Eurovision Cruise 2023: the biggest Eurovision cruise party returns!

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The Eurovision Cruise returns one more time after 2020.  The biggest post-eurovision party organized by OGAE Finland will last from Thursday August 24th until August 26th, 2023.

For many years fans all over Europe have enjoyed their favorite Eurovision artists while onboard of a cruise.  Unfortunately, the Eurovision cruise was cancelled in the past two years: in 2021 because of the Covid pandemic restrictions and in 2022 because the original cruise was destined to provide temporary accommodation in the Netherlands from 20 August 2022 for a period of seven months.

The 2023 will welcome fans in their journey from Helsinki to Stockholm and back.  During the journey fans will party with some of their favorite Eurovision acts.

The Artists

Thursday August 24th, 2023

  • Hanna Pakarinen

Hanna Pakkarinen represented Finland at the Eurovision 2007 held in Helsinki after Lordi’s victory with her song Leave Me Alone

  • Lindsay Dracass

Lindsay Dracass represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with her song No Dream Impossible.

  • Käärijä

Käärijä, probably the artist most of the fans are waiting for to perform during the Cruise does not require further introduction.  He represented Finland in Liverpool this year giving the Nordic country their second best result at the contest.

Friday August 25th, 2023

  • Robin Bengtsson

Swedish representative Robin Bengtsson took part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with his song I Can’t Go On

  • Slavko

Slavko represented Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with his song Space.  Although he did not make it to the final that year his song has become an all time favorite for Eurovision fans.

  • Gustaph

This year’s Belgium representative is bringing the vogue moves and the disco with his song Because Of You to the cruise.

Saturday August 26th, 2023

  • Uku  Suviste

Uku Suviste represented Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with his song The Lucky One.

Moreover, the Eurovision Cruise will have other side events including a Karaoke, a Drag Show and live music hosted by DJ  WERNERI, DJ FirstRANK and DJ QX-RONNY!

Here is the whole programme for the Cruise:

Source: OGAE Finland

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun to follow our coverage of the Eurvision Cruise 2023!

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Käärijä selects winner for tribute mural competition!

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Finnish Eurovision 2023 representative Käärijä has selected the artwork for a mural celebrating his music achievement in Liverpool.  The mural will get finished by the end of September in the city of Vantaa, Käärijä’s hometown.

The city of Vantaa commissioned a mural to honor Käärijä (real name Jere Pöyhönen) to honour the singer’s performance in Eurovision.  Käärijä won the televote and finished in second place at the Eurovision 2023, Finland’s second best result in the pan-European music festival.

Mural selection

Vantaa received several proposals for a mural which were later filtered to four candidates.  A public poll took place receiving more than 23,500.  Following this vote the best two proposals made it to the last stage of the process. Käärijä decided the winner from these two last proposals.  Artists Viivi Vierinen, Juha Lahtinen and Joonas Koponen designed the winning mural.

The painting of the mural will starton August 18, 2023.  The whole project costed around 20000 euros.

Source: Yle

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Eurovision 2023: Stand-in rehearsal clips are leaked!

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It has already been two months since the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. 37 performers stepped on the stage of the M&S Bank Arena giving it all and representing their countries in the biggest song competition in the world, after months of intense preparations.

The impressive stage performances that they pulled off were first tried on the Eurovision stage a few days before their arrival through simulations, known as stand in rehearsals. Stand in rehearsals are usually executed by local artists and performers so all participants can know in advance the television result of the performances. On a later stage, they have the opportunity to ask for changes during the technical rehearsals executed by the representatives themselves.

Each year we have the chance to take a look in these performances and compare this preparatory work to what we actually saw on the TV show. For example, last year we had the chance to see how some performances would look like if there weren’t the technical problems regarding the “sun” not being able to turn around.

This year, 7 videos of stand in rehearsals have leaked so far and they are the following:

  • Switzerland

  • Israel

  • Serbia

  • Portugal

  • Italy

  • Finland

  • Cyprus

There were obviously some changes made to performances. The dance break on the Israeli performance obviously changed and Portugal finally decided not to use the led screens.

What do you think of these stand in rehearsals? Stay tuned on EurovisionFun for all news regarding Eurovision Song Contest!

Loreen wins two ESC Radio Awards 2023

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The ESC Radio Awards 2023 has taken place.  From June 12-18, 2023 viewers, fans and followers had the opportunity to vote in the four different categories.

Loreen came out as the biggest winner of the awards, winning the “Best Song Award”, the most important category of the awards.  Käärijä from Finland and Marco Mengoni from Italy finished in second and third place respectively.  This increases the number of times Sweden has won this category to four.

These are the results of the ESC Radio Awards:

Best Song

Best Female Artist

 

Best Male Artist

Best Group

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2Fj0W4jP4&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

Source: ESC Radio

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Eurovision 2023 Finland: Käärijä’s Tallinn concert featured a voodoo doll and claims about Loreen!

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As Käärijä progresses with his Northern European tour after his Eurovision success,lots of peculiar happenings surround his concerts.The singer’s performance in Tallinn’s Flex Fest some days ago was a huge success and the audience was left in awe.

At some point during the concert,the singer reportedly asked the audience if they had watched Eurovision and what they thought about Loreen winning the contest.The infamous question was followed by a deathly silence,with a couple of people among the audience booing the singer.It is said that Käärijä’s satisfaction with the audience’s response was more than evident.

Later on,a fan threw a voodoo doll to the singer that was dressed just like him,with the audience going mad and dancing to the rhythm of “Cha cha cha” in the end of the concert.

Käärijä represented Finland in this year’s Eurovision with his song “Cha cha cha”,which won him the 1st place in the televote and the 2nd place overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rS8Dv5g-8

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source:bublik

Käärijä performed at the Flex Fest live from Tallinn!

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Käärijä performed live at the Flex Fest.  The summer festival takes place in Tallinn, Estonia.

The singer who finished in second place for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was celebrated by his fans and the attendants of the Flex Fest during his energetic performance.

 

The Flex Fest 2023 took place in Tallinn from June 16 to June 17, 2023.  20 artists performed during these two days.  The full list of performing artists included U.K. rapper Central Cee, Grammy winner Mura Masa and Swedish cult artist Bladee. Mikael Gabriel and Isac Elliot from Finland and Lithuania’s DJ Nevykele were also present.

Source: ERR

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Fans shipping for Käärijä/Bojan continues as the BFFs visit Finland!

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Käärijä and Bojan became friends during their Eurovision journeys.  The couple fans like to “ship” the most during Eurovision 2023 keep giving fanservice to the avid viewers.  And the fans are enjoying the content.  Based on the figures, social media has exploded during Bojan’s visit to Helsinki where he shared the stage with Käärijä and he even joined him during the “piggy train” dance

Böörijä

Fans have enjoyed so far the “shipping” between Käärijä and Bojan from Joker Out.  In fans circle shipping means pairing together two characters from reality or fiction and speculating about the possibility of them being a real couple.  The fans have coined the term “Böörijä” to refer to the friendship between Käärijä and Bojan Cvjetićan.

Both Käärijä and Bojan have contributed to the shipping publishing videos on Tiktok and Instagram of them teasing the fans.  In a recent Tiktok video we can see Käärijä and Bojan pumping a flamingo in a suggestive manner.  On an instagram story Käärijä and Bojan are watching Twilight together.

“This is you and me” Käärijä comparing himself and Bojan with Bella and Edward from the Twilight saga

The reaction from the fans has been positive.  Fans have liked this type of fanservice so far and have contributed creating their own video compilation of the fictional couple and even making fanfics.  According to Archive of Our Own, fans have created more than 190 Käärijä/Bojan fanfic stories.

It is important to point out however, that shipping between celebrities is a common practice that helps get engagement from the fans as a publicity stunt.  For instance, manager Gregor Zalokar shared a lot of the content created between Käärijä and Bojan.

 

Whether the Käärijä/Bojan bromance is a publicity stunt or not, the shipping helps the career of the lead singer from Joker Out and the Finnish rapper.  Just to cite an example, Joker Out has its most listeners in Helsinki according to Spotify stats.  Therefore, we can expect that the couple will continue giving their fans more fanservice.

Joker Out will announce their tour dates soon.  One can only speculate if Käärijä will have a special appearance during the Slovenian band tour!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LXlPviGiWc&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

Source: Yle

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Finland: City of Vantaa awards Käärijä with one year rent-free apartment

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Finland continues showing appreciation to their 2023 Eurovision representative.  Käärijä has become a music heroe after his Eurovision participation in Liverpool where he won the televote and overall finished in second place, Finland’s best result in the contest since 2006.

The city of Vantaa announced that it will award Käärijä with a rent-free apartment for one year.  The singer whose real name is Jere Pöyhönen, said previously that he would like to move back to Vantaa where he spent most of his childhood.

The city of Vantaa will give Käärijä a one year rent-free apartment as a recognition for Käärijä’s outstanding services to the City of Vantaa”.  Käärijä received the keys of his new apartment from the Deputy Mayor of the city’s urban environment unity in a special ceremony.

“Home in Vantaa always feels so much more like home” Käärijä

But the celebrations did not end there.  The city has commissioned the painting of a mural that will honor the Finnish representative for Eurovision 2023.  Käärijä was also awarded with “The Vantaa medal” for his achievements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rS8Dv5g-8&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

Source: Yle

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MAD VMA 2023: Käärijä, Stefania, Kalomira and 3SUM, will perform Cha Cha Cha in new English version!

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We can say that it is the biggest surprise of this year’s MAD VMA, the Greek music awards, that Käärijä, Stefania, Kalomira and the fresh girl band 3SUM, will perform “Cha Cha Cha”, the runner-up song to this year’s contest, in its first ever English version!

Through our previous articles, you may have speculated a possible appearance of Käärijä at the MAD VMA 2023. However, because of his full schedule, the Finnish singer won’t be able to perfrom live, but he will record a special performance in a green box for this different version of his song, which is directed by none other than, Dimitris Kontopoulos.

The song will be performed in Eglish for the first time ever, in an exciting performance!

“Cha Cha Cha” will be performed live by Stefania, Greece’s first top 10 result in eight years in Eurovision 2021, Kalomira, who won third place in Eurovision 2008 and remains Greece’s last top 5 result, as well as 3SUM the new pop girl band, which hopes to stand out as the only completely pop band of the country.

Our team had the chance to listen to this new version of the song and we can undoubtedly say that it will be the highlight of the night. For the needs of the song and so that each artistcan have a part of the song on themselves, the song is now a little longer.

The MAD VMA 2023 will take place on Monday, June 19 and will be broadcasted at a later time by the Greek broadcaster MEGA TV.

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Finland: Käärijä rules out a possible Eurovision return!

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Käärijä represented Finland in Eurovision 2023 with his big hit “Cha Cha Cha“, winning the public vote and finishing 2nd overall, behind Sweden. A month after Eurovision, “Cha Cha Cha” continues to be really successful in music charts all around Europe.

Käärijä recently gave an interview to the Israeli news site Ynet making some statements regarding his Eurovision participation.

Regarding his song winning the public vote but not winning the contest overall, he stated that:

At first, when I understood the meaning of the results, I wasn’t happy. I hoped to win. I know there were many talented artists and bands who wanted to win, but that’s how it is in a competition, you only want to finish first. Now when I think about it, it doesn’t matter to me that much. When it happened, I was upset, of course. But what happened to Loreen is amazing, she is awesome, she won, and I didn’t.
Regarding a possible Eurovision return, Käärijä says:
I don’t think so, I won’t compete again with a new song. I’m willing to come and perform in the semifinals or something like that, but definitely not as a contestant.
Also, Noa Kirel seems to have bonded with Käärijä and her team is considering of bringing him to Israel as a guest in her planned performance at HaYarkon Park in September. In a possible condition that Käärijä will indeed be invited he states that:
Oh my god, wow. If that happens, then I’ll do it. We have so many shows in Finland, so maybe I won’t have enough time, but I hope so. Maybe one day I can come to perform in Israel, and we can do something crazy together.
Bearing in mind that Käärijä recently hosted as a guest in one of his concerts in Finland the lead singer of the Slovenian band “Joker Out!”, Bojan Cvjetićanin, we might as well see more Eurovision 2023 artists collaboration in the future.
Source: ynet