EUROVISION 2020: AKSEL IS LOOKING BACK FOR FINLAND

Last night in Finland was all about the question: Will Erika win with Cicciolina? She didn't as I expected. She's in front page of most every magazine this week and has brokén all UMK records what comes to streaming, chart positions, Youtube views and clearly The One in media attention this year. Somehow the audience was divided already beforehand those pro-Erika and anti-Erika with Aksel as the alternative and in the end it is exactly what happened. The most quiet performer, there has been literally zero media attention to him before UMK, convinced the juries enough to beat her in the end and Erika didn't manage to get enough televoters support to beat him.

The fandom is in outrage of course, pointing fingers at the Swedish and Estonian juries mostly. This blogger was #teamErika but ... here comes the Big But. As I feared YLE managed once again to ruin the entries on stage, not only Erika's but also Tika's with lousy camerawork and ideas that didn't work so why they kept them? On the other hand Aksel's staging in all its simplicity was fine. Nothing original or innotative but it looked good and fits the song. 

All this said, Finland can be proud of its entry. it's a great classy song, sung well and even if there are 15 other male artists with more or less ballads, and Looking good can too easily be labelled as Arcade wannabe and Aksel being rather invisible and shy as performer and character.... who knows? The final spot isn't yet out of reach. The fandom and what they think doesn't matter much in the end. 

1. Aksel Kankaanranta - Looking back (jury 76 + televote 94) 170

2. Erika Vikman - Cicciolina (58 + 99) 157

3. Tika - I let my heart break (50 + 77) 127

4. F3M - Bananas (62 + 20) 84

5. Catharina Zühlke - Eternity (42 + 24) 66

6. Sansa - Lover view (30 +6) 36

A total of 114.664 votes were given, 56.000 via free Yle App. Erika got approx 31% or 35.431 votes against Aksel's 29,4% or 33.711.