Germany’s Lena Wins Eurovision

Germany’s Lena Meyer-Landrut has won the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, edging out Turkey and Romania.

Meyer-Landrut, who turned 19 during the competition in Norway, sang the upbeat, dance-floor friendly “Satellite,” which was one of the favorites to win.

This is the second time that Germany has won in the songfest’s 55-year history. It will host next year’s contest.

This year’s competition was overshadowed by the continent’s financial woes, with four countries pulling out for lack of funds.

The contest is decided by a panel of judges and telephone voting by the 39 participating countries.

Eurovision 2010 Update: Will The Competition Become A Battle Between Two Teen Pop Queens

Will Eurovision 2010 be a battle between two teen pop queens: Germany’s Lena Meyer-Landrut and Azerbaijan’s Safura Alizade.

When London-based betting agency Boylesports released the first set of betting odds in late March, Safura, the 17-year old winner of Azerbaijani Idol, was the odds-on favorite at 7:2. Germany was listed fourth highest at 14:1. In subsequent weeks, however, Lena has narrowed that gap significantly and the two now stand in a virtual deadlock atop the table.

Voters will have to decide whether they prefer Lena’s quirkiness or Safura’s theatrics. On stage, Lena comes off as likable, if a bit kooky. She can’t dance, but doesn’t seem to care, and her natural awkwardness transforms into something endearing. You get the sense she wants to be a singer, not a pop star. As in her preview video, she’ll likely appear on stage in Oslo alone, sparing us the bare-chested backup dancers and trapeze swings Eurovision fans have grown accustomed to.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Kikki Danielsson

Bra vibrationer (Good vibrations), written by Ingela Forsman and composed by Lasse Holm, was the Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1985, performed by Kikki Danielsson.

At the end of judging that evening, Bra vibrationer took the third-place slot with 103 points. Finland and Norway both awarded Sweden 12 points that night.

Sung in contemporary schlager music style, the singer relates her strong emotions upon falling in love with a man with whom she had just met. She is concerned about things moving too fast, but in the end, she feels good vibrations and is very happy with what has transpired.

After Eurovision, the song was placed at #12 on the Swedish charts, and it stayed in the top 50 for eight weeks.

Ann-Kristin “Kikki” Danielsson (born 10 May 1952 in Osby, Sweden) is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs. Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. She also gained popularity at the US country stage during the 1980s. In 1986, she had the “Kikki i Nashville” TV show.

Rest In Peace Lena Horne

Entertainer Lena Horne, a show-stopping beauty who battled racism in a frustrating effort to become Hollywood’s first black leading lady and later won acclaim as a singer, has died at age 92.

Horne died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, a hospital spokeswoman said. She declined to give the cause of death.

Horne went to Hollywood in the late 1930s and while she never became a major movie star, she is credited with breaking the ground for black actresses to get bigger roles in Hollywood.

Horne had a stage persona that was mysterious, elegant, haughty and sexy and it helped her become an enchanting nightclub performer who made “Stormy Weather” her signature song.

Known as the “Negro Cinderella” early in her career, she was as complex as she was beautiful. She had a reputation for coldness and insecurity and her career frustrations led to bitterness.

With her big bright eyes, brilliant smile and light complexion, biographer James Gavin said Hollywood considered Horne “as the Negro beautiful enough — in a Caucasian fashion — for white Americans to accept.” Until then, black women had usually been cast as servants or prostitutes — roles that Horne did not want.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Amina

Le Dernier qui a parlé… (English translation: The last one who spoke…) was the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1991, performed in French by Amina as C’est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison.

The song – the full title of which is one of the longest in Contest history – was written by Amina herself (of North African ancestry) and composed by Wasis Diop, resulting in an African feel to the music.

Lyrically, Amina sings about the truth of the saying referenced in the title. She also extends it to It’s the loudest one who spoke who is right.

At the close of voting, the song had received 146 points, placing 2nd in a field of 22 (she tied with Carola for the win, but the tie-break rules gave the crown to Sweden).

In 1991 Amina won Le prix Piaf as Best Female Singer of the Year, then she went on to get involved in Peter Gabriel’s peace project during the Gulf War. Joining a host of international stars in the studio, Amina took part in the recording of an EP which featured a new version of Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance”.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Domenico Modugno

Nel blu dipinto di blu (In the Blue Painted Blue), popularly known as Volare (Italian for: to fly), is Domenico Modugno’s signature song and Italy’s entry in the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest.

At the end of the voting, Volare had received 13 points, placing 3rd in a field of 10.

Modugno’s recording became the first Grammy winner for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1958. It is the only foreign-language recording to achieve this honor. It spent six weeks atop the Hot 100 in August and September 1958 and was Billboard’s number-one single for the year. It is one of only three one-hit wonders to become single of the year in the history of the Hot 100 (followed by Stranger on the Shore by Acker Bilk in 1962 and Bad Day by Daniel Powter in 2006).

Domenico Modugno (9 January 1928 – 6 August 1994) was a twice Grammy Award-winning Italian singer, songwriter, actor, and later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament.

21 years after Volare’s release Chrysler brought the song back – remember this:

 

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Toto Cutugno

Insieme: 1992 (English translation: Together: 1992) was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1990, in Zagreb, Croatia (then SFR Yugoslavia), performed in Italian by Toto Cutugno for Italy, that country’s second and final (to date) victory in the Contest.

Cutugno sang about bringing the disparate nations of Europe together. The 1992 of the title refers to the year in which the European Union was scheduled to begin operation, thus bringing the hope of the lyric to fruition. Cutugno sang the song with a backing group of five singers from Slovenia, the group Pepel in Kri, who represented Yugoslavia in 1975.

At the close of voting,  the song had received 149 points, placing 1st in a field of 22.

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Tommy Körberg

Stad i ljus (Town in light) is a ballad, which was the Swedish Melodifestivalen 1988 winning song and entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1988, where it finished 12th.

The song was written by Py Bäckman performed by Tommy Körberg.

Stad i ljus was also released as a single in 1988. It peaked at #8 at the Swedish singles chart.

Tommy Körberg is a Swedish singer, actor, and musician. In 1969, he won Swedish Recording Industry Award Grammis in a category Best Debut Performance.

English-speaking audiences know him best for his role in the Benny Andersson–Björn Ulvaeus–Tim Rice musical Chess. He was the first to play the role of “The Russian” on the 1984 concept album Chess, and performed the same role on stage in the 1986 world première West End production in London, for which he was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award in category Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Musical.

Justin Bieber Urges Fans To Calm Down

Tween pop idol Justin Bieber appealed to his fans on Wednesday to calm down after his hat was stolen and his mother knocked over by a crowd of about 500 waiting to greet him as he arrived in New Zealand.

The frenzy came after Australian police on Monday canceled a live performance in Sydney by the 16-year-old Canadian singer when a crowd of about 5,000 teenage girls got out of hand, with about eight youngsters injured in the crush and others fainting.

The hysteria surrounding Bieber, who is traveling to promote his debut album “My World 2.0,” has sparked comparisons to the reaction of young fans when The Beatles went on tour in the 1960s.

“Finally got to New Zealand last night,” Bieber told his 2 million-plus followers on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

“The airport was crazy. Not happy that someone stole my hat and knocked down my mama. Come on people… I want to be able to sign and take pics and meet my fans but if you are all pushing security won’t let me.”

Today’s Top Eurotastic Song By Gérard Lenorman

Chanteur de charme (English translation: “Crooner”) was the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1988, performed in French by Gérard Lenorman.

At the close of voting, it had received 64 points, placing 10th in a field of 21.

As befits the title, the song is a ballad, with Lenorman singing about the subject matter that crooners traditionally sing about. That is to say, he sings about the subject matter itself, rather than singing the type of song usually associated with the style. Indeed, he likens the songs themselves to “these stories of three times nothing, which rhyme badly, which do good” and later adds that “Nothing has ever prevented us from setting to music, those endlessly repeated clichés, romantic feelings” and remarks that his heart “stupidly proposes on the first page of a paper”.