Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Serbia returns after several years to the national final Beovizija to find their entry for Eurovision song contest. This week two semi-finals were held on Wednesday and Thursday where six songs qualified for tonight's final after combined jury and televotes. Familiar names among both artists and songwriters. This blogger is a bit disappointed with the outcome despite being a fan of big Balcan ballad and Slavic melancholy. Jana, Nevana and Aleksandra are minor favorites of mine in this rather uninspiring group of songs. Dunja, Mr Doo, Tamara and most of all Extra Nena should have been in the final instead.... Final - March 3, 2019 1. Saška Janks – Da li čuješ moj glas  ** 2. Majdan – Budim te  * 3. Sofija Perić – Aritmija  ** 4. Dženan Lončarević – Nema suza  ** 5. Ivana Vladović & Wonder Strings – Moja bol  *** 6. Jana Šušteršić – Viktorija  *** 7. Lord – Radnički sin  ** 8. Nevena Božović – Kruna  **** 9. Ana Popović –...

Georgia is using Idols to pick up their artist for Eurovision song contest 2019 in Tel Aviv. Tonight's the final with four acts left in the race. We will hear them singing their entries (titles below) and all the songs will be in Georgian! Big Hooray for that! The artists in the final have a LOT experience in various talents shows, even winning them but are back here, strange as it seems. Second chances anyone? Or is it Eurovision that makes them try again? Update: It seems the final is tomorrow, Sunday March 3 after all :-) The finalists are: Giorgi Nakashidze He has already won Georgian X Factor 2015 and sings everything from opera to rock Giorgi Pruidze Also this Giorgi was in X Factor 2015 and made it to the live shows. Lisa Kalandadze She's already been in Idols and also X Factor and seems to be a bit of a favorite to get the Eurovision ticket. Oto Nemsadze He won already the Georgian Idol 2011, and placed third in the Ukrainian The Voic...

Fan favorite Con Osiris won the Portuguese national final with Telemòveis last night. He scored full points from the jury and televoters alike. How the idea of Portuguese Eurovision has changed in just three years! From sending an old fashioned "we don't care what others think" ballad and winning to rather alternative modern pop song that came last to very alternative something....  I just have to look and admire. Conan, aka Tiago Miranda (30), ex-porn shop assistant has released three albums since 2011. 1. Conan Osíris - Telemóveis (12+12) 24 2. NBC - Igual a ti (10+8) 18 3. Matay - Perfeito (7+10) 17 4. Madrepaz - Mundo a mudar (7+6) 13 5. Surma - Pugna (8+4) 12 6. Calema - A Dois (4+7) 11 7. Mariana Bragada - Mar doce (3+5) 8 8. Ana Cláudia - Inércia (5+3) 8

Fan favorite Keiino has won the Norwegian national final with Spirit in the sky. First international jury and televoters voted 50-50 four songs to the Gold Final. In Gold Final there were two duels (KEiiNo Vs. D'Sound and Adrian Vs. Anna-Lisa, and the winners KEiiNO and Adrian met in the final golden duel and KEiiNO emerged as the winner... with only televoting. KEiiNO is Sámi rapper and joiker Fred-René Buljo and singers Alexandra Rotan and Tom Hugo Hermansen, and it was formed for Eurovision. KEiiNO - Spirit in the Sky  D'Sound - Mr. Unicorn Gold Final Adrian Jørgensen - The Bubble Gold Final Anna-Lisa Kumoji - Holla Gold Final Chris Medina - We Try Eliminated Mørland "En livredd mann Eliminated Erlend Bratland - Sing for You Eliminated Ingrid Berg Mehus - Feel Eliminated Hank von Hell - Fake It Eliminated Carina Dahl - Hold Me Down Eliminated

Anna Odobescu has won the Moldovan national final with Stay . 1. Anna Odobescu - Stay (jury 12+ televote 10) 22 2. Maxim Zavidia - I Will Not Surrender (5+12) 17 3. Diana Brescan - Lies (10+5) 15 4. Vera Țurcanu - Cold (8+7) 15 5. Lemonique - Gravity (7+8) 15 6. Tinna Gi - Virus (6+6) 12 7. Marcela Scripcaru - Meteor (4+1) 5 8. Aurel Chirtoacă - La cinema (3+2) 5 9. Siaj - Olimp (2+3) 5 10. Che-MD feat. Elizaveta Ivasiuk - Sub Pământ (1+4) 5

Hatari has won the Icelandic national final with Hatrið mun sigra beating Friðrik Ómar in the superfinal. It's worth noting the two songs in Icelandic songs are on the top. Hatari is Klemens Hannigan, Matthías Haraldsson and Einar Stefánsson.They have released one EP and a number of singles. Hatari is known for their live shows, including their BDSM-inspired stage costumes and they describe themselves as an "anti-capitalist BDSM techno performance art group" and claim the group's primary aim is to bring about the downfall of capitalism... and apparently they have some antisemitic ideas, too, and intend to create some chaos in Tel Aviv..... 1. Hatari - Hatrið mun sigra  (televote 46,17%+jury 24,19% - Superfinal 57,571%) 2. Friðrik Ómar - Hvað ef ég get ekki elskað?   (24,64%+20,47% - Superfinal 42,29%) 3. Kristina Skoubo Bærendsen - Mama Said (16,19%+20%) 4. Hera Björk - Moving On   (9,22%+19,53%) 5. Tara Mobee - Fighting for Love   (3,09%+1...

UMK2019, the Finnish national final was held in Turku's Logomo, and YLE had put a lot of effort into opening and interval acts showcasing Krista Siegfrids' talents as a performer and showgirl, no doubt about that. On th other hand her side kick Kristoffer Sandberg was totally useless and I can honstly say I didn't laugh to his "humorous" monologues even at once and the show was over gay as usual underlining the fact most Eurovision haters say: it's all gay. How unoriginal. How boring. Yawn. The three stagings for the songs were a lot better than last year's efforts but didn't really have any truly original and never seen before elements; Eurovision fans propably thought about last year's UK's cage like staging, or Demy's water tank for Greece two years ago.... In the end Look away was a real winner with both international juries (incl. of course Wiwiblogger like there was no one else in the world to call, and Emmelie De Forest w...

Finland is choosing its entry for Eurovision song contest 2019 tonight in Logomo, Turku. DJ Darude of Sandstorm fame was internally chosen to represant the country and he presented three entries in February, all sung by singer-musician-actor Sebastian Rejman. Eurovision veteran Krista Siegfrids is hosting the live show with Kristoffer Sandberg and Mikko Nousiainen. Eurovision winner Emmelie De Forest will also perform. The winner will be chosen by 50-50 international jury (UK, Ireland, Spain, Israel, Norway, Sweden, Deenmark, Czech Republic) and televoters. It seems it's going to be between Superman and Look away as they have featured best in various polls. Superman has references to Sandstorm in arrangements while Look away is the only one Darude aka Ville Virtanen and Sebastian Rejman have written together. This blogger is team #Superman. 

Norway is one of the six countries selecting their entry for Eurovision song contest 2019 in Tel Aviv tonight. Ten songs made the internal jury's cut to be featured to the public and there will be two rounds of voting. First the international jury votes and the top-4 goes to the super final where only televote decides the winner.  Eurovision veteran Mørland is back with self penned song, that is pretty similar to his previous one aka movie like dramatic ballad, but not at all as strong. He has also written Adrian's song which I prefer. When Erland hits the chorus I'm always thinking Robbie's Feel , but here Feel is sung by Ingrid who brings in the obligatory violin in the Norwegian final. The pre-contest fan favorite is by far Keiino.  Chris Medina – We Try  *** D’Sound – Mr. Unicorn  * Mørland – En livredd mann  ** Anna-Lisa Kumoji – Holla  * Erlend Bratland – Sing for You  *** Ingrid Berg Mehus – Feel  *** Hank von Hell – ...

Portugal has really benefitted from winning the contest finally. Last year's and this year's Festival da Canção has given us interesting, alternative stuff with the old traditional in a lovely mix. This year is no exception. Eight songs have made the final after two semi-finals in RTP studios. The final takes place in Portimão Arena in Portimão hosted by Eurovision hostess extraordinaire, fabulous Filomena Cautela with Vasco Palmeirim. Below are the finalist in ranking order in semi-finals giving precedence to televotes in case of a tie. Conan Osiris is the big fan favorite but how this year is going he won't win lik most every fan favorite in any country.....? NBC - Igual a ti **** Matay - Perfeito *** Conan Osiris - Telémoveis ** Calema - A dois **** Surma - Pugna * Madrepaz - Mundo a mudar *** Mariana Bragada - Mar doce ** Ana Cláudia - Inércia **

Iceland will select its entry for Eurovision song contest 2019 tonight. After two semi-finals and one wildcard granted (Kristina) five songs will battle it out in Reykjavik. First round will be 50-50 televote-jury and the top-2 will have to face another round with televoting only. True Eurovision veteran Hera Björk is back again, as is Friðrik Ómar of Euroband fame. Both come with dated ballads, well performed but dated and not extraordinary. Then there's 2 minutes of noise pollution in from of Hatari trying to scandalize and provoke but it's only waste of everyone's time in my opinion. Give me Rammstein instead any day! Wildcard Kristina brings some joyful vintage uptempo to the contest but needs to improve a lot the performance and staging to make an impact. Whoever styled Tara should take a long look at the mirror. Her harmless little song stands out for freshness among these very mediocre entries. I really don't know who's going to win and anyone can do but I...

Moldova skipped the semi-finals and went for one-off final instead with ten songs due to lack of submissions and their overal quality. 28 made the live auditions where these ten were chosen. Then again, you only need one song.... I don't even try to guess who wins or have no idea who'd be the pre-contest favorite, with this lot it comes down to staging and live performance. I suppose though the winner is among those six pictured above.... Several familiar names taking part once again from Che-MD to Diana, Aurel and Vera.  Aurel Chirtoacă - La cinema  ** Vera Țurcanu - Cold  *** Marcela Scripcaru - Meteor  *** Siaj - Olimp  * Maxim Zavidia - I Will Not Surrender  ** Diana Brescan - Lies  ** Tinna Gi - Virus  * Lemonique - Gravity  *** Anna Odobescu - Stay  * Che-MD feat. Elizaveta Ivasiuk - Sub Pământ  ***

After four heats of Melodifestivalen it's time for the second chance round aka Andra chansen of those who finished 3rd and 4th. Sadly it's once again made in duels so one can only guess this system's fairness. The duels are based on simple rules: they must be 3rd and 4th placed ones against each other, and they can't be from the same heat. That already pretty much sets who's against who.... According Björkman also they try to put songs aiming to be liked by same groups of fans against each other... My winners are Anna Bergendahl, Nano, Arvingarna and between Stenmarck and Ajax I don't really care.... Andreas Johnsson Vs. Anna Bergendahl Vlad Reiser Vs. Nano Martin Stenmarck Vs. Lisa Ajax Rebecka Karlsson Vs. Arvingarna All is good in the end

Historic triple for Mahmood and his Soldi and debut album Gioventù bruciata . Soldi sits another week at #1 in official singles charts and his album went straight to #1 in album chart, while Soldi is still the most played song in Italian radios and it has already gone Platinum. Previously Soldi broke the Italian record on Spotify becoming the most streamed song ever within 24h with 1.676.481 streamings on February 11. In week 7-14 February he got almost 9 million streams.  Meanwhile on Youtube Soldi has been watched over 35 million times...

Eliot has released his entry Wake up  written by Pierre Dumoulin for Belgium in Eurovision song contest 2019. It's a midtempo pop ballad maybe missing a proper chorus, but it's atmospheric and pleasant to listen to and doesn't sound manufactured Eurovision song. Well done. I like it. 

After days of speculating and refusals from both runner up Freedom Jazz and third placed Kazka (and 4th placed Brunettes Shoot Blondes even before they were asked and apparently they never were) after the winner Maruv and negotiating with EBU Ukraine has decided to withdraw from Eurovision song contest 2019. They will however broadcast the shows as planned. One can suppose for 2020 they go for an internal selection or carefully selected artists..... if they will be there.  Should Russia win in 2019 and organize in 2020 UA:PBC confirmed they won't be there. 

Public broadcaster of Ukraine and singer MARUV did not sign an agreement on the participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Negotiations for the next candidate start tomorrow morning. Logicly it would be runner up Freedom Jazz, but also they have performed in Russia last year apparently..... same goes for 3rd placed Kazka. Update: UA:PBC to consult EBU lawyers to consider withdrawal from the contest before approaching other candidates. If decision will be taken to participate after all, the representative will be chosen among the Vidbir acts.  Update 2: Runner up Freedom Jazz has rejected the offer. Update 3: 3rd placd Kazka also rejected thee offer.... Update 4: Ukraine officially confirms withdrawel. However they will broadcast thee shows and hope to be back in 2020. UA:PBC statement: “The public broadcaster and  MARUV, who won the national selection for the Eurovision, did not agree on the terms of participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 ...

Those who said Mahmood's victory in Sanremo with Soldi was unfair and manipulated political effort and that people wouldn't buy it have been proven wrong greatly. Soldi has topped all streaming platforms from Spotify to iTunes and Apple Music and most importantly the official Italian singles charts and the radio play charts. Now it has reached platinum status. It's also #25 in Switzerland. His debut album Gioventú bruciata was released last Friday and is already selling gold . Meanwhile the video on Youtube has over 30,5 million views already. At the moment he's on promotion tour all around Italy meeting & greeting fans in music stores besides being on radio or tv almost daily in various programmes. 

Jurijus (Veklenko, 29) became third time lucky when he won the Lithuanian national final for Eurovision song contest after having tried already back in 2012 and 2014. His Run with the lions won both the jury and televotes. He's no newbie to Eurovision stage though, he was backing singer in 2015 .  Jurijus - Run with the Lions (jury 12 + televotes 12) 24 Monika Marija - Light On (10 + 10) 20 Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys - Mažulė (8 + 8) 16 Jurgis DID & Erica Jennings - Sing! (7 + 7) 14 Alen Chicco - Your Cure (6 + 6) 12 Henry & Tommy Modric - Neverpart (5 + 5) 10 Jurgis Brūzga - CTRL ALT DELETE (4 + 4) 8 Justina Budaitė-Junà - Strength of a Woman (3 + 3) 6 Ps . This must be the first time ever I see jury and televoters totally agree on everything!

Leonora (Colmor Jepsen, 20) has won the Danish Melodi Grand Prix 2019 and therefor represants her country in Tel Aviv Eurovision with Love is forever , a little happy tune that deeclares love is forever in several languages. She entered the super final after 50-50 televote-jury vote and scored 42% of the televotes in the second round. She's also is multiple Danish Junior Champion in ice skating. Is it only me or does she remind a lot of certain Emmelie? Leonora - Love is forever 42% Julie & Nina - League of light 35% Sigmund - Say my name 23%

The Ukraininian national final Vidbir 2019 for Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv had its heated moments when politics entered the judging and for example Maruv (or Hanna Korsun) was demanded an answer by Jamala what she will answer when she will asked if Crimea is part of Ukraine or not.... She answered that of course it is but looking painfully cornered and somewhat afraid. Despite her win her going actually to Tel Aviv in doubt until Ukrainian television confirms it as the national final wasn't staged by them. The winner is proposed to them as the entry and they can still say No and pick someone else.... Apparently Maruv has a planned tour and other apparances coming up in Russia and she's given 24h to cancel them all to be allowed to do Eurovision.... All this apart the jury placed her second and she won the televote beating Freedom Jazz as televoters placd them only third... Bang! Maruv - Siren Song (5+6) 11 Freedom Jazz - Cupidon (jury 6 + televote 4) 10 ...

Joci Papai has won A Dal, the Hungarian national selection for Eurovision song contest 2019 in Tel Aviv with his Az én apám . The song is an ethnic ballad and if it has similarities with his 2017 entry Origo it is still different enough to avoid the idea of repeating the same old. Origo was 2nd in its semi-final and 8th in the Grand Final.  The jury voted four songs to the super final wheree televoters chose the winner. He won both rounds.  Joci Pápai - Az én apám 26 Acoustic Planet - Nyári zápor 22 Bogi Nagy - Holnap 20 Bence Vavra - Szótlanság 16 Gergő Szekér - Madár, repülj! 12 The Middletonz - Roses 8 Fatal Error - Kulcs 8 Gergő Oláh - Hozzád bújnék 0

Ukraine is proving ónce again why it is an Eurovision superpower. Their national selection final offers us six songs that all could go easily to Eurovision and do well. There will be 50-50 televote-jury and while in the semi-finals the votes have spread evenly among the contestants, only Freedom Jazz took home full votes from televoters and jury.... Their song and performance is something else, bum bum bum! Housewife version of Verka  Serduchka meets girls gone wild on spring break. Yuko continues with the catchy tunes and way of singing that you either like or hate. Enter Maruv with hypnotic beat and horns. Bang! Brunettes Shoots Blondes offer something less immediate. Pre-contest favorite Kazka may have not delivered and featured as well as expected and the song lacks a hook coming after the three first bangers. Anna Maria last but not least with their most traditional song of this final.  My votes go to Freedom Jazz and Maruv, anything else would be a little disappoi...

The long A Dal 2019 in Hungary comes to end tonight. 30 songs have become after 3 heats and 2 semi-finals and one disqualification in the last minute eight. Petruska made it to the final from the first semi-final but was replaced this Monday by Gergö Oláh due plagiarism. Two Eurovision veterans in the line up: Joci Papai and Andras Kallay Saunders in The Middletonz who also bring the only song in English to the final the rest being in Hungarian. Acoustic Planet sings about summer showers, Gergö about hiding you, Bence about blindness, Szekér about flying birds, Bogi about tomorrow, Joci about his dad and Fatal Error about keys and The Middletonz of course about roses. Hungary has once again provided pretty solid final line up. Two rounds of voting. In the first one the jury will vote and the top-4 will enter the second round. My ideal top-4 would be Bence Vavra, The Middletonz, Gergö Szekér and Joci Papai and I wouldn't mind Papai winning again, but either of these four will d...

Denmark is having its 49th Melodi Grand prix tonight in Herning. Ten songs that will be voted 50-50 by jury and televote and top-3 going for the second round of voting until the winner is out. A lot of familiar names among the songwriters from Tim Schou to Lise Cabble to John Ballard and Laurell Barker. Lise has co-written three of the songs... More info here . Should Julie & Nina win as well as Jon Henrik in Sweden and KEiiNO in Norway we would have a real Northern exotism in Israel. Greenland will be already watching live this Danish final anyways.... Simone Emilie - Anywhere   LIVE Jasmin Gabay - Kiss Like This   LIVE Rasmus Faartoft - Hold My Breath   LIVE Marie Isabell - Dancing With You In My Heart   LIVE Sigmund - Say My Name   LIVE Humørekspressen - Dronning af baren  LIVE Julie & Nina - League Of Light   LIVE Teit Samsø - Step It Up   LIVE Leonora - Love Is Forever   LIVE Leeloo - That Vibe  ...