An Xtra Happy Birthday; Week 2!

Well, well well... this birthday week we are going to keep it coming. So starting with the first two day and then adding on has the week goes by. One of the first this week to have a birthday is Mariella Farré. She has taken part at Eurovision two times . January 7th Well it seems I was mistaken... Anna from Iceland has a birthday today not yesterday;) To be corrected:D In addition of two other Eurovision artists. Mariella Farré, 56 On her second attempt at the national selection in Switzerland, Mariella won the selectiion in 1983. Therefore got to go to Munich with her song "Io cosí non ci sto". This time she placed in 15th place out of 20. Two years later she had two song in the pre-selection, one with the former Eurovision entrance Pio Gasparini. Their duet, "Piano,piano" won the right to go to Eurovision in Gothenburg, Sweden. This time she earned the 13th place out of 19 acts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwO5uyW5R84 Anna Mjöll, 49 Iceland selected Anna to be their representative at Eurovision song contest in 1996. That is why, she went upon the stage in Oslo, Norway. Where she sang the song the jazzy song “Sjúbídú”. At the final she got 51 points which was meant that she reached the 13th place! https://youtu.be/2K6OpOt-FR0 Sirusho, 32 In 2007 Sirusho was the Eurovision spokesperson for Armenian. The following year, Armenia chose her to represent the country in Belgrade, Serbia. She co-wrote the song “Qelé, Qelé” with the Armenian producer H.A. Der-Hovagimian. The fresh, dancy song became quite the hit among the fans. As well as getting eight sets of 12 points at the final. Despite getting the most 12 points that year, she only got 151 points in the end, which secured her the 4th place. https://youtu.be/bridO-wD7c8 In 2009 she made a song dedicated to peace with two other artist from Eurovision 2008, Jelena Tomasevic and Boaz Mauda. The song is called “Time to Pray“. January 8th This day is dedicated to a Spanish performer who has given Spain one of the best results in the last two decades. David Civera, 40 Spain selected the singer Civera to take part in Eurovision Song Contest in 2001. Therefore he went on stage in Copenhagen, Denmark. His song “Dile que la quiero”, is quite true to Spanish music and makes people want to shake their hips. At least many people seemed to enjoy, because it 76 points at the final. That was enough to secure Spain 6th place out of 23 countries. https://youtu.be/iwM-FH9tabs The song itself was written by another Eurovision singer, Alejeandro Abad, who performed for Spain in 1994 with the song “Ella nu es ella“. Aband continued to work with Civera and produced six albums for him. January 9th Three Eurovision ladies celebrate their birthday today! Mary Roos, 70 Mary represented Germany both at the 1972 and 1984 Eurovision Song Contests. During her first participation, in Edinburgh, she finished in a rather surprising, most of all to herself, third place. She did so with the song “Nur die Liebe läßt uns leben“. 12 years later, this time in Luxembourg, she didn’t do as well. She only finished 13th out of 19 participants with the song “Aufrecht geh’n”. Despite this rather disappointing result, “Aufrecht geh’n” has become something of a fan favorite/classic, and is often performed at Eurovision karaokes in the Euroverse. In addition to representing her country twice at Eurovision, Mary has also taken part in the German national final another three times; in 1970, 1975 and and 1982. https://youtu.be/MZOUwAmIPJU Lara Fabian, 49 Guess we can say that the year 1988 was a rather Canadian year, since the winner is from Canada as well as Lara. Fabian, took part for Luxembourg at Eurovision in Dublin with the song "Croire". She did really well and finished in 4th place. So indeed it was a strong Canadian Eurovision year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=midAD5CI-CA Aminata, 26 Aminata represented Latvia at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. She did so with her own song “Love Injected”. She sailed through to the final after finishing second in her semi-final. In the final, however, she failed to do as well as was expected, only finishing sixth. The juries had her in in second place, but the televoters weren’t as convinced by her performance. “Love Injected” has quickly become a favorite among the fans, and is considered a modern Eurovision classic. https://youtu.be/-usdXbeGHi8 In 2016 she represented her country again, though not on stage this time. She wrote the Latvian entry, “Heartbeat” for Justs. After qualifying for the grand final as one of the favorites, he finished in a slightly disappointing 15th place. Clearly one of the artists who loves going to Eurovision, she made an attempt at representing Lithuania in 2017. Like the year before, she tried her luck as a songwriter. Her song “I’m Like a Wolf“, was performed by Aistė Pilvelytė, and finished second in the national final. She also participated in the Latvian final in 2014, finishing fifth with the song “I Can Breathe“. January 10th Like yesterday, this day has three Eurovision Ladies. However one of them is yet to perform at Eurovision. Samira Said, 61 In 1980, Morocco selected Samira to represent them at Eurovision. She performed the song "Bitaqat Hub" which was a hit their. The song unfortunately ended second to last at the contest in The Hague. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97FD34DpSuw Encarna Salazar, 58 Encarna represented Spain at the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb. She did so as half of the duo Azúcar Moreno. The other half of the duo was her sister, Toñi Salazar. From starting position one, they performed the very dramatic, flamenco influenced entry “Bandido”. When all the votes had been counted, they finished in fifth place, having received 96 points. In addition to the wonderful song, the classy performance and the great result, they will also be remembered for the technical “scandal” that happened at the start of their performance. As you can see in the video below, there was a loooooong delay to the start of their backing track, which led to them missing their cue. They left the stage, and the whole thing had to start over again. Many singers would have become nervous after an incident like this, but not these two. They came back out and gave us possibly the fiercest performance in the history of Eurovision. https://youtu.be/eS4s6u4eI4k?t=68 Tamta, 38 Tamta is the birthday girl of the day, that will take part at Eurovision in Tel Aiv on behalf of Cyprus. Like we saw last year, Cyprus is really longing for the win. And have now decided to work with the famous Greek-Georgian singer. The author of her song "Replay" is Alex P, but he also wrote of last years song, "Fuego". Which is yet be announced. I am personally quite interested to here it because I used to listen a lot to one of Tamta's song "Egoista" while back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba1T_16DP4c January 11th Today there are actually two Eurovision Stars that have a birthday. The birthday lady sang a strong solo. The birthday boy however, took part at Eurovision as a part of a group. Not only do the share the same birthday, but also both born the in the year 1984. Siim Mäesalu, 36 In 2003 the group Ruffus took part at the national selection in Estonia. They took part for for fun, but ended up to win the show with the song “Eighties Coming Back”. Therefore they got to represent their country in Riga, Latvia. Siim took part in the band on the keyboard and is wearing the pink shirt with the tie. The song got 14 points at the end show, which means they were 23rd out of 26 countries. https://youtu.be/pHGmKw5QOb8 Maria Elena Kyriakou, 36 After winning the first The Voice in Greece in 2014, Maria Elena got a wind under her fame. And the following year she took part in the Greek national selection for the Eurovision song contest. She won the show, and therefore went on wards to Vienna, Austria. That is where she performed her song “One Last Breath” both at semi-final one and at the grand final. Because she was number six at her semi. At the final however she ended in 19th place out of 23 acts. https://youtu.be/qD6epZ-YWSc January 12th Today there are also two Eurovision singers the celebrate their birthday. And in addition they were also, both born in the same year. That is in 1986. Zlata Ognevich, 33 Ukraine selected Zlata in 2013 to perform on their behalf in Malmö, Sweden. Therefore she sang the song “Gravity” on stage. She was 3rd in her semi final, which scored her a place at the final. Her fairy tale like song received 214 points at the final, scored her the 3rd place again! https://youtu.be/BMxpv8naRd8 Aleksander Wallman, 33 Norway chose a duet act, which included the birthday boy, Aleksander and his college JOWST in 2017. Therefor they went to Zlata’s home country Ukraine, to perform there feal good song “Grab the Moment”. They were able to advance from the final, to the top ten. That is they got 158 points at the final which secured them the 10th place. https://youtu.be/U-Bk0PCotY0 January 13th There was a bit of risk with this birthday girl. Triinu Kivilaan, 30 Triinu 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. Her partipation was a bit f a troubble, because she claimed to be 17 but was just 15 year old. But it all worked out since she has a birthday in January... and became 16 before the contest. https://youtu.be/OJX8RWJg7y4 We all here at ESCXTRA would like to send wonderful birthday wishes and a great year to come.

January 11th

Siim Mäesalu, 36

Maria Elena Kyriakou, 36

Hlynur Sigurðsson

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; Week 2!

January 11th

Siim Mäesalu, 36

Maria Elena Kyriakou, 36

Hlynur Sigurðsson

Comments on An Xtra Happy Birthday; Week 2!

Related Articles

Meet the ESCXTRA team! Faith

Five songs for those who spend Valentine’s Day alone

XTRA Jury: Eurovision 2012

XTRA Vote Rewind: Vote for your favourite entries from Eurovision 2002!