Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest
in Athens by song Hard Rock Hallelujah on May 20, 2006 with 292
points, which was more than any artist had received so far then.
Lordi is still the only Finnish Eurovision Song Contest winner.
Helsingin Sanomat searched the news
archives from that Eurovision spring. They run the videos and gave
Tomi Putaansuu aka Mr Lordi the microphone and asked the man to
remember the spring of 2006.
Let's start with the maximum, the
Market Square's Welcome home party.
An estimated one hundred thousand Finns
met in the Market Square to celebrate the winner of the Eurovision
Song Contest. It is said that from Lapland came busses filled with
people and that part of them visited the capital for the first time.
"It's funny, that this is the gig,
which most Finns have seen from us, and it is one of the shittiest
gigs, that we're ever had. Just because the preparation for it was
zero" he says. ”The atmosphere was great of course but all the
rest crap.”
Lordi's record company's CEO Kimmo
Valtanen, also Putaansuu's friend from childhood believed in the
Eurovision victory from the beginning. Putaansuu himself as thinking
top-3 IF they manage to win in Finland first..... He also said
he has no any particular memories of semifinal, or it being any different
from the final, except in the final they were sitting in the Green
room.
Even before the Eurovision Song Contest
Lordi attracted much attention in international media. Promotion was
made all over Europe. Putaansuu says that the band did not understand
that their attention received was exceptional.
"After all, how was it possible to
know that what is exceptionally high interest? Whenever you have your
masks on people will take pictures and want to do interviews "
At the semi-final time, Lord was
already high on betting lists. They were predicted fifth place. The
band did not know the odds, they just kept working hard in Athens.
"The days were very long, at six
in the morning to start putting on masks to be ready for nine o'clock
rehearsals. We did not have any free time. Only afterwards we heard that
many other artists had time to go shopping and such. "
Lord finally won the Eurovision Song
Contest final on 20 May 2006. The victory was historic in many ways.
It was the first Finnish one. The winner got more points than anyone
previously. The winner was a hard rock band. And the winner was a
hard rock band, that was masked as monsters.
Victory meant that the Eurovision Song
Contest was held in Finland in 2007. The organization of the ESC and
the cost were questioned immediately even by Prime Minister Matti
Vanhanen.
"Oh my goodness and now we have to spend
money even on that." Putaansuu laughs.
Shortly after the victory 7 Päivää
tabloid published on its cover Tomi Putaansuu's photo without Mr.
Lordi's mask. The band had several times told the media about their
desire to keep their faces hidden and it was totally respected. 7 päivää's decision sparked an
unprecedented popular movement. Boycott 7 päivää online petition
received more than 220.000 names and harmed not ony the tabloid but
also it's publishing house.. Eventually, they asked for forgiveness.
For Mr Lordi it was not enough. He's still furious. Even today.
Tomi Putaansuu's hometown Rovaniemi
their hero by renaming Sampo square in the city center as Lordi
square. The winner was also given plot of land. For Putaansuu
reception in Rovaniemi was particularly important. But about Lordi
Square, he has a bit mixed feelings.
"If the guests want to visit the
square surely I take them there. But usually I drip them in the
corner and stay in the car myself my cap deep on my face. Not that I
am ashamed of it, but somehow it's a bit embarassing. It is still
really cool. "
Lordi received after the Eurovision
victory a huge amount of new fans. However, the wide interest was ony
temporary. At the same time any Lordi's old fans rejected the band
after the Eurovision victory according Mr Lordi.
"In retrospect, you could see that
quite a few fans rejected us forever. It is perhaps not because we
went to Eurovision, but because we won. Many old fans felt like we
were taken away from them."
The performance of Lordi in Market
Square will remain for sure one of the largest in Helsinki's and
Finland's history of music events. The karaoke world record, which in
practice ment that the audience sang Hard Rock Hallelujah was made
during the concert. The band did not know anything about this.
"This karaoke thing is also very
curious. We heard about that afterwards. No one told us anything
before hand. "
YLE's main TV-news the day after. The talk about the organizing the next contest and it's financing started immediately.
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