Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

One must give credit to Alyosha and the Ukrainian team at least in something. Like this cartoon .

YLE's Eurovision Facebook group has been giving votes for the Eurovision songs the past couple of months and the voting is finally over. Members were to give from 4 to 10 points to each song and the average is the criteria. The top ten and the finalists in the first semifinal are with their average: 1. Slovakia (8,8) 2. Albania (8,4) 3. Iceland (8,3) 4. Latvia (7,8) 5. Serbia (7,5) 6. Finland (7,3) 7. Moldova (7,2) 8. Belgium (7,1) 9. Greece (7,0) 10. Belarus (6,9)

At least if you believe most everyone in town and also Dagbladet! :-)

125 million viewers, 10 million votes. It will be something like that, the world's biggest televoting adventure. For the first time the lines will be opened already in the beginning of the show and will remain open until 15 minutes since the last song has been performed. You can vote up to 20 times. And of course not for your own country, that hasn't changed. In case of a tie the televote runs over the jury vote.  Yes, the jurys are there and this time already in the semifinals weighing 50% of the actual vote. Five jury members in each country "who have been asked to judge the vocals, the quality and originality of the songs, the acts and the overall impression of the performance." Amongst them a previous winner and several previous contestants. Who they are we will find out only during the show when the commentators will reveal their names in each country. The jury has already voted from the second dress rehearsal last night. The combined result will give us the top...

Did you know how the NRK has prepaired itself for the rehearsals? Norwegian musical students have rehearsed all the songs on stage, including camera runs and choreographies before the delegations arrived. All based on the videos handed out in the March meeting. Therefor they had ready packages to present. The Finnish delegations has had very few changes, mainly camera shots, to the original camera runs and lights presented. Finns are saying this has been the best organized Eurovision todate and the only concern is the lack of audience in the dress finals. "We are just a bit worried about the sound level in the ear monitors. How noisy the audience will be?" the girls worry for a second. The Finnish media has also arrived to town this week and since yesterday the main papers have been featuring Eurovision articles, yesterday the main news were the "parodyboys" Dekel and Bastien. Also the overal feeling has changed now that Finland WILL make the final tonight in Oslo b...

Eurovision queen and apaprently everybody's darling Niamh Kavanagh managed to meet Kuunkuiskaajat ja they talked about everything between accordeon and king craps. And they also met Harel Skaat who thanks Finns for sending them to show everybody how Eurovision should be done: having fun.. And Bobbysocks.They say "three minutes can change your life". So true.  Here .

I have been watching the first dress via a live stream and it all seemed to went pretty well. I missed the opening but the interval act is noisy and crowded! Overall feeling is that it's all very dark in the hall. Propably it will look better on TV! The whole show. Recaps come twice in the end, the first one being longer than the second one. And curisouly there was not much public present, even the press and fans were kept far away from the stage. Why? Anyways, I hope tom catch the second dress tonight 9pm as well and then it'll be full house I suppose. That's also the one the juries will vote for. They will also watch the last and third dress tomorrow and deliver their votes right after that to Oslo. The fake qualifiers were Greece, Moldova, Portugal, Latvia, Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia, Finland - causing the only applause - Belgium and FYR Macedonia. Oh they are showing it again? So... I still have no idea what's the opening is but it's fast. In six minut...

Last year Jari Sillanpää caused a scandal with his shirt when announcing the votes (read the full story here ) so this year's announcer Johanna Pirttilahti has decided to make sure that if her dress is talked about it's not because it's hideous but gorgeous. Therefor she has asked designer Mert Otsamo to style her for the occasion. Mert, only 19, came 3rd in the Finnish version of Project Runway and has been doing a lot of things since. and is soon ready with his first collection. Talented as he is, he was also my favourite in the show. Can't wait to see this collaboration! 

Admiration, confusion and total ignorance. In those free words you can sum up what the other artists in Oslo 2010 think about Kuunkuiskaajat , the Finnish duo when the Finnish journalists interviewed them. Juliana Pasha from Albania first. She seems to have no clue who they are but after awhile excuses herself by complaining there are too many blonds here! Icelandic Hera Björk is the opposite: "I love Kuunkuiskaajat! My 12 points go to them. They're great. I will take them with me to Iceland! " Hera is full of unconditional love and admiration for Finland, "My mother was singing in Finland in the 1960's and my sister even does business there. I have grown up with Finnish music! " The weirdest comments come from Bulgarian Miro : "Eurovision is about each nation's national culture. Finland has zero chance making the final because the song is not about your culture !" WTF?! What does he know about Finnish culture? And then, the Bulgarian cultu...

Well, after guest reviews and comments after national finals and along the way maybe it's time I sum up the songs, too? First of all I'd like to press the fact most people hear (and see) the songs for the very first time on the night, unlike we fans. We analyze and speculate and base our opinions on facts like "she finally won the national final after zillion tries" that regular viewers doesn't know or care about. They hardly remember Niamh Kavanagh or Feminnem have been to Eurovision before. All they know is what their country's commentator tells them. Period. So, therefor I have also added the "First impression" factor to my judgement. MOLDOVA - Sunstroke Project ft. Olia Tira - Run away Well, what can I say? A good opener for the show and I like the instrumental parts of the song a lot. But this is long three minutes and the song doesn't go anywhere unfortunately. There's a high risk this won't work well on stage but results as a mess...

A little bit of Hollywood style action in Oslo 2010 last night when the Opening reception was held in Oslo city hall. Everyone at their best and in good spirits, even Bobbysocks and Alexander Rybak were there. Check the photo gallery by Side2 here .

Jaana Pelkonen, the lovely hostess of Helsinki 2007, is once again being the commentator for YLE in Oslo 2010 and has been in town with the Finnish delegation since the beginning. Already four Haloo Oslo short documentaries have been aired and more is coming together. She has also met unexpected challanges, like interviewing Armenian Eva Rivas.....

What happens when Hera Björk meets Safura in the pool? Watch here ! :-) Isn't it a bit ironic both ladied from lands of fire play with water?!

Dekel Ben Avi's and Bastien Venturi's Swiss-Israeli collaboration tribute video for Kuunkuiskaajat entry has been an internet hit the past few weeks and as promised the girls met with the guys in the Welcome reception in the Oslo city hall last night. But that's not all, they will meet today again!!! Before the reception the girls and the Finnish delegation had another reception in the Finnish embassy. Video .

We know the Italian fans are lobbying hard to get Italy back to Eurovision using every way they can to try to make people talk about it and asking Where's Italy? And here's something new. A song! The lyrics critize the Italian media scene with its reality shows, formats bought elsewhere and totally ignoring the biggest of them, Eurovision:  " ... Sanremo what a delusion, Eurovision but where is Italy? And where is Italian music? Emotions, heat, words, passion and we with Battisti in our heart, and the taste of memories of loving the music. ... I turn on the TV and my smile disappears. They give us Castrocaro but we dream of Eurovision...." To support our Italian friends join their Facebook here .

Italians have voted and Germany wins this year. After the two rounds of semifinal voting the final voting has ended in Dove c'é musica and here are the results: 1. Germany – “Satellite”, Lena Meyer Landrut 2260 2. Iceland- Je ne sais quoi”, Hera Bjork  2070 punti 2. Armenia- “Apricot stone”, Eva Rivas, 2070 punti 4. Romania – “Playing with fire”, Paula Seling & Ovi, 2030  5. Belgium – “Me and my guitar”, Tom Dice, 2020 6. Sweden -  "This is my life", Anna Bergendahl, 1970 7. Denmark - “In a moment like this”, Chanée & N’Evergereen 1950 8. Bulgaria – “Angel si ti” , Miro 1930 9. Turkey – “We could be the same”, MaNga 1860 10. Moldova – “Run away”, Sun Stroke Project ft Olia Tira 1850 11. Albania-  It’s only about you”, Juliana Pasha 1790 12. Croatua- “Lako je sve”, Femminnem, 1760 13. Ireland- “It’s for you”, Niamh Kavanagh 1710 14. Slovakia- “Horerohnie”, Kristina 1690 15. Switzerland, “Il pleut de l’or”, M...

The technical rehearsals are now over. 78 sets of 30-40 mins over the past 8 days. Tomorrow the dress rehearsals start and it all should come together. Tonight's the Welcome reception at Oslo city hall and most everyone (who has managed to get an invitation) is heading that way. Even the first semifinalists can have a long night as the dress starts only at 3pm.

And here's the last rehearsal before tomorrow full dress rehearsals will start. How time flies! 78 rehearsals in total, 9 dress rehearsals to follow. I have posted, commented and talked about all of them and I still have no clue who will eventually win. I have my favourites for sure, but.... back to Lena. She still doesn't get a hold of me and flies alone in the space. The main incredients of the song are missing live and this can end up doing really bad unless the live audience makes her sparkle. Video .

Whatever you say this is fun. And if they get the Arena crowd dancing and clapping with them - as they might at this point of the evening - this could become dangerous, at least in the televotes. At least I wanna get up and dance around with a drink in my hand pretending it's a hot summer day! There's some booty action that would put J.Lo in shame. Some mucho t-shirt tearing off and even military foot steps and it all works. Somehow. And I usually hate these football anthems. I was only wondering why Jessy isn't interacting with the lady friend when she walks up to him to do her lines? Maybe he is too lost in his dancing? Video .

Well it sounds a bit better and maybe the staging works somehow but it still is a very bland offering. Whoever found those shirts for the dancer boys should be fired and Josh looks like a schoolboy in a suit and it all just isn't that great. The boxes make me think of Madonna's Human nature video but this is the kindergarten version of that and thus very boring. Video .

I found this today very boring unfortunately. It all looks fab, classy. He sings well once he gets going. It's all polished and perfect but... also sterile. Surely the wild audience will lift to this to another dimension when the arena is full but until then... we can only admire the pretty scenery I'm afraid. Video .

I hate that backing singer! Who is he? What's his purpose?? I hope he won't be visible on telly as he seems to be there to have his own show, or so he thinks. While watching you start looking at him instead of Daniel and I guess that's not the point, is it? If he is so willing for the spotlight, try to do it solo in 2011! Otherwise it sounds and looks good. I like the dancers and they have changed the wardrobe and look more to their part now me thinks. I guess we are aiming for the best Spanish result for a long time,. I said it before and I repeat it. Video .

This looks completely different from anythign else and I hope people won't mistake it as an interval act as it comes last... However, the feeling that this could be the winner is back. I thought so when this was presented for the very first time but lost it a bit over the months leading here but yes, it could happen. All white and black, very MTV, very different - yet fitting in perfectly. Could that be the recipe á la Lordi to win this? Video .

I still don't get this. Why is she doing all that stuff she is doing on stage? Wasn't it enough if the dancers did their thing if you must have them but leave Sofia alone and just sing! For me this totally ruins a beautiful song and gets me confused as if I was supposed to understand something about the song that I don't. Anyways, red and white are the colors. The guys are bare chested with jackets on though. She is barefoot (again!) and fhere are the Swarovski chrystals (again!). She is forcing her vocals and looks like in pain too many times. I really wonder how this all will look on telly. Seeing it like this it's a disaster. I think the photo captures perfectly my feelings of this presentation.  Video .

The shower curtain look is really in this year. One could start calling it the trend as there are so many all of sudden now that also Feminnem have fallen victims of that "fashion". And hey, they are barefoot! Another trend for sure this year! On top of that they are all wearing the same color that makes them look a bit boring! Why oh why? Skip back to the three color thing! That put beside it's all very nice indeed. They sing pretty good, the song is beautiful and catchy at the same time even if the dancing gets kinda busy at one point and I still don't quite like the hearty end but maybe it will all come together on TV screen? Video .