Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Erika Vikman returns and is The One to Beat this year. Fandom and public has waited for her return since Cicciolina didn't win in 2020 and she's been present in UMK multiple times in a way or another  since: Opening act with Antti Tuisku in 2021 and 2024 interval act with Käärijä. Eerika started her career in tango circuit, a very popular music genre in Finland, by winning Tangojunior in 2008. More talent shows followed and she also acted in tv drama series 2009-10. The year after she starred in a musical and in 2013 tried her luck in Idols placing seventh (ahead of her UMK veteran Zuhlke and international pop star Alma btw). Her big breakthrough came however in 2016 when she won Tangomarkkinat and was crowned the Tango Queen. The year after she starred in reality  tv-series Iholla. In 2020 she dropped her tango singer image and launched the raunchy slutty pop diva with usually double sensed lyrics and humor with Cicciolina winning the televote in UMK but the juries...

  Goldielocks is one of those lesser known indie artists (but I have featured her in my #Finpop series) but she has charmed a lot of people already in press meetings in the past week by her funny and bubbly authentic personality that is quite a contrast to her stage persona. Including her singing and speaking voice! Goldielocks or Ella Mäntynen comes from Joensuu in eastern Finland but lives and works in Berlin these days. And yes, she has like Viivi, costee and Neea River written songs for others like Sara Siipola, Gasellit and ABREU, and collaborated with Etta, Isac Elliot and Joe L and Italian svegliagimevra  before concentrating on her own career that started a year ago with her first releases.  Her first songs Electrifying and Angeline made it to international Spotify playlists in Finland and in Baltics and she has toured in clubs and festivals  all over Europe and Finland already. Her UMK entry is called Made of. Made of Written by Ella Bine aka Ella Mäntynen),...

One Morning Left is propably the most unknown name in the line up and also the only band, the only harder sounding one (and oh Finns love hard rock and metal), and the only humor act (and yes, Finns do like humor) so in paper they have all the chances to win this over pop ladies eating each other out come time to vote. As it is everyone seems to be convinced it's Erika Vs. OML fighting for the ticket to Basel.  The band has been around since 2008 and has toured from Germany to Iceland, from Baltics to Japan and beyond. The line up has had several changes but founder Mika Lahti (unclean vocals) is still there today with Juuso Turkki (guitar & backing vocals), Leevi Luoto (guitar & clean vocals), Miska Sipiläinen (bass guitar & backing vocals), Touko Keippilä (keyboards, synthesizers) and Dennis Hallbäck (drums). Five albums so far and two EPs released since 2011. Puppy will be their 16th single release.  Puppy Written by Johannes Naukkarinen, Saku Ahola, Mika Lahti,...

Viivi (Korhonen) has made a mark in the Finnish music business in the past four years as a singer-songwriter writing songs also for other artists (a real trend in this year's UMK as so have done Neea River, Goldielocks and costee as well!). She has already under her belt a #1 debut album, #1 single (Ihana kipu with Robin Packalen),  two #1 radio hits ( Ihana kipu , Mitä näil korteil saa? ), additional seven Top-10 hits. After releasing her debut album she ws nominated in five categories in Emma Gaala (The Finnish Grammys): Music video, Pop of the year, Song of the year, Newcomer, People's choice.  She is no newcomer to show business as already back in 2009 she took part in kids singing contest Karuselli placing second and winning it in 2010. In 2013 she was the runner up in The Voice Kids. She has also dubbed Spirit Untamed animation in Finnish in the role of Lucky Prescott.  Her UMK 2025 entry is called Aina (Always) Aina Written by Viivi Korhonen, Antti Riihimäki, Emma ...

  Costee (aka Jussi Tiainen) started with drums at 8 but soon changed to guitar when he realized he wanted to compose his own songs. Now seven years of solo career, over 100 million streams, three albums and devoted fandom he's about to break to household name. In 2019 he was chosen as the Breakthrough Artist by Yle, the year after he was nominated in the Newcomer and People's choice category in Emma Gaala, the Finnish Grammys.  He has released three albums - all of them Top-6 - and one EP with Tippa. Sekaisin is his 23rd single release. He has earned with them 4 Top-10 placements and a total of 8 Top-20 singles. He has also done featuring with several other artists as is common these days: F , Mouhous , Pihlaja , Heviteemu , Adi L Hasla , Sini Yasemin and Whereismike .  He says he realized right away when Sekaisin was finished it is an Eurovision and UMK song.  Sekaisin Written by Jussi Tiainen, Teemu Javanainen, Tomi Tamminen Below are some if his previous songs f...

LRT continues with the six Saturday's long Eurovizija.lt national selection. A total of 45 entries will battle out the ticket to Basel 2025 Eurovision: five semi-finals of 9 songs, two will qualify for the final that will then have 10 songs. The fun starts January 11, 2025. And the final takes place in 20.000 capacity Zalgiris Arena, the largest in all Baltics! Among the hopefuls two Eurovision veterans: Ieva Zasimauskaité (2018) and Vilija (2014) and a string of already familiar names from previous years from Indré to Gebrasy, from Mario Junas to Petunija, Queen of Roses, Sun Francisco and Lion Ceccah (ex Alen Chicco) Heat 1 - January 11, 2025: Lit - You're Not Alone (jury 6 + tele 4) 10 Mantas Ben - Svajonės po 12  (8 + 6) 14 Rūta Budreckaitė - Tai kur namai  (4 + 8) 12 finalist Aistay  - Meilę sapnavau  (2 + 2) 4 Anyanya - Running Out of Time (12 + 12) 24 Ewa - Tell Me Lie  (7 + 7) 14 Viktorija Faith - Scary Beautiful  (5 + 3) 8 Justė Baradulinaitė ...

Greece is one of those countries that will have a national final again for a change instead of the usual internal selection. Out of 187 submitted songs 12 were selected for the final on January 30, 2025. There will be 25/70 international jury (UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Norway)/televote. Two veterans in the line up: Konstantinos Christoforou is trying to represent Greece after doing so already three times for Cyprus (1996, 2002, 2005), and Xannova Xan (aka Kalli Georgellis) did Junior Eurovision for Greece in 2005. Among the songwriters the usual Dimitri Stassos and Peter Boström for her. ERT stated also Unhurt me got in as a reserve as originally selected Tha matho na agapo by Salina Gavala & Tsiak was pblished too early.  Below is my fist time hearing ranking as usual. Sadly I must first say many songs sound like demos and not finished entries and generally the outcome is rather poor, falling to */*' category that basically means either "Idontcaretoeverhearthissonga...

  Nelli Matula is fullfilling a longtime dream to participate in UMK. This pastry chef has had some rough years recently due to her illness but is now ready to take over her career - that she feared lost for good - again.  After starring in Mary Poppins musical as teenager she got a recording deal at 19 and her second single Lemmikki (Pet) was already a success. Her debut album Jumalatar (Goddess) in 2019 went platinum and charted at #6. Second album Kiltti tyttö (Nice girl) was released in 2021 and reached #2.  Her UMK entry is her 17th single. Previous ones include six Top-10 hits. On top of that she's been featured in another nine singles, five of them Top-10, including hits with Uniikki, Robin Packalen, Ani and Eveliina.  In 2017 she did Tähdet, tähdet series where artists every week perform different genres and one if voted out. She made it sixth after singing Britney Spears (Dance pop), Whitney Houston (Love songs), Lenny Kravitz (Stadium rock), Nicky Minaj ...

Neea River (or Jokinen) has been singing all her life and had a dream to become an artist. And in a fairytale like way she has become one. In her early 20s she left for a holiday in Los Angeles and being active in Instagram she posted videos of her singing in various places and tagged Los Angeles, after all that was where she was. She was noted by a local producer who became her friend.  A year later she moved there, they worked together and started writing songs together, Neea made contacts, including CEO of Sony Music Finland and soon she had a contract to write songs for others. Already in LA the third song she had written ended up in a movie soundtrack of The perfect gitl in 2015. Next years she was writing songs for other before she decided to concentrate on her own career and even founded an own record label. She has co-written for example UMK veterans Portion Boys Elämän ABC and Eurovision veteran Blanka's Rodeo .  Her first shot to fame became in Tiktok where one of h...

Seven out of 485. Are they Poets of the Fall , Isac Elliot , ABREU ,  Nyrkki-Kyllikki x LXST CXNTURY , Ebbe , Isaac Sene and Kiki x   Tomi Saario as the first (fake) leaked list suggested back in late September? Most likely not Isac Elliot who's booked the whole UMK week for gigs, nor ABREU (shame) who's announced she will take a long break after releasing a new album and doing summer gigs as wouldn't doing Eurovision and vanish be a bit strange planning for the future?  The second leaked  (fake) list included Etta , Goldielocks , Miriam Bryant , Nelli Matula , Louie Blue and Tenhi . Since then the fan speculation has centered around both lists more or less. But after hint #4 Nightwish was brought in to discussion which brings me back to my own initial wondering before. In October-November I was planning a series of What if.... posts but due to time and energy skipped it. I was toying with the idea that Nightwish's Tuomas Holopainen or/and his wife (and national...

I already posted the Official singles chart #1's here , and it's time to check out the Radio play charts that often featured very different songs. And as the singles chart was all Finnish but the Wham's Christmas #1 the situation is not different here: Only one song, in the last week, too, made it to #1 and that was Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars! Only 12 songs made it to #1 as most of the year they kept going up and down and switching places at top. UMK Sara Siipola scored #1 here, as did UMK veterans BESS and Benjamin together, and BESS with Elastinen as well. Also another UMK veteran Robin Packalen scored his biggest hits in years. And if Mirella dominated the Singles chart being on top for 25 weeks here she did with two songs for six weeks. BESS was the Queen here with her 16 weeks on top! Elastinen feat BESS - Pimee (weeks 1-4, 7, 9) Jenni Vartiainen - Lanka (weeks 5, 10-12) Bee - Viimeisiä sanoja (weeks 6, 8) Mirella - Timanttei (weeks 13, 19, 21-22) Sara Siipola - Paska...

The 2024 year in music started with AHTI's Väärään aikaan (feat. Hugo) sitting at #1 spot for the 5th week in a row. Then came Mirella going straight to #1 in week 2 starting off a spectacular year for this newcomer. Four number one hits and 25 weeks at number one spot! A total of 12 Top-20 hits off her #1 debut album. Check out the Radio Play charts here It was also a year of duets and collaborations while UMK 2024 artists Sara Siipola and Sexmane scored a joint #1 (when their UMK songs stopped at #2 and #4), as did hostess and interval act Pilvi Hämäläinen. And good old Wham! scored a Christmas number one being also the ONLY foreign act to do so. The rest was then pretty much various (pop) rappers as usual. All in all the songs that made it to #1 are all quite melodic and good and deserved their success, unlike in many times in previous years when I personally wasn't so keen on those that made it to the top many times. And nine Eurovision song contest entries made it to top-5...