Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Sanna Nielsen is a real Midsummer girl and Aminata don't want to be anything less either... while Emma keeps milking her 21st place with self irony.... and Tooji celebrated his birthday with flowers in his hair. Congrats! Emma is also taking part in #saveIceberg, a dog rescue operation  from the Danish authorities who want to kill him... Read more here Marija just loves her dog but I'm sure she's in it with spirit anyways! Maja Keuc's good cause is food waste. Don't waste your food. Eat it. Share it.  ... and Sebalter bikes for cancer from Lugano to Chur to St. Moritz!  That's a lot of biking! Elsewhere Deen advices to you face creams.... Iveta is a happy covergirl ... and Donny boy is happy for his new shoes.... Socks and sandals? Yeah, I read somewhere it's trendy now.... O tempora o mores!

Happy birthday to Amir! He was swimming in the sea of congratulations.... ... while Alma was looking cool in Aix-de-Provence.... Amber was in Venice..... Manel enjoyed some beach with his gang..... Slavko was getting ready for Madrid Pride..... Andras played football and sung in Moscow's Art Football festival... Imri had a GT morning at the gym.... Dima BIlan was prepairing for a string of concerts.... Kati cooked some strawberry jams for the winter... Naviband recorded some new songs in their countryside studio... Pasha Parfani got married (Congrats!) Zeljko enjoyed some jam.... Polina did her best MM imitation ahead of some tv-show... Zoe looked pretty as a flower at Pride... Tanel walked to the sunset.....

  It's been 40 years since France, once the superpower of Eurovision song contest, won. It's been ten years since they last had a real proper national selection (you can hardly say the 2014 affair was one). With new energetic Head of Delegation and two fairly succesful attempt both with results and commercially they are ready to launch a proper national final for 2018. With the new found popularity among the audience as well, hopefully that reflects also to the artists! The call is now open to anyone to send in a song as long as it is unreleased and unpublished before September 1, and has no more than four writers (good, enough of those "international song writing camp" entries!) and they all belong to the local SACEM. And at least 70% of the lyrics are in French.  Just to help the Edoardo to invite artists, and remind these artists of the opportunity I have gathered here a few, just names that came to my mind once I sat down to think about it for a moment....

It's midsummer, let's dance! What would be a better one to dance to but Dancing on the street , a song co-written by Marvin Gaye for Kim Weston in mind but who passed it onto Martha and The Vandellas in 1964, and that became their signature song and US #2? It eventually made it to #4 in the UK - five years later.  The song's idea came from people in the streets of Detroit cooling off with the water from opened fire hydrants in summer heat. Martha made several changes to it and then it was recorded in two takes. Motown magic again! Some thought the song was a call to riots and political anthem, in time of the black civil right demostrations but Martha and Motown always insisted it's just "a party song!.  Notable cover versions include The Mamas and the Papas (it's also the very last song they ever performed live together),   Grateful Dead , Black Oak Arkansas , Van Halen , David Bowie & Mick Jagger (UK #1),   Human Nature , Sonny & Cher   ...

The most exciting news of the midsummer is Michele Imberti, this blogger's Stockholm based dear friend has released a single! Yes! He has self penned the Italian lyrics for Peter Jöback's masterpiece Stockhom i natt and Dimitri Stassos has produced an uptempo pop number of it.  It's totally different but equally fabulous! What's there not to love? Spotify   iTunes

Today's the day! The 2017 Euroviion song contest is available on 3DVD as usua, but this year makrks the return od the Blue-ray and most of all, for the first time on vinyl! Oh yes, the Limited Edition Collertor's Vinyl Box edition is here! it includes 4 vinyls, the official CD, 56 page booklet, download voucher and each box is numbered. So in short buying this you get the vinyl, the cd and the digital versions of the songs plus the Yearbook that wasn't sadly released this year. Get yours from cdon or the official shop for example. 

Motown loved - besides recording the same hits by various artists - to pair their star acts and one of the most succesful and obvious pairing was that of their best selling female and male groups: The Supremes and The Temptations. The Supremes by now had become Diana Ross & The Supremes underlining Diana's Queen like status in the music business and inside Motown. I'm gonna make you love me features some most urgent falsetto vocals ever and is so full of passion and need you believe every word. Outstanding in every way! It peaked at #2 (behind another Motown act, Marvin Gaye's Grapewine btw) and #3 in the UK in late 1968. Curiously they never performed it live together..... Diana sung it with Stevie Wonder , The Temps did it alone,  The song was originally recorded and #88 hit by Dee Dee Warwick (Dionne's sister, Cissy's niece and Whitney's cousin, btw) in 1966. It was also offered to Dusty Springfield who passed it on to her backing singer...

Thegiornalisti have also released their summer hit Riccione and it's a bit of a melancholy affair in Riccione beach underlining the summer feeling when time stood still and you already knew it won't last. Love it. Baby K has one of the biggest summer hits ever under her belt ( Roma-Bangkok ) and tries again with Voglio ballare con te featuring Andrés Dvicio. Good job.  Supermegastar Tiziano Ferro's offer for the summer is Lento/Veloce . Even if the verses are a bit slow the refrain really gets going.   Slow/Fast indeed.  Riki won the latest Amici as a singer and his Polaroid is just so catchy and such an earworm. Like it or not, it sticks to your head....

Forget Salvador the Eurovision winner, he's now Benjamin Cymbra, the singer of Alexander Search band. The whole affair is isnpired by Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), who was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language. He also wrote in and translated from English and French. The band takes a note from the time Pessoa stayed in South Africa and wrote in English.... he was also a great fan of alias, pseudonyms and heteronyms and therefor all members of the band have gotten a new identity, or Sobral become Cymbra.  Long story short. let's enjoy their first single and video A day of sun ...... More of their songs here .

Uptight was Stevie Wonder's 12th single and released in 1965 and became a #3 hit in the US. It's from his sixth album and he was only 15. His career was in danger - despite having scored already one #1 with Fingertips - as his voice was changing and his musical direction was considered a bit uncommercial by Gordy. Wonder toured with The Rolling Stones and was inspired by their (I can't get no) Satisfaction and the result is Uptight , even if it does sound very much like Motown as well.  Sylvia Moy tells:  On the day of the recording, I had completed the lyrics, but didn't have them in Braille for Wonder to read, and so I sang the song to him as he was recording it. I sang a line ahead of him, and he simply repeated the lines as he heard them. In 2008, Moy commented that "he never missed a beat" during the recording. That's how Motown magic was done those days.  Cover version include Human Nature , Glee , 

Poli Genova has released Oshte . Her smile is as pretty and contagious as ever but the song isn't quite going anywhere.  Severina abandons her high heals and goes all rap hippy with Jala Brat in Otrove . Catchy summer number, nothing oh so original but fun to listen anyways :-) And her voice is fab as ever.  Milan Stankovic continues with the same sound and featuring the same Jala and Buba Corelli in Ego . This may have also been heard a milion times before but at summer time this rhythm works. Always! Even if released already this winter but it has twerking in it..... Michal Szpak offers 3,5 minutes of insignificant 80's inspired nonsense in Tic tac clock that comes with a pretty video shot in Italy and sponsored by Rock Star nail polish....

Smokey Robinson was one of the most important Motown songwriters and producers and his career continues even today. In 1962 he scored with his The Miracles and self penned song a #8 US hit, that has become a real movie favorite, it has been on a dozen movie soundtracks!  The song has been covered dozens of times by various singers: The Beatles , The Supremes , The Temptations , The Zombies , The Jackson 5, Mickey Gilley , Mike and the Mechanics, Cyndi Lauper, Phil Collins and even Smokey himself in Sesame Street

Francesco Gabbani will join a long list of other Eurovision artists in Madrid's Wold Pride celebrations starting this weekend until July 2.  Eurovision winners Loreen and Conchita are present, so are Slavko from this year's contest, Spanish entrants Ruth Lorenzo, Barei, Soraya, Rosa, Azucar Moreno, Mirela, LeKlein and Baccara, Kate Ryan, Suzy with Ivri Lider, Carlinhos Brown, Aliice, Norwood, Toby Corton, Roser, Ama Torroja, Nito, Jorge Gonzales, Rebeca, Nuria Fergò and Toby Corton. How come they forgot about Saara Aalto? ;-p

Better late than never. Nathan flirted with the Italian version of Running on air already during Eurovision song contest 2017 in Kyiv but here it is now in all its glory. Enjoy!