An Xtra Happy Birthday; week 40!

We can't rival last week's 31 birthdays, but 26 isn't too bad either, right? Including one winner, Charlotte Perrelli, who will celebrate the 20 year anniversary of her Eurovision victory during Eurovision in Israel. Which is also where she won. October 1st Five wonderful Eurovision divas from all over the continent celebrate their birthday today! Elpida, 68 Elpida belongs to the very exclusive “people who have participated in Eurovision more than once”-club. What makes her even more special is the fact that she has represented two different countries! In 1979 she represented Greece with the song “Socrates”. She finished in a very respectable 8th place. Seven years later, she didn’t do quite as well. In the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest in Bergen she performed the Cypriot entry “Tora Zo“, finishing last. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rknqSHr3Vpw Jeane Manson, 68 Jeane is one of the non-European participants, as she is originally from Cleveland, Ohio. At the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem, she represented Luxembourg. There she performed the song "J'ai déjà vu ça dans tes yeux", finishing in 13th place. Jeane might be the only Eurovision singer who has also been a Playboy Magazine Playmate of the month; August 1974. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mznCPsr9oCs Simone Stelzer, 49 Simone represented Austria in the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb. She performed the song “Keine Mauern Mehr”, finishing 10th. She also took part in the Austrian preselection in 1994, finishing fourth with the song “Radio“. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDcuPi9KIcY Senit, 39 Senit represented San Marino at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf. She performed the song “Stand By” in the first semi-final, finishing 16th out of 19, thus not making it to the grand final. Originally, Senit is from Italy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTCBm8Z2CrY Sandra Oxenryd, 36 Sandra represented Estonia at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest in Athens. She performed the song “Through My Window”, which was among the precontest fan favorites. Oxenryd finished 18th in the semi-final, consequently not qualifying for the grand final. In 2008 she took part in the Polish pre-selection with the song “Superhero“. She finished in 8th place, thus not getting the chance to go to Eurovision for a second time, representing a second country. Sandra is originally from Sweden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOybfT_x8Sc October 2nd We have four Eurovision stars to celebrate today. Two of them even participated twice! No winners today, but one second place and another three top 10 results! Romina Power, 67 Romina Power represented Italy at both the 1976 and 1985 Eurovision Song Contests. Both times she participated alongside her husband Al Bano. In 1976 in The Hague, they performed the song "We'll Live It All Again". The juries awarded them 69 points, thus landing them in 7th place. Their next attempt was in 1985, in Gothenburg. This time they performed the song "Magic oh Magic", which has turned into some of a Eurovision classic. Again, they finished in seventh place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0X_tqgeOsg David D'Or, 53 IBA (Israel Broadcast Authority) picked David Naihasi to perform in Istanbul in 2004. He had been doing great things in Israel with his singing. His voice is quite special, as his vocal spans more than four octaves. And of course we got to witness his talent at Eurovision where he sang the ballad “Leha’amin (To believe)” at semi final. Where his vocals went high with the aim of encouraging people to have faith even though things are cloudy. Unfortunately for David, he was one placing short of reaching the final. He got 57 points and thus getting the 11th place at the semi-final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NrtXPjwLB4 Eddie Butler, 47 Like David, Eddie also performed for Israel. On the other hand, Butler had the chance to go two times to Eurovision. The first time he went, he went with his brother and two others as the group “Eden”. They performed the song “Happy Birthday” in 1999 in Israel. They did good and surely celebrated a lot for they ended up in 5th place out of 23 acts. The second time was in 2006 in Athens, Greece. There he performed the song “”Ze Hazman (This is the time)” or as it called in English “Together we are One”. Unfortunately, despite the songs name, it did not gather people at that time. For it only got 4 points from France, leaving it to second-to-last place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzDgdDbHM6g Verka Serduchka, 45 Today is Andriy Danylko's birthday, who we know as Verka. So technically it's his birthday, for her real birthday and age is not told. Obviously we at EscXra don't know since it's not nice to ask this fancy lady how old she is. Andriy as Verka had become quite famous in Ukraine before she became famous in Eurovision. Her song “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” was sung in a total of four languages, not counting the gibberish title. The extra shiny and over the top performance gave her great success at the 2007 contest in Helsinki. Serduchka came second after Serbia. In addition to that she was part of Ukraine´s interval acts in 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfjHJneVonE October 3rd Today there are four Eurovision stars to celebrate; two girls and two guys. Two of them finished top ten, one of them however also finished last. The oldest took part twice, for two different countries, another was part of her country's Eurovision debut. Tereza Kesovija, 80 Tereza is one of the few singers who have taken part in Eurovision more than once. Moreover, she's a member of an even more exclusive group; like Elpida, who turned 68 two days ago, Tereza has also represented more than one country at the contest! Her first participation was in 1966, when she was selected by none other than Grace Kelly to represent Monaco. In Luxembourg City, she performed the song "Bien plus fort", translating to "Much stronger". Unfortunately, the result wasn't very strong, as she finished in shared last place. Six years later she finished much stronger, when she finished in ninth place. This time she represented Yugoslavia with "Muzika i ti". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NblMS6AJHi4 Helga Möller, 61 Helga Möller represented Iceland in the country's Eurovision debut in Bergen in 1986. She did so as part of the trio Icy, alongside Eirikur Hauksson and Pálmi Gunnarsson. They performed the song “Gleðibankinn (Bank of Joy)”. Even though Iceland had high hopes with this cheerful song, it only made it to 16th place out of 20. Despite that many Icelanders will say that this is their favorite Icelandic Eurovision entry up to this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGegovbGTOg Martin Stenmarck, 46 Sweden picked the singer Martin in 2005, and weirdly kinda also another Continent. Since his song is called "Las Vegas". He put on a show in at the grand final in Kyiv. The song ended in the 19th place. To our knowledge, he is the only Swedish Eurovision artist who has publically asked the country's forgiveness for failing to give Sweden a good result at the contest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbZjSdSNCiw Kjetil Mørland, 38 Mørland perfomed with Debrah Scarlett for Norway in 2015. They performed the beautiful and dramatic ballad “A Monster Like Me” in the second semi final. They finished fourth in their semi, thus qualifying for the grand final. On the Saturday night they ended up with 108 points, landing them in 8th place out of 27 songs. Kjetil and Debrah came to London Eurovision party in 2015, where they performed their song live as well as chatted with us here at Escxtra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY1FCXDojMU October 4th Eight Eurovision singers were born on this day; four guys and four girls. None of them won the contest, however two of them managed to finish on the podium! And one of them won the Barbara Dex Award. Christina Simon, 64 Austria (ORF) selected Christina to represent them at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest. The entry is called “Heute in Jerusalem”, and is a ballad with jazz and blues influences. The lyrics speak about the Israel at that time, and the wish for peace. Even though the contest was in Israel, the message did not seem to come across well. The act received only five points, thus finishing in shared last place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwD5tL6BzC8 Friderika Bayer, 47 Friderika was the first representative for Hungry at Eurovision Final, as well as scoring the highest placement for her country. That is "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet" her song placed in 4th place in 1994, the first official year Hungary took part at Eurovision. https://youtu.be/oyi9b4KHvE0?t=74 Friðrik Ómar, 37 After entering Söngvakeppnin for the second time, Friðrik won it in 2008 as a part of “Eurobandið” with Regína Ósk. Therefore they performed in Belgrade, Serbia. “This Is My Life” is the name of their entry. They did quite good for Icelandic Eurovision standard. They advanced to the final, and came in 14th place out of 25. His best result at Eurovision, however, came the year after. Then he went with Yohanna as a backing-vocalist, and finished second. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zinGFmaYdZ8 Lena Katrina, 34 Elena Sergeevna Katina, or better know as Lena Katrina, was a part of a very successful Russian band called t.A.T.u. with Julia Volkova. The two of them where selected to perform at Eurovision in 2003 in Riga, Latvia. “Ne ver’, ne boysia” is the name of their entry, and reached the 3rd place, only three points lower than the winning act. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBEBGt8DTT4 Slavko, 32 Montenegro picked Slavko to represent them in Kyiv in 2017. His lively character shines through his performance and you can see how much he enjoys it. The entry is called “Space” and was in the first semi final. Unfortunately for Slavko, he didn’t qualify to the final. On the other hand his is unique clothing style, got him the first place at the Barbara Dex Awards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ1BXJpfa4I Nela Pociskova, 28 Nela and Kamil Mikulčík sang a duet and won the Slovakian national selection in 2009. Therefore they where the first entry from Slovakia since 1998 to perform at the contest. Sadly for them “Leť tmou”, their song, failed to qualify to the Eurovision final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7kJLXyWTVU Ignazio Boschetto, 24 Ignazio is one of the tenors of the Italian trio Il Volo. After Il Volo won Sanremo Song Contest in 2015, they accepted to represent their country at Eurovision in Vienna, Austria. “Grande Amore”, their song, was the winner of the public votes. However they were not able impress the jury as much, thus leaving them in the 3rd place at the final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TOMqZV2jA8 Mikolas Josef, 23 Mikolas truly caught the attentions with the catchy tune "Lie To Me", starting with the camel in the video, as well as his glasses and backpack and energy on stage. He represented Czech Republic in 2018 in Lisbon. During rehearsals Mikolas' jump went wrong and he hurt himself badly. However, his determination and good support team got him all the way to the grand final. Where he landed the big jump with style and reached the 6th place. We had a long live interview with him after the 2nd rehearsal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ZUuQe0shk October 5th Today is dedicated to one Eurovision Star who has taken part at Eurovision two times with good results. Paola del Medico, 68 Switzerland decided to send Paola to Eurovision in 1969. Therefore she sang "Bonjour, Bonjour" on the stage in Madrid. She did quite well, that is ended in 5th place or shall we say 2nd since there were four countries in the first place. Paola got another chance to represent her country at Eurovision in 1980. Then with a song called "Cinéma", which also did well at the contest. Even better this time, because she placed 4th this time around. https://youtu.be/4ZnNEz-qSFw?t=73 October 6th Two birthday girls to celebrate today. None of them had huge success at Eurovision, but one of them have become some of a fan favorite in recent years! Sonja Lumme, 57 After winning the Finnish final in 1985 with the song “Eläköön elämä”, Sonja went to perform in Gothenburg, Sweden. At the final she got 58 points and thus came in 9th place out of 19. Sonja made three attempts to enter Eurovision again, in 1988, 1989 and in 1992. The last one, where she was the closest to it, that is her song “Rakkauden bulevardi” came in 3rd at the Finnish national final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM5IJPhHnN8 Tereza Kerndlová, 32 Czech Republic selected Tereza to represent them in Eurovision in 2008. She sang the song “Have Some Fun” at the second semi-final in Belgrade, Serbia. Despite the fact that this was the country's most successful entry to that date, it only got 9 points thus finishing second last in the semi-final. Czech Republic had to wait until 2016 to get a better result, when they qualified for the final with the song “I stand“. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBD9BBAzgrw October 7th Today is about two ladies that surely have given Eurovision a good try! Luminita and Charlotte have a birthday today! Luminita Anghel, 50 Luminita Anghel represented Romania at the 2005 Eurovision in Kyiv, along with the percussion band Sistem. They performed the song “Let Me Try”, finishing in a super third place. This is still today the best Romanian result at Eurovision, an honor they share with Paula Seling and Ovi (2010, “Playing With Fire”). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGY20O4Z7nM Charlotte Perrelli, 44 Charlotte Perrelli has participated in the Eurovison Song Contest twice, both times representing Sweden. After having won the Swedish national final, Melodifestivalen 1999 with “Tusen och en natt”, she performed the English version, “Take me to your heaven” on stage in Jerusalem. Her performance scored the most points, or 163 points in total, which of course means she won the contest in Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2NU4H85J4o Charlotte has taken part in Melodifestivalen another two times after winning it in 1999. The second time she took part it was in 2008 with the song “Hero”, where she won it once again. That means she earned the right to represent Sweden in Belgrade. Despite being one of the favorites to win, the song only got 47 points at the final, thus finishing 18th out of 25. She entered Melodifestevalen for the 3rd time in 2012 with the song “The girl“. This time she did not win, since the song did not make it to the national final. But she used the title and named her perfume line after it. All of us here at escXtra wish these wonderful Eurostars the very happiest of birthdays!

October 5th

Paola del Medico, 68

Hlynur Sigurðsson

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; week 40!

October 5th

Paola del Medico, 68

Hlynur Sigurðsson

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; week 40!

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