THE FOUR NORDIC WINS IN THE PAST 8 YEARS. IS IT ICELAND NEXT?

Eurovision is full of voting blocks and speculations, accusations of this and that, but it's also a lot of question of regional and culturas taste. It is more likely that Swedes like a Norwegian song than a Turkish one, or the Turks a song from the same region like Azerbaijan than the Icelandic one, for example. It makes perfect sense. All this put aside one "regional block" has featured well over the past years all considered, the melting pot of all that's "eurovisionesque" and schlager, that so many think Eurovision is all about. The Nordic countries.

Four out of five have scored a victory in the past eight years (Finland 2006, Norway 2009, Sweden 2012, Denmark 2013) and the odd one out, Iceland, was close in 2009 - kept away from the prize by another country from the block: Norway! Also four times in the past 8 years the Nordic countries have scored two top-5 finishes the same year.

Average score of all five of them making the final is 3,9. The worst year was 2007 when only Finland and Sweden managed to make the final (the year when the block voting speculation exploded big time) and three times all five have been present in the final (2008, 2009, 2013). Finland has missed the final four times, Iceland three times, Denmark and Norway twice and Sweden only once. Altogether they have scored 12 top-5 finishes in the past ten years. Not bad!

Even if there's an Eurovision under genre of Nordic schlager, the winners have been quite far from it really: monsters doing hard rock, Belarusian violinist telling fairytales, Moroccan mystic meets club anthem and little Danish fairy with an irish influenced folksong and stories about royal past. Will Iceland score its first victory sometime soon or complete a Nordic hat trick in 2014?What will they invent to finally make it? Something Björklike madness but with easier touch for the televoting masses?

2004

Sweden - Lena Philipsson - It hurts - 5th

2006

Finland - Lordi - Hard rock hallelujah - Winner

Sweden - Carola - Invincible - 5th

2008

Norway - Maria Haukaas Storeng - Hold on, be strong - 5th

2009

Norway - Alexander Rybak - Fairytale - Winner

Iceland - Yohanna - Is it true? - 2nd

2010

Denmark - Chanée & N'Evergreen - In a moment like this - 4th

2011

Sweden - Eric Saade - Popular - 3rd

Denmark - A Friend in London - New tomorrow - 5th

2012

Sweden - Loreen - Euphoria - Winner

2013

Denmark - Emmelie De Forest - Only teardrops - Winner

Norway - Margaret Berger - I feed you my love

Comments

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This is one of the songs that make me think of sweaty summer nights, humid air and being slightly drunk... I wonder where that all comes from? Anyways. Kylie Minogue recorded On a night like this, maybe not first but better than Pandora or Anna Vissi . And Lord which is actually great!

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No more leave me alones as Eurovision 2007 veteran Hanna Pakarinen has published in her Youtube channel a video unboxing the Finnish state's maternity box aka layette set thus announcing she's due to have a baby later this spring. Congratulations!

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Eurovision song contest 2005 winner Helena Paparizou has been enjoying Top-5 hits every year since 2003 with the exception of 2010 and 2014, this latest one being already her 27th! And Haide is charting also in Bulgaria and Finland, of all places. The catchiness of her hits has changed less over the years than her face.... Here's the English version , below the Greek version.

BLOGILKAR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: HANNAH MANCINI

Straight into interview with my Bycycling reporter Robert goes American born Slovenian represent Hannah Mancini. The chatty lady tells us how she ended up from LA to Slovenia and how it is. She does also some serious name dropping. Talks about Slovenian music business. And has her husband turned into an Eurovision maniac?! And how Slovenian does she feel actually? And who would she like to grace the Eurovision stage for Slovenia again? Read it all here: Thank you Hannah for this interview. You're an American woman singing for Slovenia. How on earth did you end up there? I married a Slovenian man! Actually he lived in the States when I met him. I always loved the idea of living in Europe and it was kinda perfect as I met an European man! And he always wanted to come to Europe, his parents emigrated when he was a small child so eventually when the opportunity came, he had a good business thing happening there and also I had some music contacts in Amsterdam and in the UK an

Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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