Hype comes and goes, especially in the world of Eurovision where fame is often short-lived. Careers can be crushed or ignited by just a few televotes. Our favourites are not always chosen. In other instances they are, but by the time Eurovision arrives we’ve forgotten our initial faves.
So as summer rolls on we at wiwibloggs are pausing to look at what became of some beloved national final acts that really got the fandom talking.
Siru
The Voice of Finland winner in 2014 participated in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2015 with her song “Mustelmat”. Before she stepped on stage she got an unpleasant surprise: her song was leaked by accident on Spotify. There weren’t any negative consequences. In fact, Eurovision fans absolutely loved “Mustelmat”, including our Wiwi Jury which gave the studio cut a 9.7 — the highest average a song had ever received in a Wiwi Jury review at the time! But the live performance wasn’t as polished as the studio track — and Finns eliminated Siru in the first round.
She kept on singing in Finnish and released her debut album “Solmut” in 2015, as well as the single “Läpikulkumatkalla” in 2016. This year she switched to English with “The Light”.
On her web site, she wrote: “After a period of singing and writing in Finnish, [I] decided to try [my] wings with an English song. [I have] written songs in English before so this is not new territory…Even though [I like] to sing in [my] native language, English is a more natural language for [my] music.”
She currently sings at private events and will tour with the Golden ABBA Show through Finland later this year. Besides that, she went to Texas to record her upcoming album.
Xuso Jones
This Spanish hunk made plenty a European gay man (and straight woman) feel a few extra beats of their heart back in 2016. But in the end Xuso was not as “Victorious” as his song suggested, and Barei won over him with “Say Yay!” during Objetivo Eurovision. But people kept gazing at his Instagram pictures anyway.
This year he released his first single since his almost-Eurovision adventure, entitled “Como Yo”. Next to that, he is set to participate in the third version of MasterChef Celebrity this autumn. There’s no word on his personal life, but last year he tricked fans on Día de los Santos Inocentes — the Spanish equivalent of April Fools’ Day — by claiming he was a new dad!
MILKI
This five-piece coming from Belarus — and created by Eurovision 2009 winner Alexander Rybak — were among the most-hyped acts of the NF season. You loved them or you hated them, but you were rarely indifferent to them.
Unfortunately there wasn’t enough love from the Belarusian public and judges to send them to Eurovision…and Rybak subsequently stated that he felt betrayed. After “Accent” they released just one single — called “Lapochka” — in 2015. Officially, MILKI still exist, but most of the original members have left the group and those who stayed only perform very occasionally.
All of the girls are still performing and earning money as solo artists while singing at private events and restaurants. One of them auditioned for X Factor Ukraine and later founded her own group, named KAWA. Some returned to their old profession of being music teachers, while one of them travels the world as a freelance model, singer and promoter.
Adelén
“Madrid, Chihuahua, Adelén, por favor bailando” — those are four Spanish phrases every Norwegian knows after Anders Nilsen’s “Salsa Tequila”, one of them being named runner-up of Melodi Grand Prix 2013. With “Bombo” the Tønsberg native had one of the biggest hits to come out of a national final in the past five years. It topped the charts in Norway, and became a frequently played hit in other Nordic countries and Poland. Adelén’s song was also chosen as the best national final song which didn’t make it to Eurovision, as voted in the OGAE Second Chance Contest.
Her big international debut came in 2014 when she released “Olé”, which was featured on the 2014 FIFA World Cup Official Album. After that she danced her way into the 11 season of Norway’sSkal vi danse?, which she went on to win. She has released a string of singles since then, including “Big Bad Bitter” in late December. Earlier this year she replied to a worried fan on Facebook, explaining that she’s writing and recording new music right now.
Kitty Brucknell
The British songstress loves glitter and glam, so it was no surprise that Kitty Brucknell was interested in doing Eurovision. But the X Factor UK star struggled to find a country that wanted to accept her two bids “Yearning” and “Remix”. Her home country wasn’t an option, as this would have been a conflict of interest, according to Kitty. Switzerland was not a fan of her bids either. This left her with just one other country which accepted international offers: Moldova. Eventually she performed “Remix” in the first semi-final of O melodie pentru Europa 2015, but only achieved second-to-last place with just 88 televotes. It left Kitty in tears!
One thing that hasn’t changed since her Eurovision adventure is her pink hair. After Europe disappointed her, Kitty moved to the United States to live the starry life in Los Angeles. She came back to the UK in 2015 to perform at the London Eurovision Party. She sings occasionally at parties and gay bars, and also sells clothes and moonlights as a model. In late 2016, she caused a stir in the UK when she accused X Factor UK — the show that launched her — of being fixed.
Darline
The duo consisting of young women Cára Beard and Abby Inez seemed to be the big fan favourite just right before the inaugural version of the United Kingdom’s You Decide in 2016. Their song “Until Tomorrow” won the Wiwi Jury with an average of 7.75 — that’s more than a point more than Joe & Jake, who would eventually win the national final.
The duo has subsequently released one single — “Fall Deep” — in early in 2017. In March of this year, the girls announced their split, with both of them planning to focus on their personal careers. Cára now sings in a band named Viana Bay and Abby is working on her first solo material.
What has become of some of your former Eurovision favourites? And which former NF stars are you still wondering about? Let us know in the comments below!
MILKI ???
Siru’s music is fantastic! She was absolutely robbed in 2015.
Thankfully Xuso Jones’ song didn’t live up to it’s “victorious” song title. And I don’t see the point of bringing up his sexual orientation, who cares.
Skal vi danse is Norwegian. Not Swedish. It even says so in the article you linked.
Xuso havin twins was a joke for April’s Fools Day in Spain which is held on December 28th 🙂