Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Another week, another dose of #Finpop 2026. This time we have already familiar Mira, Karim and Ilta also of UMK fame with newcomers Martta and Emmi.  MARTTA - RAKAS EMMI LORENTZEN - KUKA MÄ OON MIRA LUOTI - COKIS JA MENTOS ILTA / KARIM B - 20:30

  Here comes a dose of #Finpop 2025 with a lot of UMk flavor. Aka the latest offers from Nelli Matula, costee, BESS, Ilta and previous UMK winner Aksel Kankaanranta who sadly never got to Eurovision thanks to... you know what. Enjoy! Nelli Matula - Uus ikuisuus costee / BESS - Köyhä ja kipee Aksel Kankaanranta - Helpottaa Ilta - En mieti sua

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...

  Another set of #Finpop2023, today by UMK star Ilta among others. Enjoy! Ilta - Pura vida ESME - Pleijeri Hallio - Hengitä Mikko Harju - 11 kirjainta

This year's UMK has been a success for most of its artists. BESS scored the biggest hit this year so far with Ram pam pam and her follow up Rakastan ei rakasta is making it big as we speak. Besides that she's featured in Antti Tuisku's hit Grindr mayhem . Isaac Sene released already the follow up Jukka and is now featured in Etta's Rakastellaan. Cyan Kicks and Younghearted have released their follow up singles, too. As has The Rasmus . Meanwhile last year's success Ilta is here again with her latest continuing her success. Etta feat Isaac Sene - Rakastellaan Ilta - Ei kukaan muu Cyan Kicks - See the light Younghearted - Silloin

  Ilta - Taivas maan päällä Neon 2 - Pieninä palasina Niila - Leon on me Viivi - Hyväuskoinen

Finland really, really turned into dark side again when Blind Channel took a very clear win with their violent pop  Dark side in the UMK21 final. That was no wonder as the signs were clear in the social medias all throughout the day and evening, but the amount of televotes was: 479 vs. Telfon Brothers feat. Pandora's 150. over 54% of the total. Still not as much as The Roop got in Lithuania though. This said, YLE did a great job. Each staging had an idea and was well done. Teflon Brothers feat. Pandora was a bit over the top (and vocally clearly the weakest) and one could not think the Darude example when Look away was wonderfully staged in UMK and won, and then it was literally down scaled and watered down for ESC.... All the others gave their best and worked, including Danny with his funeral symbolism and minimalism and Ilta's beautiful staging and touching performance. Oskr and Aksel clearly ate each others votes and if only one of them was in running he would have ended ...

Finland is among those few countries where it is business as usual for Eurovision song contest 2021 or in short: last year's entrant has no free ticket to the contest in 2021 but the national final goes on as usual. But with a twist, last year's winner Aksel is there, apparently chosen through the open call for songs but as the songs this year are seven instead of six, one can put one plus one together and get Aksel as result. Right? Why not be open about it? Last year UMK provided a mega hit that wasn't the winner but the runner up Cicciolina by Erika Vikman and she's back performing the opening number with the host Antti Tuisku, Finland's number one pop star. On top of that supermegapopular pop rock band Haloo Helsinki makes a comeback after their break of a couple of years to relaunch their career.. As for hits the 2021 edition has already given us three hits as Teflon Brothers feat. Pandora (#2), Blind Channel (#5) and Ilta (#5) are all in Top-13 in the for th...

Something that has never happened before in the official Finnish charts history happened last week (and this week, too) when in the Top-6 we had three UMK entries. This week Teflon Brothers feat. Pandora keeps its n.o 2 slot where it debuted two weeks ago while Blind Channel drops to n.o 10 from last week's n.o 5 while Ilta rises to n.o 5 from last week's  n.o 6 debut. No sight of the other entries in the Top-20. All the entries have made the Radio Play charts though. Two weeks ago Teflon Brothers feat. Pandora entered at 41 but  dropped out of Top-100 last week only to re-enter this week at 69. Debuts of two weeks ago Danny (70) and Laura (96) did not. Last week we witnessed the debut of Ilta at 47 but this weeks she drops to 82, Oskr debuted at 72 and Aksel at 100 last week but are now out.  Surprisingly Blind Channel is the only one having already three consecutive weeks, going up to 58 from their 67 debut week and bettering it to 57 this week. I didn't think that one ...

You could be in the middle of a crowd and still feel incredibly alone. It’s one of the most difficult feelings any person can have, as we're meant to connect with others. I hope that my song can provide everyone with a bit of hope and comfort, no matter if they feel lonely or not. Even though it doesn’t include an explicit message of survival, I hope that it can make people feel that they aren’t alone in their feelings , Ilta concludes. Her touching ballad Kelle mä soitan (“Who Will I Call”) is a concrete depiction of what it is like to live with loneliness. Ilta's effort is beautiful as is her voice, the arrangement is nice but maybe just a little bit over produced lacking the simply clean sound of Behm and early Chisu. Another goodie that probably works best live 3/5... Ed. Let me correct myself after a couple repeated listenings: 4/5

The artists may have leaked already last night, as usual, but today they were confirmed in a short presentation on Yle's social media channels and even live on TV1 at 1pm local time. The songs will be aired one per day starting from tomorrow. The final will take place on February 20 without live audience, and the winner will be determined by televoters (75%) and international jury (25%). The host os the show will be revealed only in February.  TEFLON BROTHERS X PANDORA - I LOVE YOU (Jaakko Salovaara-Axel Ehnström-Mikko Kuoppala-Heikki Kuula-Jani Tuohimaa-Anneli Magnusson) Teflon Brothers is a rap, pop, dance trio made of Pyhimys, Heikki Kuula and Voli. They started back in 2006. They have released six albums and 27 singles, often featuring guest vocalists and having humorous lyrics. Their biggest hits are Seksikkäin jäbä (#3), Maradona (Kesä '86) (#1), Pämppää (#1), Hubba bubba (#2), Aksel Kankaanranta got his breakhtrough being featured in Jättiläinen by Pyhimys who has...

  And last but not least some artists that are more of a wistful thinking and maybe not fitting any other category but being more or less known/upcoming/popular/possibly interested in Eurovision as a career move. Without further explanations enjoy some of their songs: Antti Ketonen Konsta Hietanen Elias Kaskinen Olavi Uusivirta Ilta Janna Diandra Nelli Matula

Here comes the last set of hits from the Finnish airwaves this summer for now. YLE might be keeping an ear for possible #UMK2019 and Eurovision song contest entrants. Or possibly not.... Ilta is a new Finnish-German artist, who started at the top being the featured artist in megastar Cheek's #1 Sillat . Another featuring followed with some Adele covers before she released her first solo effort Koukkuun that went streaming gold. Let's see if she can make it and battle out off the shadows to spotlight among all these new up and coming female artists.... If Antti Tuisku is the male #1 in most everyone's wish list, Jenni Vartiainen is a true wet dream. When YLE announced they go internal again in 2019 media and chatrooms shouted out for Jenni in unison. She' working on her 4th album at the moment (all previous ones have sold multiplatinum). Meanwhile she has released alresdy four singles off it, this Väärään suuntaan was a radioplay #1, and her latest Voulez...