An Xtra Happy Birthday; November 5th

After a week of celebrating just one, two or at most three Eurostars per day, we are finally back with SEVEN! Just one of them is a lady, while the other six are birthday boys. Although we don’t have a winner in today’s line-up, we do have a couple of rather good results. Similarly, we also have a few…well, let’s just say not so good results. One of the better results came from Cyprus’ one and only Michalis Hatzigiannis!

René Froger, 57

René represented the Netherlands at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. He did so as part of the male trio De Toppers. They performed the song “Shine”, wearing outfits that matched their song title to a t. Unfortunately for the guys, they only managed to earn 11 points in their semi-final. As a result of this they finished 17th out of 19 entres in the semi, thus failing to qualify for the grand final.

Geir Rønning, 55

Geir represented Finland at the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv. He performed the ballad “Why?”, earning a total of 50 points in the semi-final. As a result he finished 18th, thus not making it to the grand final. Rønning is Norwegian, and has a long list of Melodi Grand Prix participations under his belt. His best MGP result came in 1996, when he finished second with “Uten de’“. He also took part in 1995, 1997 and 2006.

Nicola, 49

Nicola represented Romania at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest in Riga with “Don’t Break My Heart”. She finished in 10th place, which at the time was the country’s second best Eurovision result. Indeed, even today it is their sixth best result. Nicola took part in the Romanian national final in 2007 with the song “Fairytale Story“, but only managed to finish 7th out of ten entries.

Krassimir Avramov, 45

Krassimir represented Bulgaria at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. He performed the popera entry “Illusion”. However, just like De Toppers, he finished third from the bottom in his semi-final. Due to this he failed to make it to the grand final. This was definitely one of the more memorable entries and performances this year, though perhaps for all the wrong reasons.

Michalis Hatzigiannis, 39

The wonderful Michalis Hatzigiannis represented Cyprus at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham. He was oneof the pre-contest favorites with his “Genesis”. Even though he finished in a respectable 11th place, there’s no denying it; it was very disappointing to many. Rumours of his return to the contest has surfaced several times over the years, but at least for now they have turned out to be just that; rumours. As he is one of the very few artists I’d like to see back on the Eurovision stage, it would be nice it the rumours turned out to be true in the not too distant future! (Sorry; got personal again…)

Essaï Altounian, 37

Essaï represented Armenia at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. He 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. Essaï represented the European Armenian diaspora, as he is of French-Armenian origin. Genealogy finished 7th in the first semi-final, thus qualifying for the grand final, where they finished 16th.

Nodiko Tatishvili, 31

Nodiko represented Georgia at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. He did so alongside Sophie Gelovani. The duo performed the song “Waterfall” in the second semi-final. There they finished 10th, thus just qualifying for the grand final. In the final they finished 15th.

All of us here at escXtra wish all seven of today’s Eurovision birthday stars the best of celebrations!