Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Conchita Wurst is concentrating on her recording career after the stunt in Crazy Horse in Paris and here's the video for her new single Heroes . Stylish, symbolic, beautifully shot in black and white it adds to the song that is a grower. She's taking her time to finish her debut album and it pays off if it's filled with such songs, well produced and sung, suiting her persona. It would have been so easy to just get a dozen songs, record them and release as quickly as possible and cash at the momentum. But not Conchita.... well done! Can't wait for the album, propably to be released next May. 

Melodifestivalen acts will be announced next Monday and Tuesday. The rumor mill of possible participants has been running wild for weeks already and finally we know who are really in and who are not. What we know so far is that Sanna Nielsen will debut as the host and with her will be Robin Paulsson , a very well known television host, also him making his MF debut. We also know one of the contestants already, Kalle Johansson . He won the Svensktoppen nästä 2014 contest and the award was a ticket to Melodifestivalen 2015.  SVT received 2.177 songs this year and it seems the famous Swedish schlager is making a comeback. There are minor changes to the format and instead of 32 songs there will be only 28, but 12 of them will advance to the final instead of 10. Makes sense? Måns Zelmerlöv is supposed to be making a comeback to the contest, as are Lili & Susie, Linus Svenning and Charlotte Perrelli . Sean Banan has also made it clear he has sent a song. Other names ru...

Now this was a surprise! While the news of Bosnia & Herzegovina not making it to Vienna after all out of nowhere come the news Czech Republic will return after five years absence.  They will select internally and promise to offer us a "top quality Czech song".  For one thing, it's hard for them to do any worse than they did with their previous three entries. The debut in Helsinki 2007 finished last in the semifinal with one point only. The year after they scored a total of 9 points and 18th place (out of 19) in the semifinal and finally in 2009 they got no points at all and again last in the semifinal....  I think they deserved sometimes a bit more, especially in Helsinki. Let's enjoy their efforts in the past: 2007 Kabát - Malá dàma 2008 Teresa Kerndlovà - Have some fun 2009 Gipsy.cz - Aven romale 2015 ?

The Junior Eurovision song contest ended with Italy's victory in Marsa Shipyard's stage and the day after the rehearsals started for Malta Eurovision song contest, aka their national selection for the real thing in Vienna next May. A clever planning of using the same stage and venue for two different festivals - something that YLE did ages ago when hosting Euroviisut and Emma Gala (the Finnish Grammys) on same stage, but even on the same night! But that's another story... Malta is also making propably a certain kind of history as they are having the second national final this year, as the one for 2014 was held on February 8, some nine months ago! The special guest for the final is none other than reigning Eurovision Queen Conchita Wurst.   Twenty entries will battle the 14 final places on Friday night (see the running order below). Some previous entrants are trying to win again: Glen Vella (2011), Ludwig Galea of Trilogy (2004), Gianluca Bezzina of L-Ahwa (2013). Fiv...

An interesting twist in the Sanremo 2015 preparations! It seems Carlo Conti is aiming to have some foreign singers in the Big category as well, singing in Italian of course but being equal competitors like all the others. That way they could in theory also end up representing Italy in the Eurovision.... This wouldn't be the first time though, as we can remember for example 15-year-old Mexican Luis Miguel who came 2nd in 1985 with Noi, ragazzi di oggi and is today a Latin superstar. We can't also forget Argentinian Lola Ponce who won with Giò di Tonno Sanremo 2008 with Colpo di fulmine . And what about a certain Paolo Meneguzzi ? Or Raquel Del Rosario with Luca Barbarossa in 2011? Also in the old days the songs were often performed in two versions; one Italian and one foreign and the system was shortly readapted in the 1990's.... As for the other news emerging these days we have the possible co-hostesses Ambra Angiolini and Vanessa Incontrada as well as new names i...

Jari Sillanpää, Virve Rosti and Laura Voutilainen are starring in a 3-act Christmas music show touring Finland until Christmas. The kick off is tomorrow in Tampere and the last and 18th performance will be in Helsinki's Hartwall Arena, the Eurovision 2007 location. A 11 men band conducted by Heikki Elo completes the cast.  The show that last three hours will be filled with music, humor, energy and fun, not forgetting new and old Christmas songs from Finland, Europe and USA. Throw in some Christmas pop and rock and the three Eurovision veterans ( Sata salamaa ,   Addicted to you , Takes 2 to tango ) and you've got one megashow. More information, dates and cities, tickets here . 

The silence around UMK 2015 is thicker than the November darkness in Finland. The rumors and number of those declaring their participation or not being selected are very few, almost non existing. YLE will announce the 12 chosen ones only in January while even the final date hasn't been yet confirmed, not where the final will take place.  The fans are hoping for Jannika B 's participation, based simply on the fact she announced she won't be doing any gigs from March 2015 for some time.... Wishtful thinking only? Time will tell....As all the other names mentioned below are totally unknown to common public she'd be the famous one here with some success and minor hits like Onnenpäivä , Hulluksi onnesta and Seuraavaan elämään .  Satu Kostiainen & The Travellers told the local media in September  they have sent a countryrock & blues song to the contest. Author Samuli Koivulahti wrote in his blog he has sent in two songs written with Paavo Virtanen and perform...

Alexander Rybak is working with a girl group to win the Belarusian national final on December 26, 2014. he has been to Belarus and through auditions selected five girls to perform his song, that will be very Belarusian as he says. "I have had this idea to work for my native Belarus for a couple of years now" he says, "I decided to compose a song that shows the Belarusian soul. I think I understand very well the Belarusian people that differ from the other Slavic people. They can be calm and natural. The song features both English and Belarusian and even the costumes are in Belarus style". He says he dedicates as much of his time as possible for the project but being very busy - only four days off before Christmas - he has a team in Belarus working on it and they know what he wants.  Rybak also tells he's closer to Belarus now that he has been there many times, met his relatives who have told him how his life was as a little child in there, but says he has ...

The 9th edition of the Junior Eurovision song contest took place tonight in Malta. Sixteen countries with three debutants (Italy, Montenegro, Slovenia) took the stage this time with kids between 10 and 15 years performing the songs. Beautifully staged show went on smoothly and the songs were pretty good, well, some of them. The internet voting was a disaster though and didn't happen at all. Italy debuted and won with Vincenzo Cantiello's Tu primo grande amore . Full results above. Belarus - Nadezhda Misyakova - Sokal Bulgaria - Krisi, Hasan & Ibrahim - Planet of the Children San Marino - The Peppermints - Breaking my heart Croatia - Josie - Game over Cyprus - Sophia Patsalides - I pio omorfi mera Georgia - Lizi Pop - Happy day Sweden - Julia Kedhammar - Du är inte ensam Ukraine - Sympho-Nick - Spring will come Slovenia - Ula Lozar - Nisi sam Montenegro - Masa Vujadinovic & Lejla Vulic - Budi dijete na jedan dan Italy - Vincenzo Cantiello...

One month to go before RAI and Carlo Conti will publish the list of the artists and songs for the 2015 Sanremo festival and the rumour mill running wilder than ever. Some interesting new names have emerged among the possible ones. First of all Nina Zilli who is currently one of the judges in Italy's Got Talent and has recently given final touch to her new album to be released. It would be only logical she would try to launch it with Sanremo. Amici winner Deborah Iurato is about to fight it again against Dear Jack , this time in Teatro Ariston's stage. Malika Ayane may be in the list again seeking revenge for her previous attempts when Sanremo didn't treat her as well as she deserved. Francesca Michielin is in the list as well now. Recently she has collaboratd with Alice and Franco Battiato. Then we have Tiromancino as a big maybe, as well as Sanremo newcomer's winner 2014 Rocco Hunt . As for the old glories - so fond for Carlo Conti's team in their attempt t...

Daniel Kajmakoski (31) is the fresh winner of Skopje Fest and the Macedonian entrant for the Eurovision song contest 2015 in Vienna. His winning song is Lisja esenski , here's the studio version . There is a possibility the song will be changed before March 2015, but this blogger ctually likes it a lot so I hope they will stick with it.  He's also the winner of the first X Factor Adria where his mentor was none other than Zeljko Joksimovic, they also recorded a duet together Skopje-Beograd . Another Eurovision connection is he wrote to Karolina Goceva Vis ne se vrakas in 2010 that was a big hit. For him it's a return to Vienna as that's where he grew up after moving there when six year's old. He even participated in the Austrian talent show Starmania seasson two in 2003 where he reached the top-8. (The next season was won by Nadine Beiler and runner up being certain Tom Neuwirth aka Conchita Wurst! Even Eric Papilaya was in it). His career didn't quite g...

The Macedonian Skopje Fest ended with Daniel Kajmakoski's win with Esenski lisja . Tamara Todevska finished second with Brod sto tone and Evgenija Cancalova third with Da ne te sakam . All three were in both international jury's and televoters top-3. This blogger agrees with the top-2 but had a little preference to Tamara, like most fans online it seems and she indeed was also the international jury's favorite but in the televoting she only managed third that cost her victory while Daniel and Evgenija were in the league of their own in that.... Reality television rules.... Here above you have the jury votes.... ... and here the televotes.... .... and here the final result. Today the vote rigging claims have arisen in Macedonia and police is investigating a question of about 1000 seized phonecards.... Let's see how this ends....

Tonight's the night. The first national final of the season takes place in Metropol Arena in Skopje, Macedonia where 20 acts take the stage and 50-50 televote-jury vote will decide the winner and the Macedonian Eurovision song contest 2015 entry for Vienna.  The show starts at 20.15 CET and you can watch it here or here .  Read more about the songs and participants here . 

Alice has released a new song and video off her today released  Weekend  album,  Tante belle cose  that features also trumpeter Paolo Fresu, a long time collaborator. The song itself is a cover of Francoise Hardy's 2004 track  Tant de belle choses . Which one do you prefer? Alice sung for Italy in Eurovision 1984 with Franco Battiato  I treni di Tozeur  placing 5th and Francoise Hardy did the honors for Monaco in 1963 with  L'Amour s'en va  placing also 5th. 

In these days countries announcing eternal marathons to select their entries that in most cases are useless, annoying and generally a waste of everyone's time, Norway comes up with the most delightful news: ONE FINAL NIGHT and that's it. I take a pow and love Norway even a bit more than before. Denmark has stayed strong and firm and given us the one night final like the good old days all these years and time will tell if this bold move will make some others follow suit next year.  And that's not even all: THEY WILL BRING THE ORCHESTRA BACK! How cool is that?  Norway, the country with countless last places celebrates also 30th and 20th anniversary of their first and second victory. With their third win in 2009 they broke the Lordi's all time points record and has kept it since. On top of al that it's Eurovision's 60th anniversary. Party on, Norway! Oh, and the (usually somewhat underrated IMHO) final will be at the same time as the (way overrated IMHO...

Listen to the album trailer Alice's new album Weekend is released today. The title comes from the fact it has been recorded over the weekends the past two years, after the release of her previous Samsara album. In many interviews she has given for the album she also talks about her relationship with Franco Battiato and the music business.  "With Battiato we have always stayed friends and I have continued singing his songs, even recording some like È stato molto bello in 2003. I asked him to write me a song for Samsara and he gave me Eri con me . Now in this album he sings duet with me in late Claudio Rocchi's La realtà non esiste , and he wrote also Veleni , a song sent to Sanremo 2014 and luckily not accepted, The lyrics are by late Manlio Sgalambro, propably his last text" she now says. "Working with Battiato is always a pleasure and comes naturally. He has also written the Italian lyrics to Tante belle cose , a Francoise Hardy cover , masterfully a...

France with Indila's Derniere danse has won overwhelmingly the OGAE Song Contest 2014 beating runner up United Kingdom with 84 points. And this blogger couldn't agree more, also my 12 points went to France.  Unlike in the real Eurovision the past years the Big5 ruled this show as they all placed in top-6, only Israel placing 5th five points ahead of Italy that finished sixth. You can relisten all entries here . You can check out the full results and the voting here .  OGAE Song Contest has been running since 1986 and this is France's fifth win, a record shared now with Spain. Italy has four wins, United Kingdom three.

Her name emerged in the rumour mill the past weeks and Anouk slip out the secret a few days ago and today it's official, Trijntje Oosterhuis (41) will represent the Netherlands in Vienna 2015 with a song co-written by Anouk. Trijntje seems very excited and honored to do the job and Anouk's and The Common Linnet's recent success gives her some extra pressure. The song is currently in the making and we will hear it only later.  Trijntje has been around since 1990 when she formed with her brother Total Touch that enjoyed success with songs like Touch me there and two albums that went to #1 and #2 in the Dutch charts. In 2001 she went solo and has released seven album since, including two #1s and 5 top-5s. Her latest album was a collaboration with Anouk including Happiness ,   Knocked out  and Better think twice .  She has also done a lot of jazz and even recorded an album of Billie Holiday and George Gerswin songs, like Strange fruit  and Summertime ....

Eurovison 2014 winner Conchita Wurst has unveiled her runner up single to Rise like a Phoenix , a pop anthem Heroes . She presented it live in Wetten, dass..? , a  German language Saturday evening prim time entertainment show, the most watched one in Europe actually. She's still working on her worthcoming debut album that will be released next year. Next we will have a chance to see her in the Maltese national selection for Eurovision 2015 in two weeks. So don’t let go We can be so beautiful Listening to the sound Of silence So let the walls come down And the colours light up the sky We could be heroes We could be heroes, tonight

The Italian language RSI in Switzerland has also chosen its three entries for the auditions in December. The jury, including Paolo Meneguzzi has chosen these three: The Vad Vuc - Cocktail e fantasmi Deborah Bough - 1, 2, 3 take me back to 23 Elias ft. Zero in On - Your perfume Vad Vuc is last year's entrant Sebalter's ex-band, Deborah comes from The Voice 2013. Something tells me we may not be celebrating two in a row for RSI come January.... The rest or the German and French speaking selection songs and info you can find here . 

#ESC250! Here it comes again, the biggest, the best and the most beautiful Eurovision annual voting! Already on its 7th year this voting keeps growing and has provided us winners like Lapponia , Neka mi ne svan e, Is it true? , Lane moje and Euphoria .... will Loreen do the hat trick and win for the third consegutive year? It's all up to you. You can vote here  until December 13, 2014 your ten favorite songs from 1956 to 2014. Escradio.com will broadcast the countdown as usual on New Year's Eve, already a tradition for many party goers.... Join in!

Belgium took us by surprise and out of the blue announced its prepresant for the Eurovision song contest 2015 in Vienna. Following Roberto Bellarosa's footsteps another The Voice Belgique artist gets the job, 17-year-old runner up Lo ï c Nottet. Listen him here: Chandelier , Love me again , Stay and Diamonds . 

The guessing the Sanremo 2015 names is running wild and the latest is Carlo Conti and his team are trying to secure 50/50 situation for female and male voices - which is very good if you ask this blogger - and the same time three new, or should I say very old names emerge: Anna Oxa , Loredana Berté and Patty Pravo . All three are real Sanremo veterans and all, or at least two of them might cause trouble and/or problems but surely would also create some media interest and clue Italians infront of their screens. Not necessarily to hear their songs but see what kind of chaos they might bring along. La Bertè seems to have an album ready, done with Renato Zero while La Oxa seems to have a ballad written by a rapper (?!). La Pravo, not exactly a fan of the festival might be lured in because she's having an album ready to release, with songs written by Tiziano Ferro and Gianna nannini among others. To these three veterans should/could join Irene Grandi and the younger ones Anna Tatan...

Jari Sillanpää's metamorphosis from a tango king to a pop singer has been a success. The pre-album single Malagaan was a hit on radio, and the follow up Tanssii kuin John Travolta is playing all the time as well. Besides that it launched his new nickname "Siltsu Bitch" (Siltsu coming from his surname). The album Rakkaudella merkitty mies went #2 in the charts and now he has also launched a video for Sinä ansaitset kultaa , a haunting break up story where he leaves his love free as he's being such a bitch and (s)he deserves better. Here's the touching  live version of it. 

Conchita Wurst is ready to debut in the legendary Crazy Horse Cabaret in Paris. She has been rehearsing with the topless dancers and the act is coming together nicely. Many other famous ladies have graced the stage over the years from Dita von Teese to Pamela Andersson but no one has been special the way Eurovision winner Conchita is :-) From singing for the European Parliament to Crazy Horse to United Nation's gig in Vienna coming up shortly, she surely has gone a long way since Copenhagen 2014 last May. And yes, her new single will be released next week as well, Heroes . In between she has had time to record also My lights , a charity single for Licht ins Dunkel . Busy lady!