An Xtra Happy Birthday; July 2nd

July really starts out as a very “birthday heavy” month; four birthdays yesterday, another four today! And we are of course here to whish them all the happiest of birthdays! Another little twist; today we’ll present them alphabetically by first name! A very Icelandic way of doing things, I know…

Diana Gurtskaya, 39

Diana represented Georgia in the 2008 Eurovision in Belgrade. She performed the song entry “Peace Will Come”, finishing 5th in her semi. In the final she finished 11th, in what was Georgia’s second Eurovision participation. Today Diana celebrates her 39th birthday!

Milan Nikolic, 38

Milan is a singer and accordion player who represented Serbia in the 2009 Eurovision in Moscow. Under the name Milaan he performed alongside Marko Kon. Their song “Cipela” failed to qualify to the final due to a jury decission. Finishing 10th in their semi they should have made it to the final. However, the jury decided they’d rather have Croatia go through.

Roman Lob, 27

Roman Lob represented Germany in the 2012 Eurovision in Baku. His song, “Standing Still” was among the pre-contest favorites. He managed to reach an 8th place in the final, which, not counting Lena’s victory two years earlier, gave Germany it’s best result since 2004. Thisis also, to date, the last time Germany has finished outside the bottom 10…actually outside the bottom 8. Today, Roman turns 27!!

Vlatko Ilievski, 32

Vlatko Ilievski represented Macedonia in the 2011 Eurovision in Dusseldorf. His entry, Rusinka, was the fourth consecutive Macedonian entry to not qualify to the grand final. Vlatko tried his luck in Skopje Fest again in 2015, but that didn’t go as well as last time. He finished last in the pre-selection with his song Sever-Jug.

All of us here at escXtra send Xtra warm greetings to Diana, Milan, Roman and Vlatko on their birthdays!!