Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Whatever happens Madcraft will propably be shining bright next summer in all music festivals and in gigs all over Finland. They seem funny, colorful, adorable and their bubble gum punk pop easy enough for wider audience. In Eurovision one thinks of Andorran Anonymous , or Last Panda in UMK 2013. The band's been playing since 2010 and now more than 100 gigs, 2 EPs, a few singles and videos later is to become a household name. The boys (Tom Nuorivaara in vocals and guitars, Juho Rinne in guitar and vocals, Jesse Mäläskä in bass and vocals and Otto Uotila in drums and vocals) reside in Helsinki even if none is from the city originally. And what's the story with Bam Margera? Read it here . The boys do their own music, film their own videos, design their covers.... Their influences include All Time Low, Blink 182 and Limp Bizkit. Oh, oh, oh, ooh oh! Will Finland have a slogan to shout around like ding dong last time again? Time will tell. Like their Facebook here , their w...

Here again some new videos. UMK 2013 finalist Last Panda has released a new song and video, featuring... errr, panda! The girl's gone wild . It follows nicely the genre we already know and the intro feature their UMK entry.... Another link to UMK 2013 comes in POPUP 's video Ikuisuus , that features Mikael Saari . And not only, in the intro they joke that this cetain mentioned person "would be now in Malmö if he only kept his jumper".... Nice touch! This a cappella group features also beatboxer Felix Zenger . Spanish Eurovision veteram David Civera has released a new one, too. Me ha robado el corazon is a nice mix of summer dance music. Another Eurovision veteran, Blue , is back with a new song Without you . Will they manage to breathe some life into their career? Curiously the guys never feature together in this video but only separately. A nice song anyways.

Elina Orkoneva Lucy Was Driving Diandra Flores Krista Siegfrids Iina Salin Last Panda

Well, it might be only wishful thinking but apparently some of the UMK 2013 artists have been planning on going on tour together, and even more so: to cover each other's songs, just as they have been doing in dressing rooms and backstage. True or fiction? Time will tell. However, the boys of Last Panda and also Lucy Was Driving would like to cover Mikael Saari's song. Panda boys would make it a rock song, and so would Lucys "Goosebumps are overrated. We would show it's really done! " says Otso Koskelo, band's lead singer. Diandra would love to cover Iina's song . "I really like the song and have been listenong to it! " And finally the winner Krista Siegfrid, a real rock chick in heart would do Arion's Lost. Besides, she has already altered the lyrics in her song including Arion's lead singer: "Marry me, Bieber!" - like he has been labelled by the jury, heavyrocks' Justin Bieber. Oh well.... maybe this is better to stay...

Here it is. The grand final of UMK 2013 and the field is wild open! Diandra and Mikael have been winning polls, bot so have Krista and Arion. And we can't rule out Great Wide North either. When did we last have a final where five out of eight would be worthy winners? Never propably. This blogger will be happy if the winner is Mikael, Krista or Diandra, but wouldn't be surprised (or so very pleased) if Arion wins. And if Great Wide North wins I would say it's 2000 all over again.... There will be 50-50 televote-jury and no superfinal. Anyways, I will be live blogging the event as always so come along at 20.00 CET! 1. Arion - Lost 2. Elina Orkoneva - He's not my man 3. Lucy Was Driving - Dancing all around the universe 4. Krista Siegfrids - Marry me 5. Last Panda - Saturday night forever 6. Mikael Saari - We should be through 7. Great Wide North - Flags 8. Diandra - Colliding into you

Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat is closely following the UMK 2013 finalists and their Spotify listening times. Diandra has been in the lead since they started that but today Mikael has almost reached her gaining 20% of the total hits against Diandra's 21%. Apparently the difference is 0,7% at the moment. Krista Siegfrids is a solid #3 with 17% followed by Great Wide North on the rise at 14%. Arion keeps falling and is now at 12% before Elina Orkoneva at 6%, Lucy Was Driving 5% and Last Panda at 4%.  They are also doing different kind of statistics and it reveals Diandra is women's favorite while Mikael is men's! (One would think the opposite!) Under 18 year's olds Diandra reigns at 41% while Krista comes 2nd and Mikael a close 3rd. In over 46 year olds the situation is the same, only that Arion is more popular than Mikael! He takes a revenge at the age of 26-45 where he is a clear #1 with 25% before Diandra and Great Wide North. And finally the 19-25 category is to...

The Panda boys made it to the final. It all started with this jury performance , and continued with this live gig in The Circus before the semifinal last week. And in semifinal they sounded and looked like this . And this Saturday they will be on stage once again in the grand final of UMK 2013. Good luck guys!

Last Panda's lead singer and songwriter Henry Ossian took a moment to answer some questions by yours truly. Did you know the pandas tried their luck already last year in UMK and how did that end? And what was he doing when Lordi rocked Athens? Find it all here. And don't forget to vote for them in my poll on the right hand side of this page! How did you get the name Last Panda? It was 2007 when the journey of Last Panda begun. I was at the back stage of Bar 45Special, which is a legendary gig place in Oulu, Finland. The walls of the small back stage room are full of hand written messages, band names, stickers you name it. I decided that if I ever started a band it should have a name that matters. And then it hit me: Last Panda. I guess it’s my way to say that look around you what’s happening in the world. You have been playing together since school, right? How did you get started and has the line up been the same ever since? Actually only original members ...

I will be once again live blogging the UMK live tonight. It's time for the semifinal and see who will be the two (or apparently it is four!?) lucky ones the jury and televoters send to next week's grand final with Mikael Saari, Diandra Flores, Krista Siegfrids and Arion. Like the previous weeks the show time is on YLE Areena with UMK+ 19.45 CET and the show itself starts at 20.00 CET,  also on YLE's website. Tonight's guest star is Elonkerjuu. Twitter #UMK13 19.45 UMK+ has started online and soon we will move to The Circus nightclub in Helsinki city center. One of the judges, Aija is interviewed and she tells how she has given advice to the vocalists in the early stages of UMK but now they are on their own and the judges only... judge. She also tells she wished there was more indie pop but apparently that's something missing in the Finnish scene at the moment... Next we talk with the hosts, Ile and Anne, and most of all their outfits for tonight. They remind ...

Join me tonight for a live coverage of the first heat of UMK 2013. Six artists will be on stage, voted by the jury and the public for the first time. Two will secure a place in the final, one will be sent home. The others will still have hope alive to get the final ticket from the semifinal. Anssi Kela is the guest star tonight. Coming live from the sold out Circus in Helsinki. Watch it live here from 19.45 CET. 19.40 The backstage UMK+ has just started. With a black screen and nonsense talking. Apparently eveything's not working out as it should have :-) 19.45 Ok, it all restarted with the view, too. Maybe it was better without. The presenters Ile & Anni are now interviewed and they confess being a bit nervous. Then they go and chat with Diandra, who sits in the make-up. She tells what she's been up to since presenting the demoversion to the judges. Mert Otsamo who designed her dress and Ville who takes care of her make-up and hair had a chance to wave, too. She s...

Jack at Eurovisionjack3 has reviewed the UMK entries for Blogilkar. This blogger agrees in most cases but the beauty of these reviews and opinions that there is always something to disagree :-). Here's what he had to say: Arion - Lost  This is what Finland does best - ROCK! It's just awesome - the kind of music I like! Unfortunately, I was very underwhelmed by their stage performance - I hope they will be able to improve on that for next week. It's a powerful song which could do very well in the charts, even if it doesn't make ESC! One of my favourites for sure... 9/12 Atlético Kumpula - Paperilyhty Don't get me wrong, it's a really good song, but I feel like something is missing! It has a folk sound which I don't think will do very well. I can't see it doing very well - it's too strange. I would love to see it do well (or at least make the UMK final) but I can't see it happening... 4/12   Diandra - Colliding into y...

The six first artists performed for the first time to the judges with their demo versions. Their performances gave us hints about what will happen on stage and how will they present themselves. Here's a short recap of their comments and hints before the first gig with live audience in Helsinki on January 17 . And this blogger will say his, too. LAST PANDA - SATURDAY NIGHT FOREVER **** The judges generally liked it, especially Toni but he also criticized them lacking energy until the last chorus but on the other hand it's better lack than fake it. This blogger agrees and thinks they were maybe a little nervous? Redrama understood it isn't the easiest place to perform, a rockband doing only one song and for four people only. But they did a good job, he thinks. Aija liked also the fact they look like band and the look fits with their musical style. And Henry's way of singing. Tomi was also happy what he saw and heard telling their gig experience shows. The band it...

Tomorrow UMK continues on TV and the artists and judges meet for the first time and they get to perform to them for them as well. I will of course post about that tomorrow with video links and comments. I have made posts about each of them based on the first program where the judges listened the demos and picked up the 12 qualifiers. Those artists were interviewed as well and they got to present themselves a bit and you can read my sum ups here: Last Panda , Iina Salin , Mikael Saari , Ilari Hämäläinen , Rautakoura , Diandra , Atlético Kumpula ,  Krista Siegfrids , Lucy was driving , Arion , Elina Orkoneva and Great Wide North . My comments on hearing the songs in full and in final versions for the first time is here . Don't forget to vote for your top-3 in my poll on the right hand side of this page! In other fan poll Diandra is keeping her early lead still but Mikael Saari and Iina Salin are reaching her while Krista Siegfrids seems to be struggling a little. But th...

Last Panda is a rock band from Oulu but all the guys originate from Kemi, even further north in Lapland. They declae they represent proudly the whole of northern Finland!  The band is Henry Ossian, HC Knuuti, Laze, Aapo Väinämö and Matt. The song is written by Henry Tikkanen, Aapo Immonen and arranged by Last Panda. They grew up together and went to same schools so besides music they also share long friendship. They had done the demo and decided to send it to UMK to get some feedback from professionals, as in today's Finland there's no way for small bands to get noticed when suitable TV-programs are missing at the moment. Except now there's UMK where you have at least a chance to get some feedback and maybe even notoriety. The band is ready to break it big and dreams of living of what they love the most: music. They also want to look like a band on stage and think about their look. The black eye make up is no glamrock inspired thing but refers to panda ...