Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Today's dose of #Finpop2023 is rather electro poppish, including UMK favorite Lxandra. HUGO feat. Costi - Taulut costee - Rakastunut suruun Elsa Brotherus - Kokonaan Lxandra - Blonde

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...

 This week's second dose is all in English for a change! Noora - Antiseptic Louie Blue - Spaceman Juffi - The Tree Lxandra - Sabotage

  More Finnish music from the charts, radio waves and elsewhere. Enjoy! Elias Kaskinen - Kerran elämässä Lxandra - Sideways Matias Väisänen - Pelastaudu Romu - Kattojen yllä