An Xtra Happy Birthday; week 42!

Wadde hadded dudde da! A total of 30 Eurovision participants celebrate their birthday this week! Two of them are Eurovision winners and another two finished second at the contest! October 15th Today we celebrate four Eurovision birthday girls! One of them is the was the youngest one to ever win at Eurovision. Anne Karine Strøm, 67 Anne Karine took part in Melodi Grand Prix six times in a row and actually won it three times! Her first two attempts weren't too successful, however in her third try in 1973 she won. She did so with the band “Benedik singers”, thus representing Norway in Luxembourg city. Their song is called “It’s Just a Game” and ended in 7th place out of 17 acts. The other two times she took part, she did so as a solo artist. The second time was in 1974 in England, when she performed the song “The First Day of Love“. The last time she took part was in Netherlands in 1976 with the song “Mata Hari“. Despite much interest on Strøm’s behalf, however, both of these songs ended in last place at the finals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-3gnlF82C0 Ingeborg, 52 Belgium selected Ingeborg’s song “Door de wind” (“Through the Wind”) to represent it in Switzerland, 1989. However the song had a difficulty to reach through the jury and gained 19th place out of 22 songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smVKttN7OOw Sandra Kim, 46 The fourth Eurovision birthday star of the day is none other than the Belgian winner Sandra Kim. She is known for being the youngest winner of Eurovision, as she was only 13 years old at the time. Since her victory, however, the rules have been changed. Participants now have to be at least 16 years old. Sandra participated in the contest in 1986 with the song “‘J’aime la vie” in Bergen, Norway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZfcdzbeIfg Marina Djundyet, 32 Moldavia decided to bring a fun and lively act to Eurovision 2018. That is they picked the trio, DoReDos. Therefore Marina went on the stage in Lisbon. Not just at the semifinal but also the Grand Final because people enjoyed their show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5evrVL1rJPA October 16th A total of ten, (yes, you read that right; TEN!!) former Eurovision participants were born on this date! And thank heavens we have the tradition of presenting the oldest first! Otherwise I honestly wouldn’t have had the faintest idea where to start! Ilya Lagutenko, 50 Russia picked the band Mumiy Troll to go as their reprecentative to Eurovision in 2001. Ilya is the lead singer of the band, and therefore sang their song "Lady Alpine Blue" on the stage. They got good results, that is placed 10th at the final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHVhFHvEwIg Michael van der Heide, 47 Michael represented Switzerland at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. Being a fan favorite, he performed his song “Il pleut de l’or” in the second semi-final. However, he only managed to finish in 17th place, thus not making it to the grand final. Michael also took part in the German national final in 1999. There he finished in 5th place with “Bye Bye Bar“. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW2UPf1_Lcg Signe Svendsen, 44 Signe represented Denmark on home ground in Copenhagen at the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest. She did so together with Rollo & King. They were very close to copying Olsen Brothers and thus giving Denmark their second consecutive victory. In the end, however, they finished as number two with “Never Ever Let You Go”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnFCAugQsEw Dirk Naessens, 44 Dirk represented Belgium at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest in Riga. He was part of the group Urban Trad, who perform modern folk music. They participated with their own song “Sanomi”. This song was performed entirely in an invented language. “Sanomi” finished second, a mere two points behind “Everyway That I Can”, thus making it one of the most successful Belgian entries. The Eurovision edit is only 3.01 long, while the original version of “Sanomi” is more than a minute longer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRQlsvWMWBo Aurela Gace, 43 Aurela represented Albania at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf. Unfortunately she failed to place in the top 10 in her semi-final with her entry “Feel the Passion”. As a result she did not qualify for the grand final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh73e97BW_8 Loreen, 35 Loreen won the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku for Sweden. She did this with her song “Euphoria”. In addition to winning the contest, “Eurphoria” became a big hit all over Europe. It is still getting quite a bit of air play on radio stations, and is a garanteed dancefloor filler. This was Loreens’s second attempt at representing her country at Eurovision. Already in 2011 she took part in Melodifestivalen with “My Heart is Refusing Me“. Loreen returned to Melodifestivalen in 2017 with her “Statements“, but failed to make it to the final. She was knocked out in the Andra chansen round. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfo-8z86x80 Jala Brat, 32 Jala represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. He did so together with Dalal Midhat-Talakić, Deen and Ana Rucner. They performed their song “Ljubav je” in the first semi-final, but failed to qualify for the grand final. Jala also co-wrote their entry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLrXmTB8OaY Yohanna, 28 Yohanna represented Iceland at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. She won her semi-final just ahead of Turkey. In the grand final she went on to finish second, behind Norway’s Alexander Rybak and his “Fairytale”. This is the best result Iceland has achieved at Eurovision. They also finished second in 1999, but the number of entries was much higher in 2009. Yohanna has participated in Söngvakeppnin twice after almost winning Eurovision. In 2011 she finished third with “Nótt“, before returning two years later with “Þú“. This time however, she did not make it to the national final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOB_yzC2f_A Jedward, 27 John and Edward Grimes, better known simply as Jedward, represented Ireland both at the 2011 and 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. The first time, in Dusseldorf, they finished in 8th place with “Lipstick”. Next time, in Baku, they performed “Waterline“, finishing in a rather disappointing 19th place. A lot of fans would like to see Jedward return to Eurovision, and the twins themselves have not said an absolute no to this. Whatever happens, they have already gained a huge following, both in their native Ireland and abroad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgrlG6hQbNM October 17th After yesterday's TEN birthdays, having "only" half as many Eurostars to celebrate feels kind of “everyday”. Five's really rather a good number, though! António Calvário, 80 Calvário was the singer for Portugal in 1964, thus performing in Copenhagen, Denmark. He therefore performed his song, "Oração". The song ended in 13th place out of 16 acts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNlgtZajHvY Roger Pontare, 67 Roger Pontare has represented Sweden at Eurovision twice. The first time was back in 1994, when he performed “Stjärnorna” in a duet with Marie Bergman. During the final in Dublin they finished in 13th place. Five years later, in 1999, he finished fifth in Melodifestivalen with the song “Som av is”. In 2000 he won Melodifestivalen again, thus earning the right to represent Sweden on home turf. His “When Spirits are Calling My Name” appealed to a lot of people around Europe, thereby reaching 7th place. Roger participated in Melodifestivalen twice since then, without making it to the final. In 2006 he reached the Andra Chansen stage with “Silverland“. In his latest attempt, in 2017, he did not proceed from the semi-final with “Himmel och hav“. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fELp2fPI8wI Despina Olympiou, 43 Despina represented Cyprus at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Although her performance of “An me thimase” was flawless, she failed to qualify for the grand final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekx8mT-fR80 Daniel Kajmakoski, 35 Daniel represented Macedonia at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. He performed the song “Autumn Leaves” in the first semi-final. Despite having a lot of support for his song pre-contest, he finished second to last in his semi. As a result of this he did not qualify for the final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtSum7ouImU Dami Im, 30 Dami Im represented Australia in their second ever Eurovision participation in Stockholm 2016. She performed the song “Sound of Silence”, as one of the biggest pre-contest favorites. Despite giving an impressive performance in the grand final, she “only” finished in second place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ymFX91HwM0 October 18th On this day, there are four Eurovision performers that have grown one year older. That is two birthday ladies and two birthday gentlemen.No to much no? Arnis Mednis, 57 Mednis took part at Eurovision in 2001, on the behalf of his home country Latvia. The song had the humble title, "To Much", which unfortunately for him did not mean to much of support at Eurovision. That is the song ended 18th place out of 23 countries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN0WwwEL81I Olivia Lewis, 40 Through the national selection, Malta Song for Europe, Olivia was selected to perform at Eurovision 2007 in Serbia. That was the 11th time she participated in the national selection, with placing in 2nd place the three previous years. Despite her big devotion to the song contest her Song “Vertigo” did not make it to the final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeNevJOWt-o Svetlana Loboda, 36 Both the jury and the public of Ukraine thought that Loboba was the best option in 2009 to represented her nation in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Therefore she sang in Russia that year. With huge stage props and “Roman soldiers” at her side, Svetlana advance to the Final. At the final her song “Be My Valentine!” got 70 points leaving her in 12th place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqclaNucp24 Loucas Yiorkas, 32 In 2011, Greece´s Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation selected Loucas Yiorkas and five others to represent Greece in Eurovision. Along with Stereo Mike and performed the song “Watch My Dance”. They had huge success with the public televotes where he got 3rd place. However after uniting the result with jury votes the song only got 120 points at the final, leaving in it 7th place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVdMs2-dwGE October 19th Today there are just two Eurovision Stars that celebrate there birthday. One of them was part of the debut act of his country. Veselin Veselinov-Eko, 55 Veselin took part in Eurovision with the Bulgarian jazz band “Kaffe”. The song “Lorraine” is written by Veselin and Orlin Pavlov the singer. They performed in Kiev in 2005, which means they were Bulgaria’s debut entry at Eurovision. However the failed to qualify to the final, because they ended up in 19th place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rnAKD1QuU Samra Rahimli, 24 In 2016 Azerbaijan selected Samra to perform at Eurovision in Stockholm. Therefore she sang the song “Miracle” on stage. Her song advanced to the final, where she got 117 points that scored her in 17th place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB8eSLyffsI October 20th Three birthday artists, however five Eurovision entries. One of the entries is "Wadde hadded dudde da"! Claes-Göran Hederström, 73 In 1986 Sweden picked Claes-Göran to go on their behalf to Eurovuision. The title of his song is quite long, that is "Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig". The song did quite well and reached the fifth place at the contest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyb_Fok9iTo Stefan Raab, 52 Stefan first competed in Eurovision in 1998 as a composer of the song “Guildo hat euch lieb” that Guildo Horn sang all over the stage. He also composed Germany's 2004 entry “Can´t Wait Until Tonight“. However, his first Eurovision stage performance was in 2000 in Stockholm, when he performed his own comedy song “Wadde hadded dudde da?”. The song was quite catchy and gained 5th place at the final, which was his best result at the contest. However, his two other entries were also quite popular, as they gained 7th and 8th place at the finals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJgszpNj7dY Zhana Bergendorf, 33 In 2018 Bulgaria decided to form the group EQUINOX to perform their entry "Bones". The group is with five talented singers, one of them is Zhana but she is the only female singer of the group. The symphonix song, made it to the final, where it reached the 16th place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC-1tdGDFQc October 21st Two Eurovision singers have a birthday today! What song suits your Sunday better? Riccardo Fogli, 71 Italy selected Fogli in 1983, to go on their behalf to Eurovision in 1983. Therefore he sang the deprately romantic song "Per Lucia" in Munchin, then West Germany. Riccardo got 41 points, that is scored the 11th place at the contest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWpd_J-g65w Artsvik, 33 After Artsvik won the Armenian national election Depi Evratesil in 2016 she got to perform in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2017. She advanced from the final with her song “Fly with me”. She got 79 points at the final, therefore ending in 18th place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g373Libigw8 All of us here at escXtra wish this week's Eurovision birthday stars an Xtra happy birthday!

October 19th

Veselin Veselinov-Eko, 55

Samra Rahimli, 24

Hlynur Sigurðsson

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; week 42!

October 19th

Veselin Veselinov-Eko, 55

Samra Rahimli, 24

Hlynur Sigurðsson

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; week 42!

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