Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Jessica Wolff tried to get to Eurovision for Finland in 2012 with Better . Being one of the wildcards it didn't qualify for the final stages of the contest. She was a pretty blond with a lot of ambition and interesting curriculum including being a stuntwoman and having kungfu and motorbikes as a hobby. A rough life but a lot of positive energy and will to do music. Does it sound a bit like another blonde's life? Ding dong! Anyways, since then she has worked hard, travelled the world, been in n a streetfight in Los Angeles when she was attacked by two at night. Needless to say the bruised kungfu girl sent those two into hospital as well. Long story short: she has released her debut album in Japan! She just came back from promoting it there and will be back in the end of this month performing in Loud & Metal festival with alongside Nightwish and Mokoma. Here are some of her videos: Broken wings , You should get over me , I want you out of my head ,

So, tonight's UMK is over and we have a result. This week I don't totally agree with the judges but hey, that's life. Aura Pineda is out. The judges thought she's a good singer and she is, and the song is a good schlager hit which is it but somehow it wasn't honest. Indeed she said in interview she "wants to sing all sort of music" in a way that it sounded like she's not that into the song herself. Could be. Surprisingly also Leola was kicked out. They praised the solist and the song and wondered if she would go solo anytime soon. Even if the song came alive on stage like never before it lacked originality reminding many Finnish current artists (Irina meets Stella for example). So, welcome back nest year! Iconcrash did it. They thought they were ambitious stadium rock. A good song. Freeman also did it but they were very disappointed Uusi Fantasia band was not with him but five backing singers. He better bring them along (after all it's labeled ...

So far the show has been a rating disaster and people have showed little interest, even amongst the fans it seems. Tonight again six acts will perform to the judges who will then drop two of them. They are Aura Pineda, Freeman, Iconcrash, Kaisa Vala, Leola and Ville Eetvartti . As this is a recorded show the real thing happens elsewhere at the same time: the eight qualified ones + the wildcard voted online from Martina, Jessica Wolff and The Spyro will perform in Club Dom in Helsinki live infront of a live audience and judges. And here is the change: apparently when this airs on February 17 the public can vote five acts directly to the final, and the judges will add one more. So far there has been no talk about public voting at this stage so is this an attempt to try to make the show more interesting and viewer friendly? The show starts tonight at 20.00 CET and you can watch it live on YLE Areena . I will of course post after the show my comments and thoughts.

Next Friday the qualifiers of UMK aka Uuden musiikin kilpailu will have their live gig in DOM Club in Helsinki (that will be shown on TV the week after if I have understood right). It is there were the wildcard also will be announced, or the one that won the internet voting between The Spyro , Martina and Jessica Wolff . Now The Spyro has invited their fans in Facebook to attend the event. So, did they also reveal they have qualified? When Martina was asked her answer was the contractual "No comment". Letting the secret out too early could and should mean disqualification....  Did they accidently teleport themselves out of the qualification? UPDATE 6.2.: The Spyro is not disqualified as "anyone can invite their fans to the recording of the show" comments YLE.

Janne who I hear you ask? If I say he has written more Euroviisut entries than anyone else (except Lasse Mårtensson or did Janne pass him already this time with Jessica Wolff's Better ? Someone correct me?). He has tried since 2004 with songs like A little crazy and Cider hill , just to name a couple. His song Birth by KAT-TUN, a Japanese boyband topped the Japanese charts last week. But hey, he wasn't the first Finn to achieve that: just two weeks earlier Samuli Laiho wrote the Sexy Zone's number one single, With you . Both songs have been co-written by Japanese Daichi. But there are still more Finnish songwriters with success in Asia right now. In Taiwan Rainie Yang had a number one album this fall in South Korea and one of the songs is written by Jussi Nikula, Jaakko JS16 Salovaara and Popparazzis. In Taiwan Super Junior boyband scored also a number one album recently and Be my girl from it was a #3 hit, written by Aku Rannila, Henry MGI Lanzi & co. And we aware,...

There has been over 100.000 "Tykkää" aka "Like" in UMK's songs since they were made public. As we know the jury that will choose the 12 semifinalists amongst the 40 songs will keep a close eye also on this, and other movements in social medias. But then who knows what they will choose? If we look at the top-5 since the liking started the most solid performer has been Jari & Taika that debuted as number 2 and moved to number one and has stayed there since. Also Iconcrass and Raita Ilomäki have stayed in top.5 for five weeks already. The Spyro and Jessica Wolff have climbed there later on. You can check the full list here . This is how the top looks like this very moment I am writing this: 01. Jari & Taika - Aamuyön ikuisuus (6303 tykkää) 02. Jessica Wolff - Better (5191 tykkää) 03. Raita Ilomäki - Usko rakkauteen (4846 tykkää) 04. The Spyro - Teleport My Heart (4838 tykkää) 05. Iconcrash - We Are The Night (4617 tykkää) 06. DCX - Erase You (460...

Weeks have passed and the 40 songs in the running to become UMK semifinalists have been online, listened and judged by the fans and curious alike and it's time to draw some conclusions. Martina caught the first attention but while she's doing reality-tv in the jungle the field is left open to everybody else and take the spotlight but... Honestly I haven't seen anyone doing any headlines anywhere. Nor have I heard any of the songs on radio (except some Eurovision on line radios)... But if we put togerher some online fan polls, YLE's own fan barometer we can get the idea Jessica Wolff is the favourite now closely followed by DCX . Then we have Iconcrash , Martina and Pernilla Karlsson and ARTo neck to neck. And then Malin Kojola , especially liked by the foreigners and Jari & Taika , especially liked by the YLE's own fan barometer voters. Thrown in Fatima and Freeman & Uusi Fantasia and we have the top-10.  Time will tell how many of thee will make the Y...

Jessica Wolff, no relation to Kati Wolf it seems, is a stuntgirl, kung fu master, drives motorbikes, actress, snake charmer... and singer. Her songwriters have written countless Euroviisut entries and this one is very Eurovision indeed, not exactly her own genre like she admits herself. A great pop song with a hook and I bet Jessica would give a performance to remember! She's 23, her debut single Want you out of my head is out, she's put together her band and is ready for live gigs as soon as her debut album comes out. But I think this Better is better. Wouldn't be a bad choice for Baku either....  (But why it makes me think of Maggie Reilly?)