Skip to main content

FINLAND: EMMA GAALA NOMINEES FOR THE MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Emma Gaala's Male artist of the Year nominees include some names from various reality music tv programmes, rappers and a surprise. I would give this one out to Mikael Gabriel as icing on the cake for his fabulous year and marvelous metamorposis.

Lauri Tähkä started his succesful year with a Elastinen duet (read more below) Lempo, Then he released an album that went straight to #1, scored a hit with Morsian (radioplay #1), followed it with hits from the Vain elämää reality tv-series, including Kipua (#2), a Mikael Gabriel cover, Minun Suomeni, Lauri, Elastinen, Mikael - all are here nominated.

Mikael Gabriel really broke through this year. He's been around but as "just another rapper" but his latest album did well featuring #2 single Helium. Then he became the nation's sweetheart against all odds in Vain elämää. His personality made us all fall in love with him a little, and adopt him as nation's own son. He scored the most hits from the series with two number ones (Lauri Tähkä's Pauhaava sydän and Hector's classic Lumi teki enkelin eteiseen. His Chisu cover Mun koti ei oo täällä went to #3 and Suvi Teräsniska's Tyhjässä huoneessa to #4. 
In 2017 he will go on his first tour as a headliner after many collaborations over the years with other better known bigger names.

Elastinen dominated the television and charts earlier this year with his reality Elastinen feat. where he met up with other artist, spent some time together and later they got together to write and perform a song together in a day. Most of them made appearance in the charts, and two even made it to #1 (Lempo with Lauri Tähkä and Täytyy jaksaa with comedian Sami Hedberg) and one #2 (Oota mua with Johanna Kurkela). As did the album. All that follows the success of his 2015 album. He's been everywhere as writer, producer, label boss, featured artist, judge.... always a big grin on his face making him one of the most positive personalities around.

Olavi Uusivirta is a wellknown name as singer, songwriter and actor. He released already his seventh album this year and has made a name as a great live artist. His fame and success has been steadily rising since the start and now finally he scored a #1 album. Tanssit vaikka et osaa did well in the radios and download chart, and other songs like Kultaa hiuksissa, Toinen and Päiväperho kept him on the radio waves for the rest of the year. Still, he's inclusion with the nominees is a bit of a surprise but a welcome one.

Nikka Ankara is one of the biggest stars in Finland if you only look at the Spotify streams: over 50 million streams and seven platinum singles in about two years! In that period he has already had time to announce withdrawel from the business, only to make a comeback stronger than ever some time after. Ettei nyt vaan sattuis mitään went to #1, Mona Lisa #2, Pisamat #5 and En tiiä sun nimee #4 in the official singles chart. Not really my cup pf tea but then, he's a bit like Mikael Gabriel - he's been as fetured artist everywhere with the big names and I wouldn't be surprised if he follows Cheek, Elastinen, VilleGalle and Mikael Gabriel to Vain elämää cast next time that will make him a household name and lift his career to a new dimension. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ESC 2016 WISH LIST: MARGARET FOR POLAND

Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?

SONGS OF THE YEAR 2015: #5 KRISTA SIEGFRIDS - ON & OFF

Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!

MALTA: THE QUEEN OF L-GHANJA TAL-POPLU - CORAZÓN MIZZI!

If The Travellers have proven recently one can do great singing in Maltese there's also someone else doing great stuff: Corazón Mizzi. While in Malta I was looking for some Maltese CDs only to find out they pretty much don't exist, and the most helpful staff in legendary D'Amato - probably the world's oldest record store today - suggested me Corazón's Hawn jien (2014 album). Having nothing else really to bring home I decided to go or it without even realizing it is the Corazón from Maltese Eurovision selections. And what a find it was! Thank you D'Amato! But let's start from the obvious: Eurovision. Corazón has been offering us songs in the Maltese Eurovision selection since 2009, actually making her best result this year with Falling glass , one of my favorites btw. I also liked last year's Secretly but that failed even the final. But Corazón's true calling is singer-songwriter in Maltese as this excellent album clearly shows. We have al

ESC 2016 BELARUS: NAKED WITH WOLVES?

Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further?  No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )

EUROVISION 2024.... COMING UP!

 

GREECE: HELENA PAPARIZOU HITS AGAIN WITH HAIDE

Eurovision song contest 2005 winner Helena Paparizou has been enjoying Top-5 hits every year since 2003 with the exception of 2010 and 2014, this latest one being already her 27th! And Haide is charting also in Bulgaria and Finland, of all places. The catchiness of her hits has changed less over the years than her face....  Here's the English version , below the Greek version. 

EUROVISION TWEETS REVEAL DETAILS....

Brandwatch, one the world's leading providers of analytics of social medias has summed up the Twitter buzz during the Eurovision 2013 final on May 18, 2013. Over 1,8 million tweets have been analyzed and it's rather fascinating stuff. On top you can see the figure showing topics. Romania and Ireland got the tweeting go wild as did Greece, Belarus, Malta and Armenia. And you can see political tweets took over during the voting..... The figure above is for the emotions. Once again Romania and Greece got it going wild. A lot of love and joy was spread all over during the show while hate & anger increased during the voting. Is someone surprised? But have a look and analize yourself here . And here you can access to country by country details. Did Ukraine's giant get people's attention? or Moldova's outfit? Did Ireland have sex factor? Or Azerbaijan? And what about Belgium's dance routine?

FINLAND: CONGRATS HANNA PAKARINEN - BABY IS COMING!

No more leave me alones as Eurovision 2007 veteran Hanna Pakarinen has published in her Youtube channel a video unboxing the Finnish state's maternity box aka layette set thus announcing she's due to have a baby later this spring. Congratulations!

ESC 2016 ARMENIA: IT'S IVETA MUKUCHYAN!

Armenian tv has revealed tonight the name of their artist for the 2016 Eurovision song contest in Stockholm. It's 29-year-old Iveta Mukuchyan. Born in Yerevan she moved with her family to Germany when she was 6. At 23 she moved back to Armenia and continued her music studies. She has taken part in the Armenian Pop Idol finishing 5th in 2010 and she also did The Voice of Germany . In 2012 she was voted the Sexiest Armenian.  Armenian tv has made a call for songwriters all over the world to submit a song for her by November 13, 2015.  Let's see which direction the final choice will go, Freak or her latest release that you can hear below.... Whatever it is it will be an improvement from last year's fiasco.....