Yesterday was a “no birthday” day in the Euroverse. Today, however, we make up for that with a total of six Eurostars to celebrate! We don’t have any winners for you today, but a third and fourth place aren’t too bad either. We also bring you a “repeat offender”; Deen!
Yiannis Dimitras, 64
Yiannis Dimitras represented Greece at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. He performed the song “Feggari Kalokerino”, finishing in a very respectable 8th place. Fifteen years later, he “returned” to the contest, as he was one of the members of the Greek jury.
Alessandra Drusian, 49
Alessandra represented Italy at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. She did so as part of the duo Jalisse. Earlier that spring, thay had won the Sanremo Festival, thereby earning the right to go to Eurovision. They performed the song “Fiumi di parole”, finishing in 4th place. Their song has become one of the Eurovision classics. Jalisse apparently enjoyed their experience at Eurovision, as they applied to be San Marino’s first participants when the country debuted in 2008. However, they were not chosen.
Knut Ander Sørum, 49
Knut Anders represented Norway at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul. He performed the dramatic pop-ballad “High”, which was entirely written by Swedes. He performed the song brilliantly, however failed to score more than three points, from Sweden, thus finishing in last place. In 2017 Knut Anders won “Battle of the Stars” in Norway, where it was his performance of “Euphoria” that took him to the final.
Deen, 36
Deen represented Bosnia and Herzegovina both at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul, and again in Stockholm in 2016. His entries are very different from each other, with his 2004 entry “In the Disco” being just that; a dancey up-tempo track. His 2016 entry, “Ljubav je”, on the other hand, is a Balkan ballad. “In The Disco” finished in ninth place, making it one out of only five top 10 results for his Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 2016 he didn’t do as well. He performed “Ljubav je” alongside Dalal Midhat-Talakić, Ana Rucner and Jala Brat. They competed in the first semi-final, finishing 11th, thus just failing to qualify for the grand final.
Emmy, 32
Emmy represented Armenia at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Düsseldorf. She performed the song “Boom Boom” in the first semi-final, where she finished in 12th place. This, of course, means that she failed to qualify for the grand final. Armenia has taken part in Eurovision 11 times, and this is the only time to date that they have missed out on the final.
Emmy also tried to represent her country at the 2010 Eurovision in Oslo. She took part in the national final alongside Mihran with the song “Hey (Let Me Hear You Say)”, however they failed win the Armenian ticket to Oslo.
Olga Seryabkina, 33
Olga represented Russia at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki. She did so as part of the girl group Serebro. They performed the song “Song #1”, finishing in 3rd place.
All of us here at escXtra wish today’s Eurovision birthday stars the happiest of celebrations!