The Eurovision birthday bonanza that is September just keeps giving. We have another five birthdays to celebrate today, so let’s just get started! No Eurovision winners today, but a couple of really successful artists; perhaps not at Eurovision, but definitely in their home countries!
Kaija Kärkinen, 55
Kaija represented Finland at the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest in Rome. She finished in 20th place out of 22 entries with the song “Hullu yö”.
Michal Wisniewski, 45
Michal has represented Poland at Eurovision twice, as part of the group Ich Troje; both in 2003 and 2006. At the 2003 contest in Riga they performed the song “Keine Grenzen”, finishing in a well deserved 7th place. Three years later he returned to the contest, with the song “Follow My Heart“, hoping to improve on his result from last time. However, on this occasion he just failed to qualify for the final, finishing in the dreaded 11th place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJSWrXDHLEg
Lucia Moniz, 41
Lucia represented Portugal at the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. She finished in 6th place with the song “O meu coração não tem cor”, giving Portugal their best result in the history of the contest. It stayed this way until Salvador Sobral won the contest in 2017. However, her biggest claim to fame is totally unrelated to Eurovision. Back in 2003 she played the role of Aurelia in the most popular Christmas movie of all times; Love Actually.
Francesco Gabbani, 35
Francesco Gabbani represented Italy at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv. He was a massive pre-contest favorite; “everybody” knew he was gonna win. In the final, however, he only managed to reach a rather disappointing 6th place. From the first time it was performed on the San Remo stage, his “Occidentali’s Karma” was among the fan favorites.
Milan Stankovic, 30
Milan represented Serbia at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. He performed his “Ovo je Balkan” with great energy, finishing 13th in the final, after qualifying from his semi in 5th place. Despite not winning the contest, he still went home with a victory, as he won the Barbara Dex award.
All of us here at escXtra send our warmest wishes to Kaija, Michal, Lucia, Francesco and Milan on their big days!
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