Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

The delegations are meeting in Malmö and news are coming little by little so I will add them here. First of all the previsional dates for the next contest, Eurovision 2014, wherever that will take place ware May 13, 15 and 17 so it's the same week as now. Rehearsal schedule has been published and indeed it does look very different from previous years.  From Monday May 6 until Thursday May 9 all the semifinalists will rehearse behind closed doors so to speak, between 10am and 5pm. From Friday 10 the open dress rehearsals start. First on friday the whole first semifinal between midday and 10.30pm. On Saturday it's time for the second semifinalist from midday to 11pm. On Saturday between 10am and 5pm the BIG5+1 rehearses. On Monday and Tuesday it's all about the first semifinalist in late afternoon/evening. On Wednesday between 11am and 4pm the BIG5+1 rehearse again, followed by two run throughs of the second semifinal. Thursday its last dress and the live broadca...

Marco Mengoni is releasing his new album #PRONTOACORRERE that will no doubt shot to #1 in Italy immediately. He's been meeting the press and is practically all over, and this also includes Eurovision websites as Italy finally this morning confirmed his Sanremo winning song L'essenziale as its entry in Malmö 2013. He also speaks for Eurofestival Italia website: " I chose these two songs for Sanremo as they are very different from each other and represant well the album. L'essenziale reflects my deepest roots and it's been very important for me to pick up that song that represents the real and new me." he also declares he is very honored to represent Italy in Eurovision and knows it well, he has been following both Gualazzi's and Zilli's adventures: "I'm watching everything now to study and learn. It's unique, international and incredbile show! Now that the album is finished I will start getting into it seriously. I hope to learn a lot f...

Finally confirmed, Marco mengoni will sing his Sanremo winning entry L'essenziale in Eurovision 2013 in Malmö. This becomes then Italy's 15th Sanremo winner in Eurovision (1956-66, 1972 and 1997).

Apparently Moldova will not sing in English A million as it has been all through the national selection process but the Romanian version O mie , as such it is listed in eurovision.tv's profile. Great! Also Estonia, Croatia, Cyprus, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Iceland, Macedonia, San Marino, Albania, Greece, France, Spain and Israel seem to stick to their national languages. A big hooray to them! Hungary seems to be the only one opting for bilingual version.  And other countries go for English and we don't have some strange things like Latvia singng in Italian and such which is a relief! That's 22,5 for English, 16,5 for the others...

In 2012 they were all over the place penning ... how many was it? nine? eleven? .. songs in Baku and luckily the one written for Sweden itself won after having won for Azerbaijan the year before. This year the Swedish influence isn't that huge. Not that they didn't try, they just didn't win in various national finals which is rather ironic and symbolic as the contest is taking place in Sweden! Russia, Georgia and the Netherlands all rely totally or partly to Swedish writers this year but Anouk is excused, she's been working with the guy already before, while Russia and Georgia clearly have gone shopping. Instead we have some other cross border collaborations: a Finn is involved in Belgium while a Belgian is involved in Belarus instead. Belarus has also British touch to it, as has Armenia. Azerbaijan didn't go to Sweden this year but to Greece while San Marino continues with the German. I'm sure there are other ones but these I noticed with a quick glance. Fee...

The first new country/territory/flag to visit the world of Blogilkar is Mayotte ! I'm first to admit I never heard of it, I'm afraid. That means an extra warm welcome! Thank you for making your mark! That means I have apparently 35 flags yet to collect so anyone going to these places, why not making a visit while there? Most of them seem tropical islands, a few African states yet and... North Korea! Anguilla, British Indian Ocean Territory, Central African Republic, Chad, Christmas island, Cook Islands, Curacao, Equatorial Guinea, Falkland Islands, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kiribati, Lesotho, Micronesia, Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Norfolk island, North Korea, Northern Mariana islands, Palau, Saint Barthlemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Sao Tome and principe, Sint Maarten, South Sudan, Svalbard, Tokelau, Turks and Caicos islands, Tovalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara

Macedonia is the one that has made a fool of itself in this year's selection process taking the crown from Belarus. First they presented Imperija , a song very much liked by the international fan community, it seems. Apparently Macedonians (and Greek) didnt like it that much and within 24 hours it was withdrawn with lame explanations like "the videoclip wasn't good enough". (Is this a song or a video contest, may I ask?). Then a new song was written and later presented, Pred da se razdeni and guess what? Some people liked that even less! And are demanding the previous one back in game... And now it seems the question is open which one they will bring to Eurovision and the mystery will be solved tomorrow in the delegations meeting only....  I almost hope this ricidulous drama will be awarded with a non qualification in Malmö...  What a change when last year they were presented by dignity, elegance and incredible vocal skills and most of all, a lot of good taste ...

This week it's been all about Eurovision videos but something else has been going on. Måns Zelmerlöf has moved away from Cara mia days and his Broken parts shows as a very different Måns. Staying in Sweden we have Robin Stjernberg with Scars , a strong anti-mobbing song and video. Readers of this blog aren't certainly among those nasty people who tease others, right? RIGHT? Lauri Ylönen of The Rasmus is releasing his second solo album later this year and the new offering from it is She's a bomb . The music is what it, is but Lauri is a bomb in it :-) Eros Ramazzotti has started his world tour and this blogger will see him again in Helsinki in May, meanwhile here's his first offering from the new album, Un angelo disteso al sole .

We have the last participant for Eurovision 2013 in Malmö: Aliona Moon for Moldova with A million witten by adorable Pasha Parfeny, last year's funny entrant. Hopefully Ms Moon brings her fabulous dress to malmö, too! And Pasha on piano! And here's the original version, O mie . Boris Covali won the televote followed by Aliona but the jury preferred Aliona putting Boris only third so it was done:

Here it is. Since September 2012 we have been picking up names, national selections, semifinals, second chances, internal selections, changed songs, gossip, speculation, rumors and now it all comes to an end. This blogger alone has followed at least 23 finals or presentations, countless semifinals, over 22 hours of Sanremo festival live.... Somehow I'm happy it's over for another year! :-) It seems Macedonia has settled with this and Italy needs to confirm their song but the very last real national final takes place in Moldova, giving us the last piece of the puzzle that is the Eurovision song contest 2013. And the Moldovan final isn't bad at all! My favorite is Boris but if Aliona or Cristina Scarlat wins, that's ok, too. And I can live with Croitoru & Karizma, too, even if does lack a lot of charisma... The show starts at 19.00 CET and can be watched at eurovision.tv Boris Covali – Runaways Aliona Moon – A million Doiniţa Gherman – Planeta e un rai Vit...

More videos have been released today. Malta's Gianluca Bezzina's Tomorrow has got a very nice video. Nice retro vibe and coloring! Another Island, Iceland has the opposite setting: frozy northern seas and poor Eyþór all alone in high seas with his Ég á Líf ... Russia's Dina Garipova's video for What if is very simple but for that also effective. Russia is a real contender this year once again! Today's main event was however San Marino. Valentina Monetta presented her Crisalide to adoring ans all over Europe....

Up, up, up... that seems to be the destiny of Crisalide , the Sammarinese entry this year. . The year of the snake promised us big changes and here we go; after the pope resigning, Chavez dying all of sudden everyone seems to love a Ralph Siegel song! What else does this year have in store for us? And I have been among admires of this song ever since I heard it some time back. Valentina is great, the song is nicely nostalgic Italian pop song and the presentation on stage will be ... well, fitting? Both Valentina and San Marino have really broken the crysalis and turned into a beautiful butterfly to admire, nicely fitting to the theme of Malmö 2013. Well done and complimenti!

San Marino will present its entry tonight 20.25 (watch in eurovision.tv) but you can hear it already here .

The date for confirming the songs is near and the official videos for the selected songs are flooding the internet. This morning we have Belgium's Roberto Bellarosa with Love kills ... Yesterday Spain's ESDM presented their revamped Contigo hasta el final .... Also France presented their video yesterday, sassy Amandine Bourgeois and L'enfer et moi Greece released its video a couple of days ago for Koza Mostra ft Agathon Iakovides and Alcohol is free ... A lot of moustache action in that one... Tonight the main event is of course San Marino when 20.25 Valentina Monetta's Crisalide will be presented (also on eurovision.tv). Also Macedonia should unveil their new song, and the Russian and Icelandic videos should be out.... and maybe the Italian entry.

More qualifiers in Moldova. The very last ones for this season 2013, how time flies! It's almost over! The freaky thong made it, and this second semi was won by the local CatCat or Paola & Chiara, Crisitina & Karizma. The final will take place on Saturday night and give us the last entry for the Eurovision 2013.... unless Italy keeps as still waiting for the confirmation on the song until later. Cristina Croitoru & Karizma – Never Fall Again Cristina Scarlat – I Pray Tatiana Heghea – A Brighter Day Nicoleta Gavriliţă – Freaky Thong Irina Kitoroagă – L.o.v.e. Love Aurel Chirtoacă – Iartă-Mă Anna Gulko – Somebody Else

I guess it's hard again. Who see ft Nina Zizic presented their song Igranka tonight and I'm a bit buzzled. It's nice it's different, mind you I even liked their entry last year by Rambo Amadeus that was a much more demanding than this one. Certainly stands out in the first semifinal and who knows...

No surprise and happy ending. Farid Mammadov won the Azeri national selection tonight with Hold me in a final that wént down in history what comes to singing false, out of tune and with bad English. None of the ten finalists escaped both of them, someone managed to sing in tune, and someone else in pretty good English. Farid clearly had the best combination and was a clear winner. Leyla Oliyeva has a quite good song, Welcome to the sun as did Rovana Oliyeva with Big time. She was maybe the one that got closest of singing well, pronouncing well and even performing well. But Farid is a good choice anyways. Oh, and do we want to talk about the camerawork?

Bonnie Tyler has revealed she was asked back in 1983 to represent UK in the Eurovision. But she was having a worldwide success with Total eclipse of the hear t and was too busy in the USA where the song also topped the charts for four weeks to do it. Wrong timing. But now she proud and honored to do it and believes Believe in me has the right title and ingredients to do well. "I'm still having success in Europe. I expect some votes from Germany, France and Scandinavia to start with. I hope I can win it, at least I'm gonna give my best shot!" She is known for her leather outfits but for the Eurovision we won't be seeing leather pants, Welch designer Julien MacDonald will take care of that. Bonnie admits being a fan of reality shows like X Factor and also follows Eurovision. "I watched Eurovision last year from my place in Portugal. I think Engelbert had a bad night. I don’t think the song was the best for him. It didn’t have any oomph. " She counts...

This is fabulous! I always liked You and me and may be written that it could win the whole thing last year, but a lot has changed then, including their image and uniforms. Anyways, Heilsarmee is now Takasa, that officially means "pure" in swahili or something. You can also read it The Artist Known As Salvation Army - brilliant! The uniforms are gone and they have a pure and innocent look now. The song is still fantastic and the video the best this year so far! Back to the top contenders! Trés sympa indeed, or molto simpatico!

Marco Mengoni has released Non me ne accorgo , another song released before the album #PRONTOACORRERE. Obviously the rumors and speculation started if this would be the song for Malmö 2013 Eurovision. It's a very good one, but I'd still prefer L'essenziale over this and Bellissimo and Non passerai , the other songs released already from the album. One thing is for sure: it's going to be a very good album! And L'essenziale is nearing 7 million views.... We should know within days what is the song he will bring, one of these or yet another one... With further listening I would add after all Non me ne accorgo with L'essenziale to the top post :-) I didn't realize how good it is first ;-p

The Belgian entrant Roberto Bellarosa was in Helsinki to revamp his Love kills with Jukka Immonen in Fried Studios ( read more here ). And indeed it sound pretty good. It seems most eurofans hate this song for reasons unknown to me - unless they judge someone who is singing 10am on a Sunday morning with a flu some demos only, like the Belgian selection was handled - but I always had a soft spot for this song. When it was selected I thought it will be ok but will be shadowed by other entries later on, but now with all the songs selected, it sound all of sudden very good, POP. Something that is missing this year....

So, here it is, the much anticipated French entry by Amandine Bourgeois, L'enfer de moi . Not exactly what I was waiting for, I'm afraid but... Not bad. My first thought was it certainly is another song suffering from the La Zilli effect this year, and the second made me think of another Nina, namely Morato and her Je suis un vrai garçon . Don't know why really but it did. Morato did reasonable well but then in those days France still did always well before they lost it completely. At least it stands out if she's good on stage and if France won't do the usual mistake and turn it into a nonsense circus act.... She's seems sassy enough alone!

Moldova will be the last country this year to have it's national final this Saturday. Tonight they had their first semifinal and the second one will follow on Thursday, it's like the real Eurovision week! Hooray! 12 songs were performed and five were kicked out tonight. Quite frankly I haven't paid much attention to them but here are the qualifiers: Boris Covali - Runaways Aliona Moon - A million   Doinitsa Gherman - Planeta e un Rai   Negruta Vitalie - You 'll be mine Felicia Dunaf - Codename Felice Cristina V & Glam Girls - Celebrate Svetlana Bogdanova - Conquer my heart     I think I like most Runaways against all odds, it's the Swedish sounding song we don't have in Eurovision yet this year!

Krista Siegfrids returned to her hometown Kaskinen today Tuesday and got a royal welcome. She received the key to the town, the school kids sung for her, Team Ding Dong cakes and More is more biscuits were available. Tomorrow she will film her postcard with SVT for Eurovision 2013 in Malmö. "This is awessome" she told "so many people came to meet me. I lived in Kaskinen for 18 years and this will always be my hometown. It's the smallest town in Finland and I think also the prettiest! And this is my party! " More about Kaskinen, that will be featured in the postcard here .

Lordi has released their sixth stuido album To beast and not to beast and it enters the official Finnish album charts at #8. This continues their top-10 album series without a miss: In 2002 their debut Get heavy went to #2 (and later in 2006 #1 in midprice charts), in 2004 The monsterican dream to #4 (and in 2006 #2 in midprice charts), 2006 The Arockalypse went to #1 and stayed in the top-40 for 55 weeks. After Eurovision fever was over, their next album Deadache in 2008 went to #5 and to years later Babez for breakfast to #9. And now, To beast or not to beast debuts better than babez at #8. Their latest single is The Riff .