Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Tonight is the final of the Finnish Tanssii tähtien kanssa, Strickly come dancing. Two singers with their partners made it to the final this time: Antti Tuisku and Laura Voutilainen. Antti has been the superfavourite from early stages and the polls give him the runaway winner, something like 8 to 2. Let's see if Laura can change that tonight like she did last week by qualifying against all odds and getting a full set of 10's for her tango. The show is a very popular one in Finland, reaching over one million viewers regularly. Singers with Eurovision connection have done very well so far: the first season was won by Tomi Metsäketo, second by Mariko Pajamäki of Kwan, third by Maria Lund - who also danced all the way to Eurovision dance contest. Last season winner was Miss Finland Satu Tuomisto who beat yet another Euroviisut artist Pirkko Mannola to the second place in the final. To kill some time here is Laura's Rakkauden soturi and Antti's brand new video Hyökyaalto . ...

Tanssii tähtien kanssa , the Finnish version of Strictly come dancing features some Eurovision names this season. Mikko Leppilampi takes over this 5th season as the male host - against protests - while one of the dancers is Laura Voutilainen . Another famous singer and eternal Eurovision hope Antti Tuisku is also in. Tomi Metsäketo won the first season while Mariko of Kwan took part in the second one. Late Kirka was to take part, too, but died just before the show started. Maria Lund took part and won the third season and represanted Finland also in the Eurovision Dance contest. Finally Kim Herold of Humane took part last year so every year there has been also an Eurovision connection. The programme is very popular in Finland reaching 1,5-2,0 million viewers.

Kuunkuiskaajat along with superfavourite Eläkeläiset and Linn with the votes from the Swedish speakers made it to the final from the third and last Euroviisut 2010 semifinal. YLE's secret jury also granted one wild card and that went to Maria Lund, also from this last semifinal. So the line up for the final next Saturday is ready: Amadeus - Anastacia Nina Lassander - Cider hill Pentti Hietanen - Il mondo é qui Antti Kleemola - Sun puolella Heli Kajo - Annankadun kulmassa Sister Twister - Love at the first sight Kuunkuiskaajat - Työlki ellää Eläkeläiset - Hulluna humpasta Linn - Fatal moment Maria Lund - Sydän ymmärtää So we have six songs in Finnish, 3 in English and one in Italian. Amadeus and Maria Lund most likely will sing in English if they win, and Antti Kleemola has a Spanish text ready for the song...

The third and last semifinal in Finland takes place tonight. Another 3 songs will qualify for next week's final and YLE will also announce the chosen wildcard amongst Bääbs, Boys of the band, Monday, Veeti Kallio and the two unlucky tonight. Superfavourite - unfortunately - Eläkeläiset is expected to qualify but after then the competition is quite open... The Swedish speaking population will propably vote Linn to the final just like they did with Twisted Sister last week. Fans seem to go for Osmo Ikonen while Maria Lund is also rather popular amongst the elderly generations. My vote goes for Kuunkuiskaajat, they could also be the black horse in Euroviisut 2010 and if not qualifying directly might be the wildcard? THE SHOW IS ABOUT TO START  The show has started but Jaana seems to be still sleeping...... Maria Lund - Sydän ymmärtää Maria  has a very 50's look as does her backing group, dancers. White and blue are the colors. Maria dances along with her dancers provi...

Maria Lund will be participating in the Euroviisut 2010 as planned despite the sudden death of her father, Romanian opera singer Alexandru Ionitza (61). Maria will also keep on peforming in Sound of Music as planned. Maria spent the Christmas time in Germany with her father but he died on January 2. She lost her mother Tamara Lund in 2005. Tamara Lund participated in Euroviisut 1963 with Olen mikä olen (3rd) and also in 1965 and 1966. Maria will participate instead in the third semifinal on January 22 with Sydän ymmärtää .

The first Finnish semifinal is only less than two weeks away and there have been already some releases, or singles or albums will be released shortly. Amadeus will release his debut album on January 27 (including Anastacia , Matador , Pyyhi tuuli kyyneleet and Onnemme kyyneleet amongst others) and Osmo Ikonen will release his second album including Heaven and hell in February. Eläkeläiset has already released a 2-cd with their "greatest hits" including their entry Hulluna humpasta . Antti Kleemola has already a radio hit with his Sun puolella and the single will be released shortly, as will Bääbs do with her You don't know tomorrow . Kuunkuiskaajat also released their debut album before Christmas and it includes two versions of their entry Työlki ellää . The album includes also Taivaallinen and Loputon tie . Promo singles for radio stations have been released several others, including Maria Lund who already made #4 in the radio playlists followed by Amadeus at #5, E...

And here are my thoughts about the third and last semifinal of Euroviisut 2010. MARIA LUND - Sydän ymmärtää (Heart understands) Maria, who already danced for Finland in Eurovision dance contest follows the musical style she adapted a couple of years ago and does it well; 50's-60's girly pop tunes with the way of singing and pronouncing of those old records. She has done mainly covers (a very similar thing to German The Baseballs, btw) and this one could wasily be one as well. Unfortunately it is a bit bland, missing a memorable hook but for sure it will be entertaining on stage. Propably will qualify. OSMO IKONEN - Heaven or hell Osmo is very respected and talented musician and he already had his taste of Euroviisut last year with Signmark nearly making it to Moscow. The song is very soulful and groovy, maybe the most international sounding one of all these songs. It will stood out here for sure, but is it strong enough for Oslo? Maybe not. Should qualify though. KUU...

Finlandiatalo will host a charity gala concert on November 14, 2009 to raise money for cancer research. Alexander Rybak will be one of the artists along with Katri Helena, Jari Sillanpää and Eurovision hopefuls Pentti Hietanen and Maria Lund and many more.

Rammstein enters the Finnish album chart at #1 followed by another new entry, Irina . Samuli Edelmann 's Maa on niin kaunis -Virsiä 3 climbs to #4 and Vesa-Matti Loiri's Hyvää puuta to #7. Laura Voutilainen is on the way up six places to #13 while Jari Sillanpää drops one to #24. Pentti Hietanen also drops to #20 and Maria Lund stays at #38.

Lauri Tähkä & Elonkerjuu keep Madonna behind and their #1 spot in albums charts. Vesa-Matti Loiri stays at #6 while Antti Tuisku drops to #7. Ex-Eurovision stars of the 2000's Jari Sillanpää and Laura Voutilainen enter at #13 and #14 and future (?) stars Pentti Hietanen and Maria Lund at #19 and #27. Petri Laaksonen drops ten places to #29 and completes the set.

Another not surprising name here along with Osmo. She has been all over the place the past two years. She has released a very succesful album with swing retro pop versions of Finnish pop-rock songs, won Tanssi tähtien kanssa and represanted Finland in the Eurovision Dance Contest . She released her new album Tahdon today (now that is strange... why not wait til December?). She is also daughter of Tamara Lund and Romanian opera singer Alexandru Ionitza, who took part in Euroviisut three times in the 1960's.

It's not looking good for Lordi, or any other Eurovision related artists this week as all of them are going down: Lordi drops from #5 to #20, Celine Dion drops one place to #21, Johanna Kurkela 4 places to #23, Jari Sillanpää from #27 to #32. Both ABBA related entries also drop: Mamma mia! soundtrack to #34 and ABBA - The albums box to #40. Vesa-Matti Loiri however stays at #1 for the second week running. The only Eurovision related new entry is Maria Lund's Ajan sävel that enters at #25. She has made jazzy swing versions of Finnish pop-rock classics including Nightwish's Sleeping sun in Finnish! Hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5UWNzw-eyk and the original here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9s0U7u70CE Maria Alexandra Aspasia Lund-Ionitza (25) represanted Finland in this year's Eurovision dance contest with Mikko Ahti.