#BIRTHDAY: Sarbel from Greece is 43 today Our friends in Greece were, to be fair, a country with very little success during the 20th Century. Everything changed in Copenhagen, and that win suddenly came within reach. As we know, Helena Paparizou eventually pulled it off, and a crop […]
#BIRTHDAY: Hanna Pakarinen from Finland is 43 today Would you want to be the home entrant if you were in a Eurovision Song Contest. You have no issues with the host country’s culture, but you won’t get to travel to somewhere exotic. On the plus side, the crowd […]
#BIRTHDAY: Guri Schanke from Norway is 62 today As you’ll know, Eurovision is a very fickle thing. Just ask Portugal. Or Austria. Or even the Netherlands. You can languish in the semi-finals one year, and then put in a storming performance the next. Our friends in Norway have […]
#BIRTHDAY: Magdi Rúzsa from Hungary is 38 today We miss Hungary. There, we’ve said it. Putting politics aside, they’ve put in some memorable stuff since that début in sunny Ljubljana in 1993. It’s not all been plain sailing, but without Hungary, it would be a far poorer contest. […]
#BIRTHDAY: Verka Serduchka from Ukraine is 50 today Occasionally, a song comes along that gets under your skin. It’s not one you really like, as there are far better ones around. But You just can’t help yourself humming it in the shower, or at other inappropriate times. Back […]
#BIRTHDAY: Alenka Gotar from Slovenia is 46 today Do you like it when popular music strays into the realm of classical music? It takes a special person to fuse them properly, and an even more special person to bring their talent to the Eurovision stage. Very special in […]
#BIRTHDAY: Kenan Doğulu from Türkiye is 49 today Let’s be honest – our friends in Türkiye/Turkey are sorely missed from our favourite TV show. They added that bit of exotica to proceedings, and were gunning for another win when they abruptly stopped coming along after the 2012 shows. […]
#BIRTHDAY: DQ from Denmark is 50 today Our favourite TV show can be a glamorous affair, and many people just tune in for the costumes. They must just like shiny things. Well that might explain a certain Ukrainian with a star on their head. Of course, there’s more […]
#BIRTHDAY: DJ BoBo from Switzerland is 55 today If you’re a fan of the history of our favourite TV show, you’ll first know that there were contests before 2000. You’ll also know who won when. Take 1956 for example, when the late great Ms Lys Assia won. She […]
#BIRTHDAY: Dado Topić from Croatia is 73 today We celebrate all manner of things with our birthdays. The winners, the losers, the ‘also-ran’s. They all count, and you can guarantee that someone out there will like every single Eurovision song. So just occasionally, a song might not quite […]
#BIRTHDAY: Natalia Barbu from Moldova is 43 today If you’ve read a recent novel by a certain Eurovision fan, you’ll know which country he sets his story in. It’s a country that has yet to win the real thing, but they’re ever hopeful. And so are we. Our […]
#BIRTHDAY: Sopho Khalvashi from Georgia is 36 today The first decade of this century saw a big expansion of the amount of countries taking part in our favourite TV show. Fifteen countries débuted. That’s more countries than took part in the first contests. One such début came from […]
#BIRTHDAY: Marija Šerifović from Serbia is 37 today It seems that English rules these days. No, not the (sub-)national entity. I mean the language. It’s rampant in the presentation of the shows. It’s all pervasive in the press centre. And it’s the main tongue of song too. So […]
#OBITUARY: Hayko from Armenia has died aged 44 Eurovision Ireland is sorry to hear of the death of Armenia’s Hayk ‘Hayko’ Hakobyan (Հայկ Հակոբյան). He was 44. Hayko participated in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Anytime you need. He had already qualified for the Grand Final in […]
#BIRTHDAY: Stevan Faddy from Montenegro is 35 today You know when you’re new at something, and you’re really enthusiastic about it? You want to make a good impression, and so you put on your best frock, your best voice, and you try to be dead nice. Our friends […]