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 ). Two ladies battled it out with Katri Helena taking the crown ahead of legendary ode to the Lapland exotism in 1970s.  1979 Katri Helena - Katson sineen taivaan 29,8% 1977 Monica Aspelund - Lapponia 21,3% 1973 Marion Rung - Tom tom tom  16,0% 1975 Pihasoittajat - Viulu-ukko  14,6% 1976 Fredi & Friends - Pump pump  8,6% 1974 Carita Holmström - Älä mene pois 3,3% 1972 Päivi Paunu & Kim Floor - Muistathan  2,2% 1971 Markku Aro & Koivistolaiset - Tie uuteen päivään   2,1% 1978 Seija Simola - Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus  2,1%

Kim Floor turns 69 today. Congratulations! Sadly his Eurovision 1972 companion Päivi Paunu passed away in December last year. Kim has made a career in the movies and television afterwards hosting a quiz show

It has been a very sad year for Eurovision Finland this 2016. After Lasse Mårtensson (ESC 1964) and Riki Sorsa (ESC 1981) also Päivi Paunu (ESC 1972) passed away a couple of days ago. Of cancer like so many others. Considering before this year all but two Finnish stars were alive ( Laila Kinnunen ESC 1961 and Kirka ESC 1984) now we have lost already five.  Päivi Paunu made a name in folk circuit in Helsinki suburbs in the early 1960's, and soon she was in recording studio and her first single and album were released in 1966. Two years later she scored a megahit with Oi, niitä aikoja and she was co-starring two big summer tours in the late 1960's. Slowly her musical styled became more schlager-pop. Her singing career faded away when she started studying but she continued singing in the girlgroup Mirumaru in the early 1980's and doing some occasional small private concerts. She's also related to the famous Von Hertzen Brothers - she was their uncle's wife...

Tanssii tähtien kanssa , the Finnish version of Strictly come dancing features some Eurovision names this season. Mikko Leppilampi takes over this 5th season as the male host - against protests - while one of the dancers is Laura Voutilainen . Another famous singer and eternal Eurovision hope Antti Tuisku is also in. Tomi Metsäketo won the first season while Mariko of Kwan took part in the second one. Late Kirka was to take part, too, but died just before the show started. Maria Lund took part and won the third season and represanted Finland also in the Eurovision Dance contest. Finally Kim Herold of Humane took part last year so every year there has been also an Eurovision connection. The programme is very popular in Finland reaching 1,5-2,0 million viewers.

The results show for Euroviisut 1972 was held in YLE's studios in Helsinki. The songs were presented a week before and people voted with postcards. Nearly 70.000 arrived and the winner Muistathan got 1/3 of them. But the winner was no surprise to anyone as the results leaked days before. But funny fact is that even the singers themselves critizised the result and didn't believe in their chances in Edinburg. So they decided to use their looks and wardrobe to get noticed. Päivi was a popular singer at the time but Kim was unknown actor student who accepted to sing just to earn some money. Suddenly in Edinburg the journalists liked the song and spirits were a bit higher. However BBC told them not to look too sexy on stage, it's a family programme after all! 78 points and 12th was way better than we expected....

Matti Ruohonen (60) has expressed his wish to compose the Finnish Eurovision entry. He and his brother Teppo have been the most succesful Finnish duo for the last 3 decades with over 1,5 million sold albums, 26 gold records, 7 platinum records and even 2 platinum records, countless hits and even Iskelmä-Finlandia award won - yet they have never participated as artists nor writers! But they have written songs for Eurovision artists like Päivi Paunu, Kim Floor and Vicky Rosti.... As YLE has invited every year some "old dinosaur" like Jukka Kuoppamäki, Tapani Kansa or kari Tapio, will it be finally their turn? Here is a rare cover version by them of Sound of silence of Art & Garfunker and here's one of their biggest hits from 1982!

Finland returned to the Eurovision with another duet. Päivi Paunu was quite a big star at the moment while Kim Floor was practically unknown theater student. Even YLE didn't quite believe in the song so they decided to focus on the visual presentation and they resulted in an okeyinsh 12th place. The preview video had them rolling in snow in Porvoo wearing huge furs - now how exotically Finnish and visual is that? Year 1972 was quite eventful for Kim Floor, besides Eurovision he met his future wife in September and married in December (yes, they're still married!) but with Päivi they didn't collaborate much. They had no material, he was no singer and they didn't have a manager either and missed for example some gigs in Portugal for that after ESC. Later in life he went into business and lost it all in the late 1980's bank crisis. He re-emerged in the 1990's acting in a TV soap and then hosting the Wheel of Fortune.Päivi Paunu, or von Hertzen as she is now, scored...