Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Yesterday's news was YLE was unable to "pay everybody" to Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest and thus leaving the entry's writers home, read more here . That caused quite a social media stir and for the reason. After all this is a SONG contest and without the song and who wrote it there was no entry (even if sometimes one wonders if there's a song at all in some performances...)  Today YLE announces it was all a misunderstanding and Linnea Deb, Joy Deb and Ki Fitzgerard all are travelling to Lisbon and will be in the Green room with the artists as well. One wonders who had the guts and common sense to stay away and give room to those you really deserve it....  Well done YLE, whether it was due to the negative flashback or just commom sense. Still I have to press it's more of the first as in the statement they still insist "usually YLE hasn't paid the songwriters to the spot due to the delegation limits set by EBU". So you do mean you have...

If you thought it's Eurovision SONG contest now it's clear what YLE thinks about it. The SONGwriters, who are quite much responsable for the outcome and the entry are not worth paying the ticket to Lisbon and their accomodation. All sort of managers, PR people, make up artists, hair artists, choreographers and assistants are, including of course various YLE people having not so much to do at the spot in reality. "We can't just pay everyone" comments YLE while in any sense of the world the artist and the backing group AND the SONGwriters should be the first ones in the list. But no. Not for YLE. This blogger had a bit hard swallowing they went abroad and bought the songs abroad like any Azerbaijans do (as that is what they did when especially inviting Eurovision winning team ( Heroes 2015) to write a song for Saara and Eurovision) but I softened a little when I discovered Linnea and Joy Deb actually do have some Finnish roots. And if YLE had money to bring t...

  YLE was business as usual with separate artists and song submission calls with deadlines until out of the blue last Novembeer they announced they had selected internally Saara Aalto ,  angering both general public and most of all the Finnish authors and musicians whose work (around 300 submissions apparently) was thrown in to rubbish bin just like that with "it wasn't good enough". All that put aside, tonight's the night. Saara Aalto will perform - because it's all about performances really this time around - her three foreign written songs (only one has a Finnish producer it seems) with staging and choreographies done my foreigners the way they will be done in Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest stage, meaning no LED wall but a lot of props.... like in the old days! It's no secret I was not and I am still not fan of this decision and even less so after hearing the songs, but Finland could be in with a chance this year. Not because the songs, or th...