Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Topi Saha is a 24-year-old with a voice of a 42-year-old, says his presentation. He released his debut album  Verta ja lihaa in 2010 and won over the critics but this blogger had never heard of him until gossip papers presented him as Heli Kajo's possible new boyfriend. His Pappi, lukkari, talonpoika, kuppari is a very Finnish pop song and could easily be written by J.Karjalainen. Not bad at all. Could be his big breakthrough. 

Remember Heli Kajo? The huge fan favourite in Euroviisut 2010 with Annankadun kulmassa ? Her long awaited album is finally ready and currently in the mixing table and will be released this spring. The first single is Jos mä kuolen nuorena ( here in a live performance in a pub) (If I die young). But she's already all over the place. There's a new kind of reality at the moment on MTV3/Sub channel, called Iholla (translates to Under my skin freely). Six women of different ages and status were asked to film their daily life and talk to the camera about their thoughts and feelings and the episodes started airing a couple of weeks ago. Heli is one of them and it is interesting to follow as these six months coincide with her recording period and her search for the soulmate and boyfriend. "I was first like what? Me? How? Am I interesting? " she tells when they gave her a videocamera and asked to start taping her every day life. You can watch it online here .  Sh...

Anna Inginmaa is a 25-year-old singer from Helsinki and this blogger can not think about Heli Kajo. In a good way. She's got her own sound and the song Meikin alta  is original with great text. Me likes a lot.

Timoteij with they folksy pop tune Kom won the 2010 Second Chance contest oranized by local OGAE clubs. Here are the winners over the year. Finland's Heli Kajo did rather well reaching the top-10. Finland has won this contest once with Anna Eriksson's Oot voimani mun in 2000.  1. Sweden - Timoteij - Kom (267 pts) 2. Denmark - Bryan Rice - Breathing (223 pts) 3. Portugal - Catarina Pereira - Canta Por Mim (203 pts) 4. Spain - Coral - En una vida (167 pts) 5. Israel - Harel Ska'at - Lean (161 pts) 6. Norway - A1 - Don’t Wanna Lose You Again (138 pts) 7. Germany - Jennifer Braun - I Care For You (105 pts) 8. Greece - Yiorgos Karadimos - Polemao (103 pts) 9. Finland - Heli Kajo - Annankadun kulmassa (87 pts) 10. Cyprus - Constantinos Christoforou - Angel (73 pts) 11. Serbia - Emina Jahović - Ti Kvariigro (64 pts) 12. Slovenia - Nina Pušlar - Dež (54 pts) 13. Poland - Anna Cyzon - Love me (24 pts) 14. Lithuania - Evelina Sasenko - For T...

More ladies! Chisu is added here as I'm an optimist.... Heli Kajo charmed the fans in Euroviisut 2010 and is about to release her debut album before Christmas. Hopefully there's another little pop song like Annankadun kulmassa that would fit Euroviisut.... Chisu . Do I need to ad more? She's perfect. She has it all. She's like an Eurovision wetdream. Chisu please.... here's Sama nainen . Petra 's debut album came and went but she's got more in her. In need of a rel-aunch and what would be better than Euroviisut? Here's Valtameri . Laura Närhi just released her new album but maybe she left something for Euroviisut. Very unlikely but she'd be great, too. Here's Tämä on totta . Suvi Teräsniska has just releaed her second album. If it includes something like megahit Hento kuiskaus I hope her record company had sense to save it for Euroviisut! It's very unlikely we will get Johanna Kurkela so give us Suvi. So, there they are, my ten female ar...

YLE has received 277 demos for the open web competition for the Euroviisut 2011. That is slightly more than last year. Now a jury will listen all fo them and the ones selected will be announced September 30 along with the 12 invited artists. Three out of the songs in the internet selection (October 1-15) will get a ticket to the semifinals. In the final there will be then 15 songs like last year. One of the slots is reserved for the reigning Tango King Marko Maunuksela. Last year Heli Kajo got a free ticket to the semifinals coming from the open competition, but this year YLE will most likely pick up more songs like that from the demos sent in.

Helsingin Sanomat organized recently a voting for the best and/or most popular song about Helsinki. A total of 1619 votes were cast and dozens of songs got votes. There have been a lot of songs about Helsinki over the decades, some very clearly telling about Helsinki, some just letting you imagine it's Helsinki without mentioning any specific places, some even in the local dialect that is slowly disappearing. Over the next days I will present the most voted songs but first of all I have to wonder where is Heli Kajo's Annankadun kulmassa and Kaija Koo's Hakaniemen pitkä silta ? Both fall to the category of a sad love in some spot of Helsinki giving the songs a special atmosphere. And here's one of Annakatu's corners and the Hakaniemi bridge .

One of the five Finnish jurors for the Eurovision 2010 is Heli Kajo. She was the big fan favourite in Euroviisut 2010 with Annankadun kulmassa . She's currently writing her debut album to be released later this year and next week, June 4, she will be performing again in Baker's in Helsinki city center. Hopefully she will sing some new songs, too! YLE is also using her song along with selected previous winners in the ads for the open selection for Euroviisut 2011 that have been aired these days on YLE's channels. Amonst the jurors is also singer/writer Pekka Ruuska, Elina Orma from Live Nation and Alex Fager from Svenska YLE's X3M.

Fan favourite Heli Kajo who charmed Eurovision fans and not only with her Annankadun kulmassa in Euroviisut 2010 will have the right man to produce her debut album, Apulanta's Sipe Santapukki! He has previously collaborated with another fan favourite (and former girlfriend) Anna Eriksson . Heli is going to record the album during the summer and it is to be released in autumn. "Not many know Sipe is a fan of French chanson and we sh are a very similar idea of what my album should sound like" comments Heli. She was also very sought after by record companies but finally signed to Warner soon after the Euroviisut 2010 final.

Heli Kajo who was the fan favourite in Euroviisut 2010 and will represant Finland in the OGAE Second Chance contest with Annankadun kulmassa has signed a contract with Warner Music. At the time of the Euroviisut selection she had no record deal  and had only one song recorded but said she has several other songs ready. She was contacted my several companies but in the end chose Warner. Congrats Heli!

Kuunkuiskaajat along with superfavourite Eläkeläiset and Linn with the votes from the Swedish speakers made it to the final from the third and last Euroviisut 2010 semifinal. YLE's secret jury also granted one wild card and that went to Maria Lund, also from this last semifinal. So the line up for the final next Saturday is ready: Amadeus - Anastacia Nina Lassander - Cider hill Pentti Hietanen - Il mondo é qui Antti Kleemola - Sun puolella Heli Kajo - Annankadun kulmassa Sister Twister - Love at the first sight Kuunkuiskaajat - Työlki ellää Eläkeläiset - Hulluna humpasta Linn - Fatal moment Maria Lund - Sydän ymmärtää So we have six songs in Finnish, 3 in English and one in Italian. Amadeus and Maria Lund most likely will sing in English if they win, and Antti Kleemola has a Spanish text ready for the song...

Super fan favourite Heli Kajo charmed also the TV-viewers and made it to the final - even if some press has also written its the worst song of them all - and so did Sister Twister , no doubt with the votes of the Swedish speaking population as expected. How far it will take them in the final is another matter.... The male duel Antti vs Veeti won by Antti Kleemola who really delivered when it matters while Veeti remained a bit cold.... So, Monday and Veeti are out at the moment waiting for YLE's possible wildcard.

Heli Kajo is the superfavourite in next Friday's second semifinal in Finland with her funny little tune Annankadun kulmassa . She will be wearing a dress made of reindeer suede, lasercut to look like lace mixed with silk. She says it's light and girly yet stylish. The look is topped with 15cm high heels! "People often comment on my high heels, how can I walk and stand in them. This will be the time of truth, I hear the Euroviisut stage is very slippery! " she comments. She declares she's a fan of Lily Allen's sense of style and admits she is a bit confused about all this Eurovision - after a very hastily made demo she was picked by YLE to be one of the invited artists instead of going through the internet voting. "Laura Juslin, the dress designer, will be helping me with the look, as well as Ella from YLE who will do my hair and make up. I have known her for a couple of years. More I'm afraid I will fall on stage with my heels. Or can't find th...

One week to go before the first Finnish semifinal and it's time to have a look at the fan polls and betting. In the first semifinal both Viisukuppila.fi and Paf betting agree that Amadeus, Nina Lassander and Bääbs will qualify. In the second semifinal Heli Kajo is a sure thing but then things get more complicated. The fans vote Antti Kleemola easily to the final but the betters don't believe in him but put Monday, Sister Twister and Veeti ahead of him. In the third semifinal Eläkeläiset lead the whole betting poll while fans don't believe in them . Osmo Ikonen and Kuunkuiskaajat would qualify by both leaving Maria Lund at the border. So, judging both these polls BOB, Pentti Hietanen and Linn Nygård leave the contest in semifinals while Veeti Kallio, Antti Kleemola and Maria Lund are fighting for the joker place. Maria has been favoured by YLE in the radioplay for sure, Veeti has a lot of fans so it doesn't look good for Antti unless YLE lifts it up as it is by far on...

The first Finnish semifinal is only less than two weeks away and there have been already some releases, or singles or albums will be released shortly. Amadeus will release his debut album on January 27 (including Anastacia , Matador , Pyyhi tuuli kyyneleet and Onnemme kyyneleet amongst others) and Osmo Ikonen will release his second album including Heaven and hell in February. Eläkeläiset has already released a 2-cd with their "greatest hits" including their entry Hulluna humpasta . Antti Kleemola has already a radio hit with his Sun puolella and the single will be released shortly, as will Bääbs do with her You don't know tomorrow . Kuunkuiskaajat also released their debut album before Christmas and it includes two versions of their entry Työlki ellää . The album includes also Taivaallinen and Loputon tie . Promo singles for radio stations have been released several others, including Maria Lund who already made #4 in the radio playlists followed by Amadeus at #5, E...

Heli Kajo performed a very succesful miniconcert in Willi Wäinö in Helsinki - actually not far from the corner of Annakatu Street the song tells about. It was her first major performance and as she is currently without a record deal also a show case for the music business professionals. Asko Kallonen, ex-boss of BMG Finland who these days runs his own record company Helsinki Music Company was spotted there looking very satisfied so it is a safe bet to suppose Heli has been signed by now! And she is a very hot favourite to win the Finnish national final in January. Here is the very first public performance of her funny and charming Annankadun kulmassa .

And here are my thoughts about the songs in the second semifinal. HELI KAJO - Annankadun kulmassa (In the corner of Anna Street) First of all Annankatu is a street in the center of Helsinki. YLE liked this song so much they lifted it from the open internet call to the invited artists category and it is easy to understand why. It is fresh, light, memorable and one of a kind. The question was will the great public like it? Judging the comments on internet they will and this is a sure qualifier and a possible surprise winner and if it was, well, I can live with that! VEETI KALLIO - Kerro mulle rakkaudesta (Tell me about love) Veeti has charisma to come across the TV screen very well and the song is pleasant enough but suffers once again of being just a bit lame. The arrangement could be stronger as now it just falls to "nice" category despite being a good song. He should qualify to the final as being Veeti dropping Kleemola out. ANTTI KLEEMOLA - Sun puolella (On your si...

Heli Kajo is a totally unknown 25-year-old music teacher from Helsinki. She loves high heals, champagne and everything French. Her music is said to be very Finnish with French atmosphere - whatever that means but sounds interesting. She says each and every her song is born with a lot of crying, laughter, drinking a bit too much and questioning Why? Actually she sent her song to the open contest but YLE liked it so much it is here!