Finland celebrates its 100th year as an independent state and has ever since searched for its place in Europe and the world, between East and West. Sometimes with less success. As we speak in 1939 we were at war again with Soviet Union but - let's make a huge change of subject here - since 1961 Finland has been taking part in the Eurovision song contest (and we also took part, and won twice, the copycat contest behind the Iron curtain, Intervision song contest). It may have taken awhile before we won, but it never stopped us taking part. EBU did, in those crazy 1990's-early 2000's.
Let's look back in coming days as a countdown to the Big Day some of the most memorable and significant entries from Finland.....
Monica Aspelund's 1977 entry Lapponia is one of the most iconic Finnish entries, and one of those taking a large serving from the mythology with added flavor from Lapland. This is exotism we should have used more often, this blogger thinks. It also has one of the highest and longest notes ever in Eurovision (even if she didn't quite deliver it live with perfection)
And guess what? She scored 12 points from Ireland, voting first, and Finland was in the lead! Sadly and incredibly we had to wait for the next "Finland 12 points!" for another 29 years.... Yes. for real. Let that sink for a moment and you will understand the trauma we Finns had with Eurovision before Lordi....
Kuunkuiskaajat in 2010 with their Työlki ellää didn't go north but east and served us some Carelian tradition instead. If Lapponia was a very popular entry back then and made Finns proud things had changed in 33 years and people in general said this one's disgrace and embarassing. But not the voters at home who voted it to Oslo nor the European voters who placed this 6th, but thanks to juries' 15th place this finished overal a bitter 11th, 3 points short of the final.
Hanna Pakarinen is the only Finnish artist (so far) who has performed at homeground and what a moment it was! The Hartwall Arena exploded and Finnish flags waved when she rocked the stage with Leave me alone. Finns were somewhat disappointed with the result, 17th but hey we still beat Sweden!
Paradise Oskar and his Da da dam has also provided one of the most memorable moments in the Finnish Eurovision history. Hands up who got the shivers when the planet Earth started rising behind him? The effect paid off in the semi final where it placed 3rd (!!!) performed nicely in mid sohow as 10th song. The draw put us first in the final, and this clearly isn't a song to open the show (so Björkman was right when forcing EBU change the draw into a production based running order). The final gave us only miserable 21st place. Today Oskar aka Axel Ehnström is a succesful interntional songwriter.
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