Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Finland will chose its last three finalists tomorrow. No big favorites for the victory in this one, but some interesting and possible surprises in this heat anyways. Solju might be the front runner and surprisingly Järjestyshäiriö won the YLE's poll . In my poll here on right Solju rulesbig time. Will the tango people be watching and voting sending Heidi Pakarinen to the final? What about the only hard rock epic fantasy cocktail by Kim Blom's alter ego Angelo De Nile? (Kim himself qualified to the knock out stages of The Voice of Finland tonight) He's supposed to be bringing on stage eight gladiators.... Be ready! Anyways, as always I will be LIVE BLOGGING the semifinal so join me Satuday night or read it afterwards... I'd be happy with Solju, Ida and .... can't decide, depends on performance: Järjestyshäiriö or Angelo? What did my litle Finnish-Swedish-Italian-British panel think of these songs? Read below: Solju - Hold your colors  12/20 Ida Bois - ...

Once again YLE's poll has given a result. It looks good for Järjestyshäiriö and Solju as in the first two semifinals the top-2 has qualified for the final. Ida Bois might be in danger as in the first semifinal Norlan El Misionario surpassed both Pihka ja Myrsky and Vilikasper Kanth and qualified and in the second one Jouni Aslak qualified ahead of Siru who was third. We will see how this ends. Curiously my little international panel ranked these three as qualifiers as well! In my poll her on right Solju is leading big time, followed by Ida Bois and Angelo De Nile. Do you agree? If not, take a moment and vote! In various media polls Heidi Pakarinen has featured well so my wild guess is she will qualify ahead of Ida... Or I'd like to think only Solju is safe from this one as we can't forget Angelo De Nile, the only hard rocker in #umk15 and who knows if Aikuinen's humour will hit home as well on Saturday night if the staging is right? This semi is the most difficult t...

Heidi started singing at the age of 3 and broke through by winning the title of Tango Queen in 2013 in Tangomarkkinat, Finland's biggest music festival that has given us several national final participants in the past from Jari Sillanpää to Arja Koriseva, Amadeus, Marko Maunuksela and Heidi Kyrö, just to name a few. Many have tried to cross over from tango to pop, but so far only Sillanpää has really succeed in that. Heidi loves sports, feeling good mentally and physically and loving besides music. Bon voyage is a different kind of love song, about letting go and still loving, full of good energy and positivity.  Jack: Bon voyage somehow reminds me of Norway's entry in 2007 and we all know what happened there. A non qualification in Eurovision. I fear Finland would have the same fate if they sent this song to Vienna. 2/5   Timo: And now we go into the Finnish schlager music world. That's something we haven't yet heard in this contest and Heidi seems t...

And here are the last six songs in UMK 2015. Three of these will be televoted to the final. Aikuinen - Kyynelten lahti Ida Bois - Kumbaya Järjestyshäiriö - Särkyneiden sydänten kulmilla Angelo De Nile - All for victory Heidi Pakarinen - Bon voyage Solju - Hold your colours

I already posted some of the UMK 2015 artists and their previous musical history here  and here . But we have still some more! Stadion pop, a tango queen, religious pop, Finnish EMD, cute boy pop and a mystery act no one seems to know anything about.....  Pihka ja Myrsky is a stadium pop band with two singers, they describe themselves. Apparently including this singer and this no longer existing band's guitarist . Their songs include Et koskaan kaipaa takaisin , Sumun läpi and Milloin on aika . Heidi Pakarinen won Tangomarkkinat's Tango Queen title in 2013. And tango is serious business in Finland and Tangomarkkinat the biggest music festival. Tango royalties haven't really crossed well over to pop (except Jari Sillanpää) nor featured well in national finals. Her songs include Sun kuningatar , Värähtelyjä  and Näiden tähtien alla. Ida Bois is a singer-songwritr. She has released Nukkuva maa and Tarinoita meistä album, listen the trailer here . She ...

Namely the biggest entertaining holabaloo in Finland is over for another year. This week Seinäjoki has been filled with tango when the new hopefuls and old royals like Jari Sillanpää, Amadeus Lundberg and Arja Koriseva have been entertaining the tango people along with names like Katri Helena and Antti Tuisku. The new Tango Queen was crowned this Thursday and she is Heidi Pakarinen. Tonight the new king was chosen by the televote and the jury as well and he is Kyösti Mäkimattila, the 28th in the history. Watch the performances here . As there is now UMK, the tango royals don't have an access to Euroviisut final, like Marko Maunuksela and Amadeus Lundberg had. However Kyösti has a rather poppy sound and looks for it, so maybe he should think about it?

The annual Tangomarkkinat circus has reached its final stage last night and tomorrow night the six finalists will battle out the crown and we will see who will follow the footsteps of Marko Maunuksela, last year's Tango King. Unlike the past two years when the winners Amadeus and Maunuksela were also granted a spot in the Euroviisut semifinal line up the winner does not get that extra award. Nothing stops him/her or any other finalist to try to get into Euroviisut 2012 anyways as the competition is open to anyone. Many are saying we should have a female winner this time after two male winners but the biggest favourite is Heikki Koskelo . He already won Suomi Iskelmä SM 2010 contest and the polls indicate him as the clear favourite. The other male finalists Tino Ahlgren and Antti Ahopelto who has taken part in both kids and teenage competition before are also strong having reached the final already before. The female favourite in the first round was Maria Tyyster who was in th...