Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Emma Gaala or the Finnish Grammy awards were celebrated in Espoo's Metro Arena a week ago and last year's most successful artist was Mirella who picked four out of six nominations (Artist of the year, Newcomer of the year, Song of the Year, Pop of the Year, Public's choice, Album of the Year) On top of that she was awarded The Most sold album of the Year and The most streamed Song of the Year. Several UMK artists were nominated and won awards. It's worth remembering three UMK entries have won The Song of the Year award in recent years: Dark side , Ram pam pam and Cha cha cha . Käärijä and Bess also have won The Artist of the Year award in 2022 and 2023, Kuumaa has won The Band of the Year now three years in a row (2022, 2023, 2024). Newcomer of the Year has been won by Jesse Markin (2019), Käärijä (2023), Kuumaa won Album of the year (2023). Pop of the year award has gone to Bess (2022) and Kuumaa (2023). Rock of the year to Blind Channel (2021, 2024), Export award to ...

Logomo in Turku will be the chosen venue for Uuden musiikin kilpailu aka UMK 2023 final on February 25, 2023. The procedure is pretty much the same as past years: Yle promises the biggest show ever, there will be seven acts competing and huge opening and interval act shows.  The chosen artists will be announced on January 11 and their entries showcased one per day as usual starting at midnight. Among the artists aree, as usual, well knows acts and up and coming new names and the genres include the best dance entry in UMK's history with a new killer vocalist, an entry full of sexual tension by a very well known artist, a show stopping ballad by one of the most significant export artists, the strongest rap banger in UMK's history (we start to repeat ourselves here) and up and coming and very popular bands..... We'll see. The UMK final also includes on spot in Turku a pre- and after party and sico, and tickets are selling already fast. Last year it was sold out. UMK has also m...

The Finnish Grammy, or Emma Awards were handed out tonight in Helsinki's Ice Hall and the biggest winner was our last year's Eurovision success Blind Channel that won all six awards it was nominated for. Dark side,  their entry was awarded as The Song of the year, and it was also the most streamed Finnish song. Eurovision winners Måneskin got also a trophy: The Most streamed song of the year doe I wanna be your slave ! So both the local and international most streamed song was from Eurovision 2021 act! This is all Blind Channel won: Rock band of the Year The Export of the year The Group of the year The Song of the year (Dark side) The Most streamed Finnish song (Dark side) People's Choice 

 Spotify has published the listening figures for 2021 and Eurovision song contest is present more than ever! Finland's Eurovision entry Dark side by Blind Channel is number one, while Eurovision winners Måneskin are rnner up with I wanna be your slave. And fifth with Eurovision winner Zitti e buoni. And sixth with Beggin'! Måneskin is also the fourth most listened artist! Check below the full lists: The most listened songs on Spotify Finland in 2021: 1. Blind Channel - Dark side 2. Måneskin - I wanna be your slave 3. Haloo Helsinki - Piilotan mun kyyneleet 4. Portion Boys - Vauhti kiihtyy (feat Matti & Teppo) 5. Måneskin - Zitti e buoni 6. Måneskin - Beggin' 7. Lil Nas X - Montero (Call me by your name) 8. BEHM - Frida 9. The Kid Laroi - Stay (feat Justin Bieber) 10. Masked Wolf - Astronaut in the ocean The most listened artists on Spotify Finland in 2021: 1. Haloo Helsinki 2. Cheek 3. JVG 4. Måneskin 5. Eminem 6. BEHM 7. The Weeknd 8. Ed Sheeran 9. Gettomasa 10. Justi...

Everyone knows Ricky Balboa, an underdog like Blind Channel at Eurovision 2021 where they sneaked into sixth place - Finland's second best showing ever! Måneskin may have taken over the world but also Blind Channel hasn't come back empty handed. They have a new international record deal and their summer tour in Finland has been sold out. The tour continues in Europe in January! Their gig in Helsinki's Allas Sea pool in the city center is now watchable in Yle Areena . 

What a time to be alive, would someone say. Nine Eurovision 2021 songs are in the official Finnish singles Top-20 (week 21). Add winner's another song in the mix and voilà..... history is happening right in front of your eyes! And that's not all. Five Eurovision artists albums enter the Top-40 albums!  I let the charts speak to themselves: Official singles chart 1. (6.) Blind Channel - Dark side 2. ( - ) Måneskin - Zitti e buoni 5. ( - ) Gjon's Tears - Tout l'univers 6. ( - ) Måneskin - I wanna be your slave 7. ( - ) Elena Tsagrinou - El Diablo 8. ( - ) Dadi Freyr - 10 years 10. ( - ) Barbara Pravi - Voilà 17. ( - ) Go_A - Shum 19. ( - ) The Roop - Discotheque 20. ( - ) TIX - Fallen angel Official albums chart 2. ( - ) Måneskin - Teatro d'ira, vol. 1 9. ( - ) Måneskin - Il ballo della vita 21. ( - ) Måneskin - Chosen 23. ( - ) Dadi Freyr - Welcome 39. ( - ) Blind Channel - Blood brothers Radio play charts 2. (3.) Blind Channel - Dark side 79. ( - ) Måneskin - Zitti ...

The Eurovision song contest 2021 was a great success in every way, there's no doubt about that. It managed to keep the virus out (well, almost....) and gave people all around Europe what they wanted: a live show. That is proven by the viewing figures that are all over Europe the best ones in many years if not record breaking. (Well, almost...) 183 million people turned in to watch the shows on television or online where over 50 million people in 234 countries joined in! But the real success comes afterwards in streaming platforms. I have never witnessed such a rush to download and stream the Eurovision songs. And so many of them! Besides the winners Italian Måneskin who has really taken over the globe with their music, not only the winning song but their music in general, notable success has been evident for Ukrainian Go-A and Finnish Blind Channels, but that's just to name a few.  I have already lost of Måneskin's records including the most streamed Italian song within 24 ...

Let's have a closer look how Finland received votes in the semi-final and the final. In the semi-final the juries  voted less than the televoters, just like in the final: 7   France, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia 6   Iceland, Switzerland, Portugal, Serbia, Czech Republic, UK, Albania 5   Austria 4   Georgia 3   San Marino 2   Poland 0   Greece, Moldova, Bulgaria, Spain        TOTAL 84 points The televoters spread more love to the dark side placing it FIRST : 12   Poland, Bulgaria 10   Denmark, San Marino, Iceland, Estonia, Serbia 8    Czech republic, Greece, Moldova, Latvia, UK,  6    Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Georgia 5    Austria, Albania 2    France  TOTAL 150 points                  Finland placed only 5th in the semi-final but really upped their game for the final. In the jury...

And here's the second part of today's rehearsals. Check out the previous post for the others! Finland does what Finland does and this blogger is hoping for a good result. As said before the semi-final should be an easy task but in the final there's the duel Italy vs. Finland and I'm torn apart with this thing. Let them both rock and do well! Luckily their stagings are very different having common only the energy. And rock. Latvia is the only one I publicly say I tryly wish won't make the final. The song's not a song, it's noise and shouting and the staging has the ugliest colors our of them all, and it seems to be mainly posing so the photos are great. They are also silent so that's a thunbs up from me. Sorry. Switzerland, more I see more I'm confused. Is this a bit too artsy in the end? Will a random housewife watching think this is ridiculous, will she vote for him? Probably not. He sings well, no doubt about that but I already had mixed feelings a...

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 ...

We want to show everyone that even if your life isn’t ideal, it can still be fun. This song is dedicated to everyone who has ever felt excluded or unworthy, to those who just want to flip everyone off and scream bloody murder. We're here to say that we’re not alone in this world – and the Eurovision Song Contest is all about unity, no matter how you choose to express it! Dark Side is the soundtrack to an underground party and serves as the perfect distillation of our message.  It’s time for Finland and the world to see, hear and understand what Blind Channel is made of. Blind Channel calls its style ‘violent pop’. After honing their craft underground for three albums, the band believes that the time has come for them to bring their sound to the world. Blind Channel loves to put on a show, and the band’s members are no strangers to crazy antics and big gestures. Pretty much what I expected, but this no Viszlát nyár compared to energy and slap in the face. AWS was pure energy, these ...

The artists may have leaked already last night, as usual, but today they were confirmed in a short presentation on Yle's social media channels and even live on TV1 at 1pm local time. The songs will be aired one per day starting from tomorrow. The final will take place on February 20 without live audience, and the winner will be determined by televoters (75%) and international jury (25%). The host os the show will be revealed only in February.  TEFLON BROTHERS X PANDORA - I LOVE YOU (Jaakko Salovaara-Axel Ehnström-Mikko Kuoppala-Heikki Kuula-Jani Tuohimaa-Anneli Magnusson) Teflon Brothers is a rap, pop, dance trio made of Pyhimys, Heikki Kuula and Voli. They started back in 2006. They have released six albums and 27 singles, often featuring guest vocalists and having humorous lyrics. Their biggest hits are Seksikkäin jäbä (#3), Maradona (Kesä '86) (#1), Pämppää (#1), Hubba bubba (#2), Aksel Kankaanranta got his breakhtrough being featured in Jättiläinen by Pyhimys who has...