An Xtra Happy Birthday; Week 51

Like last week we have some reason to celebrate some birthdays in the the Holiday seasons. This week there are 13 Eurovision stars that celebrate their birthday. And three of them have that in common to "own" their date all by themselves as well as coming from an "S" country. One of these three is Frans Jeppsson Wall. December 17th Today´s Eurovision Birthday Star took part at Eurovision as a part of the band Balkanika. Nemanja Koji, 43 Serbia selected the band Balkania in 2018 to go on their behalf to Eurovision in Lisbon. Koji, also know as Hornsman Coyote, was the male vocalist of their song "Nova Deca". Their song, rooted in Serbian tradition made it to the final where it landed the 19th palce. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkOFnIjGrkw December 18th Today there are five Eurovision singers that celebrate their birthday today! Including an Irish winner; Eimear Quinn. Liliane St Pierre, 70 Liliane represented Belgium at the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest. She performed the song “Soldiers of Love”, finishing in 11th place. This was not Liliane’s first attempt at representing her country in the contest. In 1981, she performed “Brussel” in the Belgian final, being rumored to have finished second. No one really knows for sure, though, since only the winner was announced. She didn’t however only try her luck for Belgium. Already in 1978 she participated in Luxembourg’s pre-selection with the song “Mélodie“, finishing 4th in a final of five. https://youtu.be/7x3zxkVMLAg Eimear Quinn, 46 Eimear Quinn represented Ireland at the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. She performed the song “The Voice”, winning by a small landslide. She received 162 points, almost 50 points more than host nation Norway in second place. This was Ireland’s 7th and for now, last Eurovision victory. https://youtu.be/TpdRtIM45ts Xandee, 40 Like Liliane St Pierre, Xandee represented Belgium in Eurovision. She performed the song “1 Life” at the 2004 contest in Istanbul. Due to the country’s good result the year before, Xandee was directly qualified for the final. There, however, she finished in 22nd place out of 24 participating countries. https://youtu.be/w5mX3ecBtTI Rui Drumond, 38 In 2005 Portugal selected the duo "2B", which consisted of Rui and Luciana Abreu. They therefore got to go to Kiyv, to perform the song "Amar". Which was bilingual, both sang in english and in Portuguese. Despite getting the few 12 points at the semi final, the song did not make it to the final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqQZpHmIR0 Natalia Kelly, 21 The youngest of today’s birthday girls is Austria’s Natalia Kelly. She represented her country at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. She performed the song Shine, finishing in a rather disappointing 14th place in the first semi, thus not qualifying for the final. https://youtu.be/gOJHi6JiKpY December 19th For the second time this week, the date is dedicated to one person. Today we send our greetings to Sweden. Frans Jeppsson Wall, 20 At the age of 17, Frans won Meldofestevalen in Sweden in 2016. That is why he represented the hosting country. His charming performance of "If I was Sorry". got him high on the scoreboard, that is 5th place at the final. After the show hois song was quite poular on radio all over Europe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AIPrVchJN8 December 20th Today we celebrate four artist that have given us seven Eurovision songs. And furthermore most of them have done rather well at the song contest. One of them even won! And also secured a 2nd place! We also have a bit of a drummer theme going on, since both of today's birthday boys played the drums in their band. Gigliola Cinquetti, 71 Gigliola won the 1964 Sanremo Festival with her song "Non ho l'età", thereby earning the right to represent Italy at Eurovision in Copenhagen. There the 16 year old secured Italy's first victory! Gigliola returned to Eurovision ten years later, in Brighton. Her second song was called "Si", and again she did really well. She finished in 2nd place, only beaten by Sweden's ABBA with "Waterloo". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utd9cHBPfRA Anna Vissi, 61 Anna really has impressive connection with Eurovision. That is she has taken part at Eurovision three times, first in 1980 and the last time in 2006. Those two times she took part on behalf of Greece. In 1980 she sang "Autostop" along with The Epikouri. Which placed 13th at the contest. In 2006 however she sang "Everything" and got better results, 9th place in Athens. The third time she took part, in 1982, for Cyprus with the song "Mono i agapi". Which was Cyprus second entry, and place 5th. Which is in the top 4 placements for Cyprus at Eurovision. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJDqzQ_GlW0 Øystein Andersen, 53 Also know as Sporty, Åge Sten is the drummer 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://youtu.be/w07N2nfB7KY Kerem Kabadayi, 41 Turkey picked the band Mor ve Ötesi 2008 to go on their behalf to Eurovision. Kermen is a writer and the drummer of the band. They did fairly well with the song "Deli" . That is placed 12th at the competition in Belgrade, Serbia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A__hliu_9UE December 21st Today there are four Eurovision singers that have a birthday. One gentleman from Portugal and three ladies, each reprecenting their countries; Iceland, Finland and Slovenia. Carlos do Carmo, 79 Portugal selected Carlos to go on their behalf to Eurovision in 1976. He sang "Flor de Verde Pinho" in The Hague. Where the song got 24 points, that which means it finished in 12th place out of 18 countries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D0NdOdJTtU Anja Koivisto, 72 The sisters Anja and Anneli Koivisto along with Markku Aro represented Finland at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. The sisters called themselves Koivistolaiset. Their performance of the song “Tie uuteen päivään” earned them 84 points, thus landing them in eighth place. https://youtu.be/V_11CcVeSH0 Karmen Stavec, 45 Stavec has participated four times at EMA, the Slovenian national selection. First time in 1998 as a part of a duet. Then she took three times in a row, 2001, 2002 and 2003. On the third time, she got second place at the national final with the song “Še in še“. However in 2003 Karmen won EMA, with the song “Nanana”. That is why she represented her country Slovenia in in Riga, Latvia. The song only received 7 point, therefore she got 23rd place out of 26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGJagYLLOSQ Regína Ósk Óskarsdóttir, 41 Just as Karmen, Regína Ósk, has strong connection to the Eurovision Song Contest. She is of course mostly known for her own entry at Eurovision in 1999, where she joined up with Friðrik Ómar as the band Eurobandið. Where they reached 14th place at the final in Jerusalem. She had then gone on the Eurovision stage three more year as a backup singer for Iceland. That is in 2001, 2003 and 2005. Regína also took part in Söngvakeppnin in 2015 with the song “Aldrei of seint“. https://youtu.be/ETQoC7x7Mog December 22nd Just as yesterdday there are also four Eurovision singers. With tone birthday boy, who is the oldest and three Eurovision birthday girls. And reprecenting four diffrent countries. Bill van Dijk, 71 Bill took part at Eurovision in 1982 for Netherlands. He sang the sweet love song "Jik en ik". The song did not captivate the audience and it ended in 16th place out of 18 acts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ou93QSLg7w Anita, 58 Anita represented Austria at the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest in Luxembourg. She performed the song “Einfach weg”, finishing dead last after receiving a mere 5 points. Gary Lux, who has represented Austria at Eurovision six times, was one of her backing singers. https://youtu.be/J18qcHJ_e1E?t=45 Edurne, 33 Edurne represented Spain at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. In the weeks leading up to the contest, her song “Amanecer” was among the fan favorites. On the night of the final, however, she only finished 21st out of 27 participating countries. This came as a big shock to many Spanish fans, as they had expected a top 5 result. https://youtu.be/NsMiJJlElAY Lisa Andreas, 31 Lisa represented Cyprus at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul. She was only 16 years old at the time, which made her the youngest participant. There was however nothing “young and inexperienced” about her performance. She delivered a wonderful performance of her song, “Stronger Every Minute”. As a result of this, she finished in a well deserved 5th place. https://youtu.be/rQwmqkRO7Go December 23rd This is the third time this week that we send our birthday wishes to one person. Now we have a Spanish singer. Beth, 37 Spain selected Beth in 2002 after she competed in musical talent show called “Operación Triunfo” to perform at Eurovision the following year. Therefore she went on stage in Riga, Latvia. Where she sang the song “Dime” with active dancer and backup singers. The song got 81 point from the voting, which gave her the 8th-9th place that she shared with the Icelandic entry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8USu9t9260 We all here at escXtra would like to wish them all wonderful time on their special day and best wishes for the future.

December 19th

Frans Jeppsson Wall, 20

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; Week 51