Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Käärijä surprises us once again releasing an EP with Sanni out of the blue titled Vitun hyvää joulua or Fucking merry Christmas. It features three songs Booty call, Hei me pärjätään (We'll be alright) and Sinkkumies (Single man).  Not so keen on Booty call but the other two tracks are great! Let me throw this in now: Sanni will be in UMK 2027, been expecting that for years already but now it seems more real than ever. Enjoy!

  Before going into new faces and new sounds after last week's warm up let's have a quickie to see what the Eurovision veterans have been delivering the past few months including Hokka of Blind Channel fame as Joel Hokka left the band and formed a new one, simply called Hokka. JOOST, KÄÄRIJÄ, TOMMY CASH - I MISS US ERIKA VIKMAN - FATHER (I WILL NEVER CONFESS) WINDOWS95MAN - NEED YOUR HEART HOKKA -  HEART SAID NO

It's been three years Käärijä cha cha chaed his way to Finnish people's heart and not only: sold out European tours where locations have been updated to larger ones, three years in a row performing at Eurovision song contest final in one form or another (plus Cha cha cha played this year making it four), hundreds of gigs and festivals, millions of streams and countless collaborations with local and foreign artists. Not bad for an unknown guy from Vantaa who didn't quite speak English. In Finland he has two Top-5 albums, one has sold triple platinum. Ten top-10 singles, 23 Top-50 singles. 17 singles with other artists. New album comes out in October 2026.  Sold out Veikkaus Arena (Eurovision 2007 arena) saw a show described by critics (and music lovers)  as one of the best Finnish productions ever. A bit messy as he delivered all his hits with guests and the genres go from TRAFIK! to I miss us.... Understandable. But enjoyable. Bojan and Joker Out were the warm up act.  Se...

  The 2020's have been very good for Finland, the best era of the whole Eurovision history by far. Four out of six our best placements ever have been in the past six years.  1. Lordi - Hard rock hallelujah - 1/37   2006 2. Käärijä - Cha cha cha  2/37  2023 3. Blind Channel - Dark side  6/39    2021 4. Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen -Liekinheitin  6/35    2026 5. Erika Vikman - ICH KOMME   11/37    2025 5. Softengine - Something better  11/37    2014

  After touring the US and doing Coachella (!!!) with Joost Klein Käärijä's next step is to reconquer Sweden (and not only) with Basshunter and Ja eller nej. Yes or no? Late May he will have his very first arena concert and most likely Basshunter will join all his countless collaborators so far from BESS to Hooja, from Baby Lasagna to Joost Klein and Bojan/Joker Out, Rekami (the other fresh single with video shot infront of the famous Cha cha cha murales  Mun mestoi ), Lord of the Lost and who knows who else shows up

  He's done it again. A real fun banger.  He did Amsterdam's Het grote songfestivalfeest again this year opening the whole show this time

Käärijä has cha cha chad already almost three years and Finns - and not only - love him as much as ever. Since Eurovision he has released an album, a string of singles with various collaborations at home and abroad, toured Finland and Europe a few times to sold out venues, performed in Eurovision song contest as guest star two years in a row, making him do Eurovision three years in a row,  and this fall he has starred in ever so popular Vain elämää series doing covers of other singers songs on weekly basis. And now.... finally! He has announced an arena concert in Veikkaus Arena, the new names very arena that hosted the Eurovision 2007 in Helsinki.  He has teased many guests, most likely at least everyone he has collaborated (see videos below) and that's not all for sure.  Slovenian Joker Out will be the opening act prior Käärijä stars in their show in Slovenia in June 20,  2026. For this bromance he skips the very generous midsummer gigs in Finland that he could hav...

The 16th season of Vain elämää is on and every Friday we get new versions of artists songs by other artists. Here comes the first dose of the best ones so far excluding Käärijä's songs and covers that are covered in a different post here . Here comes two effort by UMK veterans Viivi and Kohannes Brothers of Kuumaa fame. Viivi - Olen kaunis (syntynyt voittamaan ) (Pelle Miljoona cover) Johannes Brotherus - USA (Viivi cover) Viivi - Tikapuut (Jonna Tervomaa cover) Johannes Brothers / Kuumaa - Minä toivon (Jonna Tervomaa cover) 

Vain elämää, the Finnish versison of originally Dutch The Best Singers has reached its 16th edition featuring quite a fresh and young cast including Käärijä, Viivi, Johannes Brotherus of Kuumaa from UMK, Lauri Haav and Vesta with more seasoned Jonna Tervomaa, Mikki Kauste of Egotrippi and Pelle Milhjoona. In further episodes there will be guests like Marion Rung (ESC 1962, 1973 - Imagine Käärijä belting out Tipitii for example - and Pepe Willberg. In each episode said artists perform a new version of their choice from the day's artist's repertoire. (Update: Sadly Käärijä didn't attend these last episodes as he was performing in Japan instead!) Update: Käärijä's episode scored 447.000 viewers.  Käärijä's day opened the season and we heard the following versions:  (and updated 19.9. with chart positions in the official singles Top-50 charts) Cha cha cha - Pelle Miljoona ( original ) Mic Mac - Jonna Tervomaa  ( original ) Ruoska - Viivi  ( original ) Enters official c...

The beauty of Eurovision is occasionally the artists became friends and/or collaborate in the future. Here comes another fruit of that thing: Germany's last placed Lord of the Lost join forces with Finnish runner up Käärijä in Raveyard.  Somehow I have a feeling this isn't last Käärijä collaboration with fellow Eurovision artists..... It's worth remembereing Lord of the Lost already did a v´cover of Cha cha cha, too :-)

Rim Tim Tagi Dim and Cha cha cha everybody.  After this exhausting Eurovision season's end this blogger is off to holidays  and will be back eventually someday. Have a great summer!

As the Jury show was leaked in full (sigh) and I couldn't resist watching it once (or maybe twice in parts) during the Saturday afternoon as warm up for tonight's grand final it's a good excuse to share some impressions and opinions. And a prediction. First of all it was very nice and nostalgic to an old fart like me to hear and see again on stage Io senza te , one of my all time favorite Eurovision entries, as well as Canzone per te , a song that I still remember by heart and also Cinema that I remembered surprisingly well even if I never was a huge fan. Only proves the fact that when you are young your memory works so easily! The opening was nice playing on the Nemo's broken trophy but the final line delivered by Sandra could have been delivered a bit funnier somehow.  Sandra is doing solid job while Hazel is letting it loose. Michelle is a nice add to the final line up as and I just love this grandmother (!!!) and her sense of humor I can excuse her Volare as well. ...

It's time to kick of the usual reviews. The opinions are all mine and if I don't like some song it's simply just not my cup of tea so to speak. If I like something you dislike or hate, it's fine, too. No stresso, no need to be depresso it's just music and tastes that re diverse and therefor beautiful! I also try to predict their success come May a little bit but as we know once the staging is out everything may change, remember Fuego and Rise like a phoenix for example? For this series I have grouped the songs in fours as usual as the songs may have similarities or something in common. Some fours came out beautifully, the others.... well not so well. Here comes the last part! ESTONIA - Tommy Cash - Espresso macchiato Tommy's Eurovision adventure started thanks to Käärijä with whom he dueted in It's crazy it's party . They also share the same song writer and producer Johannes Naukkarinen. In Eesti laul he scored convincing full points in the first round w...

Another dose of fresh #Finpop 2025 for you! It's Käärijä again, this time teaming up with UMK and fan favorite Bess followed by UMK veterans Mikael Gabriel and Benjamin along with Evelina who would fit UMK perfectly and I suspect and suppose has submitted song or two in previous years. Maybe next year she'll be there? BESS / Käärijä - Kaistaa Mikael Gabriel - Valinnu mun tien Evelina - Kirsikat Benjamin - Tommi (seksipommi)

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

Emma Gaala or the Finnish Grammy awards were celebrated in Espoo's Metro Arena a week ago and last year's most successful artist was Mirella who picked four out of six nominations (Artist of the year, Newcomer of the year, Song of the Year, Pop of the Year, Public's choice, Album of the Year) On top of that she was awarded The Most sold album of the Year and The most streamed Song of the Year. Several UMK artists were nominated and won awards. It's worth remembering three UMK entries have won The Song of the Year award in recent years: Dark side , Ram pam pam and Cha cha cha . Käärijä and Bess also have won The Artist of the Year award in 2022 and 2023, Kuumaa has won The Band of the Year now three years in a row (2022, 2023, 2024). Newcomer of the Year has been won by Jesse Markin (2019), Käärijä (2023), Kuumaa won Album of the year (2023). Pop of the year award has gone to Bess (2022) and Kuumaa (2023). Rock of the year to Blind Channel (2021, 2024), Export award to ...

  Estonia had its traditional Eesti laul tonight and as predicted Tommy Cash - Käärijä next to him, they share producer and co-writer btw - won. No, he WON: 83% of the televotes in the super final after having won also the international jury vote with Caffe macchiato.  Tommy Cash aka Tomas Tammemets (33) is one of the biggest names in the Estonian music scene and well known also in Finland. Indeed he was featured in Käärijä's It's crazy it's party and his entry is co-written and produced by Finnish Johannes Naukkarinen of Cha cha cha fame.  Besides music he has been a graffiti artist and freestyle dancer. His music career started in 2012 and his first release was in 2013. He has released two albums, three EPs and a string of singles both as solo and even more as featuring or other collaborations with before mentioned Käärijä, Little Big, Charli XCX, Kim Patras just to name a few.  He has been names the Estonian rap sensation, new king weirdo for his post-Soviet imagi...

Eesti laul 2025 had 175 submissions in various languages: 65 in Estonian and the rest in English, Italian, German and French. The chosen line up announced in early November features various songwriters and artists from Finland, Sweden and Norway. A wild card act was added in January after an online voting. (See below) As for the Finns Felin is Elin Blom (with Fredrik Etoall) of Twister Sister fame in Finnish national selection 2010 with Love at the first sight placing 4th and later that year she took part in Swedish Idols placing 6th. and her song is co-written by Paul Rein aka Pauli Jokela. The girlband also won MGP Nordic the Finnish selection, the original Junior Eurovision in 2007 with Fröken Perfekt. Stereo Terror are Finns and their song co-written by Lauri Hämäläinen, a man behind songs to many big Finnish artists. Then we have Johannes Naukkarinen, co-writer of Cha cha cha behind Tommy Cash song (who already dueted with Käärijä is It's crazy it's party). As of Eurovisio...