Finland, once the eternal loser and failure has become a real Eurovision powerhouse in the past few years. Finishing 6th and 2nd in the past few years and qualifying already four years in a row - fifth one coming this year - has also managed to sneak in to help other delegations like Albania last year and this year Ari Levelä is doing stagings for Austria and Cyprus, Teemu Muurimäki who created the famous green bolero for Käärijä among others will dress up JJ and even UMK show producer (and one of Käärijä's dancers) Matti Myllyaho is involved with Austria's staging. Estonia's entry this year is co-written and produced in Finland, the Swedish entry is by Finns and then we have Finland itself in top-10 in the odds to win the whole thing. In short Finns are behind four entries in the Top-10. And Käärijä will perform in Basel as interval act. Again.
That brings us to the curious situation in Finland: the media and people have pretty much forgotten about Erika Vikman and our entry when the Kajmania has hit almost like Käärijä a couple of years ago running stories of KAJ who represent Sweden all the time, including
Yle itself that is advertising and running documentaries, special and old concerts of KAJ in their channels while Erika hasn't seen in television at all ever since her UMK win. Truth to be said she's been busy travelling the Europe performing in Dutch television and being featured in fashion and life style magazines in Italy and Switzerland among other things besides doing the whole pre-contest fan event tour.
In charts Erika made it to #2 in the official singles chart for two weeks and a total of 7 weeks in Top-10 and in Radioplay peaking at #8 for one week and two weeks in Top-10. KAJ instead spent six weeks at #1 and is still in Top-4 for the 10th week and in Radioplay they peaked at #6 and are currently going up again.
Erika Vikman is quite divisive artist in Finland, you either love or dislike her, the neutral opinions are quite rare. Her open sexuality and image of a strong independent woman simply doesn't sit well with certain men and surprisingly with some woman even less. Even Anneli Saaristo (ESC 1989) has voiced her concern about the treatment Erika is getting. She was criticized back then especially by fans for being "too old, fat and ugly" (times were certainly different!) and showed them the middle finger by placing 7th, our best until Lordi. And KAJ? Cute funny men singing a children friendly sauna song.
A minor scandal was created some time ago when the president Stubb went to see KAJ in their hometown Vöyri during his visit and declared he backs KAJ at Eurovision. Soon he had to state he has messaged privately with Erika and that he supports both Finnish acts of course and hopes for a Top-2 finish in Basel. But the damage was done already.
Checking the tabloids quickly the number of articles and news on KAJ beat easily in number those of Erika since March. KAJ's "homecoming" concert was a huge success, as was an appearance in a shopping mall in Helsinki.
Helsinki is also bringing saunas to the city center for the Eurovision week. You can bara bada bastu or have a sauna and listen to Eurovision music for free in Saunavision event with a dozen different saunas.
But for one thing the both camps have united: city of Tampere, Erika's home town, and Vöyri, KAJ's hometown have a joint project bringing sauna to Basel and Finland Lounge there, apparently in Eurovision village. The affair is led by none other than Hanna Pakarinen, our represent at home in Helsinki 2007.
One thing is sure: Finland's televote (and probably jury as well) 12 will go to Sweden and there will be again record breaking viewing figures for Eurovision in Finland. Estonia is most likely to get the 10 points. If all goes as planned we will have four entries in Top-6 with Finnish influence, something unthinkable only a few years ago.....
Comments