An Xtra Happy Birthday; January 16th

Yesterday we celebrated two Eurovision birthdays, while today we return with another FIVE! The oldest of them was born during World War II, the youngest just over 25 years ago. The best result at Eurovisions was a second place, worst was last place in a semi. We’re celebrating one birthday boy and four girls. And one of today’s birthday girls is the wonderful Maja Keuc! 

Betty Missiego, 73

Betty represented Spain at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem. She performed the song “Su canción”, finishing in a very strong second place. She tried to win the right to represent her country again the year after, with the song “Don José“. It did however not become the Spanish entry  in 1980.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmLCqAsHwG4

Hari Varešanović, 57

Hari Varešanović represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, with the song “Lejla”. Although it was one of the biggest fan favorites in the weeks leading up to the contest, it finished in third place, beaten by both Lordi and Dima Bilan.

Marta Roure, 37

Marta Roure represented Andorra at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul. This was Andorras debut year, thus Marta was the first Andorran representative on the Eurovision stage. The tv-company selected both her and her song, Jugarem a estimar-nos”, internally. This was also the first time a song in Catalan took part in the contest. In the semi-final she finished in 18th place, thereby not qualifying for the final.

Aisha, 32

Aisha represented Latvia at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. She performed the song “What For?”, finishing dead last in the first semi-final. Due to this result she did not qualify for the grand final.

Maja Keuc, 26

Maja Keuc represented Slovenia at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf. She performed the wonderful song “No One”. She competed in the second semi-final, finishing in a very good third place, thus qualifying to the grand final. There, however, she didn’t do quite as well, finishing 13th.

All of us here at escXtra wish Betty, Hari, Aisha, Marta and Maja Keuc the happiest of birthdays!