Skip to main content

EUROVISION 2024 - UMK FINLAND: SEXMANE - MANIA


Sexmane or Max Sene (23) in no stranger to UMk either, as his brother Isaac Sene took part in UMK 2022 with Kuuma jäbä and placed 5th. Sexmane comes from little town Siilinjärvi and from a Laestadian family. His father is Senegalese and mother Finnish. The other two brothers, Adi and Robin also do music. He jokes that if even he doesn't win UMk another brother will try next.


Sexmane is by far been more successful in his career than Isaac. It started in 2019 when he release self produced and distributed debut album Sextape that stayed 80 weeks in the Official album chart streaming gold. The biggest hit was Mama. He was signed to Sony and released his second album Väärinymmärretty (Misunderstood) in 2021 that earned him four Emma (Finnish Grammy) nominations. His popularity has been rising ever since and when he released his third album Sextape II in January 2023, after performing in December at Finland's Independence Day celebrations (the most watched tv programme in 2023) and winning Emma as The Artist of the Year, it went to n.o 1 in albums and had 18 songs at the same time on Finland's Top-50 charts. He's due to have an arena concert in Helsinki Ice hall on May 18, 2024 - just like Käärijä did in 2023.  


As said, he has released 3 albums so far and 16 singles, 6 of them Top-10. On top of that he has featured in 15 other songs by various artists and rappers and collaborations. 

Mania is written by Max Sene, Daniel Okas, Jussi Karvinen and Santeri Kauppinen, and produced by Jussifer, Danitello and MD$.    


Pienenä luulin et mul ei vaa riitä (Riitä), Tai nii mulle ainaki sanottii

Faija sano, et älä välitä niistä (Välitä niistä), Kaikki ei tajuu sua, mut kaikki on mahollist

Sit aloin rakentaa mun omaa tarinaa, Lähin koulust, otin bussin kohti Stadia  

When I was little, I thought I just wasn't enough (Enough), Or so I was always told

Daddy said don't care about them (Care about them), 

Not everyone understands you, but everything is possible

That's when I started building my own story, left school, I took the bus to capital    


What do I think? Well, first of all I must admit I don't know his music that well if at all, nor is his music one that I'd like to listen to.  This said this song has its moments, the mania shouts are quite catchy but then again the lyrics - that have caused some disapprove among mental health people - aren't so great. I mean, this kind of self celebration of sold out gigs and gold and platinum discs and declaring himself a bit crazy. Nah. It won't do for me. It seemed beforehand that he'd come and storm to victory but I doubt it, the response on streaming platforms and fan polls hasn't been so great in the end. But surely he gets from this what he probably wanted in the first place: Making himself a household name and scoring a proper hit.      


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

SONGS OF THE YEAR 2015: #5 KRISTA SIEGFRIDS - ON & OFF

Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!

ESC 2016 WISH LIST: MARGARET FOR POLAND

Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?

ESC 2016 BELARUS: NAKED WITH WOLVES?

Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further?  No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )

ESC 2015 SERBIA: BOJANA GOES POLYGLOT AND RELEASES A NEW VIDEO AND REMIX

Serbian Bojana Stamenov hasn't been having beauty sleeps while prepairing for Vienna. She has just released a new proper video replacing the previous fans featuring beauty video , right after she has given us Spanish ( El mundo bajo mis pies ) and French ( Le monde est à moi ) versions of the song! And an Autobahn remix that is kinda fabulous! Busy girl! PS. I still think the original Ceo svet je moj takes the prize! Oh WAIT! There's yet another version: Die ganze Welt is mein ! And that's something else ....

CAROLA'S BOOBS STEAL THE SHOW, SVT APOLOGIES

Update! Another thing got Swedes talking last night: Carola's boobs when she was giving away an award. This is not the first time her boombs cause headlines; her misfortunate adventures in the 80's in Japan wer explained with her boobs being too big for Japanese market. Ok.... Or was it the song ? Anyways, Carola apologies and says she thinks the dress is stylish and elegant (even her friends said so) and she's a mature woman in her 40s, not a 16-year-old girl and looks like one. The Swedish Oscars, Guldbagge awards were given out last night. Carola was there as a guest star to sing Barbra Streisand's The way we were when honoring the movie stars who passed away during 2012. However, the cameras were too much on Carola, not on the stars showed in photos in the background and that upset many viewers as that part of the show was to celebrate them, not Carola. Oh well...  The producer of the show tells in Aftonbladet the part of the show was made the sam...

Boobs for summer: Samantha vs Sabrina!

The old rivals have put their bras (or the lack of them) in peace and entered the studios together to record Blondie's boombastic Call me . Life could be worse.....

UK: Naked Blue

The boys of Blue have posed nude again. This time for the Attitude magazine's annual Naked issue and they are also in the cover. Watch the video of the shooting here . Band member Duncan, who is bi-sexual, recently told The Daily Star : “We are getting our kit off for Attitude magazine like the McFly boys did. I’m up for showing everything off. I’m happy enough about the size of my manhood. ” Extra media attention won't hurt their changes in Germany to win it for the UK for the first time since 1997... They will and they can!

FRANCE: LINH - J'AVOUE

As I'm off to France for some well deserved holidays and will get back to this blog afterwards I will feature a song a day. From France as my travelling tradition goes. By my favorite French singers bien sur. Enjoy!

FINLAND: REMEMBERING KIRKA

EUROVISION 2026: ITALY AND UNITED KINGDOM REVIEW

   I wasn't planning on doing personal reviews this year either but here we go after all. Truth to be said I have listened the entries 0-2 times before sitting down now to comment them. Let's go! The usual Blogilkar's home jury will reunite later and the results revealed in due time. meanwhile, my thoughts and comments on the entries of Eurovision song contest series is right here.  And I saved my beloved Italy and the my biggest surprise of the season to last. Enjoy! Italy - Sal Da Vinci - Per sempre si ***** Oh Sal. I'm so happy he's back on top, a Sanremo winner finally, having the success he merited already in the mid 1990's! Tjis song may be corny and old fashioned but there's the charm. This year especially with so many weird strange songs that aren't really songs in the true meaning of the word. This is. A proper melody, proper lyrics, performed with emotion and passion and flawless vocals. Could you ask for more? And yes, there is a remix coming ...