Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Jippu made it! She debuts with her second album Kuka teki minusta tän naisen at number One! One can only wonder where her fans were those Euroviisut nights? Or did they NOT vote her on purpose as stated on some chatrooms? Diehard fans thought Euroviisut is not the right forum for her and voted some other artists instead.... Hmm... Maybe there's a tiny little bit of truth there after all...? Other wise Kari Tapio stays at number 2, Teräsbetoni drops to no 9 and Movetron to no 12. Vuokko Hovatta is on the way down, too, at no 15. Last year's Kilpi debuts at no 16 with IV . Also from last year Johanna Kurkela re-enters at no 17. Christal Snow drops 16 places to no 26 this week. Aikakone completes the Top-40 at no 40. In singles Teräsbetoni' s Missä miehet ratsastaa on its 6th week clibs back to no 8. Melodifestivalen 2008 from Sweden climbs one spot to no 3 in its 2nd week in Top-5.

Jippu talks in Helsingin Sanomat and Rumba about her new album that was released this week. As we know the artists have bigger feelings than us common people. She describes this new album as "a story of growth from a girl to a woman " and how one "grows through pain and mistakes. I have been an egoistic pig. I also thought one must live all emotions. I was so sceptic nothing mattered." Now she says she's over her growing experience and has mature adult feelings. "I'm over self pity and insecurity. They have been with me for so long I can't totally get rid of them. I went through all religions, too." And now, ladies and gentlemen: Jippu is 22-years-old! Anyways, she may sound a bit coccoo at times but she's fabulous nature child. She believes in the eyes of Finns lives some unidentified Slavic melancholy and I must agree on that. "Abroad they always mistake me as Russian". Her new album shows the darker side of this fragile...

Euroviisut artists go on strong in the official Finnish Top-40 when 6 out of the Top-10 are Euroviisut artists' new releases! Kari Tapio 's latest album enters the chart at no 2 and Cristal Snow at no 10. Teräsbetoni drops to no 3 and Movetron to no 5. Also Vuokko Hovatta is on her way down at no 6. Further down Aikakone climbs to no 23 and Mikael Konttinen re-enters at no 36. In the singles Top-10 there are no Euroviisut singles but in the compilations Melodifestivalen 2008 enters at no 4! It is worth mentioning Kari Tapio's CD does not include the Euroviisut song Valaise yö!

Cristal Snow's debut is out and it's all very early 80's like Madonna's debut. Scarred still remains my favourite track and there's a longer album version of Can't save me , too. You can listen the songs besides on his MySpace also here: http://musakauppa.aina.fi/album/Cristal_Snow/The_Prophecy/54A585CF-BCA8-471E-93BF-FAF29F62107D/ Watch the vids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUacdgw-aoY , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LQtcEgjGRo , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TOZqHUcTRY , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w35rJF72-fc

Teräsbetoni's third album Myrskyntuoja enters the Top-40 at number one. It's their first as their previous two albums stopped at number two. Their single Missä miehet ratsastaa did stop at number two and is now slipping down.... Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TheV9eBTT3Q

The Finnish media seems to think it's between Teräsbetoni, Kari Tapio and Mikael Konttinen based on their votes in semifinals. Knowing Finns I hope we will be in for a surprises tonight.... Hard to say who will go to the final from the 2nd chance: Jippu who's the best singer? Ninja who has the most Eurovision like show? Or Hanna Marsh who deserves to be there? Vuokko has a good song but it's not Eurovision at all, and Jenna just lacks all personality and presence. In the final Movetron just doesn't work on stage, Meurman's song is crap and Cristal's performance lacks something. Kari Tapio is all fine but this is Eurovision 2008, for God's sake! He's about 30 years late, in every sense. Mikael has a good song and voice but is it enough? And then we have Teräsbetoni, a mix of Dschingis Khan, Lordi and teenage boy lyrics.... Why I am not thrilled this year? Just a reminder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3mIvZg8XIU&feature=related

Less than a week to go so let's see how the situation is on viisukuppila's fan poll, again counted by my very own very unorthodox metod: 1. Mikael Konttinen +53 finalist 2. Movetron +27 finalist Vuokko Hovatta +27 second chance 4. Cristal Snow +25 finalist 5. Teräsbetoni +13 finalist 6. Ninja -2 second chance 7. Kari Tapio -10 finalist 8. Hanna Marsh -11 second chance 9. Crumbland -29 second chance 10. Jippu -37 second chance 11. Jenna -55 second chance 12. Kristian Meurman -76 finalist So the fans would vote Vuokko Hovatta and Ninja to the final from the second chance. The order by received votes in various semis looks like this: 1. Teräsbetoni 51,7% 2. Kari Tapio 46,7% 3. Mikael Konttinen 46,1% 4. Cristal Snow 27,4% 5. Kristian Meurman 26,8% 6. Movetron 20,3% The finalist songs got most votes in the third semi (78,1%) against those that dropped out so that's bad news to Jenna and Vuokko Hovatta. However in the first semi the qualified songs only got 67% of the votes...

As expected Teräsbetoni walked the third semi in Finland with 51,7% and Crystal Snow easily qualified, too, with 24,7%. Now the question is how to stop this mixture of Dschingis Khan, camp that's not camp enough and Finnish metal from going to Belgrade, or wherever the Eurovision will be this year.... See & hear here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGtz7pXa2rQ , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZqCuvr2aU4 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Su9u7QGpbQ , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmP0sLaV_r8

Now that we have heard all the songs in Finland Mikael Konttinen is still in the lead and the pre-contest favourites Cristal Snow and Teräsbetoni didn't impress all the fans. Here's again the unorthodox ranking based on viisukuppila.fi's viisumittari: 1. Mikael Konttinen - Milloin +45 finalist 2. Movetron - Cubido +24 finalist 3. Cristal Snow - Can't save me +17 4. Teräsbetoni - Missä miehet ratsastaa +16 5. Vuokko Hovatta - Virginia +7 6. Kari Tapio - Valaise yö -6 finalist 7. Ninja - Battlefield of love -8 second chance 8. Hanna Marsh - Broken flower -9 second chance 9. Crumbland - Pleasure -34 second chance 10. Jippu - Kanna minut -37 second chance 11. Jenna - Sinua varten -58 12. Kristian Meurman - Jos en sua saa -69 f inalist

Mikael Konttinen did it and scored 46,1% of the votes and deserved each of them but when will Finns learn to appreciate a little bit of camp and vote for acts like Ninja? Instead they preferred Kristian Meurman (26,8%) with his forgettable, boring, dull mediocre song that looked like taken from some Balkan finals (no offence, folks!). Jippu unfortunately lost the race before it started but once again she was wonderful and proved less is more and filled the stage all alone (well, with a little help of her red wool socks!) and delivered a song full of emotion and feelings. So, guys to the finals and girls to the second chance.... See & Hear here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=draN99SL7Ps , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luYpw0nB-0M , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0UQrS746d8 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ie1f2WKaQI

Jippu's debut album Salaisuuksia joita yksinäiset huutaa unissaan (Secrets the lonely shout in their sleep) has gone gold just in time for tonight's semifinal where she will be singing Kanna minut (Carry me). Her first single Kii (Close) came out in the fall 2005 followed by Kukkakaupan kulmalla (At the corner of the flowershop) , Kaksi kauneinta (Two of the most beautiful ones) in summer 2006. Enkelten kaupunki (City of angels) was released in September along with the album and 5th single Piiloon (Hide me) in January 2007. Sixth (!!!) single off the album was Vanha kaunis mies (Old beautiful man). And now Kanna minut will be the first single from her second album to be released in April 2008. She also won an Emma ward (Finnish Grammy) for the best debut album.

Now that we have heard 8 of the 12 songs in Finland let's see what the fans in Viisukuppila forum have to say. The infamous "viisupuntari" ranks the songs as only diehard fans can. To make things simplier I have added the percentages of 4-5 stars given to songs (5 being the best) and 1-2 points to see who's in the lead and who's on the bottom. Let's start with the bottom: Kristian Meurman reigns here as 82% of voters gave him only 1 or 2 stars. Jippu comes close with 65%. However Meurman has no 5 stars and Jippu has no 4 OR 5 stars! Crumbland comes third on the bottom with 54% of low votes. Mikael Konttinen (who talks a lot about everything here http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/10479 ) leads the poll now as he has got 57% of top votes but only 6% of bottom votes. Movetron comes second with 49% top votes but scores also 28% of bottom votes. Ninja has 48% top and 16% bottom votes. In total taking off the bottom votes from top votes and ignoring the middle (3 s...

I don't get anything anymore. I was just saying Hanna Marsh and Crumbland will qualify and the results proved me all wrong in a nanosecond. Kari Tapio scored shocking 46,7% of the votes and Movetron 20,3%... How can it be? Ok, both have their fans but the songs? I must admit Kari's was better than I expected but Movetron's is a far cry from their best efforts in the 1990's or even their come back single last year! Crumbland is not my cup of tea but it is a good song, I can hear that and Hanna Marsh was the best of the lot tonight. Sigh... I am scared now! See & hear here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBh25Bu6R3k , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_sz-kUGFtc , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iyep1bZhtg , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXdxO98b1s0

Johanna Pakonen, who charmed many fans in 2006 with Kerta viimeinen , is back in this year's Euroviisut, as Kari Tapio's backing singer! Meanwhile enjoy Johanna here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWV_kW8WibA

Hanna Pakarinen will perform as a guest star in the Euroviisut final on March 1 before retiring from the business for a long holiday. Aikakone instead will make a comeback and start anew.

Jippu got engaged in Rome, of all places, on New Year's with her boyfriend of many years, Markus Bollström. She tells the it all happened very quickly but the decision was easy "We had like half an hour to get the rings before the shops closed!" she tells in today's Ilta-Sanomat. Congratulations and good luck for Euroviisut!

I said earlier I would shamelessly promote Jippu here and I still plan to, but I must admit Cristal Snow's latest video Scarred is pretty fabulous! Somehow it looks like post-Lordi Lapland, he being the last survivor of that Lordi's explosion in the Eurovision 2007 opening video waking up to a new morning.... And the female backing vocalist brings something extra to the song. If his Euroviisut entry is something like this I will love it! Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUacdgw-aoY You can also watch The making of part 1 & 2 if you are into Lappish wilderness, freezing wind and Cristal Snow!

This year's Finnish selection has a record number of entries in Finnish since the language rule was liberated, 8 out of 12. Some veteran song writers are behind the songs even if most artists are also songwriters themselves. Kerkko Koskinen of Ultra Bra has even two songs, Pertti Haverinen and Risto Asikainen are also no strangers to Euroviisut. Here are the songs: HEAT 1 - FEBRUARY 8 Kari Tapio - Valaise yö (Light up night) Music: Pertti HaverinenLyrics: Ilkka Vainio - Pertti Haverinen Arrangement: Pertti Haverinen Hanna Marsh - Broken Flower Music:. Hanna Marsh Lyrics: Hanna Marsh Arrangement: Lennart Östlund Movetron - Cupido Music:. Jukka Tanttari Lyrics: Timo Löyvä Arrangement: Jukka Tanttari - Timo Löyvä Crumbland - Pleasure Music:. Crumbland Lyrics: Crumbland Arrangement: Crumbland - Mikko Raita HEAT 2 - FEBRUARY 15 Mikael Konttinen - Milloin (When) Music: Kerkko Koskinen Lyrics: Kyösti Salokorpi Arrangement: Kerkko Koskinen Jippu - Kanna minut (Carry me) Music:. Markus Kos...