An Xtra Happy Birthday; February 3rd

After celebrating a Eurovision winner yesterday, we bring you five Eurovision birthday stars today. Although none of them won the contest, they all gave us memorable performances. Of today’s artists, the oldest is also the most successful. We give you Markku Aro, who reached eighth place in 1971.  

Markku Aro, 68

Markku Aro represented Finland at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. He did so alongside sisters Anja and Anneli Koivisto, calling themselves Koivistolaiset. Their performance of the song “Tie uuteen päivään” earned them 84 points, thus landing them in eighth place. Although Markku participated in the Finnish pre-selection six times between 1969 and 1981, he was only successful in 1971.

Marcel Palonder, 54

Marcel represented Slovakia at the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. This was the country’s second participation in the contest. Marcel performed the song “Kým nás máš”, finishing in 18th place out of 23 participating countries. To this day, this is Slovakia’s best result at Eurovision. Marcel tried to win the Slovak ticket to Eurovision again, in 2010. He did not succeed however, when his song, “What About You”, failed to reach the national final.

Tijana, 42

Tijana represented Macedonia at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen,  performing “To the Sky” in the second semi-final. She finished 13th out of the 15 semi-finalists, thus not qualifying for the grand final. This was not Tijana’s first attempt at Eurovision. She tried to represent Serbia and Montenegro back in 2006. She was not however very successful, when her song, “Greh”, only reached 8th place in the national final.

Sophie McDonnell, 42

Sophie McDonnell represented the United Kingdom at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest. She did so as part of the girl group Precious. They performed their song, “Say It Again”, from starting position five on the night. Despite being among the pre-contest favorites, they finished in shared 12 place with Belgium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWaBZXn7zQA

Getter Jaani, 25

Getter Jaani represented Estonia at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Rockefeller Street”. She finished 9th in the second semi-final, thus qualifying for the grand final. In the final however she finished 24th out of 25 participants.

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