An Xtra Happy Birthday; Week 47!

Even though there are less Eurovision Stars celebrating their birthday this week, compared to last, there are still a lot of birthdays to celebrate: 15 in total! One of this week's birthday girls has actually participated at Eurvision three times; Marie Bergman. November 19th Today we have two more November birthday boys who celebrate their birthday. One comes from Israel and and is a real Eurovision Star, because it is his actual stag name. The other is from Malta, and sings about stars. Renato Micallef, 67 Malta selected the singer Renato to be their representative at Eurovision Song Contest in 1975. Therefore he sang that song, "Singing this Song" on stage in Stockholm, where he placed 12th. He also would have taken part at Eurovison in 1990 with the song "Our Little World of Yesterday" but Malta withdrew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbhlDCqGDS0 Hovi Star, 32 Hovav Sekulets, better known as Hovi Star, won the HaKokhav HaBa, the Isreael national selection for Eurovision in 2015. He then performed at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. He sang the song “Made of Star” in the second semi final and got the 7th place. Therefore the act advanced to the final and reached 14th place. https://youtu.be/SS5TB2XUdgs November 20th Today there is one birthday boy and he is from Denmark. He was a part a beautiful duet that almost gave Denmark it’s second winning in a row. Søren Poppe, 47 Denmark selected Søren and Signe Svendsen to perform at the Eurovision song contest in 2001. The contest was in Copenhagen, because Olsen brothers won it the previous year. The pair came close to repeating the win, as they ended up in second place at the contest. Poppe did try again at Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with Lene Mattiesen Nørrelykke with the song “En som dig” and ended in 3rd place. https://youtu.be/FvVRHvDi490 November 21st Today we bring you one Eurovision birthday lady and one birthday boy. The lady, Marie Bergman, has taken part in Eurovision three times! Marie Bergman, 68 As part of the group Family Four, Marie Bergman took part on behalf of Sweden in 1971 with the song "Vita Vidder". The band also participated the following year with the song "Härliga Sommardag". Both songs did rather well, as the first placed 6th and the second finished in 13th place. However Marie entered Eurovision once again in 1994 with Roger Pontare. Their song is called "Stjärnorna" and ended in 13th place in Dublin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq10KQ77dnY Isaiah Firebrace, 20 Australia selected Isaiah to represent Australia in 2017 in Kyiv. Due to this decission he sang “Don’t Come Easy” at the first semi final, finishing in 6th place. Therefore he performed at the final and reached 14th place. If you feel like listening to more of his songs, here is a single. https://youtu.be/YTCP4S1dqwA November 22nd A total of three Eurovision gentlemen was born on this day. The oldest turns 59 today, while the youngest is born 30 years later. However, they both represented a Scandinavian country; Norway and Denmark respectively. Åge Sten Nilsen, 59 Also know as Glam, Åge Sten is the vocalist of the glam rock band Wig Wam. They took part at Eurovision in 2005, which was held in Kyiv. There they sang the song "In My Dreams", which was quite popular within the Nordic part of Eurovision and getting a few 12 points from their neighbors. At the end of the contest they finished in 9th place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w07N2nfB7KY Chris Doran, 49 Doran won a talent show in Ireland, which gave him the opportunity to go to Eurovision in 2004. He performed "If My World Stopped Turning" at, with the four runner ups at the talent show as backing vocalists. Despite the song being popular in their home country the song ended in 22nd place out of 24 in Turkey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpHuREDD798 David Vang, 29 Denmark picked the group "Anti Social Media to gp on their behalf to Eurovision in 2015. Therefore, as the bass player of the band, David performed the song "The Way You Are" in Vienna. Unfortunately for Denmark the song did not advance to the final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J--Tgi_iZQ8 November 23th Today we are celebrating two Eurovision birthday girls. One represented Luxembourg, the other the United Kingdom. While one of them finished joint last, the other WON!! Solange Berry, 86 Despite being Belgian, Solange represented Luxembourg at the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest in Hilversum. She performed the song "Un grand amour". It wasn't a grand success however, as she finished in joint last place after having received only one point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si14zjMHrhI Sandra Stevens, 69 In 1976 United kingdom selected the famous band “Brotherhood of Man” to perform at Eurovision in The Hague, Netherlands. They sang the song “Save Your Kisses for Me”, which got 164 points at the show. This was enough to win the Contest! They are still active as a group today. Sandra performed with three other artists; Martin Lee, Nicky Stevens and Lee Sheriden. https://youtu.be/fhq_Q1Ut8SQ November 24th Two Eurovision singers celebrate their birthday today; one girl, one boy. We should probably say man however, as the birthday boy turns 76 today! The birthday girl is more than 50 years younger; Ivi Adamou turns 25. Viktor Klimenko, 76 Finland selected Klimenko to reprecent them at Eurovision in 1965, which was held in Naples, Italy. Viktor was just young when his parents moved to Finland. He sang the song “Aurinko laskee länteen” or “The sun sets in the west”. Unfortunately the song did not charm the juries enough, since he got no points at the contest. https://youtu.be/ae2GriFd1hI Ivi Adamou, 25 Ivi represented Cyprus at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. She performed the song "La La Love" in the first semi-final, where she finished in 7th place, thus qualifying for the grand final. On the Saturday night she finished in 16th place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtMHBXO_n48 November 25th Two of today's three Eurovision birthday stars belong to the "young man with a guitar" segment. That's about the only thing they have in common at Eurovision however. One of them did really well in his year while the other finished close to the bottom of the right hand side of the scoreboard. Andrius Pojavis, 36 Andrius represented Lithuania at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. He did so with his own song “Something.” He performed in the first semi-final, finishing ninth, thus qualifying for the grand final. In the final, however, he didn’t fare as well, finishing in a rather disappointing 22nd place. https://youtu.be/MCZ6RRwKcIE Tom Dice, 29 Tom Dice represented Belgium at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. He won his semi-final with “Me and My Guitar”, more than 30 points ahead of number 2. This was the first time since the introduction of the semis for Belgium to qualify for the final. And not only did he qualify; on the Saturday night he finished in a very impressive sixth place! https://youtu.be/Nk1UAXlfBUA Danica Krstić, 1995 As part of the Serbian act, Sanja Ilic & Balkanika, Danica participated in Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon. They performed the song "Nova Deca", finishing 9th in their semi-final, thus just making it through to the final. There they finished 19th out of 26 participating countries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkOFnIjGrkw All of us here at escXtra would like to wish every single of this week's Eurovision birthday stars all the best on their special day!

An Xtra Happy Birthday; Week 47!

November 19th

Renato Micallef, 67

Hovi Star, 32

Hlynur Sigurðsson

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November 19th

Renato Micallef, 67

Hovi Star, 32

Hlynur Sigurðsson

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; Week 47!

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