Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  After a little break dedicated to Katri Helena's farewell  #Finpop 2025 is back! Newcomers Aatulove and kaisa Ottelin meet already familiar Pihlaja and Sara Bee who joins forces with UMK veteram Isaac Sene. Enjoy! Aatulove - Milloin äidit itkee? Kaisa Ottelin - Jättiläinen Pihlaja - Vuosi Isaac Sene / Sara Bee - Palava ote

Sexmane or Max Sene (23) in no stranger to UMk either, as his brother Isaac Sene took part in UMK 2022 with Kuuma jäbä and placed 5th. Sexmane comes from little town Siilinjärvi and from a Laestadian family. His father is Senegalese and mother Finnish. The other two brothers, Adi and Robin also do music. He jokes that if even he doesn't win UMk another brother will try next. Sexmane is by far been more successful in his career than Isaac. It started in 2019 when he release self produced and distributed debut album Sextape that stayed 80 weeks in the Official album chart streaming gold. The biggest hit was Mama . He was signed to Sony and released his second album Väärinymmärretty (Misunderstood) in 2021 that earned him four Emma (Finnish Grammy) nominations. His popularity has been rising ever since and when he released his third album Sextape II in January 2023, after performing in December at Finland's Independence Day celebrations (the most watched tv programme in 2023) and ...

  Today's #Finpop2023 foursome! Including UMK veteran Isaac Sene. DJ Oku Luukkainen /Katri Ylander - Yksi sydän Viivi / JVG - Mitä näillä korteilla saa? Isaac Sene - La Perla Pehmoaino - Mietin sua pahalla

  Another dose of #Finpop. This time familiar names from UMK Isaac Sene and Olivera with their latest with Joalin, who could possible be a good one for UMK2023 as well as Titta with yet another goodie. Enjoy! Isaac Sene - Oon vaan mä Olivera -Human child Titta - Ihmeitä Joalin - I'm the one

It's already October in full swing and here are some new releases from Finnish popsters. Including UMK  veterams Olivera and Isaac Sene with their latest releases, as well Antti Ketonen and Tuure Boelius with new look and sound.  Olivera - No tomorrow Antti Ketonen - Ainoo tie Isaac Sene - Coco elämä  Tuure Boelius - Mehän vaan tanssittiin

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

  This week's #Finpop features follow up singles of two UMK2022 artists: Isaac Sene and BESS. BESS is having the biggest national season hit with her Ram pam pam that stayed 10 weeks at #1 and only this week dropped out of top-10 after 24 weeks, still staying at #13. I believe only Mahmood and Blanco in Italy can challenge her with Brividi. With them two veterans of this series with new goodies: Vahtera and Nopsajalka.  BESS - Rakastan, en rakasta Vahtera - Onko kukaan nähnyt Marloo? Isaac Sene - Jukka  Nopsajalka feat. EME - FOMO

UMK 2022 has been a success already. The international praise when the songs were released, approval by the fandom and the chart action in Finland proves it. Four out of seven songs has made the official singles chart besides making waves in streaming platforms, and each song has made the Radio play Top-100 as well. If we were to believe charts BESS would be clear winner, being at #1 for the fourth week at the moment, and also the highest entry on radio charts but is it destined to be a domestic hit only? We'll see. On top of that the UMK final in Logomo, Turku, sold out in record time. It is also a record it sold out completely unlike the previous attempts to have a national final arena style. I personally have three favorites, a couple of other that would be fine. too, so it's very hard to say how this will end and what would be the best choice, I let the live performance guide me. And there lies my biggest fear. We all remember what happened to Cicciolina on stage and how w...

Isaac Sene is maybe the most unknown artist along with Olivera to the great public. Sene's name has however popped up in music medias but so far mainly thanks to his brother Max Sene aka Sexmane , nominated for four Emma awards this year. But back to Isaac. This 22-year-old has roots in Senegal but was born in Brussels. His music is hard to label as he mixes modern soul pop with a hint of jazz, rock, hip hop and rap. He grew up listening everything from Mozart to Bob Marley, trance and of course Finnish heavy rock. He released his first EP last year and features feats by Vesta and Yeboyah. He has already gained attention with his charismatic stage presence so let's see how cool dude (Kuuma jäbä) he is going to be on UMK 2022 stage! Saved last in the presentation for a reason? I'm intrigued....  Meanwhile listen to  N-sana , Bébé , Nälkä , Akryyli , Hello my Plp , Kukaan ei tanssi niinku sä . Listen Kuuma jäbä here. 

Here they are, and for once the names were not leaked ahead of time (let's see how it goes for the songs though....) and as the fandom had been speculating and investigating the clues the past week none of the names was a surprise, on the contrary. All were out and loud and some even a certain thing. But let's have a look in order of my excitement from most to none. I will do a better bio and review one by one as the songs are being released at midnight Finnish time.  Out of names that were also heavily circulating Tomi Saario is one of the writers for Bess, Haloo Helsinki for Tommi Läntinen. Ad Elize Ryd of Amarathe as a co-writer for Cyan Kicks, Desmond Child for The Rasmus, Vilma Alina for Younghearted so the name dropping wasn't in vain. The Rasmus - Jezebel I was a bit of a The Rasmus fan, and especially Lauri's solo fan and if this combo with Desmond Child took part in say 2010 I would have been pissing my pants in excitement. Now all I do is hope for a real har...