Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Darude or Ville Virtanen (43) is maybe the most succesful Finnish DJ and producer and has basicly lived the past two decads with the royalties of his global hit Sandstorm that is still played all the time all around the world. Originally released in 1999 it went on to sell over 500.000 copies in the US alone and charted in countless countries, including #3 in UK. The 12" single sold over 2 million copies worldwide and became the most sold 12" single of 2000 globally. And it's got 116 million Spotify streams, a lot for "an old" song....His debut album earned him three Finnish Grammy awards. Sandstorm then went on to live in television from Queer as Folk to sporting events and ventually to videogames and especially to Finnish game Angry Birds that introduced the song to a whole new generation.  Since then he has toured the world and performed in various mega events especially in the US, released four albums and 15 singles. He has also remixed dozens of...

Eva + Manu, the Finnish-French indie duo that were thrown into UMK2019 speculations late last year has released today their In the Woods EP with six new songs: Sins , Grow old , Mamie , Woods , Weightless and I won't let you down . How would have they fit in Tel Aviv?  Spotify

YLE has been very, very quiet about the coming UMK2019 - so much that fandom is creating such a fuss about it in chat rooms and message boards that even the tabloids are starting to talk about it. Last year this time we already knew Saara Aalto was selected in a surprise twist and YLE angered most everyone who had submitted songs to the selection that was cancelled just like that. Lack of any information or hints only fuels the idea YLE is clueless what to do or simply won't get anyone decent. The only thing known so far is that the selection will take place on March 2, 2019 somewhere, with someone with three songs. When UMK boss Anssi Autio was interviewed about it the whole affair can be summed up in this way: He didn't comment the No comment line of comments he gave to most every question. Meanwhile the fandom has desperately seeked for clues and created several lines of conspiracy theories and even a rather credible reason: Yle may have had someone booked up who then ...