Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Finland really, really turned into dark side again when Blind Channel took a very clear win with their violent pop  Dark side in the UMK21 final. That was no wonder as the signs were clear in the social medias all throughout the day and evening, but the amount of televotes was: 479 vs. Telfon Brothers feat. Pandora's 150. over 54% of the total. Still not as much as The Roop got in Lithuania though. This said, YLE did a great job. Each staging had an idea and was well done. Teflon Brothers feat. Pandora was a bit over the top (and vocally clearly the weakest) and one could not think the Darude example when Look away was wonderfully staged in UMK and won, and then it was literally down scaled and watered down for ESC.... All the others gave their best and worked, including Danny with his funeral symbolism and minimalism and Ilta's beautiful staging and touching performance. Oskr and Aksel clearly ate each others votes and if only one of them was in running he would have ended ...

Finland is among those few countries where it is business as usual for Eurovision song contest 2021 or in short: last year's entrant has no free ticket to the contest in 2021 but the national final goes on as usual. But with a twist, last year's winner Aksel is there, apparently chosen through the open call for songs but as the songs this year are seven instead of six, one can put one plus one together and get Aksel as result. Right? Why not be open about it? Last year UMK provided a mega hit that wasn't the winner but the runner up Cicciolina by Erika Vikman and she's back performing the opening number with the host Antti Tuisku, Finland's number one pop star. On top of that supermegapopular pop rock band Haloo Helsinki makes a comeback after their break of a couple of years to relaunch their career.. As for hits the 2021 edition has already given us three hits as Teflon Brothers feat. Pandora (#2), Blind Channel (#5) and Ilta (#5) are all in Top-13 in the for th...

Something that has never happened before in the official Finnish charts history happened last week (and this week, too) when in the Top-6 we had three UMK entries. This week Teflon Brothers feat. Pandora keeps its n.o 2 slot where it debuted two weeks ago while Blind Channel drops to n.o 10 from last week's n.o 5 while Ilta rises to n.o 5 from last week's  n.o 6 debut. No sight of the other entries in the Top-20. All the entries have made the Radio Play charts though. Two weeks ago Teflon Brothers feat. Pandora entered at 41 but  dropped out of Top-100 last week only to re-enter this week at 69. Debuts of two weeks ago Danny (70) and Laura (96) did not. Last week we witnessed the debut of Ilta at 47 but this weeks she drops to 82, Oskr debuted at 72 and Aksel at 100 last week but are now out.  Surprisingly Blind Channel is the only one having already three consecutive weeks, going up to 58 from their 67 debut week and bettering it to 57 this week. I didn't think that one ...

Hurt is a powerful yet sensitive ballad about how looks can be deceiving. Someone may look like they’re ok on the outside, but they could still be in terrible pain on the inside. When you’re hurting, you also end up hurting the ones you love. I’ve lived that experience, so I’m truly able to identify with this message. My song is also a reminder that you don't need to be anyone but yourself , Aksel tells and believes that he is more prepared to focus on his performance this year, as he is now more familiar with the contest and its production process. As we all remember he won UMK2020 with Looking back , but never got to sing it on Eurovision stage. However, he still likes to approach things with his trademark mantra to life: “We’ll see how things will go” I didn't quite know what to expect after Looking back and his follow up in Finnish but this is good, soothing, touching.  I think I like this more than Looking back, that took me some time to appreciate. If he nails this live ...