Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Another dose of #Finpop 2025 . This time a foursome of songs that have been waiting for weeks or months to be included but always left out the last minute for a reason or another. So here they come: Eini's yet another insanely catchy banger, Bee's smash hit and James-J's and Raappana's catchy tunes. Enjoy! Eini - Yön selkään James-J - Parempaa Raappana - Konkurssi Bee - Ei me kuolla kuitenjaan

  This time let's have a UMK/Euroviisut special. Annika Eklund placed 3rd with Shanghain valot in the Euroviisut aka national selection in 2006 but it has become an evergreen and it was featured in this new version in UMK final with Annika, Eini, Keira, Bess, Laura Voutilainen and Linda Lampenius. Markku Aro of ESC 1971 has released a new track and is still actively performing and touring. Tina Petterson of Beat and ESC 1990 fame continues to release self written music and finally we have Waldo's People's ( ESC 2009 ) latest effort for the summer. Enjoy! Annika Eklund & co. - Shanghain valot 2025 Markku Aro - Sulle annoin mun elämän Tina Pettersson -Ajatuksen voimalla Waldo's People - La Fiesta

  Another dose of #Finpop for your enjoyment. Last year's revelation Hugo teams up with UMK veteran Sexmane while Jenni Vartiainen teams up with last year's most streamed artist Turisti. UMK veteran and disco queen Eini belts out another banger - written by Kuumaa's Johannes and Softengine's Topi among others! -  and finally a newcomer Kaukua.  Hugo / Sexmane - Sekunnis Jenni Vartiainen / Turisti - Leima Eini - Cocktail Kaukua - 10 000 tuntii

The ever so popular Vain elämää season 15 this fall had a lot of Eurovision connections as among the ones that gathered together to spend time and cover each other songs were both Hanna Pakarinen and Waldo of  Waldo's People with Eurovision wannabes Eini, Ilta and Marko Hietala of Nightwish fame. Ilta has been a real revelation who has made fantastic covers of everyone's songs. She's certainly one that I'd love to see back in UMK soon! Let's start with Ilta. She covered Waldo's People's Lose control making it a ballad in Finnish as Kiire . And what a heartfelt ballad it became! Not to be less Waldo covered Ilta's Kelle mä soitan . Ilta took also Hanna Pakarinen's Leave me alone and did the same treatment: heartfelt ballad in Finnish as Mee nyt vaan pois   and did it work? Oh yea! But Waldo wasn't yet done with Eurovision as he took also from Eini her UMK entry Draamaa and make it his own. As a bonus here's Waldo and Ilta belting out Hanna Pa...

  The hits keep coming from radio waves and streaming platforms and charts! Enjoy! Olli Halonen - Kylä keskellä ei mitään Eini - Puhdasta nautintoo Eeva Louhivuori - Ruusu Maija Vilkkumaa - Maria

  Today's dose of #Finpop2023 with two Eurovision wannabes Eini and Aksel.... Lore - Kun mä näin sut Tuure Boelius - Toista mua Eini - Syntynyt uudelleen Aksel Kankaanranta - Ilman sua

  Another dose of different Finnish beats. There's Tinze the Twerket, Elias Kaskinen with yet another good one and I hope the next one's for UMK2023. Antti Ketonen delivers again and wouldn't be wrong for UMK2023 either,  as does Eurovision fan favorite Eini. Enjoy! Tinze feat. El Migu, ez, Risanaamio - Leffa Elias Kaskinen - Minä sinua  Antti Ketonen - Ainoo tie Eini - Älä pelkää mua 

Another week, another dose of more or less new #finpop from charts, streaming platforms and radio waves. Olavi Uusivirta is hot topic at the moment for all but musical merits at the moment (Hint: PM Sanna Marin, Night clubbing. Kissing) and disco queen Eini is back with a female anthem while Maija Vilkkumaa rocks some nostalgia and ex-Leningrad Cowboys Jore delivers an insane ear worm. Enjoy! Olavi Uusivirta - Älä päästä mua menemään  Eini - En itke sun perään  Maija Vilkkumaa - 1973 Jore Marjoranta - Mikset sä jäänyt

  This week's dose of #FinPop has Ellinoora's latest hit (a cover of 90's ballad) with Eurovision veterans CatCat showing how time stood still and they sound exactly like back then, and it sounds very cool again! National finalist disco diva Eini is back, too, and then there's a new talent Ronja Mariela to complete this rather retro sounding all female set. Enjoy! (I just realized the song titles make up a soty: Everybody wants, Hidden from looks, After dark, A beautiful life.) Ellinoora - Kaikki tahtoo Ronja Mariela - Katseilta piilossa Eini - Pimeän jälkeen CatCat - Kaunis elämä

The second semi-final took place last night and from the very amateurish studio setting and graphics straight from the 1990's, non existing make up and poor sound with apparent problems for the singers another five songs made it to the final by telephone voting. Not that I agree. I would save only these four, but only Eini and Antti Ahopelto who gave the best vocals of all of them made it.  Check the final list all all the songs here   Eini - Mä en oo kenenkään Nomi - Repivää Johanna Pakonen - Vähän valoa Antti Ahopelto - Sydänpimeää

New music from Finland twice a week in this new series from the charts, radio play or just new names trying to make it. Enjoy! ABREU - 20 Ave Mariaa Eini - Vihdoin valmis Terri - Liekki Aksel Kankaanranta - Muista kuka oot

UMK fan favorite Eini is celebrating her 40th anniversary in the business (Yes, you read right: 4-0) and for the occasion she will finally reunite with Eurovision veterans Baccara. Two special concerts are arranged in Helsinki and Hyvinkää on November 22 and 23. But why, I hear you ask? Eini's first hit was a Finnish cover of Baccara's yes sir, I can boogie and both versions are rea evergreens in Finland. Baccara was even the very first foreign act to sell platinum in Finland, or over 100.000 copies of their  self titled 1978 album. Their success continued with the next album that sold gold.  Baccara, as we know it from Eurovision aka Mayte Meteos and Maria Mendiola went separate ways in 1982 but both continues to perform under Baccara with different partners. Mayte's baccara has been more succesful and led them even to melodifestivalen in 2004. Today the "original" Baccara is Mayte with Paloma Blanco. And Eini? She's still going strong and maybe more...

Now this is surprising. One would think Sandhja's Sing it away was a kind of a flop, but here comes Radio Yle Suomi's most played songs chart of 2016 and guess what? It's number one! And even more so, Eini's entry Draamaa is n.o 3. Now that pretty much sets the tone this radio channel is; schlager and and pop schlager.  Further down the shart Kuunkuiskaajat's Unelmaa is n.o 24, Laura Voutilainen at n.o 35 with Miks ei and at n.o 49 with Olet mulle enemmän . This year's UMK entrant Zuhlke is n.o 54 with Huominen on meidän . Eurovision winner Celine Dion is there, too, N.o 68 with L'étoile . Previous Euroviisut entrant Mikael Konttinen n.o 82 with Ei koskaan and Hanna Pakarinen n.o 84 with Herrojen kanssa pellon laidassa , UMK entrants Hukka ja Mama n.o 91 Sun pitäis olla mun ... Check out the full listing here

Finland has its #umk16 final tonight and the winner will be our 50th Eurovisison entry. Roope Salminen is hosting the show from Helsinki with 2013 entrant Krista Siegfrids and Eurovision 2007 hostess Jaana Pelkonen will be there, too. Eurovision 2006 winner Lordi is performing and celebrating the 10th anniversary of their win and also last year's participants Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät grace the show with their presence. For the first time for a very long time, or ever, the polls give no clue who will win. Pre-contest favorite Saara Aalto is not doing so well in the polls, and the fan favorites Mikael Saari (He won the Finnish fanclub's Fan Award again) and Annice & Kimmo don't seem to appeal to the masses, nor Tuuli. Eini is doing well with general puclic, critics love Sandhja and Barbe-Q-Barbies is picking up speed. Being the only rock entry will surely be an advantage when the masses start to vote tonight, same goes for Eini having the only song in Finnish. Cri...

YLE's competition, commercial television MTV3 has also run its poll about the #UMK16 entries for its website readers. And like everywhere else (except Finnish Eurovision fans who are all still listening Mikael Saari's previous entry it seems... see the chart at bottom) it's very tight. Anything can happen tonight! Follow my live blog tonight! Cristal Sow   16,98% Eini   16,64% Barbe-Q-Barbies   16,37% Saara Aalto   16,11% Sandhja   10,65% Annica & Kimmo   8,56% Mikael Saari   8,15% Tuuli Okkonen circa 3% Stella Chrisitine circa 3% Fans voting:

The field is more open than maybe ever in #UMK16, the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision song contest 2016 in Stockholm. Early favorites aren't so strong as they should be (to compare last year when PKN scored 60-70% of votes in most every poll). I already posted about Ilta-Sanomat reader's poll here . Over 25.000 people voted and it finished a tie with Saara Aalto and Eini, both scoring 18%.  Later this week Iltalehti had similar poll and it finished with Saara Aalto winning with 15,1%. She's closely followed by Sandhja (14,2%) and Barbe-Q-Barbies (13,9%). Both performed in the last semifinal last Saturday while Saara was in the first one three weeks ago. With about 12% right after them we have Cristal Snow, Eini and Mikael Saari. The remaining about 20% is divided by Stella Christine, Annica & Kimmo and Tuuli Okkonen so it's all very close. If we look at the Spotify hits, Sandhja is the clear winner with 23% in the past few days. Cristal Snow i...

Ilta-Sanomat, one of the biggest newspapers in Finland run a poll after the last #umk16 semifinal who should win and surprisingly Eini has caught up with Saara Aalto as the favorite! This blogger couldn't be more delighted as I am in #teamEini. Out of 25.040 votes they both scored 18%. At first Saara was leading but then Eini has gained votes, as has Mikael Saari while Saara and Barbe-Q-Barbies had lost some along the way.  Here are the results: EINI 18% SAARA AALTO 18% CRISTAL SNOW 14% MIKAEL SAARI 12% SANDHJA 11% BARBE-Q-BARBIES 10% ANNICA & KIMMO 8% STELLA CRISTINE 6% TUULI OKKONEN 4% As one can see, it's very close and there's no runaway winner candidate like last year for example. This list is radically different from escstats fan poll where Kimmo & Annica are leading, Saari second, Aalto third followed by Sandhja, Snow, Eini, B-Q-B, Okkonen and Stella, but then that includes still all #umk16 entries. In the F...

Krista Siegfrids and Roope Salminen hosted the first #UMK16 semifinal fro YLE's studios in Helsinki and we have the first qualifiers... with some surprises! The show went smoothly and nicely, Krista and Roope provided the interval act show with their theme show, the history spots of Finland's Eurovision in the 1960's and 1970's - remember this year we will select our 50th entry! - and general the show was followed closely on social medias and one of the most used comments was #WTF? Hopefully meaning the show was good and surprising.  People have been able to vote for the entries all week online and the three qualifiers based on those were Saara Aalto, Stella Christine and Pää-äijät. That result changed after tonight's live performances.... (click artists for videos) Saara Aalto featured in her number a perfect clichée Eurovision number with bare chested male dancers, wardrobe trick and all that.... More is more.  Mikko Herranen had a static rock perfo...