Tuesday 30 November 2010

Sheeba

Sheeba were an all-girl pop trio and were popular in Ireland and Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sheeba consisted of Maxi (who sang the Irish entry in 1973), Marion Fossett and Frances Campbell. They are best known for representing Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981 with Horoscopes which came 5th.

In 1978 the group took part in the Irish national final with their song It's Amazing What Love Can Do which came 6th. They went on to release several singles in Ireland with producer Roberto Danova, although their biggest hit was Horoscopes in 1981, which reached No.3.

Following their exposure in the 1981 contest, they signed a recording contract in the UK and released the singles The Next Night and Mystery, neither of these found success however. The contest also led to concert tours in Europe and Japan. The following year they entered the Irish national final again with a song performed in Irish called Go Raibh Maith Agat (Thank You Very Much) which came 7th. Later in 1982 they were involved in a road accident in the West of Ireland that brought their career to an eventual halt due to their reluctance to continue touring. Shortly after the accident Sheeba represented The Netherlands at the World Popular Song Festival in Japan with the song Don't Know How which stranded in the semi-finals. After a Japanese tour in 1983, they decided to split, but did compete one more time in the National final in 1984, where they finished 4th with the song My Love And You. Today, Maxi is a successful broadcaster with RTÉ in Dublin, Marion Fossett is ring-mistress of the well-known family circus Fossetts, and Frances Campbell is a broadcaster in Northern Ireland.



Sunday 28 November 2010

Filippos Nikolaou



Filippos Nikolaou is a Greek singer who covered the Moroccan entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1980.

Saturday 27 November 2010

Rajaton


Rajaton is a Finnish a cappella ensemble, founded in Helsinki in 1997. The Finnish word rajaton means boundless, to indicate the breadth of their repertoire, from sacred classical to near Europop. Rajaton consists of Soprano: Essi Wuorela, Soprano: Virpi Moskari, Alto: Soila Sariola, Tenor: Hannu Lepola, Baritone: Ahti Paunu and Bass: Jussi Chydenius. Rajaton performs primarily in Finland but also tours around Europe and the rest of the world. Rajaton appears regularly in Canada at the Festival 500 choral event in St. John's, Newfoundland as well as at MusicFest Vancouver in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was the guest artist at the Kaleid Choral Festival in Woodstock, Ontario in 2005, 2006 and 2010. Rajaton's fan following has grown substantially since 2002. In 2005, Rajaton album sales reached 100,000 worldwide. They have earned eight gold records in total, with Rajaton Sings ABBA reaching platinum (30,000) and Joulu reaching double platinum (60,000). Rajaton also includes original material in their repertoire: aside from works by composers such as Mia Makaroff, Laura Sippola and Anna-Mari Kähärä, some of their pieces are written or arranged by members of the ensemble. In one of the shows the group sings many Finnish Eurovision songs.

Friday 26 November 2010

Merja Rantamäki


Merja Rantamäki (14-2-1957) is a Finnish pop singer. Merja's first hit was a Russian folk song in the late 70's. After that she had a couple of other hits in Finland. Merja was quite successful, performed in many discotheques's and theaters and made a couple of albums. In the early 80's Merja stopped her singing career and became a devoted housewife. In the early 90's she tried to make a comeback but stopped definitely after a short, unsuccessful, period. Merja covered quite a few Eurovision songs.

Thursday 25 November 2010

Jan Malmsjö


Jan Malmsjö is a Swedish singer, actor and musical star. he trained at the prestigious Dramatens Elevskola (The Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school) during 1950-53 and one of his first parts at the national stage was as Paris in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He played in lots of movies, musical and plays like Hamlet, Ibsen's Ghosts, My Fair Lady, La Cage Aux Folles, Victor/Victoria and he voiced Lumiere in the Swedish dub of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Jan Malmsjö is still as active as ever and could last be spotted on stage in the title role of John Gabriel Borkman by Henrik Ibsen at the Royal Dramatic Theatre.

In the 60's and 70's he made some quite successful records and he came 2nd in the Swedish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969 with the song Hej Clown.

In 1969 the Swedes picked the wrong song, in my opinion. After the voting there was a tie between Jan Malmsjö who sang Hey Clown, (which was written by Benny Andersson) and Tommy Körberg who sang Judy, Min Vän. They both got 31 points. The jurors had to vote again and they gave Jan 45 points and Tommy 54. So unfortunately Jan Malmsjö didn't go to Madrid to represent Sweden. Tommy Körberg came 9th with Judy, Min Vän.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Anita


Anita Spanner is an Austrian singer, best known for her participation in the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest.

Anita came to the Austrian national final in 1984 as a virtual unknown but her song Einfach Weg was the clear winner of 12 participants. In Austria the song was a big hit, it reached no 1 in the Austrian charts. In Luxembourg however Einfach Weg came last with only 5 points.

Anita released a couple of singles but could not repeat the success of Einfach Weg. In 1991 she participated again in the Austrian national final but came only 7th with the song Land In Sicht.

Anžej Dežan

 
Anžej Dežan (born June 17, 1987 in Šentjur is a Slovenian singer.

Anžej began his musical career by winning the TV show Karaoke only ten years old. His first major success though was in the 2005 talent show Spet Doma on RTV Slovenija, where he was the runner-up (beaten by Omar Naber, who got to represent Slovenia in Eurovision Song Contest 2005).

His growing potential was recognised by the successful composers and lyricists Urša and Matjaž Vlašič and Boštjan Grabnar, who became Anžej's creative team. Together with them, Anžej published his first single C'est la vie which was one of the top singles of several Slovenian radio playlists.

In February 2005, Anžej was a backing vocalist for Nuša Derenda at EMA, the Slovenian Eurovision preselection, while in May of the same year he entered the festival Melodije morja in sonca and cut his second single Vroče. The song received a great reception at the festival and the jury awarded him first place.

Anžej competed in the EMA 2006 with the song Plan B with 12 points awarded by the jury and 14 points awarded by the viewers. (The runner-up song performed by Saša Lendero was actually the one awarded the maximum points from the viewers but received no points from the jury.) As the winner, he got to represent Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 at which the song was sung in English and called Mr Nobody. It ended up in 16th place in the semi-final though, and thus failed to qualify to the final.

The song Plan B was also recorded in Serbian under the title Srce od Kristala. He claims that it's his own record.

Monday 22 November 2010

Tamta


Tamta, born as Tamta Goduadze, is a Georgian pop singer. She started singing at the age of five and was the leadsinger in several kids Bands in Georgia. Tamta was awarded in children's singing festivals and children's musicals between the age of twelve and fourteen.

At the age of 22, Tamta and her family moved to Greece where she took part in the Greek version of Super Idol where she came 2nd. After that Tamta released a couple of successful singles and albums. In 2007 she was asked to participate in the Greek national final for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song With Love which came 3rd and last.

Sunday 21 November 2010

Vikki Watson


Aeone Victoria Watson is a British singer-songwriter, who now lives in Los Angeles, California. Her music has been classified as new age, folk or world music. She has released four albums, one of which was an internet only release. Early in her career, as Vikki, she represented the United Kingdom in the 1985 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Love Is which came 4th and was written by Vikki herself and Jimmy Kaleth.

She toured the United States and then returned to her Celtic roots and cales herself Aeone. She did well in terms of touring, television shows and live work, yet a difficult lifestyle coupled with the commercial direction of the material, drove her to emigrate to the United States. Initially teamed with writer/record producer/sound engineer Jeff Silverman, in 1991 she released an eleven track debut album, entitled Window to a World, that pioneered a blend of Celtic sounding music with a pop feel combining fiddle, banjo and mandolin. In 1998, she released a special mp3 album, called Aeone. Combining songs from her debut album and several new ones, the album did well on mp3.com. A few months later, her second studio album was released, The Woman's Touch. After the release, Aeone picked up composing for a while before working on her third album. In between she found time to sing one of the title songs for the TNT mini-series Mists of Avalon, writing the song I Will Remember You Still. A year later, the third album, Point of Faith, was released. Among the more remarkable happenings in her career, Aeone recalls her debut in Zimbabwe, when she sang one song and the band played another; and a television appearance in which she was almost accidentally flattened by Meat Loaf. Her songs have been recorded by Rick Springfield and Shari Belafonte.

UHF



UHF is a Portuguese rock band formed in the late 1970s in Almada by António Manuel Ribeiro (vocals, guitar and keyboard), Renato Gomes (guitar), Carlos Peres (bass) and Zé Carvalho (drums). They were the driving force behind the Portuguese rock boom of the early 1980's. At this time very few rock bands had success singing in Portuguese. UHF are still popular and performing in Portugal. For one of their albums they covered the Portuguese entry for the ESC 1967, O Vento Mudou.

Friday 19 November 2010

Kurt Darren


Kurt Darren is one the most popular artist in South-Africa and made more than 15 albums since 1995. He sings in English and Afrikaans and scored a lot of hits. On one of his albums he covered the first attempt of Jørgen & Niels Olsen to reperesent Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

José Cid



José Cid (born as José Albano Cid de Ferreira Tavares on February 4, 1942 in Chamusca, Portugal) is a Portuguese singer and composer. Over his longlasting career, José Cid has been awarded with 25 Silver, 8 Gold and 3 Platinum records. He is active in music since 1968 as a co-founder of the band Quarteto 1111, the first band to take a new approach to pop-rock music in Portugal, with a modern line-up and instrumentation. Quarteto 1111 was the first symphonic rock band in Portugal and were very successful. The pop inclinations of José Cid led him to found during the first half of the 1970s a 4 piece vocal pop group (Green Windows) in the style of ABBA who were also very successful in Portugal. After the group broke up José made himself a career as songwriter and singer and remains a popular and active musician in Portugal. José Cid participated many Times in the Portugese national final for the Eurovision Song Contest as a singer and as a writer. He tried to represent his country in 1968, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2007 as a singer or songwriter or both.

In 1968 José Cid participated for the first time at he Portugese national final, he came 3rd with the song Balada Para Dona Inês.



In 1974 José took part in the Portugese pre-selection as a solo singer with the song A Rosa Que te Dei (which came 5th) and as a member of the group Green Windows with the songs No Dia Em Que O Rei Fez Anos (which came 2nd) and Imagens (which came 3rd).





In the Portugese final of 1978 were 12 songs and 3 artists. José Cid sang 4 of the songs. O Meu Piano which came 2nd, Aqui Fica Uma Canção which came 5th, Porquê, Meu Amor, Porquê which came 6th and O Largo Do Corêto which came 7th.









In 1980 José Cid participated in the Portugese national final with the song Um Grande Grande Amor. The winning song was chosen by the votes of 22 regional juries and finally José won. He made the song especially for the Eurovision Song Contest although it was originally four minutes which is a minute too long and for the contest in Amsterdam he made a new, shorter version of the song. The chorus consisted only of international words, "Addio, Adieu, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye. Amore, Amour, Meine Liebe, Love of my Life", because José thought that this would make the song sound much stronger and he was right, Um Grande Grande Amor came 7th at the Eurovision Song Contest.



In 1981 José came 2nd in the Portuguese pre-selection for the ESC with the song Morrer De Amor Por Ti.


In 1984 family members of José Cid participated as the group Banda Tribo at the Portugese national final with the song A Padeirinha De Aljubarrota which came 3rd. José Cid was the producer of this song and of the album of the group.



In 1988 José Gonçalo, who is a nephew of José Cid, took part in the Portugese pre-selection with José Cid's song Cai Neve Em Nova-Iorque which came 2nd.



In 1993 Jose Cid, Bragança & Ca. Lda. sang the song O Poeta, O Pintor E O Músico which came 2nd.



In 1995 José Cid wrote the song Plural for Teresa Brito which came 3rd



In 1996 José Cid wrote the song Ganhamos O Ceu for Cristina Castro Pereira which came 4th.



In 1997 José Cid wrote the song Canção Urgente for Os Meninos da Sacristia which came 6th.



In 1998 José Cid participated in the Portugese national final as a member of the group Alma Lusa. They won with José's song Se Eu Te Pudesse Abraçar. The song, an ethnic composition featuring traditional Portuguese musical instruments, came 12th at the Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham.

The group consisted of vocalist Inês Santos and musicians José Cid, Carlos Jesus, Henrique Lopes, Carlos Ferreirinha and Pedro Soares. Alma Lusa's Eurovision appearance was always intended to be a one-off, and they disbanded after the contest.



In 2007 José Cid was the producer of the song Na Ilha Dos Sonhos sung by Zé P. which came 5th.

Monday 15 November 2010

Pam Feather

Pam Feather is a Dutch singer and guitar player from Rotterdam. Pam performs regularly on several Dutch television stations like TMF, ETV, TV Rijnmond and VPRO. Since 2006 Pam has her own band. During a radio show Pam sang a soul version of Ik Ben Verliefd (Sha La Lie).

Mieko Hirota


Mieko Hirota (弘田三枝子) is a popular Japanese singer. Her nickname is Mico. Mico was born in 1947 in Tokyo. She is very popular in Japan after making her debut in 1965.

Mico was the first Japanese singer to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival in America. For one of her albums Mico covered the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1965.

Kenickie


Kenickie was a rock band from Sunderland, UK. The band was formed in 1994 and consisted of lead vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Lauren Laverne, drummer Johnny X (Lauren's brother), lead guitarist and occasional vocalist Marie du Santiago and bass guitarist Emmy-Kate Montrose. The band's name comes from their favourite character in the 1970s film Grease. Their first single In Your Car was a hit in the UK. Their first album which was released in 1997 was a huge success. In 1998 Kenickie released a second album but it wasn't successful as their first album and in Oktober 1998 Kenickie disbanded after a performance in London.

Kenickie covered the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest of 1976 for the project "A Song For Eurotrash".

Mary Amora


Mary Amora is a Dutch singer who was born in 1972 in Manilla. Since 2000 Mary lives in the Netherlands.

In 2001 Mary won the Dutch Soundmixshow as an imitator of Tina Turner. After this Mary toured the Netherlands with her Tina Turner Tribute Show. In 2003 Mary participated in the Dutch pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Somewhere By The River which came 6th. In 2004 Mary tried again but she stranded in the semi-finals with the song The Power Of An Angel.

Mary recorded her first album in 2006 and is still active as a singer.

Sunday 14 November 2010

Merethe Trøan


Merethe Trøan (born May 19 1970, Trondheim) is a Norwegian singer, best known for her participation in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest.

In her teens, Merethe Trøan and her sister were members of vocal group Pastel together with two brothers, not related to the Trøans. In 1985, Pastel took part in the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest selection, Melodi Grand Prix, with the song Ring Ring Ring finishing 3rd. Pastel released one self-titled LP before disbanding. In 1992, Trøan returned to MGP as a solo artist, and this time was successful with the song Visjoner being chosen as the Norwegian entry for the 37th Eurovision Song Contest, held in Malmö, Sweden on 9 May. Visjoner" did not prove very successful, managing only 18th place of 23 entries, although Merethe Trøan's performance is remembered for a spontaneous giggle midway through the song.

In 1993 Merethe tried again to represent Norway but came only 6th with Din Egen Stjerne.

Merethe Trøan subsequently took up work as a voice actor, her credits including the Norwegian versions of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and The Jungle Book 2.

Fomins & Kleins


The Latvian rock band Fomins & Kleins was founded at the end of 2002. Its members Ivo Fomins and Tomass Kleins were already accomplished and wellknown rock musicians. Both are from the western Latvian city of Liepāja, which is famous for its rock music traditions.

Both have worked together previously, in Soviet times forming the underground group Saldās Sejas, which also featured well known Latvian musicians Zigfrīds Muktupāvels and Guntars Račs.
At the end of 2002, the band signed a contract with the largest local record company Mikrofona Ieraksti. At the start of 2003, the first song that they recorded together, Sniegs, brought the group success at radio stations, as well as winning 3rd place at the LNT Music Video Competition. The next single Solījums is often played on many Latvian radio stations, and the song's video is frequently shown on television and was nominated for the Best Music Video Award at the Latvian Music Awards. In July, the musicians participated in the international festival "Baltic Song Contest" in Sweden and achieved fourth place. The festival itself is shown on Swedish television as well as Polish television.

The group's debut album Muzikants was released in 2003, and the album's title track became a huge hit after the duo successfully performed at the Latvian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest and gained a convincing second place with the song Muzikants. That year it was the only song to be performed in Latvian and the public was on its feet during the performance.
In 2004 they again found themselves singing the only Latvian-language song in the Latvian Eurovision pre-selection. This time they won, and the song Dziesma Par Laimi was selected as Latvia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Istanbul where they stranded in the semi-final. Nevertheless, they subsequently remained upbeat about the experience, and about Latvia's future in the contest.

Fomins & Kleins frequently give concerts and are still very successful.

Sofia Källgren/Robert Wells


Anna Sofia Helena Källgren, known as Sofia Källgren (born 17 August 1970, Högsbo, Sweden), is a Swedish singer.

In 1982 she debuted on the TV-program Gomorron Sverige on Sveriges Television. In 1986 she performed the song I Know Him So Well from Chess in a televised talent show Folkparkernas Talangjakt. In 1987 she was awarded the Ulla Billquist-scholarship.

Sofia entered the song Världen Är Vacker to try to participate in Melodifestivalen 1989. The song was not selected, but she was offered to perform the song Världen Är Vår with Visitors which came 7th, in Melodifestivalen 1990 Sofia entered again and performed Handen På Hjärtat solo backed up by three dancers wearing partial fursuits. Handen På Hjärtat finished 4th and in 2003 Sofia Källgren sang a duet with Robert Wells but their song My Love stranded in the semi-finals of Melodifestivalen.

Robert Wells (born April 7, 1962 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish pianist, composer and singer, best known for his highly successful musical extravaganza Rhapsody in Rock which has achieved great prominence in Scandinavia, a mixture of rock, classical and boogie-woogie. Robert participated in 1987 at Melodifestivalen with the song Sommarnatt which didn't reach the top 6. Robert Wells played piano during the Belarus entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Butterflies performed by 3+2.



Saturday 13 November 2010

Andrew Carrington

Andrew Carrington (April 16 1977 in Australia) is an Australian singer.

Andrew Carrington is an Australian singer from Cairns and former leadsinger of the Australian Ten Tenors. Andrew lives in Berlin with his German wife. He studied saxophone and classical singing.

Andrew covered for his album a couple of Eurovision songs.

Grupa 777


Grupa 777 was a Croatian music group and very popular and successful in Yugoslavia in the 70s and 80s. They performed at many festivals and had lots of hits. They toured Yugoslavia, Russia and Germany.

Grupa 777 participated fout times in the Yugoslav pre-selection for the ESC:
  • 1974 - Hey Curo Mala, 8th,
  • 1984 - Zbogom, 9th
  • 1987 - Spavaj, Samo Spavaj, 15th
  • 1988 - Tiha Noc, 4th

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Interval acts - 2007: Apocalyptica


Apocalyptica is a instrumental heavy metal band from Helsinki, Finland, formed in 1993. The band is composed of classically trained cellists Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lötjönen, and Perttu Kivilaakso and drummer Mikko Sirén.

Originally a Metallica tribute band, their music borrows elements from many genres including classical music, neo-classical metal, progressive metal, thrash metal, and symphonic metal.

They have sold over three million albums to date. In 2007 they performed during the interval act at the Eurovision Song Contest final.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Sedat Yüce


Sedat Yüce is a Turkish pop singer and musician who participated 5 times at the Turkish pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest which he won only once.

  • In 1993 Sedat was a backing singer in the Turkish pre-selection for Sebnem Özsaran.
  • In 1996 Sedat took part with the song Vazgeç which came 3rd.
  • In 1999 he sang the song Birak Beni which didn't reach the top 3.
  • In 2001 he won the Turkish national final with the song Sevgiliye Son which came 11th inStockholm.
  • In 2005 he took part with the song Yeniden which didn't reach the top 2.


Behave



Behave is a Dutch band consisting of Michiel Cremers, Gerjan Schreuder, Junior Vogel and Jeroen de Haan.

In 2006 Behave participated in the Dutch national final with three songs. The song Heaven Knows was a small hit for Behave in the Netherlands and came 2nd in the Dutch pre-selection.


Monday 8 November 2010

Ronan Keating

Ronan Keating (March 3 1977 Dublin) is an Irish singer who was one of the members of the boy-band Boyzone. Ronan was the singer of Boyzone from 1994 until 1999 when he started his solocareer.

He was also the founder and manager of the band Westlife. In 1997 Ronan was co-presenter of the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin and he performed during the interval-act together with Boyzone.

In 2003 Ronan Keating wrote one of the four songs for the Irish national final. His song I Couldn't Love You More became third. I think Ronan should have sung the song himself cause Michael Leonard, who was chosen to sing Ronan's song sang out of tune during the whole 3 minutes. I Couldn't Love You More is one of my favourite songs ever from the Irish pre-selections.


In 2009 Ronan wrote the song Believe again for the Danish pre-selection for the ESC. Brick sang the song and won the Danish national final and came 13th at the ESC.

In 2010, Ronan recorded Believe Again as a duet with Australian Idol-star Paulini.

Sunday 7 November 2010

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Macedonia



Anja Veterova, 11 years old, will represent Macedonia with the song Magicna Pesna. Anja wrote the song together with Elena Risetska (ESC 2006).


Junior Eurovision 2010 - Georgia


Mariam Kakhelishvili, born in Tskneti in 1995 is a singer from Georgia. She will represent her country in Minsk with the song Mari-Dari. In 2008 she tried to represent Georgia but she didn't win the Georgian pre-selection. Mariam wrote the song Mari-Dari herself and she sings the song in an imaginary language.

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Belarus


Daniil Kozlov is 13 years old and lives in the small town Zhabinka. Daniil represents Belarus with his song Muzyki Svet.

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Malta


Nicole Azzopardi, born in Mosta in 1996, is a wellknown Maltese singer. She'll represent her country in Minsk with the song Knock Knock, Boom Boom. Nicole participated in a couple of festivals in Italy and Romania. In 2007, 2008 and 2009 she tried to represent Malta at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest but failed to win. In 2010 she won eventually with Knock Knock, Boom Boom which. Nicole wrote the song herself.

Saturday 6 November 2010

Heinz Winckler


Heinz Carl Heinrich Winckler (born 22 March 1978) was the winner of the first series of South African Idols. After winning the Idols competition in June 2002, he discontinued his studies to devote time to a music career. Idols was the South African version of the British Pop Idol show, and was presented as a talent search competition with successive elimination rounds narrowing the number of contestants. Throughout the show, Winckler was referred to as "Hunky Heinz" because of his good looks.

Heinz is still very successful in South-Africa. On one of his albums Heinz covered the Danish entry of 2009 in Afrikaans. His version of Believe Again is called Ek Kan Weer In Liefde Glo.

Friday 5 November 2010

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Armenia


Vladimir Arzumanyan was born in 1998. He represents his country in Minsk with the song Mama. He wrote the song together with producer DerHova.

Festival di Sanremo - Riccardo Cocciante


Riccardo Cocciante (born 20 February 1946), is an Italian singer-songwriter and composer. His oeuvre includes recordings in Italian, French, and Spanish; he has recorded some of his songs in all three languages.

He was born in Saigon, French Indochina, now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to an Italian father and a French mother. He moved to Rome, Italy at the age of 11 where he attended school and started his career as musician coming to success around 1972. He also lived in the USA and Ireland. In 1976, Cocciante covered the Beatles song Michelle for the musical documentary All This and World War II.

In 1991 he won the Sanremo Festival with the song Se stiamo insieme, and for Christmas 1997 legendary Spanish operatic tenor and friend Plácido Domingo invited him to sing at Domingo's annual Christmas in Vienna concert, together with Sarah Brightman and Helmut Lotti.

As of 2008, Cocciante has three musicals running, probably Notre-Dame de Paris being the most known. This musical may later be put into competition against another musical in progress, Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame (musical).

Thursday 4 November 2010

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Belgium


Jill Van Vooren (15) and Lauren De Ruyck (14) represent Belgium at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with their song Get Up! Jill & Lauren wrote the song together with Peter Gillis and Miguel Wiels, the composers of last year's Belgian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entry Zo Verliefd, sung by Laura Omloop.

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Latvia


Šarlote Lēnmane was born in 1998 in Riga, Latvia. She represents her county with the song Viva La Dance.

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Russia


The Russian participants for the 2010 Junior Eurovision Song Contest are Liza Drozd and Sasha Lazin, they live in Krasnoyarsk. Liza is eleven and Sasha is going to celebrate his 11th birthday in October. They wrote the song Boy & Girl themselves.

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Sweden


Josefine Ridell is 13 years old and was born in Malmö. Josefine will sing the song Allt Jag Vill Ha in Minsk. The song is written by Josefine herself, Johan Bejerholm, Thomas G:son, Arash Labaf and Robert Uhlmann.

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Ukraine



The Ukranian entry Miy Litak will be sung by Yuliya Gurskaya. The song was written by Yuliya Gurska herself, together with Andrii Marusich.


Junior Eurovision 2010 - Serbia



Sonja Škorić, born in 1996, will sing the song Čarobna Noć for Serbia. She wrote the song herself. In English it means magical night.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Junior Eurovision 2010 - The Netherlands


 
Senna & Anna, 11 and 10 years old are singing the Dutch entry for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The song was written by Anna Lagerweij, Senna Sitalsing and Tjeerd Oosterhuis. Senna sings and Anna plays the pink violin.


Charlotte Kero


The Finnish singer Charlotte Kero covered the winning German entry of 2010, Satellite.

Junior Eurovision 2010 - Moldova



Stefan Roscovan represents Moldova in Minsk with the song Allibaba. Stefan lives in Chisinau and he performs from the age of three. Stefan has participated in various international festivals in Ukraine, Latvia and Romania and in the 2008 Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk where he won the 2nd prize. Stefan wrote the song together with Daniela Doroftei and Nicolae Caragia.


Junior Eurovision 2010 - Lithuania


Bartas was born as Nojus Bartaška in Kaunas in 1996 and he is representing Lithuania with the song Oki Doki. In 2007 and 2008 he failed to win the Lithuanian pre-selection but this time he won. He wrote the song together with Rūta Lukoševičiūtė and Arvydas Martinėnas-Vudis. On stage he is accompanied by five dancers Ema, Migle, Beatrice, Karolina en Andrija.

Monday 1 November 2010

The Second Chance Contest 2010

Timotei

The winner of The Second Chance Contest 2010 is Sweden with Timoteij and their song Kom. Well, I don't think the right song won, my favourite was Canta Por Mim sung by Catarina Pereira for Portugal, which came 3rd and I still think that Catarina should have won the Portugese national final instead of Filipa Azevedo and her, in my opinion, boring ballad.
I find it unbelievable that poor Miro got only 1 point from Germany, I like Miro and the song Twist And Tango very much.



Miroslav 'Miro' Kostadinov













Results:

01. Timoteij - Kom (Sweden) 267
02. Bryan Rice - Breathing (Denemark) 223
03. Catarina Pereira - Canta Por Mim (Portugal) 203
04. Coral - En una vida (Spain) 167
05. Harel Ska'at - Lean (Israel) 161
06. A1 - Don’t Wanna Lose You Again (Norway) 138
07. Jennifer Braun - I Care For You (Germany) 105
08. Yiorgos Karadimos - Polemao (Greece) 103
09. Heli Kayo - Annankadun kulmassa (Finland) 87
10. Constantinos Christoforou - Angel (Cyprus) 73
11. Emina Jahović - Ti Kvariigro (Serbia) 64
12. Nina Pušlar - Dež (Slovenia) 54
13. Anna Cyzon - Love me (Poland) 24
14. Evelina Sasenko - For This I'll Pray (Lithuania) 20
15. Emmy & Mihran - Hey (Armenia) 11
15. Monica Ivkic - Fashion Queen (Ireland) 11
15. Antonello Carozza - Senza respiro (Russia) 11
15. Darko Ilievski - Lagi (Macedonia) 11
19. Valungari - Vol or ne vol (Croatia) 4
20. Glen Vella - Just a little more love (Malta) 3
21. Miro - Twist and Tango (Bulgaria) 1
22. Milk & Kisses - I am on Fire (Eurovision 2010 - Azerbaijan) 0

The Second Chance Contest/The Retrospective Contest

The OGAE Second Chance Contest is a video event organized between branches of OGAE, the international fan club of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Each branch can enter one song that failed to win the country's national selection to compete in the annual Eurovision Song Contest. The members of each club choose amongst the songs that did not win and select one to represent the club in the event.

The contest began in 1987, when it was then known as Europe's Favourite. Four OGAE branches competed in the first contest, coming from Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The contest quickly expanded and now contains over 20 countries competing per contest. Due to the nature of some countries and national finals it is a common occurrence for countries to sporadically compete in the contest.

The contest begins during the summer after the year's Eurovision Song Contest. A video of the branch's entry is handed to each competing club. The votes are then returned to the organizing OGAE branch, normally the previous year's winning branch, who then organizes the final. The method of voting has developed since the contests interception, from audio-tape in the contest's beginnings to the use of video tape and nowadays by DVD and Youtube.

Previously it had been known for non-televised national final entries to compete in the Second Chance Contest. This occurred from 1989 to 1991 when OGAE Spain entered songs known to have been entered into the country's internal selection process. In 1990, 1991, 1998 and 1999 OGAE Italy competed in the Second Chance Contest, entering the winning songs of the Italian San Remo Festival, known to be the basis for the creation of the Eurovision Song Contest. After 1999 a new rule was introduced allowing only songs from televised national finals to compete in the Second Chance Contest. This has led some branches ineligible to compete for many years due to no national final being held in the country. Participation in the Second Chance Contest requires competing branches to have had a televised national final held in their country for the year's Eurovision Song Contest. So far 37 countries have been represented at the contest at least once.

In 1993 guest juries have been used in the voting of the contest. These juries comprise of branches that are ineligible to compete in the contest due to no national final being held in their country.

From 2003 it was decided to hold Retrospective Contests each year containing songs from contests prior to 1987. In 2003 the first contest was held, containing songs that failed to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986. This is repeated every year to the same way, for example in 2004 the 1985 Retrospective contest was held, and in 2005 the 1984 Retro contest was held etc. The latest contest to be held was the 1979 contest, held in 2010, with plans for the 1978 contest currently in place for 2011.