Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  The 2020's have been very good for Finland, the best era of the whole Eurovision history by far. Four out of six our best placements ever have been in the past six years.  1. Lordi - Hard rock hallelujah - 1/37   2006 2. Käärijä - Cha cha cha  2/37  2023 3. Blind Channel - Dark side  6/39    2021 4. Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen -Liekinheitin  6/35    2026 5. Erika Vikman - ICH KOMME   11/37    2025 5. Softengine - Something better  11/37    2014

Emma awards aka the Finnish Grammy nominations have been revealed. The gala takes place in Espoo's Metro Arena on March 7, 2026. Among the nominees both Finland's and Sweden's Eurovision entrants 2025 with several UMK finalists in 2025 or before. Check out the short list below. All nominees can be found here .  Song of the year: Ares - Menestys on paras tapa kostaa Emma & Matilda - Sisko Goldielocks - Made of KAJ - Bara bada bastu Nelli Matula - Hitaammin hautaan Erika Vikman - Ich komme Band of the year: Amorphis Emma & Matilda Joser & Zpoppa JVG KAJ Komiat People's Choice: Bess Eini Erika Vikman Goldielocks KAJ Nelli Matula Portion Boys  among others Pop of the year: ABreu Bess Ellinoora Isac Elliot JVG Olga Schlager of the year: Eini Komiat Mariska Portion Boys Rodeo Artist of the year: Ares Averagekidluke Isac Elliot Lauri Haav Olga Turisti

 Yum yum, another Eurovision collaboration is here: Australia's Go-Jo and Finland's Erika Vikman met in Paris for some Appetite. Enjoy!

Erika Vikman placed 11th in the grand final of Eurovision song contest 2025 after being all spring and EuroviSIon week in the Top-6 in the odds reaching top-3 during the broadcast after her performance. Yet only 11th.... Feels a little bit let down but then again it's worth remembering it's Finland's 4th best placement in modern Eurovision after Lordi's win 2006, Käärijä's 2nd place in 2023 and Blind Channel's 6th place in 2021 together with Softengine's 11th place in 2014.  In the semifinal Finland was third after Israel and Latvia before Greece and eventual winner Austria. Here's break down of the televotes in the semifinal ( 115 ): 12 -  10 Australia, Malta, Denmark 8 Latvia, Serbia 7 Ireland, Lithuania, Czechia 6 Montenegro, Armenia, Luxemburg, Germany, RoW 5 - 4 Austria, Georgia, UK 3 - 2 Greece, Israel, France 1 - 0 - (Israel scored 13 times 12, 3 times 10, once 8 and 7 and 2 from Armenia...) In the grand final Finland got jury points as follows ( ...

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 en...

It's the time again: Blogilkar's home jury of Eurovision fans, non-fans and common viewers from teenagers to nearly 60 years old have watched and listened giving points from 1 to 10 plus a special 12 points to be awarded to the one favorite. In case of a tie the ranking was done by highest points received by any juror(s). And yes, the result is somewhat surprising here and there. Last year our winner was NQ Czechia but the winner Switzerland was 2nd and runner up Croatia 3rd.  With the help of four 10s turned into 12s Finland's Erika Vikman came and won with ICH KOMME scoring 92 points from our home jury. That's a nice consolation to Erika who has been pretty much forgotten and ignored at home front after KAJ's win in Sweden, more about that in another post to come, stay tuned! She scored from us a seven and all the rest above. 

It's time to kick of the usual reviews. The opinions are all mine and if I don't like some song it's simply just not my cup of tea so to speak. If I like something you dislike or hate, it's fine, too. No stresso, no need to be depresso it's just music and tastes that re diverse and therefor beautiful! I also try to predict their success come May a little bit but as we know once the staging is out everything may change, remember Fuego and Rise like a phoenix for example? For this series I have grouped the songs in fours as usual as the songs may have similarities or something in common. Some fours came out beautifully, the others.... well not so well. Here comes the ninth part! MALTA - Miriana Conte - Serving (Kant) Miriana caused quite a stir after her win in Malta due to "kant" on behalf of BBC apparently. And then BBC's own entry is titled What the HELL just happened. I'd say hell and cunt in i its variations are same level swear word in Finland,...

This post is purely gossipy and #drama. The 75th festival della canzone Italy kicks of tomorrow and even before it started, even before the artists were revealed in fact. Social media figure and Sanremo 2023 co-hostess Chiara Ferragni and Fedez, in competition this year - and runner up in 2021 with Francesca Michielin and  with a song Chiamami per nome co-written by Mahmood, btw - are going through a very stormy and public divorce. Apparently she's having/had an affair with Tony Effe, in competition this year. Enough drama? No! It is rumored she'd had before "that the thing Erika Vikman is singing about" with another competitor, none other than Achille Lauro! She clearly has a thing for tattooed bad boys. Expect some tension in backstage..... Enough of gossip. How about some drama? The killer stairs! Yes, first Francesca Michielin fell down the stairs and hurt her leg, hopefully her song didn't require a choreography! But she's not the only one as also Modà...

  Erika Vikman returns and is The One to Beat this year. Fandom and public has waited for her return since Cicciolina didn't win in 2020 and she's been present in UMK multiple times in a way or another  since: Opening act with Antti Tuisku in 2021 and 2024 interval act with Käärijä. Eerika started her career in tango circuit, a very popular music genre in Finland, by winning Tangojunior in 2008. More talent shows followed and she also acted in tv drama series 2009-10. The year after she starred in a musical and in 2013 tried her luck in Idols placing seventh (ahead of her UMK veteran Zuhlke and international pop star Alma btw). Her big breakthrough came however in 2016 when she won Tangomarkkinat and was crowned the Tango Queen. The year after she starred in reality  tv-series Iholla. In 2020 she dropped her tango singer image and launched the raunchy slutty pop diva with usually double sensed lyrics and humor with Cicciolina winning the televote in UMK but the juries...