her Dimmi come (there's also an English version Don't you know ). She followed Spagna's steps and switched from europop in English to pop in Italian with a success and one can only note she was completely wasted singing that europop: she has a huge voice! And would have been such a great Eurovision act as well being already well known all over Europe if Matia Bazar for some reason wasn't willing to do a bis. Ex-Eurovision artists Fausto Leali and Enrigo Ruggeri did well being 4th and 5th. Also Alessandro Safina was there. I have always thought h...

... to children's rubber boots! Can you think anything less glamourous but rubber boots? Well, don't worry, Alcazar has designed some models with glitter and glamour that you can buy here .