Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

It's been three years Käärijä cha cha chaed his way to Finnish people's heart and not only: sold out European tours where locations have been updated to larger ones, three years in a row performing at Eurovision song contest final in one form or another (plus Cha cha cha played this year making it four), hundreds of gigs and festivals, millions of streams and countless collaborations with local and foreign artists. Not bad for an unknown guy from Vantaa who didn't quite speak English. In Finland he has two Top-5 albums, one has sold triple platinum. Ten top-10 singles, 23 Top-50 singles. 17 singles with other artists. New album comes out in October 2026.  Sold out Veikkaus Arena (Eurovision 2007 arena) saw a show described by critics (and music lovers)  as one of the best Finnish productions ever. A bit messy as he delivered all his hits with guests and the genres go from TRAFIK! to I miss us.... Understandable. But enjoyable. Bojan and Joker Out were the warm up act.  Se...

  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

  He's done it again. A real fun banger.  He did Amsterdam's Het grote songfestivalfeest again this year opening the whole show this time

The beauty of Eurovision is occasionally the artists became friends and/or collaborate in the future. Here comes another fruit of that thing: Germany's last placed Lord of the Lost join forces with Finnish runner up Käärijä in Raveyard.  Somehow I have a feeling this isn't last Käärijä collaboration with fellow Eurovision artists..... It's worth remembereing Lord of the Lost already did a v´cover of Cha cha cha, too :-)

Rim Tim Tagi Dim and Cha cha cha everybody.  After this exhausting Eurovision season's end this blogger is off to holidays  and will be back eventually someday. Have a great summer!

Eesti laul 2025 had 175 submissions in various languages: 65 in Estonian and the rest in English, Italian, German and French. The chosen line up announced in early November features various songwriters and artists from Finland, Sweden and Norway. A wild card act was added in January after an online voting. (See below) As for the Finns Felin is Elin Blom (with Fredrik Etoall) of Twister Sister fame in Finnish national selection 2010 with Love at the first sight placing 4th and later that year she took part in Swedish Idols placing 6th. and her song is co-written by Paul Rein aka Pauli Jokela. The girlband also won MGP Nordic the Finnish selection, the original Junior Eurovision in 2007 with Fröken Perfekt. Stereo Terror are Finns and their song co-written by Lauri Hämäläinen, a man behind songs to many big Finnish artists. Then we have Johannes Naukkarinen, co-writer of Cha cha cha behind Tommy Cash song (who already dueted with Käärijä is It's crazy it's party). As of Eurovisio...

It's happening: Eurovision 2023 winner Loreen of Sweden and runner up Käärijä of Finland will perform together for the Eurovision song contest 2024 final's interval act announced by SVT tonight in Bngolotto show. In their joint medley Loreen will Cha cha cha with Käärijä's original staging and choreography while Käärijä will recreate Loreen's Tattoo as well and with the magic of live television the performances will melt together at some point.  Other interval or opening acts haven't yet been confirmed but Eurovision 2003 winner Turkish Sertab Erener confessed she's one of them in a medley that is rumored to inlude also Cypriot runner up Eleni Foureira among others.  Käärijä will be also present in Malmö performing in Eurovillage and Euroclub. There is still no news whether Loreen will appear somewhere as well during Eurovision week. 

The Finnish Grammys or Emma Awards were handed out last night in Espoo Metro Areena and as expected Käärijä swept all but one award he was nominated and some more. The one that slipped away scandalously was the Public's award that Lauri Haav's fans fixed for him instead. About 99% of people watching where mouth open with Who?! This blogger was left moth open as well, I know the name but can't say I know any of his song though...even if I think I have featured him in my #FinPop series.  Käärijä won five awards: Artist of the Year, Best New Act, Export of the year and Song of the Year and The Most streamed Finnish song for his Eurovision runner up Cha cha cha. Obviously he also performed as the last act of the evening with a wonderful version of Cha cha cha with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.  The evening was full of UMK as in many categories UMK acts were nominated and Kuumaa won four awards as well: Most sold album of the Year, Album of the Year, Group of the Year, Pop o...

Well. Well well well..... I must admit I said when this was released "Wait and see Finns will vote this to Malmö!" In between it looked quite, even very unlikely considering polls and streams and charts etc but here we are. Last with international juries (but Uk gave them 12!), first in televote they beat Sara Siipola to second place. To be honest, I never cared for the video but I had grown a little liking for the song and on stage it came alive and was just over the top in a good way. So I'm not angry nor sad, just amused.  As for the name, they said they have a name in  store if Ebu doesn't approve Windows95man. On the other hand it's a product no longer in market and therefor Yle for example can use it now and back in the 2017 New Year's celebration party where he performed.  Otherwise the show was a bit underwhelming. Käärijä and Erika Vikman totally stole the show, as did always lovely Katri Helena with her 1979 entry Katson sineen taivaan. I read Erika ...

  Justice be done, Käärijä beats Loreen's Tattoo to second place with a clear margin in the annual fa voting #ESC250, the one and original one.  Cha cha cha scored 22.440 points against Tattoo's 19.446 and Loreen's previous #1 for 11 years Euphoria was almost beaten by last year's #1 SloMo, 17.986 vs. 17.913. Käärijä got 991 12s versus Loreen's 765. Käärijä has had an excellent year: more than 120 sold out gigs in Finland and an European tour. The most streamed song in Finnish ever with nearly 122 million streams on Spotify alone. Cha cha cha was also the most watched video on Eurovision.tv's Youtube channel beating again Loreen.  Cha cha cha topped the official Finnish charts for 9 weeks staying in Top-5 for 30 weeks, still at number 38 at its 48th week. In Radio play charts in was #1 for two weeks, staying in Top-5 for 16 weeks, 11 of them at #2 behind another UMK2023 act, Kuumaa's Ylivoimainen.  On Christmas Eve Yle broadcasted his summer gig in prime tim...

Käärijä's Eurovision runner up and televote winner Cha cha cha is dominating the Spotify viral charts in most every market including the USA, Japan (#2), UK, Germany, France and Sweden but something else is happening in Finland! On Monday 22.5 Cha cha cha was #1 in Spotify Viral in USA, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, UK, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Israel, Ukraine, Poland and Australia. #2 in New Zealand and Japan, #4 in Mexico, #7 in South Africa. Just to name a few :-) After being the only country not to give Sweden any televotes the Top-2 of Finland's viral Spotify chart is occupied by those songs that have inspired Loreen's Tattoo quite a lot. I find all this so amusing. No one needs to get offended or say Finns are bad losers. It just shows how we function. A bit differently. Lol. Listen to Mika Newton here and Pont Aeri here .

His success break another record. Käärijä's Cha cha cha, Eurovision 2023 runner up and televote winner enters UK official charts at number six! I guess it's safe to say it's the highest and probably only song in Finnish ever to enter the chart and mind you Top-10!  Loreen may be higher and rightly so but that's a generic pop song in English, when Cha cha cha is a song in Finnish. I repeat: FINNISH! And that's not all: #1 Finland #1 Sweden #2 Iceland #3 Norway #7 Ireland #8 Switzerland #8 Czechia #10 Lithuania #13 The Netherlands #16 Slovakia #17 Belgium #18 Germany #20 Global Spotify #46 Spain #56 Greece #85 Italy

This is only the beginning but Käätijä's Eurovision song contest 2023 runner up and televote winner Cha cha cha has already become the most streamed Finnish song in Finnish!  he has also broken the Finnish record of daily streams (469.600 on May 14) as well as weekly streams (2.566,241 accumulated on May 12-18)! The streaming numbers are over 32 million when writing this (pdate 21.5.: It's already 45 million) while the previous chart's Top-10 looks like this (On May 17, 2023), incl. UMK winner Aksel Kankaanranta as feat.: 1. Käärijä - Cha cha cha   32 297 751 2. JVG - Ikuinen vappu    31 441 712 3. Korpiklaani - Ievan polkka   30 432 149 4. JVG - Tarkenee   29 162 829 5.  Behm - Hei rakas   28 183 379 6. William - Penelope   27 053 714 7. JVG - Hehkuu   23 090 230 8. Pyhimys feat Aksel Kankaanranta - Jättiläinen    23 087 338 9. Reino Nordin - Antaudun    22 811 485 10. Behm - Frida ...

Käärijä is indeed Mr. Worldwide now that his Helsinki ice Hall arena gig will not only happen live, but is also broadcasted live on television and streamed live worldwide on Yle Areena ( here ) . Join in the fun wherever you are on May 20 7pm CET. It's crazy, it's party! He received a winner's welcome at the airport and City of Vantaa with Yle had already planned a winner's welcome party for Monday and considering his success and public demand they wanted to go ahead with the plans even if he didn't want but Käärijä himself cancelled the show as he thought he wasn't worth it. But I suppose something will happen sooner or later, only that he is booked to most every summer festival for the next few months.

The Eurovision song contest 2023 runner up and televote winner by a margin, Käärijä's Cha cha cha from Finland after having topped the Spotify Global Viral chart for a couple of days climbs to number 7 in the official Spotif Global charts! It entered the Top-200 at number 151, climbed to 68 and now 7. This is the fist time evr a song in Finnish enters the Top-200! The daily streams since Eurovision grand final on Saturday have been nearly 2 million. Number one in Finland, Sweden (!), Iceland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuamia. Numer two in Austria. Belgium, Norway, Ukraine, United Kingdom (!) and Poland. Number 3 in Ireland, Israel and so on. All I can say is cha cha cha (and please someone take it out of my head, it's been days I just go cha cha cha in any situation!)

"The rules are the rules and they are what they are and are to respected", said Käärijä in his homecoming interview at Helsinki airport today. But he continued that maybe they should be changed to be more fair. "Loreen deserved to win. Of course I wanted to win and I am disappointed. You enter a competition to win. Not for our performance, I wouldn't change a thing. We had a chance to beat her, did well but it wasn't enough. Loreen is amazing person and I love her. But I would have loved to beat her!"  He didn't know Finland didn't give Sweden any televote points. "Wow, I didn't know that! But it only proves Finns supported me also that way and I am grateful." Mayor of Vantaa, his hometown, and CEO of Yle were also there to welcome him home. Käärijä tells he has been in the Eurovision bubble for two weeks and has only a tiny idea of what's been going in Finland with this green hype and now it will take some time to let it sink. City...

Eurovision 2023 runner up and televote winner Käärijä and #teamFinland returned home this afternoon and there were hundreds of people waiting for him chanting WINNER! WINNER! and non stop singing Cha cha cha.  This morning he published on social medias he's sorry he didn't win, which made Finns appreciate and love him even more. Therefor many fans interviewed on spot said they wanted to come and welcome him back as in their books he's a winner. He may have not won the contest thanks to juries but he won the televote and people's hearts. You can say he was surprised! All this was broadcast live by Yle, as they also did a Käärijä special this morning. I think they were ready for an eventual victory and with the on going Käärijä hype the second place is worth broadcasting everything anyways.  You can watch it here

The hype was in the air for Käärijä's chances to win Eurovision song contest 2023. And it shows also in viewing figures: 1.264.000 (78%) for the first semi-final, all time record. Taking account the grand final that usually gathers a lot more viewers it's the 7th most watched Eurovision final or semi-final since 1999. The record is obviously Helsinki 2007 Eurovision final with 1.905.000 (83%). I have a feeling we will break that next Saturday. Ladies and gentlemen: 2,8 million Finns reached out and tuned in to watch the show on television or various Yle's platforms. The average was 1,7 million while over 800.000 views were started online in Yle Areena. (And how many we will get still today for those few who didn't stay yp and watch last night? Or re-watch it today?). Last year the average was 1,07 million with total reach of 2,1 million.   The fever was high also in 2006 when Lordi won. 1.479.000 (75%) gathered in front of their tv-screens. But in spring 2006 there was ...