Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Yle organized among its other consolation Eurovision 2020 programming also a voting to find out the most loved Finnish entries of each decade ( here ). And this is no surprise: Hard rock hallelujah!   When eveything else has been tried go over the top and just risk it full time. It paid off. The hell froze over and liberated Finns from the decades long trauma of "Finland zero points" and for a year or so everyone was an Eurovision and Lordi fan. Well, it didn't last long...... Once again Finns had to sit home thanks to poor results in 2001 and 2003 before that insanity was changed. Or rather semi-final introduced. 2006 Lordi - Hard rock hallelujah  63,3% 2002 Laura Voutilainen - Addicted to you  10,7% 2007 Hanna Pakarinen - Leave me alone  8,6% 2008 Teräsbetoni - Missä miehet ratsastaa   6,5% 2009 Waldo's People - Lose control  5.6% 2004 Jari Sillanpää - Takes 2 to tango   3,7% 2005 Geir Rönning - Why? 1,0% 2000 Nina Åstro...

Hanna-Riikka Siitonen's funeral took place on August 19 in Töölö church, Helsinki. Several Finnish Eurovision stars gathered to greet the much loved actress, singer, vocal coach and multiple national finalists and ESC backing singer for the last time and the ceremony was a very emotional one. Her white casket was decorated with yellow and orange gerberas matching her sunny and bright personality that will be so much missed.  It is said when when her Taikapeili friend Nina Tapio sung there were no dry eyes in the church. The girls have been friends all their life, and Nina's mother was at Eurovision 1976 backing Fredi in Pump pump.  Her father Fredi (ESC 1967, 1976) and mother, ex-Mayor of Helsinki; Fredi, Hanna-Riikka's husband and daughter; Titta Jokinen (ESC 1976), conductor Olli Ahvenlahti (ESC conductor 1990-98) with Marjatta Leppänen, multiple national finalists and hostess) Jari Sillanpää (ESC 2004); Sonja Lumme (ESC 1985);  Anneli Saaristo (ESC 1989)...

Let's see now if his devoted fans will forgive him this, too. Jari Sillanpää was arrested at the Helsinki airport yesterday when returning from a long holiday in Thailand, where he has a holiday house. According Iltalehti he is still jailed by the police who will decide on arresting him on Wednesday. Police goes for "No comment" policy for the matter at this point but it is rumored it's part of the earlier arrest and investigation on the drug smuggling circle they now suspect him being part of. Last September he was arrested when driving in Helsinki under the effect of chrystal or methamphetamine. He didn't deny at any point and in the end was fined 23.790 euros. One can read in the report he admits having used chrystal for three years but not any other drugs and has showed no regret at any point. It is rumored he had also now drugs on him when arrested..... Update: It's confirmed he had drugs on him when arrested. He can only be very happy he wasn'...

   Gabbani and dogs  Demy and a dog  Naviband and dogs  Amir won at EMAs  ... and so did Loic. And Blanche got Border breakers award  Imri did Copenhagen and met the Little mermaid  Jari Sillanpää's got an extra job in Bangkok    Dana International met Boy George's karma Chameleon  Sergey and Dima back together again  Lena Philipsson met... err, Lena Ph? Manel met Pablo Alboran Sergey and Polina are ready for the New Year's show on TV Svala's fashion choice for this week Valentina becomes Mina Movember is here again.... And yes, Gianluca and Vanessa partied it away in their wedding. How was your week?

Jari Sillanpää was arrested when driving under narcotics Tuesday evening. Police patrol noticed a car driving carelessly and when stopped he was quick tested positive in drugs. He was taken to blood tests and his apartment was searched. They also found what is suspected to be crystal meth or methamphetamine in his car. This is a major scandal as he has had a very clean cut image and he even stopped drinking a few years ago. In short he went from an ideal son-in-law (desite being gay) to a drug addict in one night.  His incredulous fans are also being quite cruel to him in social medias, and some say they aren't his fans anymore and his career is over. Some are urging him to get help and get over it. The timing couldn't be worse, as tomorrow the episode of his day in hugely popular Vain elämää variety show will be aired (until now the tv channels plans to go ahead with it) where other artists will cover his songs and he has a change to tell about his life and career. Ap...

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...

Jari Sillanpää turns 52 today. He's been one of the leading figures in the Finnish music business since 1996 and his album sales are nearing 850.000 making him a top-5 best selling Finnish act/artist of all time. His Sinä ansaitset kultaa has spent 119 weeks in the Radio Top-100 already since it was released in 2014.... last week at #80! Congratulations!

Jari Sillanpää's Sinä ansaitset kultaa celebrates 100th consegutive week in the Finnish radio top-100. The ballad climbs again from last week's 84th to this week's 63rd. The song has never made it to number one on radio chart reaching #4 in March 2015 and again in May 2015. It spent four weeks in the official singles chart reaching #13 in January 2015. In download chart it made it to #1 for two weeks in December 2014 and spent there a total of 35 weeks, 12 of them in top-10.  This is no doubt one of the biggest hits of the 2010's in Finland and his biggest one with his debut Satulinna from 1995.... Congratulations!

As usual YLE has been in complete silence how many entries they have received for UMK2017 and this year not even the artists - to be honest very, very few every year and usually those wannabe nobodies in search for some media coverage - have come out shouting out their intentions and how they have sent in a song that will win it. Yah right. So far there's only a handful of names that can be digged out from social medias that they may have sent in an entry, or have toyed with the idea. Let's have a look.... Katrin Johansson . I have never heard of her but her wikipedia tells all sort of things. Sounds very promising though, as you can judge yourself from her older video below... Dead Girl Diamonds is a pop rock grunge rap band from Rauma. Not so quite sure about them though.... Lauri Yrjölä is a professional guitarist playing with Isac Elliot, Sanni, Antti Tuisku and Janna and is now trying to step out as a singer-songwriter as well.  Lyel is a German bo...

It's no secret Jari Sillanpää is a big Eurovision fan besides being one of the biggest stars in Finland for the past 20 years already. His trip to Istanbul 2004 didn't quite go as he (and we) may have planned so the will to make it better is there. Recently he's got a new team behind him and he's more popular than ever, selling albums again, filling Olympic stadium for his birthday party, winning reality variety shows on television, judging Talent and having a song in the radio top-100 for almost two years already...  And guess what? His new team thinks he'd be perfect for Eurovision. Or rather Eurovision is a perfect for Jari. Leri Leskinen tells in Jari's recently published biography: "That huge stage, all those parties, it's so Jari. He's been there once but he should do it again. The whole event is like made for him. We have talked about it. We should have some huge ballad there, it's fashiobable now. Adele has vintage written all ove...

Jari Sillanpää, one of the most popular Finnish artists of all time, Tango King 1995 and Eurovision 2004 entrant has revealed literally it all in a new biography that hit the stores earlier this month. He describes in detail his first time with a man, his newfound love to dress up in drag as his alter ego Rosa and all sort of things from his father's violence to alcoholism. And if you are into such things, maybe you have seen him on some videochat as Rosa having fun with his boyfriend?! Not all fans have been pleased to know too intimate details about his past life but he wanted to bare it all. Read more after the jump. Jari, who celebrated his 50th birthday in small scale and intimate at the Helsinki Olympic stadium last summer with full house, will be on TV-screen this fall-winter season as one of the Talent judges.  Meanwhile his success has no end. His Sinä ansaitset kultaa has been in the Radioplay Top-100 already 93 consecutive weeks, at no.65 this week, after top...

Gerard Joling, that walking advert for botox clinic and teeth whitening gone bad (remember Ross in Friends back in the day?) has released his new song Lieveling sporting some interesting wardobe choices. Especially the jacket is genius - never thought those aprons sold for tourists in Italy could  be fixed to look so good!  All this said, Gerard has a lovely voice and this song is insanely catchy! Not usually my cup of tea but I love it! And Dutch has never sounded so good. Or maybe it has, in Shangri-La . Watch and learn, Jari Sillanpää :-)

Jari Sillanpää has already launched his own sparkling wine and nasty thermometer for sauna but here comes something more dear to Finns: coffee! His own coffee brand is available as of today.

Jari Sillanpää has already given us sparkling wine, and soon we will be able to drink his coffee. Right now he's hotter than Finnish sauna with a sauna thermometer. And its naughtyness has divided even his diehard fans. Kitchy and tasteless or pure geniality (knowing the rumor about his endowment, lol)? If you want a piece of his stiffy order here . How much can you take?

Next five days I will count down the Top-5 songs of 2015 based simply on my memory. I don't use Spotifys or similar that would just rank down the most played songs or such so it's just me and the songs that have been playing the most in my head over the past year; songs that have ment something special to me, songs that I like and still enjoy to listen to..... the songs that I sing in the shower in short. We start off with a special mention. Jari Sillanpää's Sinä ansaitset kultaa was released already in 2014 but over the year has become propably the biggest hit of his career and deserverly so. It charted for weeks and months, and is still on on Radioplay charts top-50. And it's a great track. It was about the time that he got a hit I like after 20 years of career! 

Compromise. Not a pretty word. That's what BBC is doing. Add OGAE and you will end up a total mess. Ask YLE. Finland involved OGAE members and various juries in the selection and ended sending Edea in 1998 leaving Jari Sillanpää home and his song is an evergreen today while Edea? Or the song.... And again in 2000 Nina Åström won without being anyone's favorite and is today a totally forgotten one while Anna Eriksson  wnet on to win OGAE Second chance and is totday a megastar and what to say about  Nightwish ? A true missed chance.  So, good luck BBC and prepaire for the worst. Ok anyways, the procedure is that 45 OGAE UK members divided in five groups of nine will each review 60 song and pick up their personal top-5. Actually this might be the saving aspect of this method. As a smaller group of persons hear only a smaller group of songs. Then each groups top-5 is sent forward so there will be 25 most likely heavily compromised and melodifestivalized songs to dea...

Sweden's Melodifestivaen brings together every year the big names, well known names, a few new names and mixes a show that appeals to most Swedes - and not only. UMK in Finland has been changing from ... well, I don't know what it was ment to be really. In the current form no big names seem to be willing to be part of it, and if we think these years it has been running it has produced only one star: Krista Siegfrids, and Softengine to some level. Mikko Pohjola was ment to become big for example, but nothing happened. From last season's finalist NONE made any impact in the charts or music industry and all are already forgotten. Sad but true.  So, let's play with the idea UMK was actually remodelled with MF style. Big names, four semifinals and all. This is my outtake or who I would have invited for the first new styled UMK that I would also rename as Euroviisut . Simple as that! One can dream, right? Check out after the jump my choices for the first semifinal. An...

Happened earlier this summer: Jari Sillanpää turned 50 and invited his closest 40.000 friends to celebrate the event in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium along with Laura Voutilainen, Waltteri Torikka and Marita Taavitsainen. The 72 meters wide stage - as many meters as the height of the stadium's tower btw - was filled with grand orchestra, some 50 dancers and 850 people worked during the concert to make it all work out fine during the 35 songs he performed. And before the concert each and every one was served coffee and birthday cake in the stadium - the cake being of course the biggest ever made in Finland needing not one but two trucks to bring it in...... Besides turning 50, having this stadium concert he also made headlines in the press for his love affairs. First he said he has found a new love and trying for the first time a foreign affair or romance in distance. Thenin the concert he declared he's actually single - yet spent the rest of the night in a company a tall...

The second season of Tähdet, tähdet has been again a success, and no doubt thanks to some Eurovision singers: Krista Siegfrids, Laura Voutilainen, Jarkko Ahola (Teräsbetoni) have done it all the way to the almost end, while Markku Aro was voted out after his country performance. More Eurovision is added when Mira Luoti (PMMP) was eliminated to the sounds of Lapponia , and multiple national finalist Arja Koriseva made it to sixth episode. On top of that UMK host Roope Salminen is in top-4.... As is Laura Voutilainen. But as said, surprisingly and unfairly Krista Siegfrids dropped out last Sunday. She has been a real transformer and managed all genres wonderfully showing she can also sing and is a real performer and it's time to forget ding dong and see what she is all about: a true artist. Now that's she's out I'm all for Laura Voutilainen.... She's in top-4 with Jarkko Ahola, Roope Salminen and opera hunk Waltteri Torikka.