Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Pyhimys feat. Aksel Kankaanranta - Jättiläinen JVG - Popkorni Adi L Hasla feat. Pihlaja - Kevät Nikke Ankara - Rikkinäinen prinsessa Pikku G feat. BHM - Solmussa The most listened Finnish artists were  Cheek,  JVG, Pyhimys,  Sanni,  Evelina,  Ellinoora  and Jenni Vartiainen. I guess it's safe to think none of these artists is the UMK2019 chosen one...

Here comes the last set of hits from the Finnish airwaves this summer for now. YLE might be keeping an ear for possible #UMK2019 and Eurovision song contest entrants. Or possibly not.... Ilta is a new Finnish-German artist, who started at the top being the featured artist in megastar Cheek's #1 Sillat . Another featuring followed with some Adele covers before she released her first solo effort Koukkuun that went streaming gold. Let's see if she can make it and battle out off the shadows to spotlight among all these new up and coming female artists.... If Antti Tuisku is the male #1 in most everyone's wish list, Jenni Vartiainen is a true wet dream. When YLE announced they go internal again in 2019 media and chatrooms shouted out for Jenni in unison. She' working on her 4th album at the moment (all previous ones have sold multiplatinum). Meanwhile she has released alresdy four singles off it, this Väärään suuntaan was a radioplay #1, and her latest Voulez...

The Finnish Grammys aka Emma awards were handed out this weekend in Espoo's Metro Areena and between performances by likes of Jenni Vartiainen, JVG, Haloo Helsinki!, Antti Tuisku and other cream of the cream of Finnish music business right now the awards were handed out. Haloo Helsinki! picked up seveal ones, as did Cheek and Antti Tuisku. Eveliina - female artist of the year Antti Tuisku - Male artist of the year Leo - Newcomer of the year Haloo Helsinki! - Band of the year Alma - Chasing hights - Song of the year Reino Nordin - Antaudun - Most streamed song of the year (oveer 11 million) Cheek - Enkelit - Video fo the year (Public's choice) Cheek - Artist of the year (Publics choice) Haloo Helsinki! - Hulluuden highway - Album of the year Haloo Helsinki! - Hulluuden highway - Rock album of the year Haloo Helsinki! - Hulluuden highway - Most sold album of the year (51.000) Antti Tuisku - Anatude - Pop album of the year JVG - Pop...

A total of 18 songs made it to the number one in the official Finnish singles charts in 2017;  15 of them being Finnish! But as the Finnish ones, mostly various pop rapper, shot to the top and dropped out in a week or two mostly, the foreign ones stayed on top for several weeeks and months making a total of 30 weeks! The hugely popular Vain elämää's two seasons both gave us countless radiohits but only two made it to #1 (Nikke Ankara and Cheek with a Jari Sillanpää cover) last year, one from each series. Without further a do, have a listen below.... ARTTU LINDEMAN - HUKUTAAN (Week 1) ED SHEERAN - SHAPE OF YOU (Weeks 2-6, 12-15) MIKAEL GABRIEL & ISAC ELLIOT - LIIKAA SUSSA KII (Weeks 7-8) JVG feat. ELLINOORA - SITÄ SÄÄT MITÄ TILAAT (Weeks 9-10) ANTTI TUISKU - RAHAN TAKII (Week 11) REINO NORDIN - ANTAUDUN (Weeeks 16-17) NIKKEluis f ANKARA - PETTÄVÄLLÄ JÄÄLLÄ (Week 18) LUIS FONSI  ft. DADDY YANKEE - DESPACITO (Weeks 19-23, 24-31) ANTTI TUISK...

The 2016 was rich with Number One songs in the official singles chart. A total of 26 songs made it, and the most remarkable thing is 21 of them were Finnish! Sadly only Finnish (humour) rap though. The foreign number ones go to Alan Walker, Justin Bieber featured by Mazor Laser or DJ Snake, and Clean Bandit & co.  Elastinen and JVG are featured in four #1's, Mikael Gabriel, Sanni, Cheek and Arttu Lindeman in three and even Nikke Ankara in two. Doesn't leave much for the others.  Looking at the streaming, download and radioplay charts it's a different story.... Thankfully.  JVG - Paluu tulevaisuuteen (weeks 1-2) Alan Walker (feat. Isolin Solheim) - Faded (weeks 3-4-5-6) Sanni - Että mitähän vittua (weeks 7-8-9) Cheek - Me ollaan ne ,  part 2 (Feat. Elastinen, JVG, Nikke Ankara, Kube, Pete Parkkonen) (weeks 10-11) Elastinen feat.  Lauri Tähkä - Lempo (weeks 12-13) Nikke Ankara - Ettei nyt vaan sattuis mitään (week 14) Eveliina - Sire...

The Emma aka Finnish Grammy nominees for the Best Male artist include Antti Tuisku , who finally seems to have broken into a mainstream and wide audience favorite challenging Cheek and Robin as the nation's main hearthrob of the moment. Then there's Mikael Gabriel who's still not mainstream but appears all the time here and there also with his collaborations, and Juha Tapio , still holding strong and being the pet of the slightly older generations. The award gala will take place next month.  Check out their latest videos after the jump....

The nominees for the best video. The winner will be voted by the public in this category. Four out of ten are also nominated for the best song.... Among them UKM host Roope Salminen, tongue twisitng SAARA, JVG and now also JVG's VilleGalle in another video....  And way too much Finnish humour rap here, too. Thank heavens there's Chisu at least!

Another year has passed and it's time to look back who managed to score a #1 hit in the official Finnish charts.... Once again the chart is dominated by foreign DJs and Finnish rappers and most every act has "feat." in it. But hey, one Eurovision entry is one of the biggest hits of the year: Vicky Rosti's Sata salamaa covered by Antti Tuisku in Vain elämää series. Also another cover from that series made it to number one: VilleGalle and Sanni doing Pave Maijanen's classic Lähtisitkö . And another Eurovision link is UMK host Roope Salminen having one of the summer hits.  Only 18 songs made it, and Finnish ones beat the foreign ones 10-8 :-) Check all their videos after the jump.... Oops, I forgot there are 53 weeks in 2015! This one's the new number one 53/2015:

And we go on dreaming. After my totally impossible semifinal one and two here would be the dream team for semifinal three. If only..... Who knows? Maybe one day soon we will have a good old Euroviisut back? With big invited names next to open submission.....

Ville-Petteri Galle aka VilleGalle is another half of rap duo JVG. He follows Cheek and Elastinen in the rap genre to make it to a household name in this reality and who knows, he (or JVG) will move on to the next level of notority? He broke through in summer 2011 when Häissä went to number one in all possible charts and was declared the summer hit of 2011. They have released three albums so far and all have went to #1 in the official album chart. He says this is a huge opportunity for him, and hopes he is worth it, and hopes to make some great covers.

Jari Sillanpää will become the second Finnish solo artist to fill up Helsinki Olympic Stadium ( Cheek being the first one last summer) in occasion of his 50th birthday on August 16, and 20th anniversary in the business after winning the title of Tango King in Tangomarkkinat 1995. He has been on top ever since and at the moment living careerwise one of the highlights; his latest album has given him real radiohits ( Sinä ansaitset kultaa for example) and the album has sold platinum. He won Syksyn Säve l 2011, and then Tähdet, tähdet variety tv-series... He was also one of the artists in the first season of Vain elämää in 2012. That started his move to more pop oriented material and its paying off big time. Right now he's also nominated for several Emma awards aka the Finnish Grammys. Over the years he has released 15 albums (incl. compilations etc) and won countless awards. Time to break some records and make history again? After all, it takes 40.000 to tango ! 

The Finnish Grammys aka Emmas will be awarded next month in Barona Arena in Espoo. Here are the nominees for the best video: Cheek - Äärirajoille Isac Elliot - Baby I Haloo Helsinki - Beibi My First Band - Don't break my corazon JVG ft Anna Abreu - Huominen on huomenna Olavi Uusivirta - Kauneus sekoittaa mun pään Janna - Läpinäkyvää Stam1na - Panzerfaust Robin ft. Nikke Ankara - Parasta just nyt Kasmir - Vadelmavene This award will be voted by the public. Would you have wanted to see any of these among Eurovision preview videos?

Emma, the Finnish Grammy award nominations have been revealed today. Among the various nominees in different categories we have Softengine , the band that scored 11th in Copenhagen Eurovision 2014. They have been nominated as the newcomer of the year, and they are also among the nominees in the People's Choice award. In newcomers they fight it againt Arion , from UMK 2013. Jari Sillanpää has three nominations: Schlager album of the year, Male artist of the year and he's also listed for People's Choise. Another Eurovision veteran Katri Helena is still going strong; she scored also nomination in Schlager album of the year and also Female artist of the year. Diandra , Idol winner and UMK participant is also nominated for the Female artist of the year and People's Choice. Finally we have Tango King and national selection participant Amadeus Lundberg up for Peoples Choice. Also UMK judge Redrama and national final participant Samuli Edelmann are nominated. The...

Rakkaudella merkitty mies is the title of the new studio album by Jari Sillanpää. It translates roughly to A man branded/marked with love . Twelve new songs by leading young authors including Mariska, VäinäVäinö, Paula Vesala and Saara Törmä to introduce a new, more pop oriented Jari, following the success of Liekeissä , a Cheek cover he did for a reality TV series, and other covers he did for another Tv reality show over the past 2-3 years, including Gangnam style . The first single off the album was Malagaan . Get a taste of the title track here . He is hitting the road again to present the new album to the masses later this month all throught to the end of October.  Jari Sillanpää has sold over 820.000 albums in the past 20 years, making him the 5th most sold Finnish act in the history (and the 2nd most sold solo act after Katri Helena). His self titled debut album is the most sold album in Finland with sales of 270.000. Rakkaudella merkitty mies is his 13th studio albu...

The ultimate tango king Jari Sillanpää is set to conquer the pop market when he releases his new album Rakkaudella merkitty mies - his first studio one in three years - on September 26, 2014. The first single Malagaan is already out. The album features some young and popular song writers being more pop oriented than any of his previous albums after the recent success with playing with various music styles from opera to reggae, heavy and pop. About this new single he says he first thought it was just too corny and he coudn't possibly record it. After listening to it a couple of days he thought it was amusing and he just had to do it. Indeed it's kinda silly.... yet, it somehow works. Jari Sillanpää has managed to stay on top since his victory in Tangomarkkinat 1995 and his defeat in Eurovision 2004 or coming out in 2006 hasn't changed his status one bit. He has always been adored by elderly women in particular and now he may be crossing over to younger generations - ha...

The numbers are out and nicely filling the summer gaps in the news. Despite the economical situation and the changes in the music business Finnish music seems to be doing resonable well, at least the big names. The unthinkable of doing stadium gigs is no longer unthinkable when Cheek will have two sold out Olympic stadium gigs this summer and nine out of 10 best selling albums in 2013 in Finland are Finnish and in Finnish. If we count in the compilation albums of Tv-series Vain elämää (Only life or rather C'est la vie) it's a top-11 finish for Finnish music. Robin: Boom kah 83.446 (multi platinum) Teen sensation Robin continues to sell. Album features hits like Boom kah , Erilaiset and Onnellinen . he has just released a new song for the summer (promoting the use of condom btw, already a tradition in Finland) titled Kesärenkaat . I wouldn't be surprised if that will be added to the album that will be resold with new packaging :-) Cheek: Kuka muu muka   73.836 ...

Another list, this time the most downloaded and streamed songs in Finland in 2013, check out the full Top-100 here . Again Finns rule 6-4 against the foreigners but the top spot goes to Avicii. No trace of any Eurovision songs, except Norwegian national finalist and OGAE Second chance winner Adelén with Bombo at no.38 and ex-Eurovision Arash with Sean Paul at no.52 with She makes me go . Last year Loreen's Euphoria was the no.1.  1. Avicii: WAKE ME UP 2. Haloo Helsinki!: VAPAUS KÄTEEN JÄÄ     3. Sini Sabotage ft Ville Galle: LEVIKSET REPEE 4. Cheek: TIMANTIT ON IKUISIA    5. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft Wanz: THRIFT SHOP     6. Daft Punk ft Pharrell Williams: GET LUCKY     7. J. Karjalainen: MENNYT MIES 8. Redrama ft A.J. McLean: CLOUDS     9. Cheek ft Jukka Poika: JOSSU     10. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft Ray Dalton: CAN'T HOLD US

Once again the excellent Listablogi has collected the charts and here is the Top-10 most played songs in radios in Finland (Check the full top-100 here ). In 2012 the second most played one was Loreen's Euphoria , but this year Eurovision winner is nowhere to be seen. Krista Siegfrids is at no.68 with Marry me . Remarkable is that only Avicii manages to squeese in among the Finnish acts! The highest chart position in brackets. 1. Haloo Helsinki!: VAPAUS KÄTEEN JÄÄ (1) 2. Juha Tapio: TSNEH (TYKKÄÄN SUSTA NIIN ETTÄ HALKEEN) (2) 3. Haloo Helsinki!: MAAILMA ON TEHTY MEITÄ VARTEN   (1) 4. Cheek: TIMANTIT ON IKUISIA (1) 5. Jenni Vartiainen: JUNAT JA NAISET (1) 6. Elokuu: TÄNÄÄN LÄHTEE (1) 7. Redrama ft A.J. McLean: CLOUDS (1) 8. Avicii: WAKE ME UP (1) 9. Erin: EI TAIDA TIETÄÄ TYTTÖ (1) 10. Anssi Kela: LEVOTON TYTTÖ (1)

How time flies, another week has passed and here are some videos I have enjoyed the past week. We start with Norwegian Tooji who looks rather different in his Rebels . The song is pretty good and the video is beautifully shot black and white affair. Me likes! Italian Tiziano Ferro is featured in Baby K 's latest single and video Sei sola . An interesting mix of Tiz's deep vocals and Baby's female rapping...  Kosovan Rona Nishliu is back with her unmistakable voice in Se vetëm zemra flet saktë, a little bit Latin affair, a lot of orange in the video and again a great dress! The song apparently is of a campaign to raise gender awareness and against adolescent gender violance. Heart speaks right . Finnish rapper Cheek is really enjoying a huge success and his latest Timantit on ikuisia is becoming one of the biggest hits of the 2013. He has really crossed over to all audiences. Proving that some reality TV won't hurt your career....

Italian Eurovision 2011 runner up Raphael Gualazzi goes on strong with his international career in his specific genre and he has released another very nice song indeed, Don't call my name . Summer groove! And on top of that a nice display of lamp shades, something this blogger used to design in the past.... Spanish Bebe will be performing this summer in Helsinki and she's perfect music for summer nights, Mi guapo for example. Can we get her for Eurovision 2014, please? Cheek , the Finnish rapper continues with his megasuccess by covering Taikapeili 's superhit Jossu and featuring another one who has delivered a few summer hits, Jukka Poika . How could they go wrong? They didn't, this is the summer hit 2014 in Finland! Swedish Danny Saucedo has found a new video to show some skin and a rather plasticky summer hit wannabe, Todo el mundo . Love the retro coloring though!