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Showing posts from April, 2008

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San Marino's new video

Miodio has also an alternative video with lyrics for your viewing pleasure. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIhh_pAi-Fg&feature=related

On the spotlight: Switzerland

Switzerland has often borrowed foreign singers to sing for them, most notably Céline Dion who brought them their second victory in 1988, and Estonian girlband Vanilla Ninja in 2005. Despite two victories Switzerland also sports two miserable zero pointers: Gunvor in 1998 and Piero Esteriore, who managed to get zero points in a semifinal with 22 acts! Now they chose another Swiss Italian singer to represant them for the second year in a row but a singer with a solid career and international fame. Last year Dj BoBo was amongst the superfavourites but failed to make the final, let's see how Paolo will do in Belgrade... Paolo Meneguzzi was born as Pablo Meneguzzo in Mondrisio, Switzerland in 1976. He got his first guitar from his grandfather, a multi instrumentalist, before he was big enough to play it. His career started in South America in 1996 when he won the Viña del Mar festival in Chile with Aria, arió . Three albums in Spanish followed ( Por amor , Paolo and Emociones ) before

Moldova wins Ourvision 2008

Best singers vovally were awarded in last night's Ourvision final. Moldovan Iolanta Savva (18) won the contest and gets a recording deal. Estonian Kadi Vija (22) came second and Norlan Leygonier Santana from Cuba was third. The winner will perform in the Maailma kylässä (World visiting us) festival in Helsinki in May and well as The night of Arts in August. Congrats Iolanta, well done and well deserved!

Esctoday presents a night to remember

esctoday.com with partners made it happen: the biggest Eurovision event in London since 1977! Eleven of this year's entries were present along with the winner of 1981 Bucks Fizz, Iceland's 1997 entrant Paul Oscar and Nanne Grönvall from Sweden (Sweden 1996 with One More Time and countless Melodifestivalens). Based on this success it's not a wild guess this will happen again! Well done, Barry & co! Belarus, Romania, Malta and Poland meeting the press before the show... Scandinavia was represented by Iceland and Norway. The animals were represented by Ireland Armenian and Ukrainian beauties.... Sirosho from Armenia has fun with Bosnian Crazy Sister and Laka.... Bucks Fizz, the winner of ESC 1981 reunited for the occasion. Paul Oscar (Iceland 1997) was there, too. Also UK's hopeful Andy Abraham made an appearance... And the good news is the Winner's Tour will include London this year and the same venue! Let's see if it is one of these guests returning?

Ourvision 2008: From Ghana to Canada

The Ourvision singing contest, a far cry from ever dreamed Worldvision Song Contest will have its second edition tomorrow night in prestigious Finlandia Hall in Helsinki (where the Welcoming Party was held last year!). Ten acts made it to the final in the continental semifinals over the winter and this time around it's bigger and better: the winner gets a recording contract and a chance to make a music video! Maybe next year we will also hear original songs and turn this from a sort of a karaoke contest into a real thing? Time will tell.... The Asiavision finalists are Lesmana Vilmi (Indonesia) and Adi Subari (Indonesia) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AZE2iTiNg0 The Arabvision finalists are Jawhar Karim (Iraq) and Mounir El-Bentite (Morocco) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E48ieqtD7QY The Americavision finalists are Pascal Gaudion (Canada) and Norlan Leygonier Santana (Cuba) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUTl-cp2sRQ The Afrovision finalists are I.T.D aka Jabril Mohammed &

Marija is no angel

Last year's Eurovision winner, Serbia's Marija Šerifović has released a new album just in time for the Belgrade experience. Nisam andjeo or I'm no angel is her third album after Naj, Najbolja (2003) and Bez ljubavi (2006). Last year after her victory she released a compilation Molitva - The best of . Naturally, Marija will be on stage in Belgrade in May performing again her winning song Molitva . Listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtpsqazeihM

On the spotlight: Bulgaria

Bulgaria entered the Eurovision family in 2005 and their two first entries didn't make it to the final but last year in Helsinki Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankulov's Water made it to 6th place in semifinal and even better 5th place in the final. The stage show was impressive and in my personal opinion the stage looked the best of them all in the Bulgarian entry. Talk about a great opener for the contest, as they performed first in the semifinal! This year again Bulgaria should make it to the final easily... This time Bulgaria has made yet another different choice by sending a club anthem that includes diffferent music styles - all in 3 minutes. Favourite by many, misunderstood by some DJ, take me away will surely not pass unnoticed in Belgrade! Deep Zone Project was formed in 2000 by three musicians, DJ's and studio engineers: DJ Dian, Rossko and Luybomir Savov with Joanna. Their debut album Ela Izgei in 2002 earned them 5 MMTV Music Award nominations: Album of the y

Iceland tributes YouTube

Iceland has revealed its promovideo and it's a hilarious tribute to YouTube homemade vids and EuroClubbing fans in general. And Regina and Fridrik challenge Carola and Isis Gee on teeth bleaching! It's just absolutely fabulous and Iceland just may have passed on top as my main favourite in May! See yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQm7dFO4E1Y

Riki Sorsa granted artist's pension

Riki Sorsa, who did Reggae Ok! for Finland in 1981 has been granted the state's pension for artists (1.199 euros/month). Riki was diagnosed with throat cancer a couple of years ago and is now cured but can't sing anymore. Riki who has been living on music all his life found himself in a bit tricky situation after that but the good news now is he's the new face for the Finnish Cancer association and will work for them in various events and campaigns. See Riki in action here: Haaveissa vainko oot mun (Euroviisut 1985/2.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOOY3kPa3To , Reggae Ok! 1981/2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbYX19De8mQ

On the spotlight: Hungary

Hungary sends in their 9th entry this year, since their first participation in 1993. Andrea Szulák didn't survive the pre-qualification that year so the first real entry came a year later when Friderika Bayer charmed Europe and took 4th place. The year after they were second last and were out of the 1996 contest. Since then it has been a roller coaster and Hungary stepped down for 6 years until they returned in 2005. NOX was a big favourite beforehand but managed only 12th place. Last year Magdi Rúzsa won awards and gained points to take her to 9th place (2nd in her semi) and was just the loveliest of all artists in Helsinki. After Magdi's jeansy blues we get a classy lady indeed... Csézy released her debut album last year and its first single was a smash hit, helped with the visually stunning video. Earlier this year she was chosen by the Hungarian public out of 15 artists and songs to represant the country in the Eurovision. Csézy (28) has a strong musical training behind h

Euroviisut artists going up again in charts

Jippu drops to no 2 on the album chart as metal rockers Children of Bodom enters the chart at no 1. Also Kari Tapio drops to no 5 while the other Euroviisut artists climb back some positions: Teräsbetoni to no 7, Movetron to no 9, Vuokko Hovatta to no 11 and Cristal Snow to no 24. In singles Missä miehet ratsastaa returns to Top-5 again but there's no longer trace of any other singles.In compilations both Euroviisut 2008 and Melodifestivalen 2008 have left the Top-5.

On the spotlight: Andorra

Andorra entered the Eurovision in 2004 but is yet to reach the final. They have even managed to come last in the semifinal already despite decent songs in general. Last year they were the shock drop outs as Anonymous was amongst the favourites and considered rather safe qualifier. This year Andorra tries again something new and different for them: a rather Scandinavian sounding poptune sung by a Spanish artists who actually does have a career already: Gisela! Spanish Gisela from Barcelona will represant Andorra in the Eurovision this year. She already backed up Rosa in 2002 as a member of the Operación Triunfo finalists. She was studying journalism when she was accepted to OT and the rest is history. Disney soon picked her up to sing in Peter Pan , The Beauty and The Beast and Enchanted . She has also done musicals and represanted Spain in Viña del Mar festival in 2003 that she won. She remains the only one who has won both the best singer and the best song awards. In 2008 she hopes

Charlotte at Stockmann

Charlotte from Sweden is on her promotour and was in Finland this week. Between photoshoots, autographs and interviews a girl needs to shop! And when in helsinki where else to go but Stockmann.... See the full video here: http://charlotteperrellivideo.blogg.se/

Does it pay off to return as a previous winner?

Does it pay off to return to Eurovision after you have already won it once? Generally previous winners do well. Some acts have returned over and over again without winning and with variable results. Honorable mentions go to Peter, Sue & Marc from Switzerland, Katja Epstein and Wind from Germany... but let's have a look at the winners: The very first winner Lys Assia returned again in 1957 and 1958 (were there no other singers in Switzerland back then??) but the victory didn't struck her again, even if she came 2nd in 1958. Isabelle Aubret, the French winner in 1961 returned in 1968 and came third. Italy's Gigliola Cinquetti was close to win twice, too. In 1964 as sweet 16 and ten year's later a grown up woman came 2nd behind ABBA. In 1991 she was back on Eurovision stage in Rome, trying to keep Toto Cutugno making a complete disaster of the final in Cinecittà. The we have Ireland's Johnny Logan, the only one to win twice (or rather 3 times as Linda Martin's

On the spotlight: Turkey

Turkey used to struggle in the Eurovision but the televoting changed it all and the first victory came in 2003. They have also been in Top-4 three times: 1997, 2004 and again last year in Helsinki. Turkey is one of the few countries that tend to send songs with a real flavour like Eurovision should be but this year the song is not very Turkish but it is in Turkish. And once in final they can again relay on their votes from Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland to place well. But then, they do deserve it. Again. This year Turkey trusts in rock and being the only one besides Finland (and in a different semi) they should make it to the final. Mor ve Ötesi (Purple and beyond) was founded in 1995 and has since released 5 albums, 18 singles and 12 videos. Their albums have sold over 350.000 copies so far. The year 2006 has been so far the most successful for the band. They won both the Best Rock Album and the Best Album of the year awards for Dünya Yalan Söylüyor and also t

On the spotlight: Iceland

Iceland participates in the Eurovision for the 21st time. They debuted back in 1986 and have since gathered some good placings and also last places and zero points. They have four top-10 finishes (4th in 1990, 7th in 1992, 2nd in 1999 and 9th in 2003) and this year they are amongst the (fan) favourites again. This is my life should be a sure qualifier for the final, Iceland's first since the semifinals were introduced... Euroband was formed two years ago after the Icelandic final where Regina came 2nd and Fridrik 3rd. For fun they started singing Eurovision songs and last year Fridrik tried his luck again and came 2nd. The most natural step was then to try as Euroband... Fridrik Ómar (26) started playing drums at the age of 5, composed his first song at 10, and by the age of 18 he had already released 2 albums. He also plays guitar and piano. Since then he has done musicals, sung in different bands and one of his albums has sold gold, another one platinum. Regína Ósk (30) start

Jippu straight to number One!

Jippu made it! She debuts with her second album Kuka teki minusta tän naisen at number One! One can only wonder where her fans were those Euroviisut nights? Or did they NOT vote her on purpose as stated on some chatrooms? Diehard fans thought Euroviisut is not the right forum for her and voted some other artists instead.... Hmm... Maybe there's a tiny little bit of truth there after all...? Other wise Kari Tapio stays at number 2, Teräsbetoni drops to no 9 and Movetron to no 12. Vuokko Hovatta is on the way down, too, at no 15. Last year's Kilpi debuts at no 16 with IV . Also from last year Johanna Kurkela re-enters at no 17. Christal Snow drops 16 places to no 26 this week. Aikakone completes the Top-40 at no 40. In singles Teräsbetoni' s Missä miehet ratsastaa on its 6th week clibs back to no 8. Melodifestivalen 2008 from Sweden climbs one spot to no 3 in its 2nd week in Top-5.

On the spotlight: Moldova

Moldova entered the Eurovision family in 2005 when they sent the unforgettable drumming granny and gained 6th place. The year after they flopped to 20th place and considered withdrawing but "by public demand" they sent Natalia Barbu who was one of the surprises in Helsinki 2007 reaching 10th place (well deserved though!). This year Moldova challanges the viewers by sending a soft laidback jazzy tune, not exactly a genre that would set the televoters on fire... Geta or Georgeta Burlacu (33) is a mother of two and has also studied music, especially jazz for years. She has been doing a lot of TV shows presenting various Karaoke Shows, TV-Jazz-Club and others. She also sings in various bands and combinations. She's also a veteran of many international festivals in Moldova, Belarus, France, Romania and Germany. She has released one album. Ce n-as da... was released in 2005 and is "ethno-jazz"! Lyricist Viorica Demici is a language teacher and fluent in several lan

Hanna Pakarinen nominated for Iskelmä-Finlandia

Hanna Pakarinen becomes the youngest Iskelmä-Finlandia nominee, and quite a controversial one. The award is ment for real Schlager artists and previous winners include Jari Sillanpää, Marion Rung, Paula Koivuniemi and Kari Tapio. Hanna singing rock-pop in English isn't really what the nominees usually are! But then not are the other nominees either: Muska (Kirka's sister) who made her career in the 1970's being more rock than pop, Olli Lindholm (of rockband Yö), jazzy Maarit Hurmerinta and rocker Timo Rautiainen. The winner will be announced in July and gets 10.000 euros. Is schlager crossed over to pop and rock, or what is schlager in the 2000's? Heavy took over Euroviisut and now rock takes over schlager....

Mietta: Con il sole nelle mani