After having just one Eurovision birthday girl to celebrate yesterday, we return today with four Eurostars for you to send your congratulations to. One birthday girl, three guys. The oldest was born in the 50s, the youngest in the 80s. One is a Eurovision winner, another finished almost last. One performed a ballad about peace and unity, another was more on the noisy side, even though his song had Hallelujah in the title… We give you OX!
Grétar Örvarsson, 59
Grétar Örvarsson represented Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest in both 1990 and 1992. On the first occasion, in 90 in Zagrab, he was part of the duo Stjórnin together with Sigga Beinteins. They performed the song happy, up-tempo song “Eitt lag enn”, finishing fourth on the big night. To this day this is Iceland’s third best result at the contest. Two years later, Grétar returned to Eurovision, this time in Malmö. Just like in Zagreb, he perfomed alongside Sigga, this time however, they were also joined by Sigrún Eva Ármannsdóttir and Friðrik Karlsson. Together they are the group Heart 2 Heart. They performed the song “Nei eða já“, finishing in seventh place, which is Iceland’s fourth best Eurovision result.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQhFfmTLciA
OX, 43
OX, or actually Samer el Nahhal, represented Finland at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest in Athens. He is the current bassist of Lordi, and has been part of the band since 2005. His character OX is a minotaur, which is a creature from the Greek mythology, and is half man, half bull. As part of Lordi, OX brought home the only Finnish Eurovision victory to date, with “Hard Rock Hallelujah”.
Lauris, 39
Lauris Reiniks represented Latvia at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest on home soil in Riga. He was one third of the group F.L.Y., that had been put together especially for the contest. Lauris is the guy who sings the first lines in the performance. They performed the song “Hello From Mars”, which is a fun singalong friendly entry with a lot of harmonies. It does however also have perhaps the most confusing bit of lysics in the history of the contest. What do you think of this:
“I’m not afraid of a blade that we need to cross today, but I’m scared to be shared by someone else”?
This might be part of the reason why they unfortunately received no more than 5 points, thus finishing in 24th place.
Liel, 29
Liel Kolet, though she’s from Israel, represented Switzerland at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest in Athens. She did so as part of six4one, a group consisting of six singers from six different countries. They performed Ralph Siegel’s song “If We All Give a Little”, finishing 16th in the grand final.
All of us here at escXtra wish OX, Liel, Lauris and Grétar the very happiest of birthdays!
