Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Already the Euroviisut fans have more or less massacrated the new format, especially after the qualifiers were announced last Friday. But have they also deserted the show? The opening show of the new competition gathered only 192.000 viewers. A big drop from last year's 638.000 and 2010's 710.000. usually the first show has been the most watched semifinal but the others have been around 500.000 as well. YLE comments saying their aim is about 400.000 x show. It doesn't promise well for the already troubled show where the qualifiers were leaked too early and even the hardcore fans haven't yet quite understood how it works. One can only wonder if they in YLE have, or will they just go with the flow? The only positive thing seems to be so far the presenters, especially him, Joona Kortekangas. Iltalehti has a poll "Is UMK interesting?" and after almost 11.000 votes the result is crushing: 4% yes, 96% no.... Today YLE also announced the final of UMK will start at ...

The Azeri selection that started ages ago, or November 2011, showed us 72 of the 119 hopefuls to represant their homecountry on home soil has got us the eight heat winners. The show should go on in the same manner and five will go on to the final stage. My favourite is the Azeri tarkan, Orkhan. Anyways, those who are left are: Orkhan Kerimli (19) - Milim Maryam Karimova (32) - Wild dances Khayyam Mustafazade (25) - Molitva Faqani Safarov (22) - Fairytale Elton Ibrahimov (17) - Sake it up, shekerim Adil Bakhishli (23) - Lane moje Sabina Babayeva (32) - Natural woman Arzu İsmayılova - Someone like you

Despite the success of Georgian entries in the Eurovision and the win of neighbouring Azerbaijan, the Georgian musicians and artists seem rather uninspired: only 13 (thirteen) songs were sent in from the open call. I'd love to see that happen in Sweden some time! Anyways, The Georgians are back at it, as is the annual Salome, this time surnamed Simonishvili. Some other names seem to be rather rock oriented, maybe inspired by the 2011 entry. A jury will now have a hard job and pick some of them for the national final some time in February where televoters have a say as well. On the other hand, all you need is one good song. Here they are, all 13 of them: 1. Anri Jokhadze 2. Boris Bedia 3. Davi 4. Edward Tatiani 5. Industrial City 6. Levan Jibladze (Leo Jee) – It’s My Life 7. Lina Asatashvili 8. Mirror Illusion – Whisper 9. REMA – Feel me 10. Salome Simonishvili 11. Shmagi Tagiashvili 12. The Georgians 13. Vanilla Cage

Last week the elimination continues in Germany's Unser Star für Baku. Leonie Burgmer and Rachel Scharnberg didn't convince the televoters and were kicked out - but you can see it was a very close call as ALL the participants were within 2%.  But it looks like the 21-year-old Roman Lob is attracting the most attention and indeed emerged as the winner of this round after being 2nd in the first show. It is worth mentioning Rachel won her first show and now was left last. Anything can happen! You can watch the performances here . This Thursday another two will leave the show and any hopes of Baku 2012. 11.4% Roman Lob  – Easy 10.3% Céline Huber – How come you don’t call me 10.1% Ornella de Santis – I want you back 10.1% Yana Gercke – Roxanne 09.9% Sebastian Dey – Amnesie 09.8% Shelly Phillips – Fuck you 09.8% Umut Anil – Weitergehen 09.6% Katja Petri – Lego House 09.6% Leonie Burgmer – I love your smile 09.4%  Rachel Scharnberg – Like A Star

First they were 80. Then 60. Now 20. Olus one will be added to the line up chosen by the on line voters (as a jury picked up these 20, just like in Ukraine). Several familiar names amongst the finalist, from previous winners Nelly Ciobanu and Geta Barlacu to Pasha Parfeny and Cristina Croitoru. But. With a quick first listening there isn't much to be excited about. Transbalcania and Doinita Gherman stand out but not that's not necessarily a good thing in both cases. You can listen the songs h ere . Adrian Ursu – Be yourself Alexandru Manciu – If you leave Anna Gulko – Ballad of love Cristina Croitoru – Flight for love Dara – Open your eyes Doiniţa Gherman - Welcome to Moldova Geta Burlacu – Never ever stop INAYA – Lights Irina Tarasiuc & MC Gootsa – Save a little sunshine Ksenya Nikora – You better rush Leria – A ray of sun M Studio – Open your eyes MC Mike & Human Place – Moll girl Nelly Ciobanu – Turn on the light Nicoleta Gavrilita – Crazy little thing...

Ukraine has chosen the 20 finalists out of the 54 songs sent in. Or a jury has. These 20 will be joined by two wildcard, one of them being the group Nerealnye chosen in reality Show#1 , and another one by a public vote on Say.tv's selection. Amongst the 20 some familiar names like Alexey Matias and Eduard Romanyuta. No need to remind Ukraine is maybe the most succesful Eurovision country in the recent history with four top-4 placings in the past 8 years.The Ukrainian final is scheduled for February 18, 2012. The artists are: 1. Shanis 2. Lena Voloshina 3. Igor Tatarenko 4. Bondarchuk 5. Oksana Nesterenko 6. Treeorange 7. Marietta 8. Masha Sazonova & Tikhon Levchenko 9. Vitaliy Galay 10. Olya Polyakova 11. Marta 12. Mihailo Gritskan 13. Renata Shtifel 14. Alexey Matias 15. RAPIRA 16. Gaytana 17. Ulyana Rudakova 18. Eduard Romanyuta 19. Leyogkiy flirt 20. Andriy Bogomolets

If some of you follow daily politics you may know we are in the middle of presidential elections here in Finland. The first round was won by Sauli Niinistö, but Pekka Haavisto, an openly gay represant of the Green Party made the impossible and made his way to the second round as well. Political views aside, as the seat of a republic's president is non-political but the country's cultural life has divided. In short, the artists are on Haavisto's side, the sportsmen and business on Niinistö's side. And even if the artistic support for Haavisto has been widely public since day one tonight an incredible line up will take the stage in Helsinki's Ice hall to support Haavisto. Ultra Bra reunites just for him for this one off, Jenni Vartiainen breaks her holiday to be there, both PMMP girls will be there, so will Lauri  of The Rasmus, Paradise Oskar, Anna Puu, Eicca Toppinen of Apocalyptica, Freeman, Jonna Tervomaa, Kaija Kärkinen, Maarit, Maija Vilkkumaa, Värttinä an...

Teen sensation Robin (13) came literally out of nowhere and within days gathered 3 million views on Youtube and rises in its second week to #1 in the singles charts, too, with Frontside Ollie . Che roba da matti, ragazzi!

So today we finally heard the French entry in Eurovision 2012 in Baku by Anggun. Echo (You and I ) is rather bizarre mix of many things and just when you think you get it the songs takes a turn to another direction. Whistling all along. Very catchy it is. Call it an earworm if you want. Still I wouldn't scream a winning entry but... we will see. In Patricia Kaas like ending me thinks.

To end a very good evening for my guessing and wishing Iceland. I only got the other finalist right, never saw those girls coming I must admit and I find the song rather dull. But all that matters is Magni's fantastic Hugarrò made it. Magni Ásgeirsson - Hugarró Greta Salóme, Heiða and Guðrún Árný - Aldrei sleppir mér

I got it all right for Norway this time when Malin, Plumbo and Tommy Fredvang made it to the final from the second semifinal. Plumbo - Ola Normann - 1st Tommy Fredvang - Make It Better - 2nd Malin Reitan - Crush - 3rd

I opted for the Hungarian webcast tonight and I'm pretty pleased I did. Sadly András didn't make it to the final but my all other favourites did, namely Compact Disco, Caramel and Tóth Gabi. With addition of Heincz Gábor, that I didn't quite pay attention until tonight so it was between him and András for me then. And indeed so it was for the jury as well as Gabi came 4th with them and András 5th. Kökény Attila & Bencsik Tamara - Állítsd Meg Az Időt - (24) Kállay-Saunders András - I Love You - (32) Pély Barna, Pál Eszter & Pál István "Szalonna" - Hangok a Szívekért - (29) Dancs Annamari - Feel - (15) Heincz Gábor - Learning To Let Go - (38) Compact Disco - Sound Of Our Hearts - (39) Krisz Rudi - A Fél Veled Egész - (18) Gallusz Nikolett & Vizy Márton - Európa, Egy A Szívünk - (3) Tóth Gabi - Nem Kell Végszó - (34) - televoting choice Caramel - Vízió - (37)

Besides Iceland also Norway continues its national selection tonight, while Hungary starts tonight with first semifinal. I must say I haven't paid much attention to this Norwegian semifinal as the first quick learning sounded very weak. I might be wrong but Malin and Plumbo might qualify. Or Tommy. The rest I don't know.With one quick listening. Anyways tonight we have this start up: Cocktail Slippers -   Keeps on dancing Isabel Ødegård -   I’ve got you Tommy Fredvang -   Make it better Rikke Lie -   Another heartache Malin -   Crush Plumbo -   Ola Nordmann Minnie-Oh -   You and I Rikke Normann -   Shapeshifter You can watch the show here from 19.55 CET. More about Iceland here and you can watch that here from 21.30. And more about Hungary here . You can watch it live here from 20.15 CET.

The third and last semifinal in iceland takes place tonight. Again two songs will advance to the final chosen by a jury/televote. Great tries a bis as she already is in the final in duet with Jónsi. Magni tries again to win the national final. Will he be 4th time lucky? My bet's on Magni and Svenni. Listen the songs here . Greta Salóme, Heiða & Guðrún Árný – Aldrei sleppir mér Herbert Guðmundsson – Eilíf ást (Eternal love) Íris Lind Verudóttir – Aldrei segja aldrei Magni Ásgeirsson – Hugarró Svenni Þór – Augun þín

Not much really. The fans are rather outraged as even the most hardcore fans seem to be unsure how the selection continues. If I understood right next Friday six artists will perform and the jury will drop two. And the same the week after making it only eight remaining. However there is now a voting for the fan favourite (The Spyro, Martina, Jessica Wolff). What happens then is anyone's guess. With a quick glance I would go for Kaisa Vala. Friday February 3 Mica Ikonen - Antaa mennä Aili - Mun taivas Jari & Taika - Aamuyön ikuisuus Stig - Laululeija Kirahvi nimeltä Tuike - Sinisulkien viimeinen Pernilla Karlsson - När jag blundar Friday February 10 Aura Pineda - Kunpa vois Freeman & Uusi Fantasia - Noitanainen Iconcrash - We are the night Kaisa Vala - Hab its of human beings Ville Eetvartti - Lasikaupunki Leola - Rytmit rikkoutuu Digital print wildcard. Voting until February 2 The Spyro - Teleport my heart Martina - Checkmate Jessica Wolff - Better

The UMK aka Uuden musiikin kilpailu will start tonight, or rather move on to the next format: television. The leak is true but the show will go on as planned. The producer Antti Autio commented it's such a shame some online record store (Swedish cdon.com) published the CD with the list of the artists by accident, thus making tonight's suspence none. Vallu Vaipio, one of the judges, also said that the final outcome is not to please everyone as "this is Finland 2012" and indeed there has been an outrage amongst the fans by the selected artists and songs. However there will be a wildcard selected by common people so maybe fans will get their favourite in after all? Wouldn't it just be ironic it won in the end? Meanwhile you can enjoy this video that features the varied music styles amongst the 540 songs sent it. Can you spot some familiar faces and voices? You can watch the programme online from 20.00 CET here .

You can now listen to all the Estonian entries online here . There will be two semifinals in February followed by a final on March 3, 2012. Once again a very alternative stuff there. Interesting yes, but not exactly my cup of tea and I have no idea what the Estonians will prefer. I have two early favourites, though, both in the first semifinal: MIA and August Hunt  with their rather hilarious video. Semifinal 1: February 18, 2012 1. Janne Saar – Fight for love 2. Erasmus Rotterdamist – Kuu pääle 3. MIA – Bon voyage 4. Milky Whip – My love 5. POP Maniacs – I don’t know 6. Ott Lepland - Kuula 7. August Hunt – Tantsulõvi 8. Soundclear – A Little Soldier 9. Liis Lemsalu – Made Up My Mind 10. Loss Paranoias – Valedetektor Semifinal 2: February 25, 2012 1. Traffic  – NASA 2. Lenna  – Mina Jään 3. Malcolm Lincoln  – Bye 4. Tenfold Rabbit  – Oblivion 5. Birgit Õigemeel  – You’re Not Alone 6. Soul Militia – The Future is Now 7. Mimicry  - T...

First they were 540, then 40. And tomorrow YLE is to announce the 12 qualifiers for the next step in UMK aka Uuden musiikin kilpailu. But already now there is online a compilation CD with 12 songs that are supposed to be the 12 qualified entries. Here they are: Ville Eetvartti, Mica Ikonen, Pernilla Karlsson, Stig, Freeman ja Uusi Fantasia, Leola, Kaisa Vala, Iconcrash, Aura Pineda, Aili, Kirahvi nimeltä Tuike  and Jari & Taika. If the 12 are those I guess there will be a riot even if some of them are ones that I personally would like to have amongst them.... As they are in fan barometer in positions 1, 8, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 27, 31, 34 and 37. It doesn't sound like the fan voice has been heard that much....

Hungary came back to Eurovision last year when they chose internally Kati Wolf and made a stunning comeback. Maybe not on the scoreboard but in most every fans heart. This year they had an open call for songs and now we will have two semifinals and a grand final. Three finalists will be picked by a jury and a fourth one by televote in each of two semifinals, making it a 8 songs final. Here are the songs in the first semifinal this Saturday, January 28. My favourites are András Kállay-Saunders, Compact Disco and Caramel. Then Gabi Tóth or Annamari Dancs. Rudi Krisz - A fél veled egész Attila Kökény & Tamara Bencsik - Állítsd meg ad idöt Niki Gallusz & Márton Vizy - Európa, egy a szívunk Annamari Dancs - Feel Barna Pély, Eszter Pál & István Pál "Szalonna" - Hangok a szívekért András Kállay-Saunders - I love you Gábor Heincz - Learning to let go Gabi Tóth - Nem kell végszó Compact Disco - Sound of our hearts Caramel - Vízió

You can hear a snippet of Anggun's Echo (You and I), the French entry in the Eurovision song contest in Baku 2012 here . I would lie if I said I'm thrilled.... Maybe 2,5 more minutes will make it better?

No surprise in Cyprus when La la love is picked for Baku 2012. Most fans seem to be over excited about the song. Am I the only one who finds it rather boring (nothing that a proper remix can't fix though). And I was rather suprised how bland a performer Ivi actually is, even in play-back. If I was a Cypriot I would be a bit worried. It all looked so fine on paper.... It got full marks both from the jury and the televote and so we have the first Swedish song of the season....

The allocation draw has taken place in Buta Palace in Baku. And they are really dragging on "the show". And I sincerely hope these two aren't the hosts for the main events come May! And for sure we did hear Running scared a few times... on the other hand, who has heard it since last May? The Azeris seem to have also major problems with certain flags! Strangely Armenian one is ok though. :-) But the touristic spots of Azerbaijan are beautiful, maybe they are showing it all now as in May the available slots are rather limited these days. And the comments by the youngters on twitter make an old fart like me laugh aloud. How limited the youth of today is? Really??!! I'm ashamed of you.... Total ignorance, zero pantience and respect for other cultures.... And for your information: there's no "audience"; they are the delegations from the 43 countries having a meeting... But now we are having Ruslana on stage (2 hrs to the show). And Aysel. And Alexander Ryb...

The Finnish Eurovision entry Playboy from 1966 lives again. Timo Pieni Huijaushas sampled it to his new album's lead single. Here . No comment.

EBU has accepted the Baku Crystal Hall as the venue for the coming Eurovision song contest 2012. The hall is still under contraction. The building started in August 2011 and it should be ready by the end of March 2012. The hall can host up to 23.000 spectators but for the Eurovision around 16.000 due to the big stage contraction and the rest.

Tonight, or this afternoon depending where you are, the Eurovision 2012 kicks off officially and all the doubts if it's going to be in Baku after all or not are swept away. The host city insegnia exchange will take place when the mayor of Düsseldorf hand over the Eurovison key to the mayor of Baku. And after that the semifinal allocation draw to determinate in which one the countries will perform in, and where the Big5 and Azerbajan itself will vote in. And it's going to be a real entertainment show in Buta Palace and previous winners Ruslana, Lena, Alexander Rybak, Ell/Nikki will perform and Aysel will be thrown in for a good measure as well. And there will be maybe more artists. On top of that the slogan and theme will be revealed as well. Anyways, you can watch it live on internet or on your local TV if you are lucky. From 17.00 CET

Cyprus will pick the song for Baku 2012 tonight. Ivi Adamou was internally selected already ages ago and the tree songs have been online to listen also for weeks now. The big favourite is La la love but who knows? 50/50 televote and jury will choose the song. There's a webcast here from 20.00 CET. 1. Call the police 2. La la love 3. You don't belong here

One of the highlights of last night's Danish final was Alexander Rybak's violin medley of some Eurovision winning songs, from Fly on the wings of love to  Hold me now to Hard rock hallelujah , from A-ba-ni-bi to Satellite, Fängad av en stormvind to his very own Fairytale . Great stuff! Watch it here .

The Voice of Sverige judges Carola and Magnus Uggla have joined forces with producer Niklas Kings to turn Uggla's rather bland original into a very radio friendly dancepop, listen here . The original female voice Edith Backlund has to just stand aside and listen. Here .

The Emma awards were give out last Friday again and I wrote about them here . But let's now take a look at the category of The Song of the Year. I was surprised Chisu wasn't even nominated in this one, but then she has won it already twice. The award went to Jukka Poika's Silkkii, and I totally agree. In this category the awards have been given out since 1996 under this name, before it there was The Schlager of the year or The composition of the year. And in 1988-1990 there was nothing for some weird reason! It is good to see now that the awards usually have gone to the right address as the songs are still here and alive.  And when the songs turn into English they are usually worldhits. Here are the winners in all three differently named categories: 1983 Avaa hakas - Kake Randelin, 1984 Levoton Tuhkimo - Dingo, 1985 Autiotalo - Dingo, 1986 Kaksoielämää - Juice Leskinen, 1987 Marraskuu - Miljoonasade, 1991 Taivas varjele - Mikko Kuustonen, 1992 Mies, jolle ei koskaan...

Mr Lordi recently listed his career top moments in Ilta-Sanomat so far and confessed the Eurovision circus caused him a severe burn out. "The first thing that comes to mind about the life after the win is being busy. I didn't have a whole day off for two years. By the end of 2007 I had burn out. First I lost the hearing from the left ear, then the sense of smell and then almost the ability to talk. At that point my wife took my cellphone away and didn't let me work at all and kept me in the summer cottage until I was ok." One should remember Lordi already went through hell before Athens when the whole of Finland was divided. People were quoted of saying they would emigrate if they are sent to Athens and put the country in shame and others promised they would eat a hat full of shit if they don't come last. And after the victory they all loved them of course. In 2012 Lordi celebrates in many ways: it's 20 years since Tomi Putaansuu created Mr Lordi and ten yea...

Just like I predicted Regina Òsk and Simbi & co sailed to the Icelandic final in tonight's second semifinal. :-)

Norway had its first semifinal and even if I had only an half eye on it while watching the Danish final I could pick up my favourites. Or the favourite. And it made the final, namely Reidun with High on love , a mix of Sarah Dawn Finer and Charlotte's Hero , and look who's behind it? Yes, G:son. I was also pretty certain The Carburators would make it and had my ear on Rudi Myntevik, Lisa Stokke or maybe Kim André Rysstad on the third place but no, it went to Nora Foss Al-Jabri . Actually she was the winner tonight. Beautiful song indeed but I didn't find it that interesting, has to relisten to it I think.

Should've known better. I had this song as a reserve, a kinda liked it but still it wasn't amongst my favourites. Until I say it live. I ranked it as a finalist while watching and once it made the superfinal I was all for it. And the unthinkable happened: my favourite won in Denmark! I hope it's not a bad omen for them. But anyways. A great show. Fantastic stage. Alexander Rybak rocked with his Eurovision winner medley but what was Howie D doing with A Friend in London? Especially when his microphone was closed... But let's start from the beginning. Jesper came, sung and went. The song still didn't go anywhere if you ask me. Aya was ok and the song got more life on stage but it still wasn't a contender. Kenneth was vocally good but did he forget to visit the loo before going on stage as he looked most of the time like he needed to take a leak desperately! Ditte Marie looked stunning and delivered. Still one of my favourites. Emilia and Philip didn't qui...

It seems that the love story that was born on the stage of Belgrade 2008 Eurovision has had a happy end when it is reported that the hosts Zeljko Joksimovic and Jovana Jankovic have gotten married in Maldives in a civil ceremony. Apparently they found the witnesses on spot but so much preparation there has been that Jovana brought a wedding dress from Belgrade with her. They are to have a church wedding later in Belgrade. Zeljko is of course also busy with his preparations for Baku 2012 but it looks like we will have Jovana in town as well. And are we to expect a love song? I guess this is a first for Eurovision hosts! Congratulations!

Besides the Icelandic and Norwegian semifinal tonight's the Danish final completing the Nordic Eurovision fever night. And Nordic the Danish final is, with Swedish Patrick isaksson and Finnish Emilia in the line up. You can read my review here , and watch the show live here from 20.00 CET. I'm pretty curious to see how it goes as I never get the Danish right, and the first polls give Jesper and beforementioned Patrik as favourites for the win and yes, they are not amongst my favourites.... Sigh. But what I like Denmark is that they do one off show like the good old days. One night affair with a great show and that's it. Aren't all these zillions semifinals and qualification rounds and such getting a bit tiresome already?

Norway's MGP starts tonight with the first semifinal. The past few years MGP has been better than Melodifestibalen if you ask me for staging and songs so this blogger's expectations are high. And indeed it's a very solid selection of songs. I don't hate any of them. My least favourites are maybe Nora and The Carburetors and I'm not sure about United and Irresistible but the rest is fine. The easy early favourite is Reidun. NRK is also putting an extra effort this year by a pre-show that shows the host city, rehearsals and the preparations with the artist presentation as a warm up to the night's main event. Great idea! The first show comes from Ørland. And there's no more last chance round. You can watch the show here from 19.55 CET. Irresistable -   Elevator Kim André Rysstad -   Så vidunderlig Reidun Sæther -   High on love Rudi Myntevik -   You break it, you own it Lisa Stokke -   With love United -   Little Bobbi Nora Foss Al-Jabri - ...

Iceland search for their entry in tonight's second semifinal of Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2012. Again five songs trying to conquer the hearts of the icelandic and secure one of two places in the final. Amongst them Regina Òsk, a familiar name from the Icelandic national selections. This blogger's wild guess is she wil make it (even if her song sounds suspiciously familiar but can't quite put my finger on what it is...) with Simbi. Or will it be Rósa? You can follow the webcast here from 21.30 CET. Guðrún Árný Karlsdóttir -  Minningar Ellert Jóhannsson –  Ég kem með Regína Ósk Óskarsdóttir -  Hjartað brennur  Simbi og Hrútspungarnir -  Hey  Rósa Birgitta Ísfeld -  Stund með þér

The Emma awards aka the Finnish Grammy's were given out tonight in a live TV-show from Barona Arena in Espoo. The queen of the night was as expected Chisu. She won five awards to add to those four she has won in 2008 and 2009. She has now Emmas for the best song (twice), best album, producer (twice), video, female artist, pop album, a special one by critics and e-Emma. I don't know if anyone else has 9+1 Emmas and in so many many different categoris, have to check on that, but she got the awards for the producer, video ( Sabotage ), Female artist, Pop Album and the Album of the year, that was given out by the last year's queen Jenni Vartiainen.

The second heat took place in Germany last night of Unser Star für Baku 2012. Again five names were in, five names were out. You can check their performances here , and the results are here: 13.3% (06) Rachel Scharnberg (22, Cologne) – My baby left me (Rox) 13.0% (09) Yana Gercke (19, Biedenkopf) – Price Tag (Jessie J) 12.7% (03) Sebastian Dey (32, Oberhausen) – This Love (Maroon 5) 12.5% (08) Umut Anil (21, Werther) – Straight up (Paula Abdul) 12.3% (05) Ornella de Santis (27, Offenburg) – Slow Motion (Karina Pasian) 12.3% (10) Vera Reissmüller (26, Spraitbach) – Fooled me again (Lady GaGa) 09.4% (01) Ander Fischer (20, Hechingen) – Tears in heaven (Eric Clapton) 07.1% (07) Tina Sander (19, Hamburg) – Geronimo (Aura Dione) 04.0% (04) Jörg Müller-Lornsen (28, Kiel) – Maybe Tomorrow (Stereophonics) 03.4% (02) Polly (Anna) Zeiler (19, Pfullingen) – Grenade (Bruno Mars) This blogger liked especially the Paula Abdul cover Straight up . Who would have thought it would turn into...

Surprised? This must be the song I have listened the most in 2011. Lauri Ylönen of The Rasmus fame did a solo album and the first single was Heavy , a very pop oriented song in very much the Pet Shop Boys style in all it's poppy melancholy. The PSB influence comes rather evident in the remix . Love it! It was first premiered live on TV in February and then charted for 12 weeks peaking at #2. The story continues in the follow up, In the city . And now The Rasmus will make a comeback in the UMK final in February. I will feature in this series the five songs that have marked my year 2011, the ones that made me go ooh when they started playing on radio, the songs that I sung to myself the most in my head during the year and that still I like to listen and like the most. Simple as that.

Now this must be a rather historic affair in the chart history: Adele keeps the top-2 but now Rolling in the deep moves to #1 - in its 41st week! - and Someone like you drops to #2. She's still #1 in the albums and Set fire to the rain is at #11. And right behind her Chisu in both singles and albums.