If you wanna make it onto the Eurovision stage, being born on July 25th is obviously a great idea… No less than FIVE Eurostars celebrate their birthdays today! And as always; escXtra is here to celebrate with them! The oldest turns 71 today, while the youngest is just 24. Their Eurovision results are mainly right hand of the scoreboard, though, however with one exception; a 4th place!
Tonia, 71
Tonia represented Belgium at the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest in Luxembourg City. She performed the song “Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel”. Out of the 18 competing countries this year, Tonia finished 4th, thus bringing Belgium back into the top 10 after 5 years near the bottom of the scoreboard. This was their best result until 1978, when they finished 2nd!
Rui Bandeira, 45
Rui Bandeira represented Portugal at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem. He performed the song “Como tudo começou”, finishing 21st out of 23 participants. Since taking part in Eurovision Rui has gone on to have a prosperous career in music. He has, among other things, released a total of 13 studio albums.
Rebeka Dremelj, 38
Rebeka represented Slovenia at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade. Her entry, “Vrag naj vzame”, is a mid-tempo, dancey tune, and a lot of people thought she would do very well in the contest. However, she finished 11th in her semi-final, thus *just* missing out on a ticket to the final. What do you think of her entry? Find out what some of the escXtra team thinks of it!
Gor Sujyan, 31
Gor Sujyan represented Armenia at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. He did so as lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Dorians. They performed the song “Lonely Planet” in the second semi-final. There they finished 7th, thus easily qualifying for the grand final. On the Saturday they finished 18th. This wasn’t the first time Gor Sujyan took to the Eurovision stage however. During the Oslo contest in 2010 he did backing vocals for Eva Rivas on “Apricot Stone”.
John Karagiannis, 24
John (or really Giannis) Karagiannis represented Cyprus at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. He performed the ballad “One Thing I Should Have Done”, finishing 6th in his semi-final. In the grand final he didn’t do quite as well, however, as he only finished 22nd. John is one of the artists who genuinely enjoys Eurovision. Before his participation in 2015 he had tried to represent his country at JESC twice; in 2007 and 2008. Who knows; maybe we’ll see him back on the Eurovision stage one day?
All of us here at escXtra wish Tonia, Rui, Rebeka, Gor and John an Xtra Happy Birthday!
