An Xtra Happy Birthday; October 28th

Yesterday was a big day for Eurovision birthdays, with six Eurostars to celebrate. Today is almost as happy, as we wish another five former Eurovision participants an Xtra Happy Birthday! Four birthday girls and one guy, and they are all from the central and eastern parts of Europe. No winners this time, but a few rather good results nonetheless. One of our birthday girls is Nelly Ciobanu! 

Conny Froboess, 74

Conny represented Germany at the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest in Luxembourg. She performed the song “Zwei kleine Italiener”, finishing in a very respectable sixth place.

Nelly Ciobanu, 43

Nelly Ciobanu represented Moldova at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. There she performed the song “Hora din Moldova”, finishing fifth in the second semi-final. As a result of this she qualified for the grand final, where she finished in 14th place. In addition to singing the song, she was also the lyricist. Nelly also took part in the Moldovan pre-selection in 2005 with “One More Time” and again in 2012 with “Turn On the Light“.

Sara Jovanovic, 24

Sara represented Serbia at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. She did so as part of the girl trio Moje 3. Sara is the one wearing green shoes. They performed the song “Ljubav je svuda”, written by Saša Milošević Mare. He was one of the songwriters behind Serbia’s winning entry “Molitva” in 2007. However, “Ljubav je svuda” did not enjoy the same kind of success. The girls placed 11th in the first semi-final, thus just failing to qualify for the final.

Tamar Kaprelian, 31

Tamar Kaprelian represented Armenia at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. She did so as part of the group Genealogy, performing the song “Face the Shadow”. Armenian television put this group together especially for Eurovision. Each of the members of the group represented the Armenian diaspora on one of the continents. Tamar represented the American Armenian diaspora. They finished 7th in the first semi-final, thus qualifying for the grand final, where they finished 16th.

Charlie, 70
Charlie represented Hungary at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham. He finished in 23 rd place out of 25 songs. His song was called “A holnap már nem lesz szomorú”, and as the title suggests, it was performed in Hungarian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz9xe8Md0Sw
All of us here at escXtra wish Charlie, Conny, Tamar, Sara and Nelly Ciobanu the very best of birthdays!