Eurovision 2009 - Number 18 - Sunny - "Carrie"

Sunny is Solgunn Valstad, formerly lead singer with the band Jack, had been singing on TV for a long time. She'd participated in several children's talent shows on NRK including Juniorsjansen, Talentiaden and Da Capo! She was featured in the Norwegian version of Popstars when she was eighteen.

Even as she was doing that she'd started working with Hans Petter Aaserud, the guitarist in the band Trang Fødsel. Together they founded the band Jack, and put out three singles and an album full of pop-rock, punk girl attitude and some highly suggestive lyrics.

By the time 2009 came around, Jack were no more, but Solgunn was still working with Hans even if she'd changed her name to Sunny as she embarked on a solo career. The song they came up with together was Carrie. It's a slightly more mature version of the material they wrote for Jack with Sunny being less punky, slightly less suggestive, but still retaining something of their past stick-it-to-prudes attitude.

2009 saw a huge increase in the number of female-fronted rock and pop-rock in the national finals and Sunny/Solgunn had been doing this for most of the 2000s. It was her moment to shine, and she does give it all the welly she can muster with a tale of imagined summer indiscretions and abandonment.

It was a strong MGP year and she was in Alexander Ryback's heat. She didn't qualify directly to the final, but at least she made it to the second chance final. There her MGP journey ended as did her solo career. Nice try, but Sunny had the misfortune to be singing in Norway in 2009.

That wasn't quite the end of her career though. There were several more TV appearances to come. She's appeared on Beat for Beat several times and was a contestant on the Norwegian incarnation of The Voice in 2017. From that, here's Solgunn/Sunny singing a cover of The Foo Fighters' The Pretender

Eurovision 2009 - Number 19 - Miguel C. - "Não está"

First things first in this tale of disgruntlement and voting shenanigans. This is only half a song. It's the official Festival da Canção YouTube channel, and it's the only version that I've found online. We're stuck with this for now.

You might think that this is only half a song because of what occurred during the online voting for FdC in 2009, but that's not the case. Some of the other songs that didn't make through the online round also have only ninety seconds of sound. I'm not sure if this was all online voters had to listen to in 2009, if so it seems somewhat unfair to songs with big finishes.

To go back to the beginning Miguel C. is Miguel Cervini guitarist and singer, and occasional member of the Band/Project Balla - a changing group of musicians surrounding Armando Teixeira. For FdC though, Miguel was going it solo and making a name for himself. The first stage was the online voting process. Twenty-four songs were in it, with twelve progressing to the televised final. Voting was via the RTP website and each day you could vote for your favourite song.

The voting took place over ten days or so between the nineteenth of January and the thirtieth. Throughout this process, RTP published daily vote totals, so that everyone could see who was getting the votes, and Miguel got many votes. One of the other things that RTP did during this voting process was remove votes that they deemed as fraudulent. Several of the acts had this happen to including some of the singers that qualified to the final. Miguel had over 4,000 votes removed from his total.

He disputed that the votes were fraudulent and withdrew from the contest before the online voting had closed.

Try as I might, I can't find out what the criteria were that RTP were using to determine if votes were fraudulent, how many votes deemed non-fraudulent Miguel Cervini had when he withdrew, nor how this process would have affected the vote for others. No one else withdrew, so I can only assume that those 4,000 votes meant the difference between qualifying and not qualifying for Miguel.

All that we're left with is this ninety second of his self-composed song Não está (It Is Not). It's a simple thing of guitar and voice weaving a tale together. Simultaneously so Portuguese and somehow scratching all those indie troubadour itches, the little bit that we got really makes me want to know how it ended and whether it might have qualified without the alleged voting manipulation.

You might not be surprised to hear that this was Miguel's one and only attempt to get onto FdC or qualify for Eurovision. He did stick around to play and record with Balla as well as doing session work with his guitar skills.

This is a song by Balla featuring Miguel on guitar from 2015 - Submundo (Underworld). I can't help but feel that FdC is missing out on acts such as this

Eurovision 2009 - Number 20 - Velvet - "Tricky"

If you're going to use the question, "Are they better than the Spice Girls?" as your promotional tool, there's the risk that the audience will answer, "No, they're not better than the Spice Girls". You might be able to brazen this out under normal circumstances. But if you then enter your girl-group into a national final where the audience can deliver a public, quantifiable opinion on whether the group are indeed better than the Spice Girls, then fronting it out is going to be much much harder. Possibly even a terminal problem for your music project...

Velvet were a girl band brought together and managed by Mads Rogde, formerly of the Cheezy Keys. They were aspiring singers Charlotte Øverland Våset, Anette Amelia Larsen, Cornelia Børnick and Thea Bay. Charlotte was a stage musical actress appearing in a production of Cats, Anette was in Mamma Mia!, Cornelia was also in musicals, but of a less stellar nature, and Thea Bay was a dancer, choreographer and actress - also for stage productions. Just for a change, none of the band had been in any TV talent shows that I can find.

This was their first song and their first TV appearance. Even before they went on MGP, there were problems. There was another artist called Velvet (Jenny Marielle Pettersson) in Sweden. She'd appeared in Melfest twice already, and in 2009 she was competing again. If Velvet truly were better than the Spice Girls, there was the possibility of having two acts called Velvet on the stage in Moscow. The lawyers were armed and aimed, and the Norwegian Velvet backed down. At the time of the performance, Velvet had become Velvet Inc.

The song itself had some pedigree. It had been offered to Britney Spears for inclusion on her Circus album, but had been rejected. Tricky is by Hanne Sørvaag, Niclas Kings and Niklas Bergwall, a highly experienced group of songwriters. Hanne was well-known in the Norwegian music industry as a song-writer as well as having an album and a few singles of her own out. She'd also written Germany's 2008 Eurovision entry as well as a couple of MGP songs. Niclas and Niklas had written Belgium's 2006 Eurovision entry for Kate Ryan along with one of my favourites, Sivuoireita for the band Jane in the 2006 Euroviisut contest in Finland. It was a starry line-up and hopes must have been high for the launch of a new group.

And the girls delivered a performance. Given their professional background, this might have been expected. They're pitch perfect, harmonies all in place along with hitting those marks and knowing where the camera is. The song is polished pop, and has that debut-song-for-a-girl-group quality. Full of hooks and attitude. A statement song. If there's anything wrong here, you might criticise them for perhaps lacking a little in the sass, but that's a minor quibble there's nothing wrong with this at all.

Except for the comparison to the Spice Girls. Maybe without that this would have succeeded, maybe not. However MGP was stacked. Velvet Inc. did get through their heat and straight into the final without the need for duels or second chances. However, in that final, the big guns were firing. Four acts went through to the gold final, and Velvet Inc. were not one of them.

They had been proven not to be the next Spice Girls. As the members of Velvet Inc. all had ongoing day jobs on the stage, the group were quietly disbanded having failed to make it to Eurovision.

There is little in the way of anything after this as all four members of Velvet Inc. went back into stage acting and working away from the established music industry. However there is this clip of Anette Amelia Larsen appearing alongside Heidi Ruud Ellingsen on NRK game show Beat for Beat in 2013 singing Take Me or Leave Me from Rent.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 21 - ŠokoLedas - "Plastmasinė širdis"

This is a moment of the spotlight burning a little bit too brightly. ŠokoLedas (Chocolate/Shock Ice?) are two women, Justė Mozolytė and lead singer/song-writer/group motivation Kristina Karalytė aka Sniegė. They were a band put together by Egmontas Bžeskas, TV Host and the man behind the girl-group 69 danguje (69 in the Sky - yes really).

Justė was interviewed for a place in the girl-group, but she wasn't too interested in being a singer, as her main skill was in dance. Nevertheless, Egmontas saw something in her and put her with Kristina. Kristina had started out in a duet with another Lithuanian singer, Karina Krysko-Skambinė. That ended when Karina did get a place in 69 danguje, leaving Kristina without a band but with a lot of songs that she'd written.

Thus ŠokoLedas was created - possibly as a second chance group for the two members. This was their TV debut I think and they had a big album coming out later in the year with all those songs on.

Plastmasinė širdis (Plastic Hearts), by Kristina is a tale of a so-so relationship. Yes, the attraction is there, but it's fading. There is much binding the couple together but frankly it's not like it was. The chorus is effectively the break-up happening there and then.

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Time to move on then. The song is like something from the 1980s. Two singers with massive amounts of hairspray in the hair, pink PVC outfits, band-name finger jewellery and attitude. The guitar solo coda is a little gratuitous and it might be that the guitarist is Linas, the band manager with whom Kristina was in a relationship.

Underneath the slight amateurishness and the rough, but authentic vocals is a damn fine pop song, that's got smarter lyrics than most as well as several great hooks and a good use of structure to tell a tale.

It came eleventh of the twelve songs in heat three. This together with the band's image and marketing attracted the tabloids smelling a feeding frenzy. There were also ugly rumours in the gossip press regarding Justė's relationships and Kristina's weight. The band was no more by 2010, Justė left Lithuania for Norway while Kristina stepped away from the microphone to write songs for others. She's written for many of the bigger Lithuanian girl-groups including Kristal, HIT and Sirenos

They did however leave a trace that Lithuanian pop fans remember. Both of them still appear in the press when there's a wedding or a baby. Kristina's most recent release (under her pseudonym Sniegė) is from 2016 when she got married to her pilot husband. It's called Šaukia pilotus dangus (The Sky Calls for Pilots)

Eurovision 2009 - Number 22 - Alcazar - "Stay the Night"

This is Alcazar hitting the purplest of their patches. Now reduced to a threesome, they want you to Stay the Night with them. To this end, they've upped the concentration and refinement of their nu-disco europop to levels of significant concern to the regulatory authorities. This stuff is so saccharine that you should probably only consume it after seeking medical advice.

Not only have the band slimmed down to three, after the departure of Magnus Carlsson in 2005, but founder member Annikafiore (Annika Kjærgaard) left in 2007 when a re-assembly of the band was underway. That left more than a slot open in the line-up, so they asked Lina Hedlund, Melfest veteran and friend of the band, to join. Her unveiling was at a legendary night at G-A-Y in London where Alcazar performed alongside fellow Swedish club floor-fillers BWO and Army of Lovers.

The song was written by the band in conjunction with long-time song-writer for both Alcazar and BWO, Anders Hansson and he's now got the formula for this stuff down to a fine art. I'd venture to say that if you were to mention the words "Melodifestivalen" or "Swedish pop" to someone - they'd basically start singing this song. Even if they'd never heard it before. It's what you get if you boil down Melfest to its essence.

To go alongside the manufactured purity of the sound, Andreas Lundstedt, Tess Merkel and Lina had the charisma lasers full-powered up and pointing straight down the camera lens. They know what they're doing and they're probably able to do it in their sleep while smiling.

You'd think that this would be Alcazar's year, even if they were up against a whole smorgasbord of big Melfest names all vying for their Eurovision chance - and all of whom probably deserved it just as much as Alcazar. It was a stunningly strong Melfest line-up. Alcazar cleared the first hurdle with ease, winning their heat and stomping their way through the new duels to get straight into the final. No bothering with the second-chance round and its many-many head-to-head clashes.

It was a very tight final. The points were relatively evenly spread over six or seven different acts, with no one entirely sure who was going to win until the final televoting was revealed. For Alcazar it was another year of trying again. They ended up third with the juries and fourth in the televote to put them fifth overall. It only served to fire them up even more. Alcazar would return. As would all the band members as individuals. There is much, much more Alcazar to come.

As it's Lina's Alcazar Melfest debut, here she is from Melfest back in 2003.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 23 - Cola feat. Lidiya Zablotskaya - "Gudok"

This is going to be one of those blogs almost entirely about who these people are rather than what they're doing now, or even much about the song. And first, sorry for the weird audio skips in this recording. It's the only one I can find.

It's made harder here because there is a fair degree of name confusion with both the singer and the group. Let's start with who they're not.

Cola/Kola/Кола are the group rather than the singer. There is a well-known Ukrainian singer called Kola, but she only started her career in 2017. And this act is credited as Гурт «Кола» in some places, so it's the band who are Kola. The singer is Lidiya.

She is also not Lidiya Zablotskaya, Belarus's much more famous 2011 Junior Eurovision entrant who would have been eleven in 2009. Unfortunately having another singer with the same name makes finding the right one much harder.

I have found out that this Lidiya is a singer in a band called любо дорого (Lyubo-Dorogo/Lovey-Dovey). Unfortunately there seem to be several bands of that name in Russia, Belarus and Moldova stretching over a period of several decades. It almost seems to be a franchise of traditionally dressed,folk singers touring and performing around Eastern Europe.

And that gets me back to Kola who are a band with one released (on audio cassette) who play a mix of folk music and electronica, and who appear to reference Depeche Mode as often as they can. The two song writers are Valery Shevchenko and either Vladimir Gridin or Boris Gridin (depending on which source you believe). If it's Boris he's a studio engineer who likes to play Depeche Mode songs on the vibraphone with spoons. Too much of a coincidence for me!

That gets me to the song, Гудок (Gudok/Honk) which from a band that is Belarusian for Wheels gives the folktronica song another traffic related theme after Probka. It's a bit raw especially in the vocals, but that feels like one of the things that makes this stand out as well as the grinding guitars and Lidiya's authentic white voice adjacent folk sound. It's distinctly different for 2009 and it's going to be at least another decade before this combination of sounds will become the Eurovision ideal for many Eurofans.

Unfortunately for Kola and Lidiya, they were too soon and they got eliminated at the first hurdle in semifinal of Eurofest 2009 and the tale is as old as time. It was one hundred percent jury-voted and as we all know, juries don't like ethnopop.

I can't find any more recent music by either Kola or Lidiya. Lidiya may have gone on to be an event coordinator and production supervisor for sporting and musical events in Minsk, while Kola appear to have evaporated as quickly as they appeared.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 24 - Alexander Stenerud - "Find My Girl"

Alexander Stenerud was better known in Norway as one half of the duo Zuma. They'd been having hits in the charts throughout the early 2000s and even had a bash at Melodi Grand Prix they year prior to this, in 2008.

For whatever reason, in 2009 Alexander had gone solo. Nothing in any of the interviews or biographies I've found had indicated why this was the moment to step out from the band, and although Zuma hadn't split up, they hadn't released much music in the second half of the decade. It was perhaps a case of a project drawing to a natural conclusion.

Zuma's sound had always been electro-pop-romance, sometime faster, sometimes slower. Engineered for the radio, easy to consume and smile along too. Alexander had been the main song-writer and vocalist while his bandmate, Henrik Njaa keyboarded along behind him.

For Find My Girl, Alexander stuck to his established formula, just replace that missing keyboardist with a piano and five backing singers who can do a multi-part choral bar or two when required in the bridge. The thing that sets the song apart from some others is it's use of off-beat hits, notably in the descending line in the chorus when Alexander sings the title. It's a clever hook, and one that got Alexander and the song noticed.

He qualified for the final directly from his heat at MGP without any trouble, then in the final he was easily in the top four going through to the Gold/Superfinal. It was here that the real competition started as he was up against Alexander Ryback. Alexander Stenerud was always destined to loose the battle of the Alexanders, and he ended up third in the super-final televote.

Still that wasn't a bad results and he could see a way forward with his singing and song-writing career outside of Zuma. In 2010 he re-entered MGP once more and also released an 'anti-Christmas' single, Please Santa Go Away (The Bells Are Hollow) for curmudgeons everywhere. Zuma hadn't quite finished yet, and there was still time to get back together with Henrik. A final Zuma album came out in 2014 followed by a first solo album from Alexander in 2015.

And that was it. Apart from writing some songs and providing some backing vocals for The Opium Cartel, that's it. This is The Warmth of a Woman from his solo album

Eurovision 2009 - Number 25 - Intars Busulis - "Probka"

Yes, it's Intars. He made it to Eurovision at his second attempt solo, fourth attempt in total. Keep on trying and just maybe, eventually you'll make it. If there's one thing Intars isn't short of it's perseverance. His previous song in 2007 ended up second in Eirodziesma, and given that success, he was keeping the band together.

During the national finals, Probka (Traffic Jam) was called Sastrēgums and was in Latvian. It was still written by the same team as his previous song. The composer was classical and theatre composer Kārlis Lācis, while the lyrics came from Sergejs Timofejev and Jānis Elsbergs. As all of them have theatrical experience as well as doing Russian translations of songs for bands such as Brainstorm, it's no surprise that the song itself is a touch musical theatre.

But let's start off with Intars' jazz trombone playing and muso background. The song has verses in seven-four time and for a reason. The song evokes the frustration and anger of being trapped in a Traffic Jam. The odd metre is there to give that unsettling, extra long phrasing that feels like it should be moving forward faster than it is. Maybe honking its horn as it does so. You can feel the tension build through every verse.

For Eurovision in Moscow, the song was translated into Russian - not an unusual thing for a song from Latvia at the time and given the context, it was probably almost certainly going to happen regardless of what song won Latvia's national final. Somehow though, the Russian language seems to increase the agitation that Intars experiences singing the song, as his shoulders get higher and his neck gets shorter.

Maybe it was that emotional expression, maybe it was the stop-start irregularity of the rhythm, or maybe it was the projection screen staging that got a little lost in the vastness of the stage. Maybe Russians just enjoy traffic. Whatever the reason, Intars and Latvia finished nineteenth of the nineteen songs in the Eurovision 2009 second semi-final. An undeserving fate for a song so different, weird and spiky.

No matter, Intars returned the next year with a double-album and he continues to be a big name in the Latvian music scene including winning more TV talent shows, being a mentor on the Latvian X-Factor, winning several awards and being a regular at jazz festivals. He even teamed up with Reinis Sējāns in 2022 to form the band Bujāns to have another crack at the Latvian national final.

And he's still making music. He and his regular band, Abonementa Orķestris tour and record all the time. This is one of their songs from 2024, Es Došos Ārā (I'm Going Outside) from their 2023 album Spēlē Savā Burvju Flautā (Playing His Magic Flute)

Eurovision 2009 - Number 26 - BIX - "Gyvenimo valsas"

BIX are another case of a band who you wouldn't expect to have any Eurovision experience, but then it turns out their lead singer, Saulius Urbonavičius, was a member of LT United in 2006.

They're a band who had been around for two decades already in 2009. Formed before the end of the Soviet Union in 1987, they were one of Lithuania's original rock bands and one of the most popular, singing wry songs about their home country and incorporating ska, punk and rock into their own sound.

They'd performed all round Europe and even in the USA, there were seven studio albums, although they hadn't released a new one for ten years. In 2008 they'd released their first best-of compilation. This appearance in the Lithuanian national final would appear to have been a wheeze to get the band back together, and get back out on the road, and possibly performing in Moscow.

The song Gyvenimo valsas (Waltz of Life) was written by the band themselves for the occasion. Sort of. It's a rebadged and retitled song that they had previously performed before the cut off date. There was some controversy regarding their participation with this song in the selection, but it was waved through in the end, probably because having BIX on the show was quite a big thing, given their history.

What begins as a gentle meander in six-eight time, replete with saxophone becomes a whole lot more angry, aggressive and in keeping with BIXs typical style, by the time the chorus comes round.

You'd have thought that with their recognition factor and fanbase in Lithuania that they'd have done well, and they did qualify from their heat with ease. But Lietuvos Dainų Daina, as it was being called this year, had lots of songs and lots of rounds. The semi-finals had ten songs in each and only five went through, no exceptions.

In their semi-final BIX finished sixth in the regional televoting, one point behind fifth and two points behind fourth. It was that close. Their elimination did at least solve the problem of the song being performed before the deadline, which I'm sure would have provided LRT with headaches if it had happened.

Since 2009, BIX have continued to tour and release live albums and compilations. In the fashion of many old rockers, the standard tour/record/release rota has been ditched and BIX basically do what they please.

What they please has recently included a TV appearance with the Lithuanian Military Academy Choir, which is giving a huge call back to that semi-final interval act from 2009. This is their most recent single Samanos (Moss), a song about Lithuanian partisans hiding in forests and waiting for promised American aid. Which never came. Topical.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 27 - Janita - "Martian"

2009 was a pivotal year in the life of Janita. She is Janita Maria née Raukko. She'd learned to sing before talking and had begun playing the piano at the age of three. When she was thirteen she met Tomi Ervi also called Tomi Sachary, the co-writer of this song. He became her manager and she had a few hits in Finland in the mid 1990s as well as two albums, and all before she was seventeen. She also took part in the 1994 edition of Euroviisut at the age of sixteen.

At seventeen Tomi whisked her off to New York to try to break America. And she did. She moved more into the jazz and soul areas of music, although still keeping some pop elements. She released a cover of Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence.

By the time of her appearance at Euroviisut, she'd released six albums both in Finland and the USA. She was resident in New York, and she's also just got divorced from Tomi Ervi. She'd married her manager four years previously, but now they were separated. Tomi had been thirty when he met the thirteen year old Janita. Now she was on stage, on TV, having cut her long hair short.

Despite the divorce, Janita and Tomi continued to work together as song-writers. This was their first post-divorce single Martian and it's important to note that although the song is co-written, the lyrics are all from Janita. It's a low key rock song about a journey into life. Looking ahead and into the unknown and not backwards. It's a song about dramatic changes and about not wanting to be yourself, and about looking at yourself with fresh eyes.

She discards her boa just as she's telling us that she hates what she is right now. Given her image to this point has been one of a sexualised, blonde singer - this is a moment of dramatic realisation captured in song and on camera.

It unfortunately didn't make an impression on a Finnish public who would have been expecting the older Janita they were used to. This change of direction was a surprise and it reflected in the televote. She didn't get through the heat or the second chance round, and Janita was eliminated at the first hurdle.

Shortly after this, Janita started blogging. She started to listen to new types of music and read new things. Her image became increasingly androgynous. Reading her blog from 2010, it's clear that Janita was going through momentous changes in her life at that time. Her first post-Tomi album is Haunted, released in 2010 and clearly shows her change of direction - to become more authentically the person she wants to be.

She's released two more albums since then with another due this year. There have been several singles. She became an American citizen in 2013 and has stood up for musician's rights, especially in getting musicians their dues from airplay and streaming.

From her forthcoming album, this is the single I Want You I Warn You. It's a bit good.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 28 - Dolcenera - "Il mio amore unico"

Dolcenera is Emanuela Trane and until this year, the Festival di Sanremo has been treating her well. Her first appearance came in Sanremo Giovani in 2003, which she won. It took a while for her to take off in terms of popularity and record sales, but an appearance on the talent show Music Farm together with her second album released in 2005 pushed her to be named as Best New Artist of that year by the Italian independent music industry and also as Best Emerging Artist.

She got into the Big Artists section of the 2006 Sanremo Festival and almost won the female singer section, winning every night up until the final evening, when she was pipped to the win. She still sold heaps of her third album. Now in 2009, with her fourth album due, it was time for her to revisit the Ariston theatre.

Her song was Il mio amore unico (My Only Love) written by Dolcenera in collaboration with Saverio Lanza, Gian Piero Ameli and Oscar Avogadro. It's a song about a woman who is true to a man who doesn't appear to be true to her. Or maybe Dolcenera is seducing him away from a rival. Unreliable narrators are rife in love songs.

Either way, Dolcenera is on stage demonstrating her devotion and appeal, and the Sanremo watching public both in the theatre and around Italy loved it. She was given the honour of being the first song on the opening evening. On the second evening she closed the show. Both nights she sailed through without a whiff of trouble while other songs were eliminated.

The format this year meant that evening three was for the newcomers and for a repechage round to allow those who'd been eliminated previously a chance to get back into the competition. That was where the trouble started as Dolcenera sat out while six others got a night almost all to themselves.

Night four was guest night and Dolcenera invited Syria to sing with her. For some reason, the voting was fifty percent televote and fifty percent members of the Ariston theatre orchestra, and clearly the orchestra were not impressed. Dolcenera was eliminated at the one stage where she didn't have a chance to get back in contention. Boos rang out around the hall. The public were not impressed at the outcome.

When the single was released the next week it shot straight into the Italian charts, reaching a peak of five as well as becoming the number one song based on Italian radio airplay. Not only did her album and single do amazingly well, she opened for Depeche Mode at the SanSiro later in the year and also performed at the concert given to aid victims of the L'Aquila earthquake, which occurred in April of this year.

Since then, she's done Sanremo twice more (2012 and 2016), had another three albums released with the most recent in 2022. Since 2022 she's been touring a show of piano recitals and songs under the title Anima Mundi. From those tours, this is her answer to reggaeton, Un altro giorno sulla terra (Another Day on Earth), filled with Brazilian rhythmic inspiration.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 29 - Tomáš Bezdeda - "Každý z nás"

Tomáš Bezdeda is another graduate of the Slovakian Pop Idol manifestation, Slovensko hľadá Superstar, just like Barbora Balúchová, only he was in the first series and he managed to finish third overall. Tomáš had also gone on to have two albums out since his TV fame and had then gone on to take part in the Slovakian version of Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars.

Like many singers in Slovakia, this fifty entrant strong national final was something of a godsend for him. He didn't have an album in the offing, but it was a chance too big to pass up. He'd spent the summer of 2008 going on an extensive tour around Slovakia and this was the next logical step to cash in on that exposure. He got to writing and came up with Každý z nás (Each of Us)

Lyrically it's a bit staid. Everything is just as it should be, even if you don't get what you and love never arrives, don't worry, be happy, everything is in order and proceeding according to plan. It's a relax-and-accept-your-fate song. That chorus is definitely inspired by moments on stages and on tours. A sky-punching, rock anthem of a chorus to get the masses lifting up on their toes and spilling their beer in celebration of happy disappointments.

As a veteran of talent shows, the procedure of a national final wouldn't have been strange to Tomáš and maybe cruising through his heat in first place was only to be expected, although that voting was exceptionally tight. 18.2% of the televote, barely one percent more than second and third places. Given that the final went slightly better than this might presage. He finished second, albeit quite a long way behind the eventual winner. It did get him into the superfinal, where he dropped to third place overall.

That's a success and Tomáš went on to cash in with another Slovakian national final appearance the next year followed by a third album. Overall he remains a happy man. He's gone on producing the occasional uplifting, feel good single. He got married and now has two children. He's still wearing a big smile.

This is his song Ako sa máš (How Are You?) from 2021.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 30 - Alexander Panayotov - "Superhero"

Another tricky one to write. Sometimes writing about old national finals is a minefield, especially when Eurovision in 2009 was being held in Moscow. It's another tale of the Russian music industry.

Alexander Panayotov is a Ukrainian singer from Zaporizhia, of Greek heritage who is now largely described as Russian. Just to ram that later description home, he'd spent most of his time since 2003 living in Russia. He'd been a competitor on the show Народний артист (People's Artist) and ended up in second place. That won him a seven-year contract with the show's producers FBI Music, owned and run by Evgeny Friedland and Kim Breitburg who were Russian musical aristocracy. They were the backbone of the group Dialog - a rock group from the Soviet 1970s and 1980s.

Seven years seems a little excessive, but he served them and prospered. There was an album in 2006 then two appearances in Russia's national final in 2005 and 2008 - and he finished in second place in 2008 behind Dima Bilan. For 2009, Russian music moguls spied a possibility of getting more artists on to a European wide showcase. This is especially true when Aleksandr wasn't chosen to appear on the big Russian national final to represent the home country. Why not try Ukraine - after all he was born there?

And Alexander took Superhero back to Kyiv. It's written by Nataliya Safonova and Taras Demchuk. Taras was a member of the band Prime Minister who'd represented Russia at Eurovision in 2002, although he wasn't part of that generation of the boyband. They were also part of the FBI Music empire.

Ukraine liked Superhero a lot more than Russia. The show was hosted by a certain Timur Miroshnychenko and it had a semi-final stage, which Alexander progressed from. In the final there was a clear winner, but Alexander did well. Second in the televote was enough to put him in a tie for second-place. But under the competition rules, the jury vote was the tie-breaker, so he officially finished in fourth place.

Before his record contract expired he had one more attempt at the Russian national final and one more album, but then he was out. He has still kept making and recording music, but his star waned. By 2016 he was auditioning on the Russian voice again. That did revive his career and he began to tour once more. He performed in many places including the UN and in the music video released as part of Vladimir Putin's election campaign...

He entered songs for Russia's internal selection for Eurovision in 2019 and 2020 but wasn't selected. He's also maintained his track record of entering Russian TV talent shows with appearances on their version of the Masked Singer.

He's now also on the Ukrainian sanctions list. Since January 2023, he's had any assets in Ukraine seized and is forbidden from entering the country. This is for touring Russia and also publicly supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as Vladmir Putin.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 31 - Barbora Balúchová & Red Rose - "Nakoniec"

Slovakia's first national final was so big that of course they were going to call on the local talent show cohort. One of those singers who had come into the public spotlight via a singing competition was Barbora Balúchová, here together with Red Rose, a female backing band I can find nothing about.

Barbora finished in sixth place in the second season of Slovensko hľadá SuperStar (SuperStar Search Slovakia). That took place in 2006, since when she'd released her first album and continued performing and recording. There's no sign that Barbora put out any other music after this, so this appearance may have been a last throw of the dice on that part of her and her record label to see if they could generate some more interest.

The song was written by Miro Jurika and Jimi Cimabala, the latter a studio engineer, the former the guitarist and song-writer from the band Malý Princ (Little Prince), a rock band that has had several members over the years and who appear to still be together and performing. Miro is still with them.

Nakoniec (Finally) does indeed rock. This feels like a photocopy of Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy, right down to the floral name of the backing band. Spookily (or perhaps not), both Barbora and Sinéad were signed to one of the many international offshoots of Sony BMG Music Entertainment... However manufactured these two entries were, they demonstrate what the perceived flavour of 2009 was in the eyes of the major labels.

However, unlike in Ireland, where Sinéad and Black Daisy triumphed when they weren't expected to, Barbora had much more extensive competition. In her heat, she could only finish eight of the ten songs and she was eliminated. By 2010, her label had appeared to drop her, and she was free to put her own music on YouTube.

In an effort to stay in the public eye Barbora turned increasingly to the gossip columns, becoming something of a minor celebrity. From appearing on the Slovakian celebrity version of come dine with me to complaining about her plastic surgery, to new modelling shoots there she is. She is now an estate agent, but much more famously, she's the mother of one of the children of one of Slovakia's most notorious right-wing populist politicians, Boris Kollár.

Boris Kollár has seventeen acknowledged children and almost as many unpleasant scandals. Her association with him is enough to keep her face in the papers. Music is rather on the back burner now. She does however still sing.

This is one of the only other videos I've found featuring Barbora alongside Red Rose dating back to 2009 and seemingly at a BMX competition. This is Uletená (Fly Away) from the album of the same name.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 32 - KeSera feat. Anita Hegerland - "Party"

KeSera are a young rap duo, promoted by NRK as the first rap group ever to participate at Melodi Grand Prix. They might be right. They are Raymond David Henriksen and Nahom Feshatzion who have found themselves on the stage of MGP owing to a series of happy accidents starting with a holiday in Gran Canaria.

While enjoying the sun with a group of friends, they spontaneously recorded a rap track five hours before their flight departed back to Oslo. I'm not sure how unplanned that could have been, although it certainly sounds disorganised. They played that song to friends who then asked them one of the all time questions:

I'm not sure who their friends are or were but they did this and their songs became popular not just on buses but in Russia more generally. They teamed up with producer Nasty Kutt (aka William Larsen) and the songs began flowing, and brought them to the attention of NRK.

This song is the result. Party was written by Thomas Ewel and Robin Nordahl, both fixtures in the Norwegian record industry and of previous MGPs. They were also paired with Anita Hegerland who loaned her voice if not her stage presence to the pair. Anita is Norway's best selling solo artist of all time. She's had hits all over Scandinavia and Germany, and in her 1970s heyday as a child star, worked with Mike Oldfield.

She was also trying to make a comeback in the late 2000s and was preparing to launch a new album in the next year or so. She'd also taken part in several previous MGPs: As a ten-year old in 1971, then again in 1972, and finally in 1983. Twenty-six years later, Anita is back and teaming up with rappers.

Unfortunately a party rap song is not what the public watching MGP wanted. In its heat, it finished fifth, but did have the distinction of being the most popular fifth-placed song and therefore got a wildcard to the second chance final. Where it lost.

Despite the setback, both KeSera and Anita continued to do well in their own separate lanes. Anita released her album in 2011 and it sold very well - especially in Finland for some reason. KeSera released several singles in Norwegian rather than Russian and gained a following among teenagers before seemingly going their separate ways sometime after 2013.

This is KeSera's 2011 single Blå Himmel (Blue Sky) demonstrating that they're still all about sunshine, parties and summers.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 33 - Köök & Kaire Vilgats - "Üürnik"

Oh Estonia, how I love you. What other country would have a song in its national final about the standoffish relationship between a landlord and his tenant? Eesti Laul is entering its truly weird era with panache.

Contrary to what you might think, this left-field pairing of the band Köök and singer Kaire Vilgats aren't a pairing found in the avant-garde sections of the Estonian music industry. They've both been to Eurovision before. Sort of.

Köök's frontman is Jaan Pehk, poet, singer and previously a member of the band Claire's Birthday who represented Estonia at Eurovision in 2003 as Ruffus. They're one of the progenitor bands of Estonian pop music whose members have gone on to form many other groups and participated in Eesti/Eurolaul many times. Jaan was with them in 2003.

Kaire is not a name you may recognise, but not only was she one of Ines's backing singers in 2000, but she was also a backing singer for Ira Losco's Maltese entry Seventh Wonder in 2002. She had also been a regular fixture as a backing singer in Eurolaul throughout the 2000s. She'd entered herself once in 1998 and as part of the group Family in 2003. They've come together for a duet about rent and its non-payment.

Üürnik (Tenant) was written by Jaan Köök band member Madis Aesma, and is a truly odd but wonderful duet full of creative insults flung between the singers. It's petty, straight-face and is also a joke song so dry that it's like eating Finnish licorice sweets for breakfast. Quirky isn't doing it justice. It's only two and a half minutes long, has two verses, no chorus and finishes with a string of ironic lalalas. It's just so Estonia.

Unfortunately for the band and Kaire, it didn't do very well. It ended up ninth of the ten songs in the newly renamed Eesti Laul and the song rapidly drifted into memory. As it was a one-off pairing, it didn't really affect the careers of anyone involved.

Köök kept going for at least another seven years. Jan Pehk has been back to Eesti Laul on at least three other occasions: once under his own name and twice under another pseudonym - Orelipoiss.

Kaire had a very well established career in musical theatre and still does. She's also maintained her record of singing backing vocals at Eurovision, being part of the Estonian delegation on no fewer than four occasions in the 2010s (guess which ones). More recently she's been singing backing vocals for Anna Sahlene at Eesti Laul (including in 2025)

Two videos today for two great artists. First Jaan has a new album coming out in the autumn of 2025. This is the lead single from it: Raskekujuline tuberkuloos (Severe Tuberculosis).

Kaire has so many wonderful and weird performances in Estonia it's difficult to choose one, but here she is singing the Estonian version of Meestesadu (It's Raining Men) with the Tomahawk Brothers brass ensemble.

Stay weird Estonia.

Eurovision 2009 - Number 34 - Jeppe - "Lucky Boy"

Jeppe Breum Laursen is known primarily for two absolutely massive hits. This isn't one of them.

In fact his presence in the 2009 DMGP is probably down to him trying to establish himself as a solo act after the band he was in split up the year before. He started out in a Danish Britpop band called Ludo-X (or Ludox) which established itself through the 1990s. By the 2000s, Jeppe's focus became more dance-floor filling pop, he left the band with the slightly younger and slightly smaller keyboard player Jesper Mortensen.

Their new band was called Junior Senior (Jeppe being the Senior half of the duo) and their first album came out in 2002. The lead single was Move Your Feet and it was pretty much the sound of the summer in 2003. It sold huge numbers across Europe, reaching the top ten in the charts of several countries. It even got into the top ten of the US Billboard Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart - whatever that is.

But in 2008, Jeppe and Jesper went their separate musical ways. Jesper formed a new duo called MAKE OUT, while Jeppe continued to write songs and tried to go it alone. First stop Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with his song Lucky Boy

It certainly maintains Jeppe's pop sensibilities. It's not quite as danceable as Move Your Feet, but it's still an air-light froth of love and fascination. The staging betrays the fact that Jeppe had now had more than a decade's worth of experience in putting on a show. Why not put your backing singers of stools over two metres high and give them a vocal line just as high?

It's absolutely a quintessential summer pop track, and it demonstrates that neither Eurovision nor the national finals are exactly the natural home of this. DMGP took place on the thirty-first of January in Herning in central Denmark. Not the ideal time or place for this and it showed in the result. Four songs of the ten in the first round were selected to go onto to the next stage and Lucky Boy wasn't one of them.

Out of that context, Lucky Boy is a song that shines more brightly. It also was a calling card of Jeppe's song-writing abilities. Over the next couple of years, he wrote several pop dance tracks that got some traction - but nothing like the song he wrote for Lady Gaga.

Jeppe is the song-writer behind Mother Monster's Manifesto Born This Way - and you can absolutely hear the bones of Lucky Boy in there. After this huge hit, Jeppe could probably retire comfortably but he has gone on writing songs, notably with Little Boots. This is one of his tracks written for her, Confusion