Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Before going into new faces and new sounds after last week's warm up let's have a quickie to see what the Eurovision veterans have been delivering the past few months including Hokka of Blind Channel fame as Joel Hokka left the band and formed a new one, simply called Hokka. JOOST, KÄÄRIJÄ, TOMMY CASH - I MISS US ERIKA VIKMAN - FATHER (I WILL NEVER CONFESS) WINDOWS95MAN - NEED YOUR HEART HOKKA -  HEART SAID NO

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

ORF and EBU have revealed the opening and interval acts for the three shows coming from Vienna 2026 Eurovision song contest and as a Finn one can only be pleased as there are (following Käärijä's two year stunt) again Finns as among the announced acts are Eurovision 2006 winners Lordi and last year's Erika Vikman performing along with other Eurovision royalty like Verka Serduchka from Ukraine, Il Volo from Italy, Go-Jo from Australia and Cesar Sampson and reigning champion JJ from Austria. Here's what we know and has been announced: First semi-final will be opened by 70 member choir performing L'amour è bleu , a song from Vienna 1967 Eurovision that Vicky Leandros sung for Luxemburg and later became a real evergreen and a classic even though it placed only 4th. After all these decades she's back to sing it again! The interval act will feature fun by Austria/Australia by the presenters Victoris Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski joined by Aussie Go-Jo . The s...

Finland's national selection for Eurovision song contest 2026  or UMK (Uuden musiikin kilpailu) takes place in Tampere tonight in Tampere arena to sold out crowds.  Special guests are last year's UMK winner Erika Vikman (11th in ESC) with last year's Eurovision winner Austrian  JJ, Finland's Eurovision 1985 represent Sonja Lumme and quartet of leading Finnish rappers Elastinen, Ares, Turisti and Averagekidluke. It's worth remembering JJ's staging and even outfit was made in Finland last year with UMK team.  The show is hosted by Jorma Uotinen, Sami Sykkö and Jasmin Beloued. Read more about them here . Out of 491 submitted entries a panel of nine members along with five audience groups selected the seven entries for the final. Linda Lampenius & Pete Parkkonen emerged instantly the runaway favorites to win the selection gaining more Youtube views in 24 hrs than any other UMK entry ever and also reached one million streams in record time. They also became inter...

Emma awards aka the Finnish Grammy nominations have been revealed. The gala takes place in Espoo's Metro Arena on March 7, 2026. Among the nominees both Finland's and Sweden's Eurovision entrants 2025 with several UMK finalists in 2025 or before. Check out the short list below. All nominees can be found here .  Song of the year: Ares - Menestys on paras tapa kostaa Emma & Matilda - Sisko Goldielocks - Made of KAJ - Bara bada bastu Nelli Matula - Hitaammin hautaan Erika Vikman - Ich komme Band of the year: Amorphis Emma & Matilda Joser & Zpoppa JVG KAJ Komiat People's Choice: Bess Eini Erika Vikman Goldielocks KAJ Nelli Matula Portion Boys  among others Pop of the year: ABreu Bess Ellinoora Isac Elliot JVG Olga Schlager of the year: Eini Komiat Mariska Portion Boys Rodeo Artist of the year: Ares Averagekidluke Isac Elliot Lauri Haav Olga Turisti

Käärijä has cha cha chad already almost three years and Finns - and not only - love him as much as ever. Since Eurovision he has released an album, a string of singles with various collaborations at home and abroad, toured Finland and Europe a few times to sold out venues, performed in Eurovision song contest as guest star two years in a row, making him do Eurovision three years in a row,  and this fall he has starred in ever so popular Vain elämää series doing covers of other singers songs on weekly basis. And now.... finally! He has announced an arena concert in Veikkaus Arena, the new names very arena that hosted the Eurovision 2007 in Helsinki.  He has teased many guests, most likely at least everyone he has collaborated (see videos below) and that's not all for sure.  Slovenian Joker Out will be the opening act prior Käärijä stars in their show in Slovenia in June 20,  2026. For this bromance he skips the very generous midsummer gigs in Finland that he could hav...

 Yum yum, another Eurovision collaboration is here: Australia's Go-Jo and Finland's Erika Vikman met in Paris for some Appetite. Enjoy!

Erika Vikman placed 11th in the grand final of Eurovision song contest 2025 after being all spring and EuroviSIon week in the Top-6 in the odds reaching top-3 during the broadcast after her performance. Yet only 11th.... Feels a little bit let down but then again it's worth remembering it's Finland's 4th best placement in modern Eurovision after Lordi's win 2006, Käärijä's 2nd place in 2023 and Blind Channel's 6th place in 2021 together with Softengine's 11th place in 2014.  In the semifinal Finland was third after Israel and Latvia before Greece and eventual winner Austria. Here's break down of the televotes in the semifinal ( 115 ): 12 -  10 Australia, Malta, Denmark 8 Latvia, Serbia 7 Ireland, Lithuania, Czechia 6 Montenegro, Armenia, Luxemburg, Germany, RoW 5 - 4 Austria, Georgia, UK 3 - 2 Greece, Israel, France 1 - 0 - (Israel scored 13 times 12, 3 times 10, once 8 and 7 and 2 from Armenia...) In the grand final Finland got jury points as follows ( ...

Finland, once the eternal loser and failure has become a real Eurovision powerhouse in the past few years. Finishing 6th and 2nd in the past few years and qualifying already four years in a row - fifth one coming this year - has also managed to sneak in to help other delegations like Albania last year and  this year Ari Levelä is doing stagings for Austria and Cyprus, Teemu Muurimäki who created the famous green bolero for Käärijä among others will dress up JJ and even UMK show producer (and one of Käärijä's dancers) Matti Myllyaho is involved with Austria's staging. Estonia's entry this year is co-written and produced in Finland, the Swedish entry is by Finns and then we have Finland itself in top-10 in the odds to win the whole thing. In short Finns are behind four entries in the Top-10. And Käärijä will perform in Basel as interval act. Again. That brings us to the curious situation in Finland: the media and people have pretty much forgotten about Erika Vikman and our en...

It's the time again: Blogilkar's home jury of Eurovision fans, non-fans and common viewers from teenagers to nearly 60 years old have watched and listened giving points from 1 to 10 plus a special 12 points to be awarded to the one favorite. In case of a tie the ranking was done by highest points received by any juror(s). And yes, the result is somewhat surprising here and there. Last year our winner was NQ Czechia but the winner Switzerland was 2nd and runner up Croatia 3rd.  With the help of four 10s turned into 12s Finland's Erika Vikman came and won with ICH KOMME scoring 92 points from our home jury. That's a nice consolation to Erika who has been pretty much forgotten and ignored at home front after KAJ's win in Sweden, more about that in another post to come, stay tuned! She scored from us a seven and all the rest above. 

It's time to kick of the usual reviews. The opinions are all mine and if I don't like some song it's simply just not my cup of tea so to speak. If I like something you dislike or hate, it's fine, too. No stresso, no need to be depresso it's just music and tastes that re diverse and therefor beautiful! I also try to predict their success come May a little bit but as we know once the staging is out everything may change, remember Fuego and Rise like a phoenix for example? For this series I have grouped the songs in fours as usual as the songs may have similarities or something in common. Some fours came out beautifully, the others.... well not so well. Here comes the ninth part! MALTA - Miriana Conte - Serving (Kant) Miriana caused quite a stir after her win in Malta due to "kant" on behalf of BBC apparently. And then BBC's own entry is titled What the HELL just happened. I'd say hell and cunt in i its variations are same level swear word in Finland,...

This post is purely gossipy and #drama. The 75th festival della canzone Italy kicks of tomorrow and even before it started, even before the artists were revealed in fact. Social media figure and Sanremo 2023 co-hostess Chiara Ferragni and Fedez, in competition this year - and runner up in 2021 with Francesca Michielin and  with a song Chiamami per nome co-written by Mahmood, btw - are going through a very stormy and public divorce. Apparently she's having/had an affair with Tony Effe, in competition this year. Enough drama? No! It is rumored she'd had before "that the thing Erika Vikman is singing about" with another competitor, none other than Achille Lauro! She clearly has a thing for tattooed bad boys. Expect some tension in backstage..... Enough of gossip. How about some drama? The killer stairs! Yes, first Francesca Michielin fell down the stairs and hurt her leg, hopefully her song didn't require a choreography! But she's not the only one as also Modà...

Finland chose its entry for Eurovision song contest 2025 in Basel in a show from Nokia Arena in Tampere. Some last minute drama was provided by Goldielocks and lost voice, as she was forbid by doctors to speak between dress rehearsal and the final. During the live show it was clear she couldn't sing and the show producers had decided in her favour to use the filmed rehearsal instead. Phew! As she had risen maybe the main contender to challenge Erika after One last morning withdraw/was disqualified taking away another one would only fueled more conspiracy theories against Yle. (Well, I never believed them for that matter but it was worth mentioning this). Update 9.2: 2,270.000 viewers last night  and 342.543 votes given - both are new records! The show was hosted by popstar Sanni and Jasmin Beloued, and by the way they were fantastic!  The sold out arena (as well as sold out dress rehearsal in the afternoon) witnesses a show opened by last year's surprise winner Windows95man wi...