Finland will take part in the Eurovision song contest 2026 for the 59th time. Finland has taken part every year since its debut in 1961 - 65 years ago - except in 1970 (when boycotting along with Austria, Norway, Sweden and Portugal the voting system and previous year's chaos) and due to being relegated in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003 thanks to those insane rules back then. Over the years Finland was considered quite an under achiever with last places coming this way a bit too often in the first decades. In this series I will go through the first contests, how we came up with the eventual entry and we can remember from the other songs from those years.
For the 1964 national Eurovision selection Yle invited ten composers, each with two songs but only one of them made the final cut. The composers had free hands who to invite to perform it all the way to Copenhagen as there was no will to cause commotion by changing artist afterwards, a bit like Portugal in the 2020's, The chosen songs were played in radio and as television's test sound in late January and people voted with postcards six songs to the final. The final outcome was quite different from the people's vote as Taisto Tammi apparently won the first (postcard) roud followed by Pirkko Mannola and Kai Lind. Rakkauden rikkaus however has become a multi covered evergreen. In the end also Laiskotellen conquered people and is pretty well considered these days.
The final took place on February 15, 1964 in Suomen televisio's (later Yle)Studio 1 in Helsinki. As for the voting it was a bit Sanremo inspired affair: First the ten regional juries cast their votes and then the Nordic jury made of music professionals from other Nordic countries (hey, also this is a common feature in these days i various countries aka the international jury!). If they disagreed a special jury set by Yle and composers would have picked up the winner. But no worries, Lasse Mårtenson took a landslide victory and prepared himself for Copenhagen where he placed nicely 7th.
Results:
1. Lasse Mårtenson - Laiskotellen 403
2. Kai Lind - Satelliitti kahdelle 235
3. Irmeli Mäkelä - Kerran viel 120
4. Pirkko Mannola - Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz 108
5. Taisto Tammi - Rakkauden rikkaus 21
6. Heikki Aarva - Toisen kerran 13
Erkki Liikanen - Pianonsoittaja
Iris Rautio - Tulen jälkeen
Vieno Kekkonen - Tango keittiössä
Stig Fransman - Unen ihme
Most of the artists were returnees as Lasse took the victory after placing 2nd the year before. Kai Lind was in for the fourth year in a row, Irmeli Mäkelä for the second time, while the other except ones listed below were having their their second attempt.
Taisto Tammi (or Taisto Lundberg, 1945-1979) was the first gypsy recording artist in Finland and his pek of stardom was the early 1960's as tango singer. He scored #1 hits and was awarded as the Male artists of the year in 1964. He also had a love story with fellow Eurovision artist Tamara Lund. Tammi sadly died at the age of 33 suddenly but his voice lives on.
Heikki Aarva (1936-2020) His recording career lasted a few years in the early 1960's but he worked in Yle for years as producer, writer, cameraman and one of the founders of Yle's Kids and Youth programme department. he also starred in a couple of movies. Covid-19 took him away.
Iris Rautio (b.1940) is jazz singer, actress, mannequin. Her music career took her to study in New York and tour in Soviet Union in the 1960's, and in 1968 she placed 3rd in Rostock festival in East-Germany. She recorded also in a trio but failed to score a hit and her music career faded away in early 1970's.
For the other artists check the notes in previous posts :-)
Semi-final (postcard) results:
1. Taisto Tammi - Rakkauden rikkaus 13.480
2. Pirkko Mannola - Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz 8.755
3. Kai Lind - Satelliitti kadelle 8.281
4. Lasse Mårtenson - Laiskotellen 5.993
5. Heikki Aarva - Toisen kerran 5.547
6. Irmeli Mäkelä - Kerran viel 4.911
7. Iris Rautio - Tulen jälkeen 4.521
8. Vieno Kekkonen - Tango keittiössä 3.510
9. Erkki Liikanen - Pianonsoittaja 3.482
10. Stig Fransman - Unen ihme 1.921
FUN FACT: He recorded Laiskotellen even in Italian!
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