Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Here we go with the second semi-final of Festival da cancao 2023. You can read my thought about the first semi-final here. Edmundo Inácio - A festa **** He's one of the open call qualifiers and I certainly want to join his party. Lovely arrangement and rhythm, very nice voice. Latin inspired but not in the usual banal way. I hope the live staging and performance will be good! The Happy Mess - O impossivel *** Again very nice but quite forgettable. Not much to say, enjoyable while it's playing. Teresinha Landeiro - Enquanto è tempo *** Very classic old school, beautiful. Timeless.  Bandua - Bandeiras *** Intriguing and interesting. Probably would suffer Telemóveis fate in Eurovision. But I like this a lot more, that was way too weird.  Bárbara Tinoco - Goodnight ** Why in English, why? Loses a lot becoming a song from any random national final anywhere. A song that doesn't bother the top of the scoreboard. Anywhere. Inés Apenas - Fim do mundo ** Another open call qualifier....

Cyprus chose Australian Eurovision wannabe for their artist last year after he competed in the Australian selection where he placed 7th, after he failed to make the live shows in X Factor 2015 when he was just 17.  But since he's grandfather is from Cyprus ... why not? Next they went off to Sweden to buy a Melodifestivalen reject. Smart? I don't think so as this is.... well... very boring. With a quick look the writers have at least 8 songs in this year's Melodifestivalen, each and every one better than this one, including Tattoo, Air, Rhythm of my show, Six feet under, One day and Royals.... So I only ask WHY??!!

The Netherlands has revealed their entry for the Eurovision song contest 2023 in Liverpool. We already knew since November Mia Nikolai & Dion Cooper are the chosen ones, with a song co-Written by Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence. Burning daylight is the title and all this is internally chosen.  And yes, it's the rumored Chasing heights song, they just changed the title. And ... errr.... hmm.... Yeah. Maybe I expected more. Cha cha cha!

Germany, fresh from yet another last place at last year's Eurovision (Germany's placings the last ten years are 25th, 25th, 25th, 4th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 18th, 21st) is trying again to find the song through open submissions (548) and open TikTok wildcard submissions (900+) and this is what they came up.... And considering humor act Ikke won the wildcard I don't have much faith in Germans following the success of the other Big5 this year either.... The winner will be chosen 50/50 international jury/public vote. Anica Russo  Once upon a dream ** Waltz pop that turns into screamy noisy thing. Why am I thinking Kylie Monogue's Wild roses? That was myserious and intrgiung, this is not.  Frida Gold - Alle Frauen in mir sind müde **** Withdrawn due illness :-( This is the female answer to late Roger Cicero's women rule the world, now they are tired.  This would probably be the best choice for Germany to try to succeed. A risk worth taking over humor acts and safe pop tunes....

I already reviewed the first semi-final here , so let's move on to the second semi-final without further explanations. (Edit. I have made a tiny little mistake in the main photos - spot the wrong one!) Hurricane - Zumi zimi zami *** Hurricane is no more, long live the new Hurricane. Somehow this feels a bit Hurricane light compared to the original trio and their energy and voices. But this is fun anyways. I don't know how they are live so hard to say how this works on stage or will they make a mess of zumi zimi zami?.  Nadia -  Devojka tvog dečka  * This takes forever to get going and when it does it isn't anything special. A filler.  Filarri - Posle mene *** Balcan botox disco, quite pleasant one. I imagine myself driving with a car by the Adriatic seaside roof down this blasting out enjoying life. Zejna - Rumba **** Oh yes, love this one! I hope she delivers live and the staging works. This is silly enough yet catchy enough to stand out. Rumbanbumbum! Ram pam pam! ...

Serbia, one of my favorite Eurovision country usually what comes to the national selections will have its grand final on March 4 after two semi-finals on March 1 and 2. I'm quite sure I won't have time to do the review in between so I do it beforehand exceptionally in Sanremo style. Serbia is riding high again having dared to take a risk last year with Konstrakta and placing 5th in the final in Turin. That certainly wasn't a safe entry and paid off wonderfully. Biti zdrava, biti-biti-biti-biti zdrava! These 32 semi-final songs were selected among the about 200 submissions, among them Eurovision veteran Tijana Dapčević (North Macedonia 2014) and Hurricane  (Serbia 2021) but that doesn't count as all the members have changed. There will be 50/50 jury/televote. Half the songs will reach the final, the other half is eliminated. Mattia Zanatta & Angela Kassiani - Novi svet  * This has a lot going on from Serbian operatic singing to broken English in Italian accent and th...

Surprise! It's Blanka and her tropical pop Solo for Poland. The fandom may now have the meltdown I predicted in my previous post below. I'm feeling quite amused. Also because the jury ranked her first while what I could hear from the malfunctioning stream was that her vocals were equal to Benjamin's in UMK last night. But it's a fun addition to Liverpool line up instead of that fandom favorite - who would have stepped a bit on Käärijä's territory, too, so I have a double reason to be happy! Blanka Stajkow is 23-year-old Polish-Bulgarian model and singer.  Final results (jury + televote): 1. Blanka - Solo (12 + 10) 22 2. Jann - Gladiator (7 + 12) 19 3. Dominik Dudek - Be good (10 + 8) 18 4. Felivers - Never back down (8 + 6) 14 5. Yan Majeswki - Champion (4 + 7) 11 6. Alicja - New home (5 + 5) 10 7. Natasza - Lift u up (6 + 2) 8 8. Kuba - You do me (3 +  3) 6 9. Maja Hyzy - Never hide ( 2 + 4) 6 10. Ahlena (1 + 1) 2

Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję! Tonight it's Poland turn to choose their entry for Liverpool's Eurovision song contest 2023. The ten finalists are chosen among the around 300 submissions between September 2022 and February 2023, and TVP hold the right to invite a wildcard if they wished so. Interestingly, the artists submitting song were recommended to take part in the song writing. And yet, it seems only half of them actually have done so..... Among the artists Alicja, the third one from the 2020 cancelled edition trying to get to the main stage. Ulrikke (Norway) and Damir (Croatia) have failed already, how will she do? Jann and his Gladiator has already created a fuss in the fandom and seems to be the front runner at least in the Eurovision fan bubble. Get ready for (another) social media meltdown if he doesn't win..... Blanka seems to having the most streams though.  There will be also many guest stars from jury member and best Polish placing (2nd/1994)...

  Now that was a surprise! When Le Deva were announced as one of the top-3 acts I was sure they had it in pack but  no: Piqued Jacks won with Like an animal. Third was XGioce. Refreshing! Roy Paci, Lorenzo Licitra, le Deva and Alfie Arcuri picked up other awards proving the Big artists reigned. The award for emerging artist went to Mayu. Piqued Jacks is a foursome of Italian musicians from Buggiano (Pistoia), formed in 2006. They have released four albums, three EPS and a dozen singles so far. Despite this they were not among the Big artists but made it through the casting and auditions.  1. Piqued Jacks - Like an animal 2. Le Deva - Fiori su Marte 3. XGiove - Fuoco e benzina 4. Mayu - C'è qualcosa in me che non funziona 5. Eiffel 65 - Movie star 6. Edoardo Brogi - Due punti sull'equatore 7. Ellynora - mama told me 8. Tothem - Sacro e profano 9. E.E.F. - Something for you 10. Vina Rose - Obvilious Unplaced: Roy Paci - Tromba (My favorite!!) Deshedus - Non basterà Kida ...

  He did it. Oh boy did he do it: 539 points, runner up 152..... Cha cha cha! Käärijä or Jere Pöyhönen (29) from Vantaa next to Helsinki managed to holabaloo he caused with calm humorous way all the way to the winning performance on stage. Only after that we saw some beautiful tears in his eyes which made us like him even more. His funny, takes himself not too seriously but works hard. I haven't been this thrilled for our entry since Lordi and Blind Channel. And how did they end? 1. Käärijä - Cha cha cha (72 + 467(52,9%) 539 2. Portion Boys - Samaa taivasta katsellaan  (28 + 124/14,1%) 152 3. Keira - No business on the dance floor   (42 +91)/10,3% 133 4. Robin Packalen - Girls like you  (28 + 81/9,2% ) 109 5. Kuumaa - Ylivoimainen  (44 + 63/7,1%) 107 6. Lxandra - Something to lose  (46 + 24/2,7%) 70 7. Benjamin - Hoida mut  (34 +32/3,6%) 66 Bonus:

Finland's UMK has really turned itself around in just a couple of years from no hit machine disaster to a real chart topping delivering career launching hit machine. Two years in a row the Finnish Grammy aka Emma has gone to a song from UMK, all the songs hit the charts, it delivers several Top-10 hits, number ones and creates new stars. This year more than ever. In my personal opinion every song this year is good or great, and any of them would have been a winner just 3-4 years ago but things have changed now. How to pick up the one from the goodies? Easy if you think about it: there's one that caused an international stir right after it was released, it sticks out like a slap in the face and all I can say is WE MUST CHOOSE IT.  The running order caused some commotion in the social medias but I believe it has something to do with the stagings and props etc. On the other hand with only seven songs it's not so important if you go first, last or somewhere in between. Especial...

After 1100 submissions, auditions since October 2022, 106 semi-finalists and all week long selecting process here we are: The grand final of Una Voce per San Marino 2023 to find out who gets the ticket to Liverpool's Eurovision song contest for the tiniest of them all. Read more here .  Watching the semi-finals and 2nd chance broadcasts was quite an effort but to be honest it got better night after night but the sound quality and stream were very poor and certainly didn't make judging the performances - some of them challenging the ones in Moldovan auditions - easy. Every night the names of finalists and qualifiers for the 2nd chance raised some questions but let's not forget they just have to keep some of the big names in the show and certainly they can't make a total random newcomer nobody who hasn't got a backing of record label or a producer with a sack of money to win this show. Simple facts of life. Someone's got to pay the bills in the end of the day, rig...

Portugal and its Festival da Canção , one of my favorite national finals for doing their own thing and their own music is back again this year and with its already winning familiar formula: RTP invited a number of song writers (15) with free hands to create an entry for an artist of their choice added with entries (5) from the open submissions. Among them Eurovision veteran Cláudia Pascoal from home soil 2018 contest. Two semi-finals with ten songs each, six of them qualifying for the final: first five with 50/50 jury/televote, and one more from the rest with 100% televote.  Moyah - Too much sauce ** From open call. The verses are quite nice rap but the chorus is just nonsense. This is a prime example of streaming/tik tok era songs: just tad over 2 minutes. And in this case it's enough if not too much.  Bolha - Sonhos de liberdade ** Beautiful intro but then ... meh. Orchestration is better than singing or melodies. April Ivy - Modo voo **** As up tempo pop that Portugal ...

  Today's news is we have the hosts for the Eurovision song contest 2023 in Liverpool. And they are many! And even more for BBC itself. Graham Norton will host the grand final with Alesha Dixon, Ukrainian Julia Sanina (of Hardkiss fame) and Hannah Waddingham. The three ladies will host the semi-finals without Graham, but he will be also doing the commentary for BBC with Mel Giedroyc in the final while Scott Mills and Rylan will comment the semi-finals. On top of that Ukrainian Eurovision veteran Timur Miroshnychenko will be all over the place during the broadcasts and he will also host the Opening ceremony with Sam Quek. 

Australia has internally chosen progressive metal band Voyager to Liverpool's Eurovision song contest 2023 with Promise . They are no stranger to Eurovision having tried to get the ticket already in 2020 with Runaway (didn't qualify for the final) and in 2022 with Dreamer that placed second.  The band has been active since 1999 - but only lead singer Daniel Estrin is an original member - and have released seven studio albums. 

Switzerland has revealed their artist for Eurovision song contest 2023 in Liverpool and it's Remo Forrer. He's 21 and The Voice of Switzerland 2020. He's musician who has released four singles so far and his Eurovision entry will be revealed on March 7. Meanwhile enjoy some of his songs below:

It's the San Marino week in the Eurovision bubble. Over 1.100 submissions from 37 countries, about 380 of them invited for auditions in San Marino in the past months and finally we have the.... 106 semi-finalists. Every night this week we'll have semi-finals, four artists will qualify to the Saturday's final, added with two Sammarinese artists. On Friday will be a second chance round where those placed 5th to 8th will have an access, and the top-4 will qualify for the final as well. Unlike last year there will not be Big and Newcomers but everyone must go through the semi-finals (the Big only skipped the auditions) and they stressed the Big had to apply to take part and were not invited like last year. It seems everything is better organized and thought after. It also seems Una voce per San Marino is here to stay at least three more years. The rumor mill for the possible Big has been on fire already weeks and all sort of names has been thrown in the game from Elettra Lambor...