Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Finland has its #umk16 final tonight and the winner will be our 50th Eurovisison entry. Roope Salminen is hosting the show from Helsinki with 2013 entrant Krista Siegfrids and Eurovision 2007 hostess Jaana Pelkonen will be there, too. Eurovision 2006 winner Lordi is performing and celebrating the 10th anniversary of their win and also last year's participants Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät grace the show with their presence. For the first time for a very long time, or ever, the polls give no clue who will win. Pre-contest favorite Saara Aalto is not doing so well in the polls, and the fan favorites Mikael Saari (He won the Finnish fanclub's Fan Award again) and Annice & Kimmo don't seem to appeal to the masses, nor Tuuli. Eini is doing well with general puclic, critics love Sandhja and Barbe-Q-Barbies is picking up speed. Being the only rock entry will surely be an advantage when the masses start to vote tonight, same goes for Eini having the only song in Finnish. Cri...

YLE's competition, commercial television MTV3 has also run its poll about the #UMK16 entries for its website readers. And like everywhere else (except Finnish Eurovision fans who are all still listening Mikael Saari's previous entry it seems... see the chart at bottom) it's very tight. Anything can happen tonight! Follow my live blog tonight! Cristal Sow   16,98% Eini   16,64% Barbe-Q-Barbies   16,37% Saara Aalto   16,11% Sandhja   10,65% Annica & Kimmo   8,56% Mikael Saari   8,15% Tuuli Okkonen circa 3% Stella Chrisitine circa 3% Fans voting:

The field is more open than maybe ever in #UMK16, the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision song contest 2016 in Stockholm. Early favorites aren't so strong as they should be (to compare last year when PKN scored 60-70% of votes in most every poll). I already posted about Ilta-Sanomat reader's poll here . Over 25.000 people voted and it finished a tie with Saara Aalto and Eini, both scoring 18%.  Later this week Iltalehti had similar poll and it finished with Saara Aalto winning with 15,1%. She's closely followed by Sandhja (14,2%) and Barbe-Q-Barbies (13,9%). Both performed in the last semifinal last Saturday while Saara was in the first one three weeks ago. With about 12% right after them we have Cristal Snow, Eini and Mikael Saari. The remaining about 20% is divided by Stella Christine, Annica & Kimmo and Tuuli Okkonen so it's all very close. If we look at the Spotify hits, Sandhja is the clear winner with 23% in the past few days. Cristal Snow i...

Ilta-Sanomat, one of the biggest newspapers in Finland run a poll after the last #umk16 semifinal who should win and surprisingly Eini has caught up with Saara Aalto as the favorite! This blogger couldn't be more delighted as I am in #teamEini. Out of 25.040 votes they both scored 18%. At first Saara was leading but then Eini has gained votes, as has Mikael Saari while Saara and Barbe-Q-Barbies had lost some along the way.  Here are the results: EINI 18% SAARA AALTO 18% CRISTAL SNOW 14% MIKAEL SAARI 12% SANDHJA 11% BARBE-Q-BARBIES 10% ANNICA & KIMMO 8% STELLA CRISTINE 6% TUULI OKKONEN 4% As one can see, it's very close and there's no runaway winner candidate like last year for example. This list is radically different from escstats fan poll where Kimmo & Annica are leading, Saari second, Aalto third followed by Sandhja, Snow, Eini, B-Q-B, Okkonen and Stella, but then that includes still all #umk16 entries. In the F...

Here we are ready for the second semifinal. It's an open field and live will be crucial. Let's see what happens.... Krista is cometing in melodifestivalen tonight so Roope is hosting alone I suppose. And Robin will be guest starring. Oh Krista is there! Or is she? Modulator Raakel Liekki reminds she's indeed competing in Sweden. That's all we have got so far. If someone watching doesn't know the facts he might be a bit confused right now... Attention 2 - Ready for the show Flying flags and neoncolors and cartoon backdrops. Imperfections they sing and ... well, imperfections fly like the flags but the girls have fullfilled their dream. They are quite sweet but maybe they better come back next year :-) Roope finally explains the Krista affair and yes, he will be hosting alone tonight Cristal Snow - Love is blind Cristal takes the red bulls by hors in his staging. Hot red bull masks and despite some inperfections here, too, in the beginning h...

The second semifinal on February 13 works just like the first one. Six acts and three will be televoted to the final and it all takes place at YLE's studios in Helsinki. Many returns in this one from Cristal Snow to Mikael Saari and Kimmo Blom aka Angelo de Nile. Also last year's Pihja ja Myrsky returns as songwriters to Attention 2, as does Jimi Constantine from Euroviisut 2011, today the man behind megasuper popular Robin. And there's that obstrusive fan team as songwriters. And the song blamed of plagiarism..... And finally a couple of the most succesful and famous Finnish dancemusic producers Kaivo and JS16.  Attention 2 - Ready for the show  (Henna Helasvuo, Lasse Turunen/Lasse Turunen) Review Cristal Snow - Love is blind  (Cristal Snow, Jimi Constantine, Samuel Kovanko) Review Annica Milán & Kimmo Blom - Good enough  (Michael James Down, Primoz Pogladen, Jonas Gladnikoff, Matthew Ker) Review Rafaela Truda - Rise up  (Kalle Mäkipe...

Annica Milán and Kimmo Blom both are already television talent search veterans and have been in Idols, The Voice and Kimmo also did #UMK15 as Angelo De Nile. Together they have also done musical theater and performing together since some time.  Annica tried her luck in The Voice 2013 where she was kicked out in the battle stage by Suvi Aalto, Saara's sister. Before that did Idols 2008 and didn't reach the final seven. In between she has won a random talent contest Palatsin tähti 2011.  Kimmo has been singing in many bands, and particiated with Boys of the Band in Euroviisut 2010, and then as mentioned before as Angelo De Nile in UMK last year. He has been backing singer to many heavy bands, played Freddie Mercury in The Show must go on musical, He has also written songs to countless artists over the years.  Apparently they are alos romantically involved so are we witnessing the birth of rock Al Bano & Romina Power here? Maybe..... 14/20

What would the national selection season be without a review by Peter Clancy, already a Blogilkar tradition! He reviews the songs in the Finnish national selection #UMK2016. First semifinals, then the final once the finalists are out and later on this spring also the Eurovision song contest entries as well. Hopefully! Here is the Semifinal two of #UMK2016. Enjoy! ( semifinal one here ) Attention 2 - Ready for The Show Ok, it looks like a "fun" song, but it's got very little variation and seems a bit on the corny side. Personally it does nothing for me, even the chorus is boring. Not exactly ground breaking, actually pretty dismal  2/5 Cristal Snow - Love Is Blind I don't know if they're going blindly for the gay vote, maybe they are, but I'm   missing something and I'm not sure how well this will be performed on stage.   The song itself has little variation in it, though it's not as boring as it could be. It has potential depending on...

The fan lottery for the possible #UMK16 names goes on and on. Some new names have been digged out, but they seem more like wild guessing than anything based on proper facts like it could be the case here . Maybe. Those who know must be having a laugh, and over the past days I have started wondering one thing: How come all the instrumental demos sound so similar, with a couple of exceptions? Has someone played them again with the same programming just to confuse fans even more? ;-) Ok, that was my contribution to this mystery. I can't even bother to think myself who these could be, I am just curiously waiting for January 12 and the revelation. As it seems we might be having quite a good year ahead of us.....  Meanwhile enjoy their music after the jump....

Angelo De Nile travels throuth time and space and was born in Ninive 2768 years ago. Right. Actually it's a project by Kimmo Blom, currently also in the Voice of Finland, and already in national Eurovision selection as a member of Boys of the Band in 2010. He's a history freak and as Angelo promises to bring the big names from the past alive again, so get ready! Behind his song are guys from some hardrock bands like Leverage and Urban Tale. His incarnation as significant men from the past will provide us a spectacular soundtrack in the future, should he have success with this. Maybe. His hero is Marcus Aurelius and if he could do whatever he'd sneek into Vatican museums at night and spend the night with the masterpieces. All for victory then? Being an emperor in a real world isn't always easy....  Jack: Angelo de Nile's song is rather dramatic but boring at the same time, if that's possible. It wouldn't sound out of place in a theatre production b...