Since the semifinals were introduced back in 20014 Finland has now qualified seven times, and not qualified six times. This is however only the second time Finland fails the final two years in a row, the first being the first two semifinal years 2004-2005 and then Finland came and won it all the year after. Let's hope that's a good omen for 2017.
I still stand by our choice and think she was the best. I don't think any of the UMK2016 finalist would have done any better. I'm talking about fan favorites Saara Aalto and Mikael Saari. UMK2016 was great but none of the songs was really outstanding with that special "it" that would have made miracles. To prove the point none of them have become even a minor hit.
As for the running order, I totally understand why Sing it away was chosen as the opener. This said, it wouldn't have done any better elsewhere in the running order I suppose. I'm always saying less is more and keep it simple, but this staging was way too simple. If it was for me, I would have used the backdrop and lights to make it stand out, now they were used for nothing. Also the Akkabellas wearing black was a weird choice for a happy uplifting song like this. This was a performance for some random tv awards show, not for the biggest stage in the world.
Otherwise they did a great job, as did Sandhja. All the rest was wrong. And I blame YLE. The people in charge the past two years about Eurovision aren't really up to it in many ways. That's my personal experience and I may be wrong but the results also speak to themselves I suppose. My note to the YLE team: Going there to "do their best" and just "enjoy it" isn't enough. You need to do a little effort. Please, next year, ok?
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