Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Eurovision host Mikko Leppilampi and Eurovision veterans  Krista Siegfrids and Lasse Piirainen of Norma John fame  wish you merry and white Christmas! And so do I!

Finland review

Pictured is lily of the valley, national flower of Finland Finland used once again Uuden musiikin kilpailu aka UMK. This 6th time however was the most revamped of them all so far (there have been minor changes every year): no more semifinals but just one grand final. As usual the songs and their videos were published way ahead of the final and in theory people were familiar with the songs before the big night. In the end Norma John took a very convincing win with both the international juries and the televoters ahead of some fan wanks with their Blackbird , written by themselves. Norma John is vocalist Leena Tirronen and pianist Lasse Piirainen. Norma John has existed in some form already almost ten years, but Leena and Lasse go back even longer, as they have been friends and musical soulmates since teenage years. Leena (32) first came to spotlight when she placed 3rd in the X Factor 2010 and released an album after that. (Nobody has a glue who the two infront of her were btw...

Krista Siegfrids stars in one episode of YLE's Swedish speaking part's series Almost unplugged , where the artists perform in an intimate setting at Alexander's Theater in Helsinki, and tell about their life and other things. She performs a lot of covers but also her Eurovision 2013 entry for Finland, Marry me - in a totally different version though - and her first Melodifestivalen entry, Faller . And most of all her touching tribute to  her father, Can you see me . Watch the highly entertaining performances  here . She proves once again she's so much more than the blond ding dong bimbo. A true artist with a great flexible voice that delivers us touching ballads and roaring rock'n roll and anything in between. Oh and look, it's Norma John's Lasse as the musical director playing the piano!

  86/120 Ta-dah! We have a winner! Norma John, the other big favorite by fans with Emma  beats Lauri Yrjölä narrowly and wins our little #UMK17 panel with their Blackbird If Norma John is your favorite, too, vote for it in my poll on right or for real here Norma John are Leena Tirronen and Lasse Piirainen. They form this indie pop band based on their long lasting friendship and tied together by weird sense of humour and the fact they are musical soul mates. The main point for them is to write songs together, and their musical collaboration has lasted years, since high school even if bands and productions have changed over the years. They think UMK is a good platform for new names to emerge. Leena Tirronen came third in the first Finnish X Factor in 2010 and released an album under name Leena Ihmemaassa. Lasse is an allaround musician, producer, writer and dreamer. He's about to take over the hugely popular musical quiz show BumtsiBum! as one of its two pianist...