Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

When YLE's #UMK2021 jury announced it has selected the seven entries for the final they praised the quality and variety of the entries and even gave out clues of different kind of categories the submissions can be divided, one of them being old Eurovision participants, fans started speculating right away who could they be? This blogger included. But as they spoke about submissions we don't know if any of those were actually selected for the final.  On the other hand if one reads carefully one can note there are seven entries chosen, and they gave us six categories: Eurovision veteran, Emma award winning artist (or writer as they indeed didn't mention artists but submission by..... could be artists, writers, authors or producers), artists from hugely popular Vain elämää series, an export hope, energetic rock band and a hot name from the alternative music genre. Ok, one is missing and the extra slot could go to UMK2020 winner Aksel Kankaanranta after all?  Anyways, let...

Teräsbetoni's front man Jarkko Ahola turns 40 today. Teräsbetoni may have been in hiatus since 2011 but Jarkko has launched a succesful solo career besides being active in his own band Ahola and most of all in Northern Kings, a megagroup of Finnish heavy singers. His solo career so far consists of three Top-5 albums of Christmas classics with other more or less classical songs, one could maybe call it pop heavy. He's also been involved in many other projects.  Congratulations!

Autumn is always full of new releases and this fall in Finland we have many Eurovision stars releasing new albums, inclusing Krista Siegfrids but more about that later in due time....  Hanna Pakarinen released Synnyin, elän, kuolen in September. It's her seventh studio album, third in Finnish and the very first cover album. All the songs are namely previously recorded by legendary late Carola (Standertskjöld), one of the biggest talents Finnish music industry has had. One of the songs (below) is a very familiar one to all the Eurovision fans....  Lordi has also released their new album Monstereophonic (Theaterror Vs. Demonarchy) , their 8th studio album and it made it to albums Top-10 once again, at #10 for one week :-) Jarkko Ahola (of Teräsbetoni ) releases third album of the series of Christmas songs, classical songs and hard rock evergreens in all operatic pop hard rock classical mix. Album will be released on November 18, 2016 and it includes among other...

The second season of Tähdet, tähdet has been again a success, and no doubt thanks to some Eurovision singers: Krista Siegfrids, Laura Voutilainen, Jarkko Ahola (Teräsbetoni) have done it all the way to the almost end, while Markku Aro was voted out after his country performance. More Eurovision is added when Mira Luoti (PMMP) was eliminated to the sounds of Lapponia , and multiple national finalist Arja Koriseva made it to sixth episode. On top of that UMK host Roope Salminen is in top-4.... As is Laura Voutilainen. But as said, surprisingly and unfairly Krista Siegfrids dropped out last Sunday. She has been a real transformer and managed all genres wonderfully showing she can also sing and is a real performer and it's time to forget ding dong and see what she is all about: a true artist. Now that's she's out I'm all for Laura Voutilainen.... She's in top-4 with Jarkko Ahola, Roope Salminen and opera hunk Waltteri Torikka.

Tähdet, tähdet or Stars, stars is a variety show that premiered last year and was won by Eurovision veteran Jari Sillanpää (ESC 2004) and featuring also Vicky Rosti (ESC 1987) and UMK participants Diandra and Stig. This year it is even more Eurovision connected when Krista Siegfrids (ESC 2013), Laura Voutilainen (ESC 2002), Markku Aro (ESC 1971), Jarkko Ahola of Teräsbetoni (ESC 2008) join national selections veteran Arja Koriseva  and #umk15 host Roope Salminen among others in the line. In this series artists perform each week music from different genres from rap to opera, from heavy rock to schlager and pop and everything in between. One of the most talked about performance last season was Jari Sillanpää's Gangnam style .

Like every year popular artists release Christmas albums. In Finland it's usually 3-5 of the top names annually and 2014 is no exception.  This year we have Teräsbeton i's Jarkko Ahola releasing already his second Christmas album titled Suojelusenkeli - Joulun klassikot 2 . This time it includes also songs that are not exactly Christmasy, like Finlandia by Sibelius, Cavatina and Andrea Bocelli's Sanremo song Con te partirò .  Jippu , who took part in Euroviisut 2008 with Kanna minut makes a comeback to recording world after motherhood with Rakkauden joulu . It is more classic Christmas album with songs like O holy night , Heinillä härkien kaukalon and Sydämeeni joulun teen .  Suvi Teräsniska - who would be great for Eurovision one day - is saying goodbye to music business for awhile with this Christmas album Joulun henki . She got married and is expecting a baby shortly so she will have a well deserved break from a very succesful career. It includes also a ...

Christmas albums are something most artists do at some point of their career for some reason; to cash in, to revive the career or just for fun or other reason. This year in Finland Samuli Edelmann does it after singing pop, rock, psalms so in his career it's a rather logical step after starring alongside Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. The album Hiljaisuuden valo (Light of the silence) is reached top-5 in its second week. Very popular Juha Tapio who started with religious music before hitting pop rock debuted at #4 with his album Joululauluja (Christmas songs). Also for him, I must admit it is a logical step in his career and there's no hint about the previously mentioned reasons to do such albums. The third success album this season comes from Jarkko Ahola of Teräsbetoni fame. This is actually his first solo album and shows there's more to him and his vocals than just metal rock and long hair in the air. Ave Maria - joulun klassikot (Ave Maria - Christmas classics) i...