Anne Marie David won the Eurovision 1973 for Luxembourg with Tu te reconnaitrais. I admit I never knew she did an Italian version of it as well, Non si vive di paura . Great stuff! And while we are at it here's the Finnish version by Katri Helena.
In all this Lena-mania it is easy to forget Satellite was performed also by Jennifer Braun in the national final and has now been also released on a single. More laidback and totally different in atmosphere I like it a lot. Maybe even more than Lena's one even though I must admit Lena makes the song stand out. Here . What do you think?
Stockholm is filled with Love this week in preparations for the royal wedding on Saturday afternoon. Amonst many festivities Kungsträdgården hosts concerts every night and already Friday Carola and Cookies n Beans amongst others performed there. Saturday it was time for Alexander Rybak , Annelie Rydé, Sanna Nielsen and Shirley Clamp. Last night no Eurovision or Melodifestivalen artists involved but tonight it's Darin and Idol 2009 winner Erik Grönwall . Darin just visited Finland this Saturday on his tour and has recently said he won't take part in Melodifestivalen again. For now. Ask again in 20 years or so! Stay tuned for daily updates as BlogIlkar joins in the celebrations for the wedding of schlager fan Victoria!
Dima Bilan's efforts to conquer the world continue. This time with a little help by Anastacia in song Safety . Let's see if this will finally become a hit.... Anastacia is no stranger for duets. She already di I belong to you with Eros Ramazzotti. And as the FIFA wolrd cup is on at the moment did you remember she did the official song in 2002, Boom ?
Lena's Satellite has reached the European top-100 number one spot - it's the first time an Eurovision winner makes that. She climbs from last week's 18th position. And it's not only. The French entry is up 35 places to #6, the Belgian one 37 places up to #27 and Azerbaijan enters at #68. And the iTunes charts are filled with Eurovision songs all over Eurovision. Who sais Eurovision is passé? (Pippo Baudo and other fossils at RAI, wake up!)
And I have conquered Helsinki last night. Again. Or something like that she could say this morning at breakfast. She was fabulous! I must say I have never been a fan of hers (until now) but as she was performing right after Nina Hagen I thought to check her out and if Nina was a bit disappointing in the end (and don't even mention Whitney two days earlier) Miss Jones made it all up for them. She sung all the songs I know from her and very well I may add. The holahooped Slave to the rhythm is just hypnotic. The outfits are something Lady Gaga can only try to imitate (even if Jones this time was very sober, maybe just to make a statement as she had been commenting on Lady Gaga earlier, and not so nicely.) She was funny in the speaks in between, twitty and just a bit nasty as one is when one is a diva - yet she came across like the nicest person in the world. Absolutely stunning in every way. Photogallery
Nina Hagen did her thing in Kaisafest in Helsinki last night. The pouring rain stopped before she took the stage in a huge tent and it all started off pretty nicely with her version of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus and soon came also Atomic Flash deluxe and The Doors cover Riders in the storm .... then it was a very long wait for something that didn't have Jesus, God, Lord or similar in the text and that wasn't weird Jesus country folk music. My way got people wild in the end and we were expecting an encore part with some goodies but no. More acoustic Jesus country folk! People had been already shouting "No more Jesus" while waiting for the encore and when some more Jesus followed most people started heading another way and Nina's musical director kindly whispered her ear it's enough and took her off stage and it was over. Hallelujah I said! Oh jeez... I was happy to see Nina finally but ... Atomic flash deluxe and My way didn't made up for fe...
Franco Battiato is organizing a charity concert, Note di merito, in Auditorium Parco della musica in Rome on June 25. He will be joined on stage by Alice, trio Marina Rei-Carmen Consoli-Paola Turci, Etta Scollo, Radiodervish and Roberto Cacciapaglia. The orchestra will be conducted by Paolo Buonvino. Tickets here . Here are some videos from the stars: La cura , Luci lontane , Pirati a Palermu , Musa , Fiori d'arancio , Attraversami il cuore, Voglio vederti danzare , Open your eyes
Today's the day! Nina Hagen finally live in my life! Hip hip hurrah die Ufos sind da! She seems to have gone a bit godly and covering Nick Drake ltely and her new album is called Personal Jesus . I have no idea what to expect from the concert but if she does Frühling in Pari s I'll be overjoyed! Croissaint pour moi! La la laa! Grace Jones returned to the charts in 2008 with Corporate cannibal and Hurricane . Let's see how the concert turns out!
We all know by now that Lena's Satellite is in the charts all over the place from Australia to Austria, but did you know it is only the 7th Eurovision winner that hits #1 in Finland? And for the first time two Eurovision winners in a row make it? (Well, I personally think one can't compare today's digital charts to those good old days when you had to go and buy the physical single but that's another story....). Germany is also the only country that has managed to make two of its winners #1's in Finland and it took her only 5 days while it took 3 weeks for Rybak last year... Anyways, between 1971-1984 all the winners were charting in Finland, and with one exception all of them also made the top-10. The biggest of them all is though France's last winner L'oiseau et l'enfant by Marie Myriam as the song also charted in two different Finnish cover versions, by Katri Helena and Merja Rantamäki . Here are all the Eurovision winner number ones in Finland: ...
First of all I have to say Finns are wonderful. Whereas Danish and Norwegians were booing at her, walked away and deserted her on her misery on stage, the Finns cheered and couraged her to go and awarded her with big applause when she hit those high notes (rarely) and generally supported her through the painful sounding concert. All the way to the encore, even if the arena was half empty by then but the other half was even noisier than the full house when we wanted more. Despite all. It would have been a fantastic show; the right songs from her 25 years old repertoire, nice stage, good band and backing singers, full house and a Diva. One thing was though missing and that's the voice. Mostly she sounded like a drunk guy going through puperty but one must give her credit: she tried. She really did. But that makes me think only one thing: Who let her on the road? I blame her manager, her hangers on, and her mixer (her voice was way too loud in the arena, and made the experienc...
In mid 1980'sm Nina Hagen was ecstatic with song like Universalles radio , Die Ufos sind da , Russischer reggae , 1985 Ecstacy drive . Atomic flash de luxe and My way . Grace Jones was Not perfect (But perfect for you )
Tonight's the night and Whitney's here (I hope). Here are some less known Whitney songs I like: Tell me no , I got you, For the lovers , Worth it , and finally One moment in time . Coming up comments and hopefully photos....
In 1983-1984 Nina Hagen went disco with hits like New York, New York , Zarah , Fruhling in Paris and I love Paul . And of course fantastic World now . Grace Jones also became Slave to the rhythm
Helsinki's Senate Square hosts two special events during Helsinki Week. On Friday June 11 Turku will present itself as one of the two Culture Capital of Europe in 2011 and on Sunday 13 it's the other one's turn: Tallinn. Headlining the event is Malcolm Lincoln described as "Estonian electropop on the edge of success". Malcolm Lincoln represanted Estonia in the Eurovision with Siren failing to make the final, and their debut album and new single is called Loaded with zoul.
France's mission in Eurovision 2010 was rather than winning to score a megasummerhit and at least that's done in France, it seems, as Allez ola olé hits number one in the Top-100. That's the first time since 1984 (since the charts have been counted the same way and therefor usable) a French Eurovision song goes to number one. Both Je n'ai que mon ame (2001) and White and black blues (1990) went to number two. And that's for the pysical single that debuted in France last week at #11 and went to #1 in the second week. And as the football world cup is starting next week it's easy to predict song's success will just continue et voilá here's our summerhit! Meanwhile the digital single is in Top-5 on iTunes in Germany, Greece, Luxembourg and Finland, and in Top-10 also in Norway and Belgium. Pretty good for a French entry and considering the huge success of another Big4 country (and winner) Germany no one can blame anymore that they can't do well for wh...
Early 1980's Nina Hagen recorded several classics like Antiworld , Smack Jack , Future is now , Born in Xixax , Cosma Shiva and UFO for her fantastic Nonsexmonkrock album. Grace Jones sung about My Jamaican guy .
Lordi's 5th album Babez for breakfast will be released in September in Europe, Japan and USA. The first single This is heavy metal will come out already in August. The album has been recorded in Nashville and takes them "back to basics and beyond", as Mr Lordi says. It's more rocking and melodic, with the usual touch of horror filled with energy, emotion and entertainment. The band will also have new masks for the new album as always and they will be revealed later.
Carola's song Det är bara vi for the Swedish royal wedding on June 19, 2010 has been released on iTunes . The single will be available only digitally (for now at least) Watch Carola, Victoria and Daniel here . UPDATE : The song made it to #3 in the Swedish iTunes and is now in charts in Finland at #29 and in Norway at #128. According her management it will not be released as a physical single but will be featured in her worthcoming album!
Nina Hagen released two albums with her band in 1978 and 1979 with songs like TV-Glotzer , Fisch in Wasser , Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo , African reggae and Fall in love mit mir . Grace Jones instead continued with some covers, like Private life and Breakdown .
Two more days and she'll be in Helsinki. Tonight she's in Stockholm. And here are some more Whitney hits: Greatest love of all , I wanna dance with somebody , I'm your baby tonight and Whatchulookinat
Blogilkar guest writer Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports: Spanish 2008 and 2010 runner up Coral Segovia has been profiting her last moments of glory in the Spanish press before and after Eurovision Song Contest. The day before the Big Final she was interviewed by the Spanish daily "El Mundo" where she announced that even though it hurts, she will never try again for Eurovision Song Contest due to the big disappointments and all the broken dreams in the last 5 years . She also said that Spanish television does not take the contest seriously at all "it is like if a freak played for the national football team" , she stated making mention (hopefully) to Roberto Chiquilikuatre. The cherry on the cake arrived when she was asked to give her opinion about Daniel Diges and "Algo Pequeñito". She said with a smile on her face "I would rather keep that opinion to myself". But the real polemics started when Coral was mentioned by the Swedish commentator just ...
After Whitney Houston I'm going to see Nina Hagen and Grace Jones. Did someone mention I'm very versatile? Nina Hagen started already 36 years ago with schlager Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen but soon became the queen of punk worldwide. But she's also trained operasinger as you can hear in Total eclipse and generally just lovely & mad like in Blumen fur die Damen or Seeman . Grace Jones started in 1976 with I need a man and scored a megahit with La vie en rose the year after. A few years later Pull up to the bumper and I have seen that face before were megahits. And here's null problema with Nina!
Serbia's Milan Stankovic surely didn't pass unnoticed in the Eurovision 2010 in Oslo. He gets the prestigious Barbara Dex award for the worst dressed performer and therefor join Adók Zoli, Gisela, Verka Serduchka, Nonstop. Martin Vucic, Sanda Ladosi, t.A.T.u, Michalis Rakintzis, Piacek, Natalie Sorce, Lydia, Guildo Horn and Debbie Sherri in the hostory books with this . Hic! Hop hop!
