Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Erika Vikman returns and is The One to Beat this year. Fandom and public has waited for her return since Cicciolina didn't win in 2020 and she's been present in UMK multiple times in a way or another  since: Opening act with Antti Tuisku in 2021 and 2024 interval act with Käärijä. Eerika started her career in tango circuit, a very popular music genre in Finland, by winning Tangojunior in 2008. More talent shows followed and she also acted in tv drama series 2009-10. The year after she starred in a musical and in 2013 tried her luck in Idols placing seventh (ahead of her UMK veteran Zuhlke and international pop star Alma btw). Her big breakthrough came however in 2016 when she won Tangomarkkinat and was crowned the Tango Queen. The year after she starred in reality  tv-series Iholla. In 2020 she dropped her tango singer image and launched the raunchy slutty pop diva with usually double sensed lyrics and humor with Cicciolina winning the televote in UMK but the juries...

  After Eurovision break here comes some new #Finpop tunes including Chisu who's quitting her solo career and yet another radio banger from ex-Satin Circus Olli Halonen. Enjoy! Chisu - Mun kulta Överi - Zidane  Pamela - Ei täs mitään häviä Olli Halonen - Suomen kesä

  Let's continue with the most unlikely ones. See the previous post for more information.... ABREU - Lusikat Antti Tuisku - Valittu kansa Chisu - Ikävä Sanni - Yksinäinen milleniaali Arja Koriseva - Leipää, lempee, lämpöö Evelina - Mä en haluu tietää Kasmir - Aamu Mariska - Minä liityin sinuun Suvi Teräsniska - Samase Ressu Redford - Viimeinen päivä Jukka Poika - Papaija Laura Närhi - Helsinki

Yle is going internal again in 2019 and it will be very curious to see who they choose (or get) after Saara Aalto - will they go for big international name or something big in Finland.  Or someone new and emerging? Chisu aka Christel Sundberg is one of the most succesful Finnish artists of the 2010's. She has won so far nine Emma awards (or Finnish Grammys) including Female artist, Song and album of the year awards. She also was the very first female to win the Producer award. She writes and produces not only to herself but also to other artists. Five albums (two #1s, two #2s and one #5) since 2008 but she's been rather quiet since her 2015 album Polaris , and her participation in Vain elämää season 5 in 2016.  Maybe #UMK2019 could be her big comeback? Her direct Eurovision connection is her bf and father of her child Mikki Kunttu who has been lighting director in Eurovision song contest 2007, 2013, 2016 and 2018 among others.  This blogger is a devoted fan a...

  It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.8 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. Benjamin didn't hit fame and fortune from Youtube or Spotify but from Instagram. Yup. He got a huge following before he even recorded one note or before anyone even thought he could be a singer. His debut Underdogs was a Top-10 hit in Finland and became a hit in Spain, of all places, where he apparently has a following. Unbreakable , Young and restless , Body and Man on the moon (below) continued...

Antti Tuisku is really living the highlight of his career as we know it. His latest single Hanuri went straight to #1 in the official singles chart last week upon its release and yesterday he was the last act on Helsinki Day's open air free concert to celebrate Helsinki's 467th birthday in a strng of names like Chisu, The Rasmus, Kaija KooMikael Gabriel and Lauri Tähkä - all Finnish pop's royalty. Hanuri flirts with the Balcan sound and features to Kosovan brothers (aka Boyat) while the lyrics are tongue in cheek between dirty and hilarious filled with double meanings and read between the lines in true Kikka style! And if Kikka was the female Slavko os the late 80's-earöy 90's Antti is becoming the Finnish Slavko with his over the top performing..... If only in UMK.....

Finally! Chisu joins the cast for the fifth season of Vain elämää and at this point it seems it's going to be a Chisu show, but then you never know. The other names are Hector, rapper Mikael Gabriel, Suvi Teräsniska, Lauri Tähkä, Anna Puu and Mikko Kuustonen. This is the first season we don't have any Eurovision or national selection veterans taking part but the names are big and current with those two older gentlemen with decades of career behind them. The most critizised name is Mikael Gabriel that most seem to be going with "Who?!" - just like Sanni last year and look what happened...... If you forgot how the show works here's a short sum up: The artists get together in a villa for a week. Each day is dedicated to one of them and the other artists cover his/her songs in their own way. In the end there's a final episode with duets. After the show the compilation albums will be released and they will sell multiple platinum and the show will take over iT...

The third and last #UMK16 semifinal takes place in YLE's studios in Helsinki. Roope Salminen and Krista Siegfrids - fresh from Melodifestivalen - will be hosting the show, and Raakel Liekki is in charge in the Post-Modulation scene. Chisu will be doing the interval show and one can only wish one day YLE would just skip all UMK and send her off to Eurovision....  ----------- Join me at 8pm  for live blogging----------------- Here we go again! Roope's got Krista back and is all kisses and hugs :-) No wonder, she's dressed in pink minidress and long silver boots looking very ding if not even dong! After chat with post-modulators and voting instructions it's party time..... Lieminen - Pehmeiden arvojen vaalijat Starts with a human pyramid and he has his helmet headed dancers and robot musicians and a lot of neon and all that we already know from the video. Visually very entertaining and smooth, vocally a bit less - but then he's been in silence all...

And the nominees for the Best Female artist in Emma Gaala, or the Finnish Grammys include Chisu who has already a shelf full of Emma awards (9), last year's winner Sanni , winner of 2009 and 2012 Anna Puu and solidly popular   Johanna Kurkela . And as a joker a newcomer Aurora .  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!

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.....

Chisu, one of the most selling - in my books by far the best - Finnish female artists the last decade or so I returning from maternity and has released the lead single from her fourth album Polaris to be released later this fall (her first in three years) titled Ihana (Wonderful). Her previous three albums have sold over 200.000 copies and she says she has no pressure as the process of writing the abum has been so different this time.  "These songs have been written over the period of 2012-2015 unlike the previous albums that were written, produced and recorded over a period of six months or so. It feels great to be back now that I have found again my path in music world!" In between she has studies arts, had a baby, and most of all had a long total break from the business moving away from Helsinki. One thing have remained: Her loyal fans have stayed and waited for her return. The single went straight to #1 in radio airplay list, something that has never happened i...

As the state failed to collect money to build a new, desperately needed hospital for children all sort of events and fund raising ways has been launched previously. And here finally comes the "ULS17 Live Aid". Nightwish's Tuomas Holopainen wrote the sing together with Simo Reunamäki and Cheek, and 18 artists got together for the recording of the song and the video. A five hour long stadium concert will follow on June 6, 2015 in Helsinki Olympic Stadium with all the artists and the choir of musicians of Finnish National opera and the dancers of the national Ballet. This event should push the donations to pass over the needed sum to start building later this year and the new hospital to be ready in 2017. The list of artists is quite impressive from top selling artists of the past few years like Cheek, Jenni Vartiainen, Chisu, Jesse Kaikuranta to Lauri Ylönen of The Rasmus and Samu Haber of Sunrise Avenua. And Eurovision stars Jari Sillanpää, Riki Sorsa and Vesa-Matt...

Chisu has been the most played artist in the Finnish radios in 2012. Her songs were aired a total of 23.278 times - or there were 2-3 of her songs playing somewhere all the time - and she had three big hits besides the older ones still playing: Kohtalon oma (5.107 being the 2nd most played song of the year beated only by Loreen's Euphoria , 5.574), Tie (4.588) and Kolnas pyörä . Madonna was once again the most played foreign artist followed by Bruce Springsteen, Juha Tapio, late Michael Jackson, Nickelback, Rihanna, Eppu Normaali, Jenni Vartiainen and Bon Jovi. That's for all the radio stations. If we look at only the nationwide ones, Bruce and Michael has to do way to locals Laura Närhi and Samuli Edelmann in top-10.

Here are the 20 most played songs in Finnish radios in 2012 (and their highest chart position). The full top-100 is here . The top of the list is filled with Finnish songs but in the end it's 51-49 for the foreign songs in top-100 1. Pariisin kevät: KESÄYÖ (1) 2. Loreen: EUPHORIA (1) 3. Train: DRIVE BY (1) 4. Chisu: KOHTALON OMA (1) 5. Jesse Kaikuranta: VIE MUT KOTIIN (1) 6. Jesse Kaikuranta: JÄRJETÖN RAKKAUS (1) 7. Elokuu: SAATILLA (2) 8. Nickelback: WHEN WE STAND TOGETHER (1) 9. Chisu: KOLMAS PYÖRÄ (1) 10. PMMP: RAKKAALLENI (1) 11. Juha Tapio: RAKASTAN NIIN KAUAN KUIN MÄ VOIN (2) 12. Laura Närhi: HETKEN TIE ON KEVYT (4) 13. Erin: ON ELÄMÄ LAINA (6) 14. Kelly Clarkson: STRONGER (WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU) (1) 15. Elokuu: SOUTAA HUOPAA (1) 16. Chisu: TIE (2) 17. Samuli Putro: OLET PUOLISONI NYT...

Here it is finally, simply called Eva & Manu and guess what? It went straight to #1 in iTunes! It's also Ylex's Album of the week so you can listen to it here . Apparently their gig in Helsinki was a huge success, I sadly missed it. They were the official debutantes of Helsinki Festival 2012. A well deserved honor. Get yours here or buy the album! Here for example. These darlings are the most interesting to come out in Finland since.... err.... since... Chisu?

Chisu was the final act on Helsinki Day's mega concert. She has just released a new deluxe version of her triple platinum selling Kun valaistun with three new tracks Kolmas pyörä , Frankenstein and Kun valaistun also heard in the concert along with her biggest hits like Sama nainen , Tie , Mun koti ei oo täällä , Sabotage , Kohtalon oma and Muut . During the sunny day turned into clouds and for a moment it looked like Chisu would do in kaisaniemi park what Diana Ross did in Central park but it didn't quite go that far.....

Helsinki celebrates it's 200th anniversary as the capital city and it's also the World Design Capital 2012 so the annual Helsinki Day tomorrow June 12 couldn't be but grand. And it is if you look at the artist list in the big open air concert to be held in Kaisaniemi park today from 3pm to 10pm: Chisu, The Rasmus, Erin, Poets of the fall, Happoradio, Herra Ylppö & Ihmiset, Lauri Tähkä and Reckless Love ! Sounds pretty fantastic, I kinda like them all!

The Finnish music scene has been dominated by female artists the past few years. First names like Jonna Tervomaa, Irina and Maija Vilkkumaa did pop rock, followed by more sophisticated Jenni Vartiainen and Chisu while Kaija Koo was always there in between. Then we have Jippu and Anna Eriksson who both have returned with a bang this spring. And they both have turned very dark!  Jippu entered the album chart at #8 this week with her Väärinpäin lentävät linnut full of very personal songs about the very colorful life of this somewhat troubled and sensitive artist. This is her third album following the previous #1 album Kuka teki musta tän naisen four years ago. In between she scored cover hits in duet with Samuli Edelmann. And did you know Jenni Vartiainen is one of her closest friends? Here is Henki ja elämä and the title track .  Anna Eriksson returns with her 7th studio album Mana in Finnish after the previous Garden of love album in English and went straight to #2 ...