Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Whatever happens Madcraft will propably be shining bright next summer in all music festivals and in gigs all over Finland. They seem funny, colorful, adorable and their bubble gum punk pop easy enough for wider audience. In Eurovision one thinks of Andorran Anonymous , or Last Panda in UMK 2013. The band's been playing since 2010 and now more than 100 gigs, 2 EPs, a few singles and videos later is to become a household name. The boys (Tom Nuorivaara in vocals and guitars, Juho Rinne in guitar and vocals, Jesse Mäläskä in bass and vocals and Otto Uotila in drums and vocals) reside in Helsinki even if none is from the city originally. And what's the story with Bam Margera? Read it here . The boys do their own music, film their own videos, design their covers.... Their influences include All Time Low, Blink 182 and Limp Bizkit. Oh, oh, oh, ooh oh! Will Finland have a slogan to shout around like ding dong last time again? Time will tell. Like their Facebook here , their w...

Nina Zilli has confirmed in her Facebook she's not going to be in Sanremo 2014. Instead she will be watching it from her home sofa with pop corn, soda and other sweets. "I would have adored to be there, yes, but I'm behind with work. The new album will be released only later in next spring...." Nina Zilli took part in Sanremo 2010 in newcomers category with L'uomo che amava le donne . She didn't win but got the Mia Martini critics' award and was the moral winner. In 2012 she was back in Big category with Per sempre and was chosen my a special jury to represent Italy in Baku 2012 Eurovision with L'amore è femmina .

Marco Mengoni takes another crown before this incredible 2013 is over for him: his concert from Rimini on New Year's eve will be broadcasted live on Canale 5. The big New Year's eve variety shows have been a battle by RaiUno and Canale 5 for years and usually Canale 5 has lost it. I suspect they won't this year! The concert starts at 10pm in Rimini's Piazza Fellini and will lead Italians to 2014. As a warm up his concert #prontoacorrerelive from Taormina, Sicily this summer will be broadcasted on Italia1 on December 20, 2013. After New Year's he will retire from the spotlight to work in his next album. RaiUno is having a Carlo Conti conducted show live from Courmayeur with guests, including musical acts Moreno, Gigi D'Alessio, Anna Tatangelo, Karima, the Voice winner Elhaida Dani and Paola Iezzi (of Paola & Chiara). It seems like a battle lost.... :-)

The deejays of Radio Deejay in Italy have recorded their Christmas song with the help of Marco Mengoni and J-Ax, you can watch it here . Merry Christmas everyone - despite of that!

Maltese Kurt Calleja has released his debut album Love on Mars that features of course his Eurovision 2012 entry This is the night as well as his 2011 Eurovision wannabe Over and over , remixes of both as well as the other singles Boomerang , Leap of faith and the title track Love on Mars .  This blogger has always been fond of Kurt, somehow he comes across very likable besides having a great voice :-) And the album follows in the tracks of This is the night and should please anyone who likes Melodifestivalen kind of pop... We also had a chance to interview him last year, read it here .  Get the album from here . Listen a sampler here .

Tomorrow the 14 Big names will be announced live in TV news at 13.30 local time. The speculations are running wild as there are rumors of some very big names entering the race at very last minute. However, those who know usually have cut the list to 22, and it will be interesting to see tomorrow how right they are - who is among those eight left out, and if there will be names in outside the list?! Out of the Eurovision veterans we have Alice, Raphael Gualazzi and Enrico Ruggeri listed. Besides them previous Sanremo winners include Alex Britti, Dolcenera and Antonio Maggio (of Newcomers), Francesco Renga and Ron (of Big). All are bringing two songs so there might be even guest artists for one of the songs, like Mietta is rumored as Renga's duet partner! Alex Britti is supposed to be in duet with Bianca Atzei while another duet is also listed: Violante Placido and Roberto Dell'Era . Sanremo was won in 1987 by a trio Morandi-Ruggeri-Tozzi and there could be anoth...

Lili Lambert (33), born Jenni Isoviita, previously known as Jepa as with that name she took part in the Voice of Finland . She's been singing all her life gospel and soul, and you can hear it her voice. She's also been working as backing singer for many top names in Finland from Juha Tapio to Chisu, from Jenni Vartiainen to Cheek. Now it's time to make it big as Lili Lambert! Let me take you there has a bit of funk, soul, r'n'b and gospel, will it work in UMK and eventually in Eurovision remains to be seen....Her influences include Mariah Carey, Karen Clark-Sheard and Brandy. She says she makes music as "she has to", and because it's a gift but also a way to release pressure. Like her on her Facebook here , and vote for her in my poll on the right side.

The Google trending stats for the past year have been revealed in Finland. Finns use Google a lot, some 30 million searches daily and among the Top-10 persons we have at #6 Krista Siegfrids! She's also one of the main contenders to become The Hetere of the Year in the first annual QX Gay Gaala. You can vote her here .

Now I challenge you all pronounce kertakäyttösydän! Don't let that scare you as this little song about disposable or throwaway heart seems to be rather catchy and real earworm, all but throwaway! She's got the looks, the voice and the image - will the live performance be up to it?  Jasmin Michaela is a new name to big audience but has been dealing with music forever as her mother Kristiina Mäki is also a recording artist. Jasmin is 25 and from Turku and seems to ready to fill the whole in Finnish music scene aiming to become the queen of Latin pop! She says this UMK entry is exactly what kind of music she wants to perform: dance, energetic, happy, latin pop. Her influences include Beyonce, Johanna Kurkela, Spice Girls and Britney Spears. Like her on her Facebook and vote her on my poll on the right side of this page.

Marco Mengoni won the Italian X Factor 3 and the 7th season just concluded a couple of days ago. In the final there were four artists left; Ape Escape, Violetta Zironi, Aba and Michele Bravi and they all had to do also a duet wit a famous Italian artist. Ape Escape got together with Elisa performing her fantastic Labyrith , Violetta got Marco Mengoni on her side and they did his Eurovision entry and Sanremo winner L'Essenziale , Aba did wih Mario Biondi his Close to you while the eventual winner Michele did one of this blogger's favorite songs ever, Gocce di memoria with Giorgia . One can only hope Marco and Giorgia had a little chat about Eurovision... (well, this blogger would be happy with any of these three names for Eurovision; Elisa? Mario? Hello?) Anyways, Marco has had an incredible year and returning to where it all started from seems more than fitting. He already appeared in the season before as he was giving helping hand to Mika, one of the judges. Worth ...

These are the days we get almost daily lists of the selected songs and artists for the various national finals and now it's time for Lithuania. It' 20 years since they joined Eurovision and that is celebrated tonight with a special concert (watch here at 20 CET) before the semifinals kick off next Saturday, December 21 and 28, 2013. Among the many familiar artists we have veteran and 2009 winner Sasha Son and a real veteran and multi-runner up Aistė Pilvelytė - I counted this is her 8th attempt but there might be more.... Semifinal 1 - December 21, 2013: Vilija Matačiūnaitė Sasha Song Aistė Pilvelytė Aleksandra Metalnikova Julija Jegorova Jurijus Veklenko Juozas Butnorius Justinas Lapatinskas Vig Roses Vaidas Baumila Semifinal 2 - December 28, 2013: Monika Linkytė  Pop Ladies    (Natalija Bunkė, Katažina Nemycko, Baiba Skurstene, Liepa Mondeikaitė) Neringa Šiaudikytė Martynas Kavaliauskas Mia (Vilija Pilibaitytė) Kristina Radžiukynaitė Soliar...

Also Germany has revealed the seven acts that have made it through to the final in March. One more act will be added through a new talent casting. But whoever the newcomer is has a tough job to beat the million sellers that have set their eyes on Eurovision stage in Copenhagen.  First of all Unheilig , over 2 million albums sold, several ECHO and other awards and 19 platinum albums collected in German speaking countries. Their hits include Geboren um zu leben , So wie du warst , Lichter der Stadt and Stark . If we can't get Rammstein to Eurovision this somehow makes up to it... Oceana scored a pan-European hit with Endless summer while she can also ad Cry cry to her CV of hits.  The Baseballs are/were maybe bigger abroad than at home, like in Finland and Sweden where they scored #1 album and several hits and at least in Finland they are a household name thanks to their frequent visits and performances in top TV-shows with Umbrella,   Hot 'n cold and Last in ...

Before the announcement of the Big category singers and their songs (they willhave once again two to choose from) todayand yesterday the eight newcomers were released. Bianca and Vadim come from Area Sanremo selection and their names and songs were already revealed yesterday. Today we got to know the other six who qualified through live audition last Friday. Among them is Veronica De Simone who already came third in the Voice of Italy 1. And Zibba wrote with Tiziano Ferro the first single La vita e la felicità to Michele Bravi who won the X Factor 7 last night in Italy. Filippo is legendary Ivn Graziani's son. Here they are with their songs, it's worth remembering one of them could be the Italian Eurovision 2014 artist (and song)... You can listen snippets by clicking the songs. UPDATE: Listen full versions and see videos of the songs here .  (Antonio) Diodato - Babilonia Filippo Graziani - Le cose belle Rocco Hunt - Nu juorno buono The Niro (aka Davide Combus...

(Lasse) Hukka ja Mama (aka Martina Myllylä) is a duo made of two childhood friends who is driven the write songs for the same reason the flowers bloom . Their aim is to write songs that are a bit childish yet melancholy, toylike with candy flavors: sweet and bitter. Their UMK entry Selja is just like that, with very cute and interesting lyrics and simple arrangements. Originally they come from Vääksy but live now in Helsinki and their band includes also Jaakko, Simo and Jami. Like them on Facebook here and vote for them in my poll on the right top corner of this page. And here's another song, Syksy saapuu .

Girl with a pearl earring is maybe one of the most famous paintings in the world along with Mona Lisa . The fascinating painting is from circa 1665 by Dutch Johannes Vermeer. The mystery of the painting has also been transformed into a novel and a very succesful film.  Now she will pay a visit to Bologna's Palazzo Fava from February 8 to May 25, 2014. To welcome her a special event is created in Palazzo Comunale on January 19 and 20 featuring Alice and Francesca Michielin and music by Franco Battiato . He has adapted his music from his Telesio opera, performed only once in 2011 with maestro Carlo Boccadoro, and Battiato also joins Alice on stage in the show's final singing Insieme sul mondo with her.  The entrance is free but one must register here beforehand (until December 16, 2013)

Estonia's national selection for Eurovision, Eesti Laul has grown the past few years the most interesting and surprising one that always has a colorful mix of genres and styles in it, something the Finnish UMK is inspired as well. This year we have several familiar names in it as artists and songwriters, most of all Sandra Nurmsalu (ESC 2009), Lenna Kuurmaa (ESC 2005) and Lauri Pihlap, part of the 2001 winning team 2XL. Estonia will have two semifinals (February 14 and 21) and the final on March 1, 2014. Tanja - Amazing ( Timo Vendt & Tatjana Mihhailova) Sofia Rubina - City Lights ( Priit Juurmann, Sofia Rubina) Maltised - Elu   (Jakko Maltis) MiaMee - Fearful Heart ( Liina Saar, Liisi Koikson) The Titles - Flame   (Rasmus Lill, Markus Rafael Nylund) Sandra Nurmsalu - Kui Tuuled Pöörduvad   (Sven Lõhmus) August Hunt - Kus On EXIT ( August Hunt) Norman Salumäe - Search   (Norman Salumäe) Traffic - Für Elise   (Stig Räst...

Krista Siegfrids may have been the Queen bee last year but here coms Dennis singing about honey bee. He's already little known thanks to his participation in the Voice of Finland 2013 where he got to the semifinals. He's originally from Hanko but lives now in Helsinki. He's aim is to bring happiness and positivity to the rather melancholy Finnish music business and his influences include Robbie Williams and Michael Bublé and he wishes to be able to perform in the same twinkle in the eye style. He started with saxophone when he was 8 and singing came along only later. He's also described as every mother's dream son-in-law.... His song My little honey bee is written by a well know group of Eurovision fans Michael James Down, Niklas Hast, Andreas Anastasiou, Primoz Pogdalen along with Dennis himself.  You can find links to his Facebook etc here . Here are some of his performances: Minun tuulessa soi , Näytän sulle rannan , Ainutkertainen

Hungary has also selected its semifinalists for A Dal 2014 and among the chosen ones out of the record number of submitted songs we have many familiar names from previous years trying their luck again. András Kállay Sanuders, Dénes Pál, Laura Cserpes, Lilla Polyák and Gigi Radics are all back, as are Királys Viktor and Linda.... Once again there are several heats (January 25 and February 1 and 8) followed by two semifinals (February 15 and 16) before the final on February 22, plus the professional jury along the televote. And as it is already a tradition last year's winner ByeAlex is one of the jury members. András Kállay Saunders – Running  Bálint Gájer – Elmaradt pillanatok  Belmondo – Miért ne higgyem  Bogi – We All  Dénes Pál – Brave New World  Depresszió – Csak a zene  Extensive – Help Me  Fool Moon – It Can’t Be Over  Gabi Knoll – Sweet Memories  Gigi Radics – Catch Me  Group n Swing – Retikül  He...

Annette Clarissa Lundell (23) or simply Clarissa is a new name to music scene as she made her first recordings only last fall but she's a multi-Finnish Champion is hip hop dance and even won bronze in European level!  But she's been singing in public for years and her first singles The coolest girl and Like the first time gained good radio play in the Swedish speaking stations in Finland and brought her visibility in the media. She also won in Radio X3M's Nöjesgalan 2013 the award for The best Newcomer. She was born in Inkoo and lives in Karjaa and is of the Swedish speaking minority like the last three Finnish Eurovision represantitives Krista Siegrids, Pernilla Karlsson and Paradise Oscar. She likes Beyonce and Jessie J and was the warm up act for Swedish Darin in his gig in Helsinki earlier this year. Joshua aka Josh Standing is only 20 and British. He's been singing and street dancing all his life. When he met Clarissa the idea of a duo came quickly and now...

The 12 artists and songs for UMK 2014 were revealed today in a MF-esque webcast on YLE's website where you also heard snippets of the demo versions of their songs (you can watch it here ). Or better snippets just click the song titles below. The fans were right with the most names with the clues given away by YLE in the ast two weeks and indeed it seems to be a very interesting cast this season. Jukka Immonen wrote the Belgian entry 2013, and Lauri Mikkola and Dennis Fagerström made themselves known already in the Voice of Finland. I will dig deeper with the artists in coming days so stay tuned! Here are the artists, songs and songwriters: Lauri Mikkola – Going Down   (Lauri Mikkola, Tuomas Viiliäinen) Clarissa feat. Josh – Top of The World   (Paul Oxley, David Neisser, Christian Rabb, Annette Lundell, Joshua Standing) MadCraft – Shining Bright  (Tom Nuorivaara, Juho Rinne, Jesse Mäläskä, Otto Uotila) Mikko Pohjola – Sängyn reunalla   (Jukka Immone...

The rules of Eurovision seem to be just a piece of paper in some parts of Europe. In Belarus Alexey Gross made it to the final line up with If I could do it again , but... Raquela already brought this song to the Maltese selection in 2011... It seems Alexey was unaware all of this so I would point out the finger to the songwriters, they must have known.... or someone. Anyone? or does anyone care really? Alexey himself has decided to withdraw even if he could have changed the song (as they do over there even after winning) and is coming back in 2015 to win. Good boy!

Not much to tell here. One Eurovision. One Sanremo. But he's life has been like a drama series. From his early career's progressive rock and experimental music with gems like Vorrei incontrarti and Le tue radici (later covered by Franco Battiato ), via Napoletan classic Dicitencello vuje he moves to international hits like Tu sei l'unica donne per me (that was ment for Sanremo 1979 but for personal reasons he couldn't take part after all) and Figli delle stelle to his Eurovision 1980 entry Non so che darei . His Eurovision particpation is historic in sense that since 1956 he became the very first artist to represent Italy without Sanremo or Canzonissima connection.  By 1983 his life has turned into a mess with a Swedish model, jealous wife, drugs and prison. He's big comeback was ment to be Sanremo 1988 with Come per miracolo (Like a miracle), but he comes last (26th).... Ever since he has been releasing new versions, some new tracks without success. In 2...

UMK artists will be unveiled tomorrow 11am CET live on YLE's webstream ... Are you ready? Who are they? YLE has given us some clues.... and Finnish fans have been busy trying to figure them out. Names like MIAU, Hukka ja Mama, Dennis Fagerström, Madcaft, MAKEA, Clarissa and Josh Standing, Lili Lambert, Lauri Mikkola, Suvi or Saara Aalto, Sandja have been mentioned.... Tomorrow we will know better!

Ukraine is set to select its entrant for Eurovision 2014 in about two weeks as the final is set on December 21, 2013. Twenty names made it through the casting selection yesterday and will be presented. The winner will be chosen by a jury and televote. Among the 20 some familiar names like NeAngely and names from local The Voice and X Factor as well as New Wave. As usual they didn't give the song titles yet but some songs have leaked already. Beware of changes though. Viktor Romanchenko - At the edge of the abyss   Anna Hodorovskaya - If there is love Anatoly Shparev - Waiting for you Neangely - Courageous Stas Shurins - Why Tatyana Shirko - Let go Illarya - I'm alive Lisa Wassabi - No fear Vladimir Tkachenko - Be where you are Shanis - My soul Viktoriya Petryk - Love is lord Tanya Burke - Believe me Evgeny Litvinkovich - Strelyannaya Bird   Anna Maria - 5 Stars Hotel Marietta - It`s my life Mariya Yaremchuk - Tick Tock Uli Rud - Tsvetok Deni...

The news headlines are what you made them - every news has two sides. Recently in Finland (and elsewhere) Eurovision song contest 2014 was making headlines for withdrawing countries and was labelled as "stubvision" only listing the withdrawing countries from the recent ones Bulgaria, Cyprus and Serbia but listing also various Andorras and Luxembourgs that haven't been in for years. In fact, I'm surprised they didn't throw in also Morocco! There are always journalists who love to understate and snob Eurovision so anything negative to write is like manna from heaven to them. Writing about all the returning countries would be positive so it doesn't make interesting news to them... So, if we look the situation now we have from last year Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Cyprus missing BUT we have Bosnia & Herzegovina, Portugal and Poland coming back. So, for those Stubvision lovers I have news for you: we are currently only -1 from last year if also Sloven...