Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Another dose of #Finpop 2026. This time with an actual UMK 2026 dropout: Minttu's Everest. She treid but didn't make the cut. Followed by already familiar names like UMk veterans Kuumaa with emma & Mathilda. pihlaja  and Eurovision veteran Laura Voutilainen. Enjoy! MINTTU - EVEREST KUUMAA / EMMA & MATHILDA - IHAN KOHTA OHI PIHLAJA - VELI NOJAA SISKOON LAURA VOUTILAINEN - TOINEN SINÄ

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) 

  This dose of #Finpop 2025 is packed with BIG familiar names, award winning chart toppers with their latest efforts. Enjoy! Kuumaa - Valoa Varten Suvi Teräsniska - Kukat kasvaa raunioon Robin Packalen - Unelmavävy Danitello / Mirella - Mitä mulla ei oo

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 ...

The past three years the most streamed song on Spotify in Finland has been an UMK entry but not anymore in 2024. Newcomers Mirella, Hugo and Ani took over but Kuumaa was still the second most listened act in general, Sexmane 5th. Their both latest albums made also the list of most listened albums: Pisara meressä (1.) and Hyvikset ja pahikset (6.) The most listened artist was however Turisti , followed by Kuumaa, Mirella, Gettomasa , Sexmane , Ibe , Costi , Taylor Swift, Isac Elliot and Lauri Haav .  1. Mirella - Timanttei 2. Ege Zulu & BEHM - Tunnista tuntiin 3. Mirella & Lauri Haav - Luotathan 4. Mirella - Uuteen eiliseen 5. AHTI & Hugo - Väärään aikaan 6. Kuumaa - Satama 7. Hugo & Costi - Taulut 8. Robin Packalen & Tupe - Häitä pidelly 9. Ani - Jos puhutaan totta 10. Mirella - Sua sattuu In 2021 Blind Channel's Dark side topped the list. Måneskin gave extra Eurovision flavour to the list placing three songs in the Top-10: I wanna be your slave (2.), Euroviis...

The Finnish Grammys or Emma Awards were handed out last night in Espoo Metro Areena and as expected Käärijä swept all but one award he was nominated and some more. The one that slipped away scandalously was the Public's award that Lauri Haav's fans fixed for him instead. About 99% of people watching where mouth open with Who?! This blogger was left moth open as well, I know the name but can't say I know any of his song though...even if I think I have featured him in my #FinPop series.  Käärijä won five awards: Artist of the Year, Best New Act, Export of the year and Song of the Year and The Most streamed Finnish song for his Eurovision runner up Cha cha cha. Obviously he also performed as the last act of the evening with a wonderful version of Cha cha cha with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.  The evening was full of UMK as in many categories UMK acts were nominated and Kuumaa won four awards as well: Most sold album of the Year, Album of the Year, Group of the Year, Pop o...

  Already three weeks of daily #Finpop2023 doses for you. Here's today's offer with a couple of future UMK worthy names and this year's UMK revelation Kuumaa : Disco - Me selvitään Lauri XCVII - Mitä täällä teen Evelina / Nelli Matula - Onnellinen Kuumaa - Anna mulle mitä vaan

This is only the beginning but Käätijä's Eurovision song contest 2023 runner up and televote winner Cha cha cha has already become the most streamed Finnish song in Finnish!  he has also broken the Finnish record of daily streams (469.600 on May 14) as well as weekly streams (2.566,241 accumulated on May 12-18)! The streaming numbers are over 32 million when writing this (pdate 21.5.: It's already 45 million) while the previous chart's Top-10 looks like this (On May 17, 2023), incl. UMK winner Aksel Kankaanranta as feat.: 1. Käärijä - Cha cha cha   32 297 751 2. JVG - Ikuinen vappu    31 441 712 3. Korpiklaani - Ievan polkka   30 432 149 4. JVG - Tarkenee   29 162 829 5.  Behm - Hei rakas   28 183 379 6. William - Penelope   27 053 714 7. JVG - Hehkuu   23 090 230 8. Pyhimys feat Aksel Kankaanranta - Jättiläinen    23 087 338 9. Reino Nordin - Antaudun    22 811 485 10. Behm - Frida ...

Finland's UMK has really turned itself around in just a couple of years from no hit machine disaster to a real chart topping delivering career launching hit machine. Two years in a row the Finnish Grammy aka Emma has gone to a song from UMK, all the songs hit the charts, it delivers several Top-10 hits, number ones and creates new stars. This year more than ever. In my personal opinion every song this year is good or great, and any of them would have been a winner just 3-4 years ago but things have changed now. How to pick up the one from the goodies? Easy if you think about it: there's one that caused an international stir right after it was released, it sticks out like a slap in the face and all I can say is WE MUST CHOOSE IT.  The running order caused some commotion in the social medias but I believe it has something to do with the stagings and props etc. On the other hand with only seven songs it's not so important if you go first, last or somewhere in between. Especial...

Iskelmä Gala, that translates to Schlager Gala was just like Emma Gala (here) a success for UMK artist. the Gala is organized by Iskelmä radio station and the awards are voted by its listeners. BESS won the award as the Female artist of the year, while Portion Boys won The Band of the year, and The Entertainer of the Year awards. Olli Halonen (ex-Satin Circus) won the Newcomer of the Year award. Kuumaa left with empty hands this time as did Erika Vikman.  All UMK related nominees were: Song of the Year:  Portion Boys - Elämän ABC BESS - Ram pam pam Olli Halonen - Suomen kesä Kuumaa - Tulipalo Female Artist of the Year: Erika Vikman BESS (won) Male artist of the Year: Olli Halonen Breakthrough of the Year: Olli Halonen (won) Band of the Year: Kuumaa Portion Boys (won) Entertainer of the Year: Erika Vikman Portion Boys (won) The Song of the year is Vesterinen Yhtyeineen with Kohti sydänpeltoja:

The Emma awards, aka Finnish Grammys were handed out in a grand scala this weekend and UMK artists had a great success! This transformation of UMK songs and artists to mainstream award pickers, hit makers and most streamed ones in just a few years is still something unbelievable to one who has been following the Finnish national selection Euroviisut and then UMK for decades. It's astonishing. I still remember clearly how the entries maybe were not even recorded, definitely didn't chart or became hits or mind you were nominated and winning awards..... Not to mention all the guest like Erika Vikman! Below are the ones picked up this year: Artist of the Year: BESS Band of the Year: Kuumaa Song of the Year: Ram pam pam - BESS   Mos streamed song of the Year: Ram pam pam - BESS Pop of the Year: BESS (for Ram pam pam, Rakastan en rakasta , Sammumaton ) Schlager of the Year : Olli Halonen (ex-Satin Cirkus) (For Pohjola , Suomen kesä , Pimeys ) Music maker of the Year: Jonas Olsson ...

How things change! Not so long ago the Finnish national entries didn't bother the charts, not even the winner and there are even entries that have never even been released after the contest. And now, UMK is living a real resurrection or renaissance and has become similar to Sanremo or Malodifestivalen: It makes hits. Artists want to take part. It's hot. Relevant. A hit.  Not all this year's entries have had the time to enter the official charts but last weekend for example Spotify's Top-10 had five UMK entries! I'm sure they will all storm into the charts this week. So far we have two debuts at the official singles Top-20 charts; Benjamin at #7 and Keira at #10. In the radio play Top-100 we have Robin at #46., Benjamin at #55., Lxandra at #65. and even Käårijä made it #77 already. I suppose he might hit the singles #1 and who knows how high on radios..... Let's look back at how it all started, this new era. Erika Vikman hit #5 on singles chart back in 2020 and ...

Finland has quite a line up this year starting with Robin Packalen, who has been on fandom's wish list for years as well as the most popular party band at the moment, Portion Boys and probably the next big thing Kuumaa. Add fresh Dancing with stars winner and fan favorite Benjamin, Lxandra who has been also on many wish lists for a few years (including mine). Add newcomer Keira and somewhat unknown Käärijä and you have maybe the biggest line up on paper ever on Umk. Sunrise Avenue's Samu Haber will be hosting the show from Turku's Logomo on February 25, 2023 and the winner will be selected by televote (75%) and international jury (25%). Once again Yle goes multilingual as you can watch the show on stream in either Finnish, Swedish, English, Russian, Ukrainian, sign language, northern Sami and Inari Sami. As usual the songs have been released one by one, one per day. I will get back to them one by one as well once they are all out. Keira - No business on the dancefloor Benj...

A bit over a week to go before Yle will announce the UMK2023 artists and starts showcasing their songs from  January 12 one per day. Meanwhile the fandom has been trying to figure out who they are by spying social media, Yle's hints dropping every now and then and everything possible from wishful thinking to the logical solutions, or in most cases just pure coincidence.  Some changes have been in the guessing since it started in November ( read more here ) but some seem to be now cemented and fans are sure they are in: Lxnadra, Kuumaa, The Poets of the fall and Portion Boys, only now without Meiju Suvas but maybe with Osku Luukkainen? Now much left from the original late summer wish list by fans though ( here ) New names have emerged especially in the new female singer department. Is it Linda Teränen (with or without her Relax Trio band?), is it LOLA (Lotta-Maria Heinonen)? Or Astrid Nicole? Or is it Berta? Aliisa Syrjä? Yona?  Kiki? The names are flying! How about the bo...

Another week, another dose of #Finpop, this time by another ones from Antti Ketonen with Katri Ylander and Kuumaa, hotly tipped for Umk2023 as well, and new talent Miri also delivers again and then there's a classy effort by Antti Ahopelto. Enjoy! Antti Ketonen, Katri Ylander - Koditon Miri - Ikävä meitä Kuumaa - Edellen sua Antti Ahopelto - Loistaa

Well, most probably not but this list of artists seems to fit the hints Yle gave and it did spread around fast like a forest fire in August . It does include names that this blogger has been toying with as well, and names that could fit the concept well and most of all feature several strong names so it wouldn't be one or two horse run but a real battle and more battle between the songs rather than artists. In theory. Here they are for your enjoyment and speculation: Portion Boys feat Meiju Suvas Portion Boys, the biggest party band (maybe) with three Top-5 hits in the past year, one of them with Teflon Brothers from Umk fame, with Meiju Suvas who's been around 40 years and living a new fame peak thanks to Vain elämää season 13 this fall. She's tried to get the ticket to ESC several times already. Pete Parkkonen he shot to fame in Idols 2008/09 and has had ups and downs in his career, the ultimate sex symbol who finally proved to most everyone he's a real international ...

 After a tiny holiday break some more new #Finpop tunes from the radio waves and charts. Enjoy! ABREU - Paholainen (querido) feat Averagekidluke KUUMAA - Tulipalo Elias Kaskinen - Elos ALMA - Everything beautiful

  This week's dose sees a return of Erin and Nelli Matula with some lesser known acts with hints of 80's Italodisco and a Sanremo pop ballad. All four would have been also a great addition to the UMK2022 Kuumaa - Oo vielä sekunnin mun Erin - Anna mun rakastaa Nelli Matula - Limbo Juhani Tikkanen - Kaatuen