Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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...

  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...

October 20 sees the release of a new Hanna Pakarinen album, Paperimiehen tytär . It's her first in Finnish and she describes it as a sort of a debut album, being so personal and result of a hard work. She has written most of the lyrics herself. The reviews and critic has been very favourable for the album so far and the title track was the first single and now comes Se yksi ainoa . The same day Jonna "ex-Nylon Beat" Geagea releases her first debut album Katso mua and its debut single was Taasko se alkaa while the title track is the new single and video. A week later is a real rush for the charts as several propably top selling albums are released. Antti Tuisku releases his Kaunis kaaos . The first single was Atlantti . And now comes Hyökyaalto . 1990's stars Ressu Redford and Jussi Rainio of Neon2 have re-recorded their hits they have been performing live with success recently in tour. Klassikot includes songs like Prinsessa . Tomi Metsäketo releases a Chr...

The first Finnish X Factor has come to a second last live show tonight when one of the top 3 will be dropped. Unfortunately personally I think there haven't been much of the x factor in the show, and the very bad viewing figures seem to agree with me. However, Elias Hämäläinen (24), Leena Tirronen (25) and Samuli Taskinen (21) reached the top3. UPDATE : Leena is out. In Italy there have been already 3 seasons of X Factor. The first one was won by Aram Quartet . Giusy Ferreri came second and become a huge star selling over one million records since. Tony Maiello also took part and went on to win Sanremo 2010 newcomers category. The second season was won by Matteo Becucci but it also brought us Noemi who took part in Saremo 2010. The latest edition was won by Marco Mengoni , who came then 3rd in Sanremo 2010