Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  "Here we are back in Sweden. I know, don't blame me, I voted for Finland as well." That's how Petra Mede and Edward af Sillén the scriptwriter decided to open the 2024 Eurovision song contest in Malmö. Just gotta love them both. And yes, today's news is Käärijä will perform in tomorrow's second semi-final besides giving the Finnish jury's votes in Saturday's final.  Another fun moment was the Grindr joke. If there's something good in Sweden's Eurovision it's Petra and Edward. This is Petra's third time (Edward has quite a few more) as host of the show. First alone in 2013 after Loreen won and the contest was in Malmö, sounds familiar? Then she did 2016 in Stockholm with Måns Zelmerlöf and after solo, with a man she's now trying a woman, actress Malin Åkerman and it works beautifully. Petra keeps delivering those little jokes here  and there with stoned face and Malin plays the more serious role. The scandal 1 of the evening is Eri...

Serbia, Portugal, Slovenia.... SVT really milked it by announcing all these Maybes first.... Ukraine, Lithuania... five non-English songs in a row, wow! Finland next as predicted. Another surprise Cyprus before favorites Croatia and Ireland... and finally..... Luxemburg! Here they are the qualifiers for the final. Out are Poland as I feared after seeing it as it was shaky vocals and quite a messy staging. The song is happy and fun though but it wasn't enough. Maybe simplier staging and choreography could have helped it? Iceland and Moldova as was expected, sadly Azerbaijan but then again the song is great, the staging wasn't and finally sadly also Australia. Also here the staging was very basic and close to nothing. It just wasn't enough even if I like the song.  For Finland this is fourth final in a row, something that has happened only once before from 2006 (when we won) to 2009. But in this new streak we have a 2nd and 6th place! Finland's fellow underdog Portugal do...

Oh dear, here it is. The prediction. That has turned a bit trickier now that only televoters are voting in the semi-finals plus this semi-final is very even. I would say we only have 3-5 sure finalists and only two sure non-finalists while all the others are somewhere in there in-between land. The live performance will be crucial and not only, but more than ever how they come across the tv-scree and how they connect with viewers at home. Those about 99,9% of viewers who have no idea what they are about to hear and see. The fandom bubble is a world apart.  I would say the sure finalists are only Ukraine and Croatia. Lithuania and Ireland will pretty surely make it, as well as Finland and Poland. Luxemburg should make it in this semi-final. Australia and Portugal should get enough votes to make it through as well. But then Cyprus might suffer from taking the stage after Eleni Foureira and Chanel, Serbia right after could result just boring and dark and a bit depressing. Slovenia suff...

Oh what a let down. Something is going on in Malmö 2024 Eurovision and I'm not sure we can blame it all on Israel. Not only have the rehearsals been more blinded than ever (then again, I'm all for closed doors rehearsals mind you), a big percentage of volunteers declining to come to work after all, the Eurovision street pretty much cancelled due to artists pulling out and so far the images from Eurovision Village have been sadly amusing in their emptiness and nothingness! I tried to watch the stream later. I ended up jumping ahead having a peak here and there and indeed it was useless nonsense. Where was fun? Glamour? Show? It was not Eurovision, it was like interviewing some reality tv wannabes before they kick off for some random reality adventure. Boring.  And now the much awaited Turquoise carpet. Blame the weather but what an earth was that? After the grandeur of Torino and Liverpool that was.... nothing. No fans allowed anywhere near, and the interviews conducted in an an...

Ok, it's time to reveal my own personal ranking this year. The first song I heard was France and it has stayed the clear number one for me all this time, and I still think it can win it all - maybe not winning neither the jury nor the televotes but ending up winning as a compromise. The other that still moves me every time I hear it, and I just like still as much as the first impact is Ukraine. Italy and Croatia were on top ever since they won their national finals and Albania was my favorite in FiK and even if it took awhile for me to adjust to the new version I still like it a lot. United Kingdom didn't impress that much at first but has been climbing all the time. Azerbaijan was a favorite as well right away while Switzerland took some time to appreciate while Luxemburg and Austria in the end made my top-10.  A special mention bubbling under are Belgium, Netherlands, San Marino, Spain, Lithuania and Israel not forgetting Ireland and Australia.  1. FRANCE - Slimane - Mon amo...

Another year, another Home Jury. And mind you, never ever before the results have been so surprising and I must honestly admit so not in line with my own likes and dislikes but what can I do, they have spoken. We voted with scores from 1 to 10 and this year also the scores are all time low and without a runaway winner. Ties were broken by highest individual scores. This year our unprofessional, mildly interested, regular Eurovision viewers included people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Both sexes, various locations in Finland added with our exotic Peruvian member to spice things up a little. I will count down the whole ranking in coming days from bottom to the top so please do follow up and comment if you like. Let's go! Here we are, the Top-3. With a real surprise winner! Scoring mid table from most everyone can surely take youi far in a year when the others score votes from every direction. Personally I'm surprised Switzerland scored so well, knowi...

Another year, another Home Jury. And mind you, never ever before the results have been so surprising and I must honestly admit so not in line with my own likes and dislikes but what can I do, they have spoken. We voted with scores from 1 to 10 and this year also the scores are all time low and without a runaway winner. Ties were broken by highest individual scores. This year our unprofessional, mildly interested, regular Eurovision viewers included people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Both sexes, various locations in Finland added with our exotic Peruvian member to spice things up a little. I will count down the whole ranking in coming days from bottom to the top so please do follow up and comment if you like. Let's go! 4. ITALY  6,63 5. UNITED KINGDOM  6,00 6. FINLAND  5,88 8. DENMARK  5,66

The individual rehearsals come to an end as The Big 5 + host country Sweden have their second 20 minutes rehearsals. Today also they draw their final slot. Unlike previous years there are three options: first half, second half or an empty ticket meaning the producers are free to place them anywhere they like to. United Kingdom and Germany draw first half, France second half and Spain and Italy an empty ticket. Host country Sweden was drawn to open the final already in the delegations meeting in March. It looks like Italy has changed their outfits. And not only but also the graphics?!  Tomorrow is the Turquoise Carpet day and from Monday we have the three dress rehearsals before the first semi-final on Tuesday evening.  UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY SWEDEN FRANCE SPAIN ITALY All photos as always from eurovision.tv

Another year, another Home Jury. And mind you, never ever before the results have been so surprising and I must honestly admit so not in line with my own likes and dislikes but what can I do, they have spoken. We voted with scores from 1 to 10 and this year also the scores are all time low and without a runaway winner. Ties were broken by highest individual scores. This year our unprofessional, mildly interested, regular Eurovision viewers included people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Both sexes, various locations in Finland added with our exotic Peruvian member to spice things up a little. I will count down the whole ranking in coming days from bottom to the top so please do follow up and comment if you like. Let's go! 8. SWEDEN  5,66 9. FRANCE  5,38 10. SAN MARINO  5,38 11. POLAND  5,38 12. GERMANY  5,38 13. ALBANIA  5,25

Another year, another Home Jury. And mind you, never ever before the results have been so surprising and I must honestly admit so not in line with my own likes and dislikes but what can I do, they have spoken. We voted with scores from 1 to 10 and this year also the scores are all time low and without a runaway winner. Ties were broken by highest individual scores. This year our unprofessional, mildly interested, regular Eurovision viewers included people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Both sexes, various locations in Finland added with our exotic Peruvian member to spice things up a little. I will count down the whole ranking in coming days from bottom to the top so please do follow up and comment if you like. Let's go! 14. NETHERLANDS  5,13 15. ISRAEL  5,00 16. IRELAND  5,00 17. UKRAINE 4,88 18. MALTA  4,88 19. AUSTRALIA  4,75

Already a week has gone by and today the rest of second semi-final acts conclude their 20 minutes rehearsals and next for them are already the dress rehearsals on Monday! How time flies! SAN MARINO GEORGIA BELGIUM ESTONIA ISRAEL NORWAY NETHERLANDS Photos from eurovision.tv as usual

Another year, another Home Jury. And mind you, never ever before the results have been so surprising and I must honestly admit so not in line with my own likes and dislikes but what can I do, they have spoken. We voted with scores from 1 to 10 and this year also the scores are all time low and without a runaway winner. Ties were broken by highest individual scores. This year our unprofessional, mildly interested, regular Eurovision viewers included people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Both sexes, various locations in Finland added with our exotic Peruvian member to spice things up a little. I will count down the whole ranking in coming days from bottom to the top so please do follow up and comment if you like. Let's go! Next up are the places 20. to 25. All qualify for the final except Belgium that misses out....  20. ESTONIA  4,75 21. SLOVENIA  4,75 22. AUSTRIA  4,63 23. LITHUANIA  4,63 24. SERBIA  4,63 25. BELGIUM  4,50

Another year, another Home Jury. And mind you, never ever before the results have been so surprising and I must honestly admit so not in line with my own likes and dislikes but what can I do, they have spoken. We voted with scores from 1 to 10 and this year also the scores are all time low and without a runaway winner. Ties were broken by highest individual scores. This year our unprofessional, mildly interested, regular Eurovision viewers included people in their teens, 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. Both sexes, various locations in Finland added with our exotic Peruvian member to spice things up a little. I will count down the whole ranking in coming days from bottom to the top so please do follow up and comment if you like. Let's go! Here are places 26-31. Luxemburg is our lowest grand final qualifier, the other are out for us.  26. LUXEMBURG  4,50 27. LATVIA  4,34 28. CYRPUS  4,25 29. NORWAY  4,13 30. AZERBAIJAN 4,00 31. PORTUGAL  3,75

The Big 5 are in town and on stage for the first time today for their first 30 minute technical rehearsal. And there are boxes. United Kingdom has a dirty old boxing training hall's shower room where everything seems to go very dizzy indeed a la George Michael's toilet scenes. Germany has a house on fire instead and the box theme continues with Sweden.... France goes all intimate instead and does already the familiar step back from microphone a Capella thing that will go wild in the arena. Can't wait! UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY SWEDEN FRANCE SPAIN ITALY All photos as always from eurovision.tv