Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

This is the time of the year we get national final news almost daily and today we get Estonia. Here are the semifinalists in Eesti laul 2011: • Rolf Roosalu – All & now • Victoria – Baby had you • Noorkuu – Be my saturday • Jana Kaask – Don’t want anything • Ithaka Maria – Hoppa-Pa-Rei • Outlondz – I wanna meet Bob Dylan • Laika Virgin feat. Fredy Schmidt – Ilusand inimesed • Uku Suviste – Jagatod öö • Elmayonesa – Kes ei tantsi, on politsei • Ans Andur – Lapsed ja lennukid • Kait Tamra – Lubadus • Janne Saar – Meeting the Wolf • Sofia Ruhina – My Melody • Sopruse puiestee & Merili Varik – Rahu, ainult, rahu • Getter Jaaani – ? • MID – Smile • Shirubi Ikazuchi – St. Cabah • Mimicry – The Storm • Jaan Pehk – Valss • Marilyn Jurman & Karl Kanter – Veel on aega One more song will be announced as one of the songs selected has been disqualified, namely Elmayonesa, an Argentinian living in Spain and therefor against the rules that state the artists must be r...

Waldo's People's new single Jackpot enters the Finnish official Top-20 at #19 this week.....

Raab, Rakers, Engelke. Three names, three hosts for Eurovision 2011 in Dusseldorf. We all know who Stefan Raab is. He states being very happy and has a lot of Eurovision experience already: he represanted Germany in 2000 with Wadde hadde dudde da? and also wrote the German entries in 1998 and 2004. He also played a big part in the 2010 entry and eventual victory for Germany. Judith Rakers is one of the faces of NDR and is also a radio host and TV writer. Last but not least Anke Engelke, a Canadian born, award winning actress and singer. Like Raab both ladies are thrilled and claim to be real Eurovision fans themselves!

Latvian TV has published the songs that will compete in two semifinals and second chance round tryin gto reach the final. Eirodziesma 2011 will take place on 2011. Listen to the songs here . Juris Ludženieks - Beautiful World   Elīna Krastiņa-Grence - Look Back At Me Again  Oksana Ļepska - Live On!  Lauris Reiniks - Banjo Laura  Agnese Rakovska (Triānas parks) - Upside Down  Dace Upīte - Magnet  Crazy Dolls - Positively Thinking  Marats Ogļezņevs, Emīls Balceris - Angel In Disguise  Ģirts Zebuliņš, Atis Zviedris (Flame) - Rough Enough  Kaspars Tīmanis un Labvēlīgais tips - Daylight  Emīls Balceris - Let Me Be   Ivo Grīsniņš-Grīslis - Cinderella  Dace Upīte, Nikolajs Puzikovs - It’s Not Easy   Liene Bronuša (Candy) - Love Is Like An Aeroplane  Evija Sloka - Don’t Stop The Dance   Ineta Rudzīte, Uldis Timma - Walking On My Tiptoes   The Secretz - Summer Night   Pieneņu vīns - You Are  Jānis Stībel...

Next Fridat, December 17 sees the release of Miodio's debut album Avantgarde. As Friday the 17th in Italy is like Friday the 13th elsewhere it is a rather unusual choice but let's hope the guys turn it into luck! Eleven tracks from the past few years including their debut single It's ok , Eurovision entry Complice , Sanremo 2009 and 2010 tries Evoluzione genetica and Perdo contatto amingst them. The new single is Rock'n roll robots .

RAI has announced the nine names that will be fighting their way to the stage of Teatro Ariston in a casting show in Domenica in hosted by Lorella Cuccarini from Dicember 20, 2010 to January 29, 2011. Six of these hopeful will join Roberto Amadé and Gabriella Ferrone, already selected. Quite a nice mix of songs I must say including jazz and rap. Serena Abrami - Lontano da tutto BTwins (Eraldo and Giuseppe Di Stefano) - Mi rubi l'amore Anansi (Stefano Bannò) - Il sole dentro Raphael Gualazzi - Follia d'amore Infranti Muri - Contro i giganti Marco Menichini - Tra tegole e cielo Micaela Foti - Fuoco e cenere Neks (Frederico Granaldi) - Occhi Le Strische - Vieni a vivere a Napoli

Anna Rossinelli won the Swiss final last Saturday charming the jurors and televoters alike (and me) but as soon as the TV cameras were switched off the usual Eurovision-like troubles started. Several local papers wrote the Swiss (or the reporters in question?) didn't like Anna so much, blaming she's just a copy of Lena, including her dress, song, movements... "They say I perform like Lena " she comments "but I am just like her : a young girl who sings. I'm not a copy. My dress may be similar but it's just a simple black dress. I'm just a simple girl like Lena. I guess I should be flattered as I think she is very good and I can't wait to meet her! "  Ok, done with that more trouble: this time they blame her song is plagiation of Colbie Caillats hit Bubbly from 2007. And again Anna is quick to answer: "I was told so many times yesterday. When that song came out in 2007 I hardly noticed it. Bubbly is a nice song but mine is completely diff...

The reigning Tango King Marko Maunuksela will participate in Euroviisut 2011 with Synkän maan tango , or Tango of a gloomy land. Doen't sound very bright, does it? But then it's written by Mika Toivanen who also wrote Takes two 2 tango . The couple met during Tangomarkkinat and Marko's debut album also includes a couple of collaborations. But the whole thing is becoming a sort of tribute for Tangomarkkinat as Marko will be joined on stage by his runner up this year, Suvi Karjula, Tango Queen 2008 Hanna Talikainen, Tango Queen 2004 Johanna Debreczeni, Tango prince Esa Nummela and bandoneon artist Petri Ikkelä. "If we should win the songs stays in Finnish also in Germany. I have alsways been singing in Finnish and it would feel unnatural to change language at this point" Marko tells. He also proclaim himself as Eurovision fan." It is a must. I remember The Herrey's winning with Diggi-loo diggi-ley and that song was included in the very first C-cassette I r...

All 32.000 tickets seem to have been sold by 17.20, so in about 5-6 hours. Did you get one? Makes me remember Helsinki 2007 when the tickets were sold in about 13 minutes and I was the very last one in my line to get one! The line behind me was still very very long....

Etelä-Karjalan museo in Lappeenranta, near the Russian border in south-east Finland is still hosting an exhibition titled Rautaa rajalta featuring amongst others some memorabilia from artists from that region. Included is of course city's leading lady Hanna Pakarinen. You can see the dress and the Kalevala koru's jewels she wore in Helsinki 2007 until January 2, 2011. If you are around go have a look! And to see that look in action click here . (The video is especially fond for me as I get my nanosecond of Eurovision videotime in it, lol)

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports: The three live shows to select the Spanish performer/s in Düsseldorf kicked out with a huge attendance success on 24th and 27th November in Madrid and 29th November in Barcelona. There is no official facts about the number of candidates but the some of the contestants in Madrid had a sticker with a number higher than 7000. Candidates had to perform one Eurovision song and the most covered one was (of course) Bailar Pegados - Bravo creativity! Other contestants were for more non-ordinary songs like the classics Al fin del Camino or Yo soy Aquel, Waterloo more acutal ones like Is it True, Fairytale or It's my time but the jaw dropping entry was Milim ! Wow people is taking this serious, Alberto recorded recently a Spanish cover of Milim , the song was airplayed all around Israel and even Harel himself congratulated him for the performance and adaption. Will Alberto be the next one?  Another of the candidates was David Belardo the onl...

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports: Sergio Dalma has been rewarded with a gold disc after achieving more than 50.000 sales from his last album Via Dalma . The album is a compilation of 12 italian classic hits, adapted and translated in Spanish. Il piccolo Cutugno as Toto introduced Sergio Dalma in Rome after his performance has been always the perfect physical and vocal profile to perform this kind of hits. The lead single is Umberto Tozzi's Tú . Other songs feature songs by Riccardo Cocciante, Sandro Giacobbe, Claudio Baglioni and even Alice's Por Elisa . Sergio has been recording covers of Italian hits throughout his career and is fairly known also in Italy.  Unfortunately Sergio did not pick up the best place to receive the award; the trash/camp show Salvame from the horrendous TV sender Tele-5, the same show that tried to boicot Eurovision Song Contest 2009 by promoting Karmele entry Soy un Tsunami . Actually they tried again but this time TVE was wiser than before...

"An important message to those who are buying tickets to the Final! Due to extremely high demand and despite the large capacity, there is a limit to the amount of traffic the platform can handle per hour, so keep trying! Tickets are available for German ánd foreign fans. Buy through www.dticket.de , the *only* official ticket partner! There are *no* other ticket partners, so be careful of scams!"   So is the statement. Once again the ticket sales didn't go smoothly and zillions of fans are being frustrated, angry and ready to burn down EBU and the host broadcaster cursing the whole country of Germany. So, what else is new? Doesn't this happen every year? As I'm not going all I can do is yawn to all of this.... :-)

Anna Rossinelli will sing In love for awhile for Switzerland in Eurovision 2011 in Germany. UPDATE 15.12.2010: Here are the full results: 1. Anna Rossinelli 2. Bernarda Brunovic 3. Ilira & The Colors 4. Ch 5. The Glue, 6. Sarah Burgess 7. Aliose 8. Polly Duster 9. Andrina 10. Scilla 11. Duke 12. Dominique Borriello

The Swiss final has just started and you can follow it here . Enjoy the show. I'll be back later for comments and results. meanwhile I play the trumpet .... Polly Duster kicked the show off with a very energetic performance. One can see they are a real party band and the kilts fit the image. Not bad. Next some gansta rap in suit: Duke . I like this pop rap and Daniela Simons makes an appearance as well. After these two rather enjoyable entries time for Andrina that I find for some reason very annoying... Bernarda belts out her gospel inspired simple song next nearly reaching the climax in the end. Still rather boring I'm afraid. Extra points for the classic ESC chorists! Great movements! Took me back to the 1980's in a second! Another simple little tune (but in a good way) next by Anna Rossinelli who turns out to be a very charming girl! Do I have a new suprise favourite here now? Aliose follows with some 1970's chanson that could have been the Luxembourgish entr...

Another week of singing all sort of songs in Azerbaijan is over and a blondie called Arzum Xelilova earned the ticket for the final. Her pretty fantastic version of Secret combination alone merits the qualification, if not for any other reason but the pronunciation! Beats Kalomira any day! During the week it was also announced Nicola Barcley got a free pass for the final for reasons beyond my knowledge.

Switzerland kicks off the national finals season tomorrow. A total of 12 songs selected by the local radios in various languages and open internet and radio voting. Sadly, Vittoria Hyde with her Play the trumpet was disqualified as relistening the chosen ones it really stood out and would have been my one and only favourite. What is left is very solid pack: I tried to give the usual one to five stars to each song and ended up giving 2-3 to each one. Sarah Burges seems to be a bit of a fan favourite but the little birds tell she's having some vocal problems, let's see (or hear) how it goes in the end. Her song is anyways a bit poor girl's Pink - without balls. Scilla is pretty nice but how convincing she will be live? The Glue also seems to be getting a lot of attention but I have never been a fan of accapella so... Some weird reason I kinda like Duke but is it only because it's maybe a bit better produced and finished than the rest? Most of the songs we have heard are ...

Another rumour is that BBC will send Charlotte Church (24) for UK. The other names in game were Pixie Lott and Kathrine Jenkins. Charlotte Church was classical singing wonder kid selling over 11 million albums by the time she was 21. She has just released her first album in five years Back to scratch trying to break into pop world. She is also known for her not-so-diplomatic statements like "People over-dramatise and lose perspective" after the September 11, calling Pope Benedict XVI "nazi" and on a lighter tune calling the UK 2007 Eurovision entry Schootch "shit". She has also hosted her own self named long running TV show. Her latest single is The Logical world and here she is ten year ago singing Just wave hello . 

This week there has been many rumours running wild in internet and one of them is that Emmy will represant Armenia in Eurovision 2011. She didn't win this year when she sung with Mihran the rather horrendous  Hey (Let me hear you say) . (And I was very fine with that, I might say and happy with Eva Rivas) Her mother made a big fuss about it.... will she get her revenge this time? UPDATE 11.12.2010: It's been confirmed today that it will be indeed Emmy. Oh well. ..

Namely as one of the writers for the new song for Anders Fernette called Run . Fernette's planned entry Don't stop , co-written bt N'Sync's JC Chasez turned out to be breaking the September 1 rule. Desmond Child is along with Dianne Warren (Eurovision UK 2009) one of the most succesful and productive writers and producers in the world penning countless hits to names like Cher , Michael Bolton , Bon Jovi , Aerosmith , Alice Cooper , Kiss , Ricky Martin , LeAnn Rymes and so on. He has also produced the latest album of Finnish The Rasmus .... He has written over 70 US Top-40 hits and sold some 300 million albums. I have always had a soft spot for both Child and Warren as they - unlike most American music today - have catchy melodies and some what European sound and artists that I like. Here are some more songs he has written.

Good heavens it's not Eurovision 2012! Yet Germans managed to put 4 times 12 in the game: the ticket sale for the Eurovision 2011 starts next Sunday, December 12 at 12.12 CET. On DTicket .de only. A total of 35.000 tickets for the final from 89 euros to 189 euros are available. The semifinal tickets will be sold in January when we know which countries will be in which semifinal. Good point and finally happening!!

Apparently also San Marino - along with Hungary and Montenegro - is amongst the countries that have applied for the Eurovision song contest 2011. This trio has until December 25 to decide if they really go on with it or will they stay home after all. Who would have thought a few months ago we would have both Italy and San Marino back in Eurovision? Now this is what I call a Christmas gift! San Marino's only participation was in 2008 with Miodio's Complice . Great track that very unfairly was left 19th in its semifinal with only 5 points.... Italy did much better in its last participation in 1997. Jalisse's Fiumi di parole was 4th. Will Italy and San Marino become the new Greece and Cyprus exchanging the 12s every year? :-)

Out of the blue Swedish band The Ark who represanted Sweden in the Helsinki 2007 Eurovision with The worrying kind announced they are done. The band has been together since 1991. The will start their farewell tour from Finland on March 3 and 4, 2011. The tour is titled Arkeology Tour MMXI .

Finnish legend Kari Tapio (65) died suddenly in Espoo today. He came second in Euroviisut 2008 with Valaise yö. He has scored dozens of hits over the past 40 years. One of his most known songs in a cover of Toto Cutugno's L'Italiano, titled Olen suomalainen (I'm a Finn) that has become almost a national anthem. Kari Tapio released his first album in 1974 but only his 7th album Olen suomalainen  in 1983 brought him his first gold album. In all he released 29 albums, latest being gold selling Vieras paratiisissa (2010). He has also released 15 compilations over the years and the album sales are around one million gaining his 19 gold discs, 9 platinum discs and one multiplatinum, Myrskyn jälkeen (1995). His only #1 album is Kuin taivaisiin (2007). He won iskelmä-Finlandia in 2003 and Emma for the best male artist in 2006. He's described for having the "Blue and white voice", just like Katri Helena, two real icons of Finnish popular music. His passing has ...

Daniel Motiño Camúñez reports: The German girl band Monrose decided to put an end to the group and start solo careers; Mandy, Senna and Bahar disband after 4 years being the most popular German popstars band after No Angels. Monrose was born from the casting show Popstars , the same that created No Angels. They managed to bring popularity and high audiences back to the show after six years of failed bands unable to hit the charts since only No Angels achieved great success.The band was genuine since its begin, although being a German group its three members had Italian, Moroccan and Turkish origins framing the German society of the moment. Their first album Tempation went through number one on sales together with their single Shame , which also represented Germany in the Polish festival of Sopot in 2007 but failed to get the victory.  With Even heaven cries , they tried to enter Eurovision Song Contest, despite of being the big favorites, the great performance and ...