An Xtra Happy Birthday; week 50!

Just as last week, there are loads of birthdays to celebrate this week too! One of them was a winner, as in part of the famous band ABBA! December 10th Today there are four Eurovision Stars that have a birthday. It includes a two times Eurovision performers Ellen Nikolaysen as well as a guy who was the debut act for his country. Yuval Dor, 68 As part of the band Hakol Over Habiabi, Yuval performed on behalf of Israel at Eurovision in 1981. Therefore performed the song "Hanlayla" on the stage in Dublin. The song did fairly well and finished in 7th place out of 20 acts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzbH4MLhqQE Ellen Nikolaysen, 67 Nikolaysen took part two times at the Eurovision Song Contest. First Norway selected the singing group Bendik Singers in 1973. Ellen was part of that group. They therefore stood up on the stage in Luxembourg and sang “It’s Just A Game”. The song got 89 points, that secured them the 7th place. Norway chose Ellen again in 1975 with the song “Touched my life with summer”. Therefore she had to travel to her neighbor country Sweden. At the final in Stockholm the song got only 11 points which meant the song came second to last. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGGE7hZVP3I Milan Špalek,52 Czecch first entry at Eurovision was in 2007, then they chose the rock band Kabát to reprecent them in Helsinki, Finland. Milan is a member of that band. They performed their song “Malá Dáma” at the semi final, where they only got one point. Never the less its noteworthy that it is the only entry to be sang in Czech at the Eurovision Song Contest. Because the song that follow have been in English. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBZaVQ52RQY Katrin Siska, 35 Katrin as ts a part of the Estonian group Vanilla Ninja took part on Switzerland's behalf in 2005. But they also tried representing their home country in 2003 and 2008 but did not win the national selection. But as mentioned, there time was in Kiev with the song "Cool Vibes". You cans say that the vibes worked and because the group made it to 8th place at the contest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJX8RWJg7y4 December 12th There are three Eurovision singers that celebrate their birthday today! Two birthday ladies and one birthday gentleman. Gianni Morandi, 74 Italy selected Giani to be there representative at Eurovision in 1970.That is why he sang "Occhi di ragazza" in Amsterdam, where Italy placed 8th out of 12 countries. He has also been successful at Sanremo festival, and won it in 1987 with the song "Si può dare di più". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNVdo_vWdjw Natalia Gordienko, 31 Moldova selected Natalia along with Arsenium to go on their behalf to Eurovision in 2006. They performed the song "Loca" in Athens, where they ended in 20th place out of 22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Xi8u1gkTo Anna Bergendahl, 27 Sweden selected Anna Bergendahl to preform for them in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. Therefore she stood up on the stage in Oslo, Norway, where she sang the song “This Is My Life”. Like we mentioned earlier, she failed to qualify to the final. This was because she finished in 11th place in her semi final, only five points behind the 10th place. Anna is also one of the names revealed for Melodifestivalen 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P1neQKN-1k December 12th Once again we have three Eurovision singers that have brought us Eurovision memories. Ulla Wiesner, 77 West Germay selected Ulla, now named Ulla Arnz, to represent them at Eurovision Song Contest in 1965. Therefore she went on stage in Napels, Itlay and performed her song “Paradies, wo bist du?”. At the end of the voting here song got zero points as well as three other entries out of 18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fNKL8aEUDg Douwe Bob, 25 The Netherlands chose Douwe Bob to be their representative at Eurovision in 2016. That is why he went on to the stage in Stockholm. Bob secured a spot at the final with this semi final performance. His song “Slow Down” got total of 153 points which gave it the 11th place. Douwe released a single the year before with another Eurovision performer , Anouk, who is also from The Netherlands. It is called “Hold Me“. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwF9DI89q1w Samo Dervisic, 37 Samo who is a part of the Slovenian string quartet Quartissimo, but they took part at Eurovision in 2009. He plays the violoncello in the band. Their input to Eurovision was "Love Symphony", which unfortunately for them failed to make it to the final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afPh1slPAsc December 13th This day is dedicated to to one singer from Latvia. Kārlis Būmeisters, 32 Kārlis better known as Kazha took part at Eurovision along with Valters Frīdenbergs in 2005 for Latvia. They advanced from the semi final and made it far. That is placing 5th at the final evening. His partner at Eurovision, Valters , sadly passed away from cancer on October 17th, just a week before his 31st birthday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5HAilNn4fs December 14th Small tribute to Poland today since there are two out of five Eurovision birthday stars are from there. Henri Dès, 78 Switzerland picked Henri in 1970 as their Eurovision representative. His song "Retour" was quite popular and scored enough points to take the 4th place that year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0ItTfqLk1I Guri Schanke, 57 Guri Schanke represented Norway at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki. She performed the Latin inspired song “Ven a bailar conmigo”, however failing to achieve much success. In the hardest of all semi-finals ever in the history of the contest, she finished 18th out of 28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNjMDNxNIr4 Anna Maria Jopek, 47 Anna Maria represented Poland at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. She finished in 11th place with “Ale jestem”, which still to date is the fourth best result for Poland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piD3PP1QDBQ Haraldur Freyr, 43 Haraldur Freyr represented Iceland at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen. He did so as pat of the band Pollapönk, who are representatives of the fairly rare musical genre children’s punk. They performed the song “No Prejudice”, a song about how we are all the same on the inside and therefore should stop bullying. In the first semi-final, they finished in 8th place, thus qualifying for the grand final. On the Saturday night, they finished 15th. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ZG378DH1c Gromee, 40 Gromee brought the party music to Lisbon this year on Poland's part. He brought his signature snake dance move to the song "Light Me Up". The song however was short of reaching the final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyoiCyP4Bkg December 15th Second time this week, a day is dedicated to one Eurovision birthday Star. This time to a German girl who represented a different country; San Marino. Jenifer Brening, 22 After an interesting selection for San Marino in 2018 , Jessika won the show with "Who We Are". However Jenifer got to join her with some rap. Just as Gromee's song who had birthday yesterday, their song did not reach the final in Lisbon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66D0pKVdA-4 December 16th Today there are four Eurovision Stars have a birthday. Including one Eurovision winner. Benny Andersson, 71 Sweden selected the singing group ABBA to represent them at Eurovision in 1974. Therefore they sang upon stage in Brighton, United Kingdom. Their song became quite popular and won the contest! Benny Andersson was part of this group, that became world famous. Andersson along with Björn Ulveaus, also a former memeber of ABBA, wrote the 2013 Eurovision anthem along with the music composer Avicii. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FsVeMz1F5c Ines Santos, 40 The group Alma Lusa was formed in 1998 mainly for Eurovision and the national selection in Portugal, formed with six talented artists. Ines was the vocalist of the short lived band. Therefore she went on Portugal's behalf to Birmingham. Where they reached the shared 12th place with the song "Se eu te pudesse abraçar". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGnMhlHxm30 Mihai Traistariu, 39 Romania chose Mihai to perform for them at Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 in Athens, Greece. Due to Romania’s previous success in 2005 when “Let me Try” landed in 3rd place, Traistariu got to perform directly at the final without having to compete in the semi. Where he performed the song “Tornero”. His performance continued Romania’s success, that is the song landed in 4th place with 172 points. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SyPb8IOimE Mei Finegold, 36 Israel selected Mei in 2014 to be their representative in Copenhagen, Denmark. Therefore Finegold marched on stage in the second semi final and performed the song “Same Heart”. Unfortunately for her (and me to be honest since it is one of my favorite entries), the song did not get enough votes to reach to the final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uB4JMw4ctc All of us here at escXtra wish this week's Eurovision birthday stars the very best of celebrations!

December 12th

Gianni Morandi, 74

Natalia Gordienko, 31

Anna Bergendahl, 27

Hlynur Sigurðsson

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; week 50!

December 12th

Gianni Morandi, 74

Natalia Gordienko, 31

Anna Bergendahl, 27

Hlynur Sigurðsson

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; week 50!

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