I Just Love To Wonder Around In Helsinki... Gonna Miss This. 

Photos from my visit to Coimbra, 4th biggest city in Portugal. It’s famous for its university which is one of the oldest in the world and especially the beautiful library Joanina (no photographing allowed!). Such a lively student city. Easy to reach from Lisbon and the city can be covered in one day easily. The city has more medieval feel than other portuguese cities I’ve been to. Here’s the first part of the photos I captured. 

Last fall. Home.

The rest of my Coimbra photos from the city and the university. 

Last fall. Home

UMK 2023 Song review - Robin

The hype is very real around Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the Finnish national selection for Eurovision and the race to Liverpool continues with another solid performance!

Robin - Girls Like You

Robin is one of the best known pop artists in Finland who’s been making hits one after another since he was 10 years old (he’s 24 now). Slowly he’s been making steps towards more international music scene and releasing more and more material in English instead of his native Finnish. 

For years the Finnish audience saw him as the dream artist to represent us in the Eurovision Song Contest. He is our Benjamin Ingrosso! Each year we hoped and were disappointed. So this is definitely a moment just having him participating UMK! 

Obviously this entry and artist probably had more expectations than anyone else from the line up of UMK23 and he’s being seen as a direct competitor for Benjamin (Hoida Mut). Stakes were high. He says the song is the best one he’s ever made and what really describes him the best musically. He wants the whole world to listen to it so participating to UMK (and perhaps ESC) makes perfectly sense. 

The song was made partly in L.A and you can hear the sunny, positive, easy breezy vibe here. This is easy listen pop funk, well produced, BTS, Maroon 5 -kind of sounding music. It’s slick and smooth, reminds me something that Melfest (Sweden) would probably have in their song selection. There’s a comfort, familiarity here which fits to Robin’s comment how this is so him at the moment. 

However, there’s a danger of all of that being too generetic too mainstream and forgettable and to me unfortunately that’s the case. The song fails to reach the hights as the other UMK23 entries, the chorus is non-existing - I listened the song 3-4 times and I missed it every time. At best this is a filler song for me and being taken from the selection with this high quality, based on the studio cut, this wouldn’t be my choice for Liverpool. And I am disappointed because the guy has better songs, or at least more memorable ones. 

Anyhow, Robin is skilled and experienced, charismatic as hell live performer. A well executed live performance might add that extra value to the song that it desperately needs. Also I cannot ignore his popularity and big fanbase in Finland who might vote him to advance to ESC (like The Rasmus last year). 

What do you think of the third UMK23 track and would you vote for Robin’s Girls Like You to go all the way to Liverpool? UMK final takes place on February 25th!

SHE uguale a lei

SO I’m breaking the silence by dedicating this entire post to an artist whom I could almost talk about like an old friend. And in a way she is. One of her songs became the title of this blog and I'm naming every post by a sentence from the lyrics of her songs, translated in English of course. It might be foolish and sometimes it's difficult too but..call me crazy pausiniana. Her 20 – Greatest Hits-release is the album I’ve been looking forward to this entire fall.

Most of the true fans of any artist usually hate these kinds of releases cause they usually include only a little of unreleased material if any. But Laura Pausini is different. Instead of just getting all her hits together and releasing the whole thing out just as it is, she made the effort of re-working to the old songs, updating their sounds and making new collaborations. For me it wasn’t the new tracks I was waiting for but the old ones. There are some songs which may not be her best-known work but they tell a story about the woman behind the artist and which in my opinion represent also the best of her career. She has included some very personal stuff for example her very first recording as a two-year-old and her daughter saying “mamma” for the very first time. They won’t increase the sales but it’s touching how she wanted to share such personal memories with us.

She isn’t just an artist whose songs entertain me in various moments. The songs which I used to adore already at a very young age but without being able to truly indetifying the lyrics on an emotional level, I’ve found them again in all kinds of situations of my life as I grew up. They’ve accompanied me when I’ve made big decisions, lost people, lived life-changing experiences or simply in the dullest moments of my everyday life.  

Resta in Ascolto live in 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbX7UyL-8SM

Listening to the new compilation album.. for me it was a journey through years, memories and songs. It does tell a story, hers and maybe a bit of mine as well. 2014 is my 20th anniversary with her. I still remember the times spent listening to her music from her album “Laura” as a 7-year-old, without knowing where she was from or what language she was singing in. I remember being fascinated by her voice, language which I didn’t know at a time and her beauty shown in the booklet. I remember how I didn’t know anyone else who’ve liked her music too and how no one seemed to understand (and some still don’t) why she touched me so deeply and still continues to do so.

(My very first Laura Pausini album: her 2nd one in Italian "Laura" 1994 and autograph from 2012 which I got in London)

It wasn’t until 2006 that I became a member of the official fan club. It was the best money I ever paid. I may have joined in for Laura but the reason why I am still a member is the people I’ve met and friends I’ve made over the years. Everything else is an extra. From the very first moment entering the Laura4u website and the forum I loved the the feeling of being a part of a community. I remember spending hours and hours in the forum, writing posts, sharing opinions about Laura but also about life in general. Making some of the best friends of my life.

Finally I had found people who resembled and understood me. There are people who I’ve never met in person but who know me inside and out.  Being a Laura Pausini-fan is so much more than just listening to her music and going to her concerts. I’ve done great things in great places with the greatest people in the world. She is also the reason why I discovered the beauty of Italian and Spanish languages.

Prendo te (2004) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PFqU08zL4I

On the DVD “My story” available in deluxe version of GH (which I highly recommend for everyone) she goes down the memory lane by visiting her old school and the house where she grew up, introducing friends and people who’ve been essential part of “her community” over the years.

She shares the memories along the way with the same enthusiasm as they had happened yesterday; how she came to collaborate and make friends with Phil Collins, how Jim Carrey was so sure of her success in US market that he even jokingly offered to marry her himself just to get her the Green Card. After all the millions of records being sold I admire her honesty, even about the things that might not be the most positive ones. She openly tells how she’s always been afraid of ending up alone, how she struggled to make a change in her musical style for her fourth album La mia risposta/ Mi respuesta in 1998 after her record company wasn’t happy with the sales of her previous release (whaaat?!? #shocked) and how she admits making mistakes with her English language album “From the inside” released back in 2002. In the liner notes of the booklet, there’s a story shared of each and every 38 songs on the album. And the first thing you see when you open the cover is this:

It’s so easy to love her, isn’t it?

When asked which song or album or even a live album I’d play for one, who’s never heard of Laura’s music before. It’s an impossible task. Even writing this post was full of tough choices.. which stuff to bring up and which ones to leave out. My favourites are mostly from the last decade but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love the music she’s released before that. And no studio recording can do her justice compared to what she’s like while performing live. Every release brings up different sides of her and has its songs and stories I’d love people to discover about her.

I hope with this post, pics and vids shared I've managed to show you even a little bit of her beauty as an artist and as a person but also to open up a bit what it means to be a "pausiniana" to me.

Con la musica alla radio (2013 version) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PHfcaoDQFU

More information: http://www.laurapausini.com/eng/

Non english songs in ESC2018

This year we can feel Salvado’s affect since we have over double amount of original languages compared to last year. Some have released English versions such as France, Greece but still kept their Eurovision performance in an original language. The songs offer more authentic sounds, they all bring so much diversity, color to this year’s competition! People have really digged up their past and cultural heritage. Hope this will continue next year also! 

ALBANIA - EUGENT BUSHPEPA - MALL (1st Semifinal)

ARMENIA - SEVAK KHANAGYAN - QAMI (1st semifinal)

ESTONIA - ELINA NECHAYEVA - LA FORZA (1st semifinal)

FRANCE - MADAMEMONSIEUR - MERCY 

GEORGIA - ETHNO / JAZZ BAND IRIAO - FOR YOU (2nd semifinal)

GREECE - YIANNA TERZI - ONIRO MOU (1st semifinal)

HUNGARY - AWS - VISLÁT NYÁR (2nd semifinal)

ITALY - ERMAL META E FABRIZIO MORO - NON MI AVETE FATTO NIENTE

MONTENEGRO - VANJA RADOVANOVIC - INJE (2nd semifinal)

PORTUGAL - CLÁUDIA PASCOAL - O JARDIM 

SERBIA - SANJA LLIC & BALKANIKA - NOVA DECA (2nd semifinal)

SLOVENIA - LEA SIRK - HVALA, NE (2nd semifinal)

Best non-english tracks of ESC2020

I’m painfully aware that Eurovision 2020 is not happening due to ongoing COVID-19 situation. Getting over this grief will take a long time. But as i’m in love with many songs of this season and which cannot be used for ESC 2021 I intend to give respect to the artists as much as I can. So here are all the NON-ENGLISH tracks from this season. They appear in alphabetical order. 

BELARUS

VAL - Da Vidna (not confirmed if they will automatically go for ESC 2021)

CROATIA

DAMIR KEDZO - Divlji Vjetre (not confirmed if he will automatically go for ESC 2021)

ISRAEL (parts in English)

EDEN ALENE - Feker Libi (confirmed for ESC 2021) 

ITALY 

DIODATO - Fai Rumore (not confirmed if he will automatically go for ESC 2021) 

FRANCE (parts in English)

TOM LEEB - Mon Alliée / The Best In Me (not confirmed if he will automatically go for ESC 2021)

PORTUGAL

ELISA - Medo De Sentir (confirmed not going for ESC 2021)

SERBIA

HURRICANE - Hasta La Vista (not confirmed if they will automatically go for ESC 2021)

SLOVENIA

ANA SOKLIC - Voda (not confirmed if she will automatically go for ESC 2021)

SPAIN 

BLAS CANTÓ - Universo (confirmed for ESC 2021)

SWITZERLAND

GJON’S TEARS - Répondez-Moi (confirmed for ESC 2021)

UKRAINE

GO_A - Solovey (confirmed for ESC 2021)

A month ago did a day trip to Berlengas Islands, 10-15km off Portuguese Coast and the city of Peniche (90km from Lisboa). Only one of them big enough to have a harbor is habitable. The paradise for sun bathing, scuba diving, seagulls.. There were tourists but it wasn’t covered with them which was super nice. The island has a hostel in the old fort but not so many proper restaurants. A small boat trip about the caves was super interesting. Such a paradise!  Took like 1000 photos in one day, here comes the first part

Helsinki Cathedral decorated in the LUX Light Festival