Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Saara Aalto's runner up Domino was my favorite out of her UMK 2018 songs. The live performance includes the upside down singing then borrowed to Monsters Lisbon staging, but more than that it's a classy ballad that comes alive when sung live with the audience. The simple yet effective staging would have been so much better than the over choreographed and gimmicky Monsters . And the song's better, too. 

YLE declares satisfied with the Eurovision 2018 adventures, despite the disappointing 25th place or second to last, in the final. 1,9 million viewers were registered for the final on Saturday night while 1,5 million watched the first semi-final, and in Yle Areena, the web portal Eurovision content was viewed over 800.000 times, and Yle's Eurovision website had over 1,2 million visits.  Meanwhile there has been a lot of talk about this year's selecting process, media demanding to know how much money was spent - aka tax payers money - in promoting Saara Aalto's career. Yle has refused to give any numbers saying Eurovision is an all year round project and it's not possible to give exact sums. Hmm...  People are not happy.  They are also yet undecided what to do next year; open call or internal selection of the artist. The later might be a better choice at this point when they have angered the songwriters in the country (when changing the selection process all of sud...

Saara Aalto has been around forever but international debut comes in a form of Wild wild wonderland album today. The album's cover is pure 80's Stock-Aitken-Waterman! (And not only the cover...) Thirteen songs in total, including all her UMK2018 entries Monsters , Queens and Domino , as well as her UMK16 runner up No fear as a bonus track. One song has curiously Finnish title, HÄN .  After being the runner up in Talent Suomi, The Voice of Finland, twice in the national final for Eurovision and X Factor UK she was internally chosen by YLE to represent Finland this year. This is her her fifth album following Blessed with love (2011), Christmas album Enkeleitä - Angels (2011), You had my heart (2013) and Chinese language compilation album  Ai De Zhu Fu (2013). Her only sales chart appearances so far are the You had my heart 's one week at #43 in album charts, and Monsters peaking at #14 in the singles' chart and dropping to #15 the week after before vani...

  The favorite won the Finnish final and Saara Aalto will sing Monsters in Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest. As Krista Siegfrids said: This is our mothafuckinyear! My favorite was Domino , it came alive on stage and was vocally the strongest and most effective, more of a song and less show. Sadly the much advertised performances on stage #never seen before in Finland" and bla bla ba weren't anything new or innotative. I wonder how much Friedman got paid for those acts? The camera work was all over the place but not where it should have been. In Queens the locomotive or whatever it was supposed to be was so high and the camera angle such that you totally lost Saara on top of it. Monsters was dark and uninviting, no camera contact mostly and nothing new or anything to remember afterwards or that would have made you go WOW. Just a routin choreography from any big star with money show. YLE sais this is the way it will be staged in Lisbon but maybe a time out is necess...

YLE has sort of apologized the mess they created late last year when they threw away the UMK2018's 300 submissions and chose internally Saara Aalto out of the blue angering the Finnish musicians and authors, and most of the public as well. Not very fair indeed. But YLE says they got fed up."Last year we had a great song, performance and artist and it failed. Like many times before." YLE promises in the future this won't happen: it will be clear from the start: internal choice or business as usual next year. "People have been asking us big names in UMK, but the big names don't want to participate. Maybe they are afraid of losing. Or then winning and failing in the main event and Finns can be cruel afterwards. We knew Saara Aalto wants to do this and she has experience of big stages so why not?" YLE's Antti Autio still believes they did nothing wrong and there's a weird case of blaming one person, Finnish Musicians association's boss Aku...

  YLE was business as usual with separate artists and song submission calls with deadlines until out of the blue last Novembeer they announced they had selected internally Saara Aalto ,  angering both general public and most of all the Finnish authors and musicians whose work (around 300 submissions apparently) was thrown in to rubbish bin just like that with "it wasn't good enough". All that put aside, tonight's the night. Saara Aalto will perform - because it's all about performances really this time around - her three foreign written songs (only one has a Finnish producer it seems) with staging and choreographies done my foreigners the way they will be done in Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest stage, meaning no LED wall but a lot of props.... like in the old days! It's no secret I was not and I am still not fan of this decision and even less so after hearing the songs, but Finland could be in with a chance this year. Not because the songs, or th...

  Here they now are. The three entries by Saara Aalto for Eurovision song contest 2018 for Finland. What can I say? Not much there to say. Queens is plain bad, Monsters is okeyish and Domino is my favorite out of these three. Not that it is great. And she keeps pushing the LBGT theme in all videos, that aren't so great either. Monsters would have been cool and ground breaking. In 1995. 

  After Monsters here is Domino , her second entry for #UMK2018 out of three

  Saara Aalto has released her first of three UMK2018 entries, Monsters

  After YLE prettycancelled the usual UMK2018 and turned into Saara Aalto show it's been quite queit in that front. The final will take place in Metro Arena in Espoo on March 3, 2018 and Saara will perform her three stage shows and apparently there will be several guest stars. The first one has been now confirmed: Spice Girl Melanie C, Saara's childhood hero. They are set to perform also together and Saara says she feels more nervous for that than her own performances. Bless her.  Saara's three songs will be revealed with respective videos one every week starting on February 9. 

YLE has got harsh critic by public in social medias and in press, and even from Finnish musicians association for the sudden change of UMK format, where they out of the blue internally chose Saara Aalto as the artist and literally threw the submissions (over 300) out of window stating they were not good enough and what they were looking for.  And they all had spent a lot of time and money for the high quality demos YLE demanded the submitted entries to be. As for Saara's choice as singer the nation is also divided - it seems everyone has an opinion of love or hate, no one's left indiffeent..... Today YLE and UMK gave out a statement answering some of the burning questions. Here are answers to the questions asked. 1. Does Yle work ethically this way? YLE has the responsibility and obligation to make UMK an interesting and entertaining show for the public. The viewers have been wishing for more Stars in the contest and invitation method is an interesting oppor...

  So, YLE decided to go the Belarusian way and just throw out all the selection process ignoring all the over 300 submitted entries stating they "didn't find a suitable entry" even if "the interest was high and standard high" even this year. Instead they chose Saara Aalto and are looking for her three songs for the final on March 3, 2018 in Espoo's Metro Areena, to be judged by televoters and international jury. The eternal runner up gets her dream job finally. I wonder how much this has to do with her recent change of record label, and the rumors about her being asked by BBC as well to represent the UK. "Now my fans in UK have a chance to vote for me, too" ever chirpy Saara says.  Hmm, if UK votes in the other semifinal it won't be much of a help. And even in final it will be only 12 points (if she can push pass various diasporas that is). 12 points won't take very far..... Being used to finish second the equilevant in Eurovision...

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.11 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. JVG came to success in 2011 with Häissä , a song that topped all various charts and was easily the biggest hit of summer 2011. Since then they have released five albums and 14 Top-5 singles and have won five Emma (aka Finnish Grammys) awards. Their latest album Popkorni was released this month without any pre-advertising or information and as a digital one only. It occupied the whole Spotify Top-10 i...

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.10 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. Vesala is singer-songwriter, actress and playwriter, started in hugely popular PMMP before going solo, writes hit songs to other artists as well and Lauri's ex-wife and mother of his kid. Past few years it seems everything she touches turns into a success and she's got her shelves full of awards to prove it. This week it was revealed she has written the Finnish version of  hit musical Mamma M...

  It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.9 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. Zühlke is the reigning runner up with Perfect villain and definitely deserves a second chance.  Since then she has released Closer (below) and Die again .  Woman's got the voice and the talent. Sanni has been one of the most succesful female artists in the past few years; three alnums and 13 Top-5 hits to prove it. She also did Vain elämää reality show that made her a household name and curr...

  It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.8 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. Benjamin didn't hit fame and fortune from Youtube or Spotify but from Instagram. Yup. He got a huge following before he even recorded one note or before anyone even thought he could be a singer. His debut Underdogs was a Top-10 hit in Finland and became a hit in Spain, of all places, where he apparently has a following. Unbreakable , Young and restless , Body and Man on the moon (below) continued...

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.7  Check out the other posts by scrolling down Jannike is a singer/musician who plays piano and violin and choir conductor, She has sung with various bands and orchestras and has been backing singer to likes of Loreen, Peter Jöback and Jari Sillanpää. She's been to Idols, had songs in both Swedish and Spanish radios, got Elvis's last girlfriend (who also wrote Whitneys I have nothing btw) to write her Hallowed ground (below), Listen  I don...

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.6 (Check the other ones scrolling down) Johanna Kurkela has been around already over ten years, and has even tried her luck in Eurovision with Olet uneni kaunein , making her a household name and fan favorite. Her etheric and fragile voice has often flirted with heavier music, and no wonder: She's married to Nightwish's frontman Tuomas Holopainen. She has provided vocals for his solo album and Sonata Arctica . She has even covered Metallica...

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.5 (Check out Vol1 , Vol2 , Vol3 and Vol4 ) Kauriinmetsästäjät are Heikki and Tuomas, and they have already enjoyed Spotify and radioplay success with their Sua sua , Intiaanikesä,   Oisit vaan sanonu , Kun mä mietin sua niin uuh  and Revi mua (below). Could this Pet Shp Boyish in style and look do the trick in Lisbon? Jenni Vartiainen was part of the Popstars winning girlband Gimmel in 2002. In 2007 she came back after a break as a solo artist...