Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Another year, another year of official singles chart number ones! the rappers dominate the charts many hitting the #1 spot only for a week. the weeks and weeks lasting hits are missing this year except for KAJ's Bara bada bastu with 7 weeks, the others don't go further than 4 at most. Same names scored short runs for their #1s: Averagekidluke (4), Lauri Haav (4), JVG (3), Isac Elliot (3), Mirella (2), Turisti (2) and Ares (2) Obviously the radioplay chart is completely different and you can find it here. It's also worth mentioning ALL number ones are by Finnish artists. The only one to score a number one is Ed Sheeran in the radio play charts in 2025.  Averagekidluke - Diva (week 1) Ares - Menestys on paras tapa kostaa (weeks 2-5) JVG - Rehellisesti (week 7) Turisti - Diana (weeks 8-9) KAJ - Bara bada bastu (weeks 10-15, 21) Lauri Haav - Toisessa elämässä (weeks 16-17) Ares - Onneks (week 18-20) Lauri Haav, Mirella - Aja tai kuole (week 22) ABREU - Äiti Teresa (feat. B...

  Another dose of #Finpop 2025 this time with newcomer Linda, up and coming whereismike and already big stars Isac Elliot and ABREU who joins Jore and Zpoppa. Enjoy! whereismike - Sydän täynnä kipuu Jore & Zpoppa feat. ABREU - Mä ja sä Isac Elliot - Sata enkelii Linda - Banaanilaatikot

Now after the national selection season is over and before the real thing starts happening in Basel it's a good time to check some #Finpop released in the past few days, weeks and months.  We kick of with none other than Käärijä with Swedish Hooja followed by Averagekidluke or Lucas Kihlman, a Finnish-American artist, singer.songwriter and designer who has been one of the most streamed artists lately, ever so popular Isac Elliott and finally Eurovision veteran Windows95man with his latest offering fresh from his European and American tour! Enjoy! Käärijä x Hooja - San Francisco boy Averagekidluke - Mitä meist jää Isac Elliot - Ehkä se siitä Windows95man - What's my name

 This week's #Finpop offers fresh sounds from some of the hottest new names in scene like ANI, Viivi, Mirella and Lauri Haav with Isac Elliot and Italian origin Sebastian NOTO. And that's not all, two of these videos are shot in Italy, and one is even named Italia. The odd one out is ANI / Viivi.  NOTO - 100 kyyneltä ANI / Viivi - Lupaa et sä lähet Isac Elliot / Averagekidluke /  MD$ - Italia Mirella / lauri Haav - Luotathan 

  Another day, another dose of #Finpop! BESS - Kädet ylös Tuure Boelius - Sitä mitä me oltiin SHRTY / Joalin - Pariisin kevät Isac Elliott / SANNI - Riidellään

  New music from Finland twice a week in this new series from the charts, radio play or just new names trying to make it. Enjoy! Isac Elliot - Waving at cars Elias Kaskinen - Happi loppuu Jon-Jon - Vikat 24 tuntia Bess - Peace

Surprise! Two new versions of Mahmood's Soldi have been released. One with Finnish teenage star Isac Elliot, the other with Spanish Maikel Delacalle. Isac Elliot's version includes lyrics in Italian and English with Mahmood joining in. The Maikel version has him rapping the way Guè Pequeno did in Sanremo with some added Spanish.  Check out the previous remixes here

Yle is going internal again in 2019 and it will be very curious to see who they choose (or get) after Saara Aalto - will they go for big international name or something big in Finland.  Or someone new and emerging? If Robin has been the biggest teenage sensation in Finland ever, Isac Elliot comes close second but most of his repertoire has been in English and more international. Now that he's finally 17 he could well be Eurovision worthy. Already popular in Norway - apparently causing teenage hysteria there - and Poland, Singapore and some other markets, and being in some American radios playlists including Disney and Billboard's Next big sound and winning the MTV Europe best Finnish act twice already... Do I need to say more? Three albums, two EPs and a dozen charting singles to his credit so far wouldn't Eurovision be a logical next step in the world domination? After all he already did Estonian national selection - as a guest star!

A total of 18 songs made it to the number one in the official Finnish singles charts in 2017;  15 of them being Finnish! But as the Finnish ones, mostly various pop rapper, shot to the top and dropped out in a week or two mostly, the foreign ones stayed on top for several weeeks and months making a total of 30 weeks! The hugely popular Vain elämää's two seasons both gave us countless radiohits but only two made it to #1 (Nikke Ankara and Cheek with a Jari Sillanpää cover) last year, one from each series. Without further a do, have a listen below.... ARTTU LINDEMAN - HUKUTAAN (Week 1) ED SHEERAN - SHAPE OF YOU (Weeks 2-6, 12-15) MIKAEL GABRIEL & ISAC ELLIOT - LIIKAA SUSSA KII (Weeks 7-8) JVG feat. ELLINOORA - SITÄ SÄÄT MITÄ TILAAT (Weeks 9-10) ANTTI TUISKU - RAHAN TAKII (Week 11) REINO NORDIN - ANTAUDUN (Weeeks 16-17) NIKKEluis f ANKARA - PETTÄVÄLLÄ JÄÄLLÄ (Week 18) LUIS FONSI  ft. DADDY YANKEE - DESPACITO (Weeks 19-23, 24-31) ANTTI TUISK...

  Camila Cabello is ex-Fifth Harmony Cuban-American singer and her Havana is very groovy and catchy indeed. This blogger's off to Havana and Cuba in the middle of Eurovision 2018 season early next year so how could I not love this song?  Rui Andrade , veteran in the Eurovision circuit already and who knows the one for Lisbon 2018, has released a video for his latest Comfia em mim . The song and especially the video is clearly aimed at Eurovision circuit and fan boys. Swedish song indeed, but sung in Portuguese it has a nice flavor. I must admit I dismissed this with the first hearing, but given another shot it's actually rather good! (Much better than Know me better , IMHO) Finnish teenage sensation Isac Elliot from this blogger's hometown Espoo keeps delivering and his latest Eyes shut continues his string of perfect pop hits. He has recently launched also a highly succcesful career in Finnish with Mikael Gabriel. Italian fan favorite Arisa has releas...

Happy birthday to Axel as he turns 27 today. Congratulations! Axel Ehnström aka Paradise Oskar Dada dammed for Finland in Eurovision 2011 winning the Marcel Bezençon award and placing third in the semifinal and gaining praise from left and right. However, he never intended to become a singer himself and after his debut album (#4 in Finland) he has created a succesful songwriting career. Some of songs he has co-written: Isac Elliott - New way home (#1 Finland, #4 Norway) Kasmir - Wowowow (#4 Finland) Anna Abreu - Bandana (#5 Finland) RAF Camora - Mein Leben (#3 Germany, #12 Switzerland) Alle Farben - Bad ideas (#4 Austria, #7 Germany) Lost Frequences - All or nothing (#10 Belgium) - Also vocals -  Sofi De La Torre - Vermilion Mikael Gabriel - Riippumatto (#4 Finland) Pretty Pink feat. Axel Ehnström - Superman

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Alex Mattson is really Aleksi Kaunisvesi (20) and the first Finnish solo artist and DJ to be signed to Grammy winning Ultra Music. Besides his solo releases he has prodiuced songs to names like Isac Elliot , Reino Nordin , Mikael Gabriel. UFO feat Solamay and Forget you entered the international playlists and his latest Good kids is following them... Runaway Zoo is a band from Porvoo. The five little town boys have known each other all their live...

84/120 Lauri Yrjölä scores a surprise second place in our little panel. Lauri is a singer-songwriter and guitarist. He has material enough for his debut album to be released, if everything goes well, and if he has time from playing with Isac Elliot, Sanni, Antti Tuisku and other top names, and in the bands Year of the Dog and Ottilia. But maybe it's time to step to the spotlight for real and #UMK17 is a good test for that. He's a late bloomer as he took guitar into his hand and started with music only when he entered high school.  His song is about contracts; how it is to search for easy life (aka Helppo elämä) but how it in the end gives you nothing. Being the only song in Finnish in competition he says he wants his arrangement and sound international but his lyrics in Finnish to make it more authentic, so he can truly sing them from his heart. And should he win, the song stays in Finnish! This is not his first time in UMK, he was already in Mica Ikonen's band b...

Isac Elliot is still only 15 but he has already released two albums and has his career going on well in Norway, Estonia and Finland among others, and is making it big in the USA as we are speaking. In May he was the very first Finn to appear in the Today Show . Not bad for a guy from my hometown :-)

After Robin ja Isac Elliot comes Benjamin, third wheel in the teenage sensation 3some in Finland. Benjamin's got things moving in Spain first it seems (his album debuted there at #3 while in Finland it peaked at #17) , and now Finland is following. Body is his fourth single. He's gone a long way from being just another pretty boy on Instagram. 

And the last group of artists following the semifinal one , two and three . I have picked up 32 big names in Finland, mainly from the pop genre. I have on purpose forgotten harder rock, punk and complete schlager singers. What do you think? Would this kind of approach give us any fruits, domestic hits and success in Eurovision like Melodifestivalen does in Sweden? Please comment in the box. Dreaming is free..... and We have a dream .

The Finnish Grammys aka Emmas will be awarded next month in Barona Arena in Espoo. Here are the nominees for the best video: Cheek - Äärirajoille Isac Elliot - Baby I Haloo Helsinki - Beibi My First Band - Don't break my corazon JVG ft Anna Abreu - Huominen on huomenna Olavi Uusivirta - Kauneus sekoittaa mun pään Janna - Läpinäkyvää Stam1na - Panzerfaust Robin ft. Nikke Ankara - Parasta just nyt Kasmir - Vadelmavene This award will be voted by the public. Would you have wanted to see any of these among Eurovision preview videos?

Emma, the Finnish Grammy award nominations have been revealed today. Among the various nominees in different categories we have Softengine , the band that scored 11th in Copenhagen Eurovision 2014. They have been nominated as the newcomer of the year, and they are also among the nominees in the People's Choice award. In newcomers they fight it againt Arion , from UMK 2013. Jari Sillanpää has three nominations: Schlager album of the year, Male artist of the year and he's also listed for People's Choise. Another Eurovision veteran Katri Helena is still going strong; she scored also nomination in Schlager album of the year and also Female artist of the year. Diandra , Idol winner and UMK participant is also nominated for the Female artist of the year and People's Choice. Finally we have Tango King and national selection participant Amadeus Lundberg up for Peoples Choice. Also UMK judge Redrama and national final participant Samuli Edelmann are nominated. The...