Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Vår tid - Vårt land or Our time - Our land is a single recorded by some Finnish Swedish speaking artists  under name Artister för tolerans och öppenhet (Artists for tolerance and openness) including Paradise Oskar, Geir Rönning, Elin Blom,  Nina Lassander, Ville Pusa - all known from Eurovision or Euroviisut, Swedish Idol or MGP Nordic along with Fredrik Furu, Andre Linman, Redrama, Frida Andersson and Krista Siegfrieds. I don't know what's the purpose of this affair? Is it pro-Swedish language, that some feel is threatened in Finland after True Finns election thriumph? As you may know Finland is a bilingual but the talk of making Swedish voluntary instead of obligatory in the school goes on since forever, and the chance this happening is maybe bigger than ever now (yet very far becoming a reality, me thinks). Finland has had several songs in Swedish in the national Eurovision finals over the years but only once a song in Swedish has won ( Fri? in 1990) which surely wasn'...

YLE has published both viewing figures and number of votes today and the most watched semifinal was the third one with Eläkeläiset and Kuunkuiskaajat with 769.000 viewers. In the final the peak was 1,2 million and average 995.000. In the first round of voting Eläkeläiset was still victorious but maybe by the second time around they were already too drunk to vote and both Kuunkuiskaajat and Nina Lassander passed them by. Here are the full results: SUPERFINAL 1. Kuunkuiskaajat "Työlki ellää", 48 139 votes 2. Nina Lassander "Cider Hill", 43 282 votes 3. Eläkeläiset "Hulluna humpasta", 23 120votes FINAL - first round 1. Eläkeläiset "Hulluna humpasta", 20 051 votes 2. Kuunkuiskaajat "Työlki ellää", 18 333 votes 3. Nina Lassander "Cider Hill", 17 312 votes 4. Sister Twister "Love at the first sight", 15 377 votes 5. Amadeus "Anastacia", 12 250 votes 6. Heli Kajo "Annankadun kulmassa", 11 443...

... or rather yellow press is trying to create one. YLE has invited Marco Bjurström, dancer, coreographer and media person, to comment on the superfinalists after their performances while the voting was still on obviously. Now some people try to claim it may have cost Eläkeläiset their victory as he said they are not funny, musically zero and the overal package is useless, inner joke that even most of the Finns don't get. In short not suitable for Eurovision. He also said Nina Lassander was good but some what boring and the staging was strange and needed work. As for Kuunkuiskaajat he said they were full of joy and happiness, the song is Finnish but the group, especially the guys, needed a new styling and styling that unites them. He also said he'd rather send them to Oslo 2010 - when his favourite Heli Kajo was out of the race. I totally agreed with everything he said and who know me know also I am not a Marco Bjurström fan. And if someone thinks he may have changed some peopl...

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...

Well, Amadeus and Nina deserved a place in the final but Pentti absolutely not in my opinion.  So called granny mafia has striken again! Boys of the band and Bääbs need to wait for YLE's jury's decision later on. Bääbs commented right after: "We won ourselves and did our best even if we had some vocal problems. And Amadeus is fab!"

Jaana Pelkonen (ESC 2007 hostess) and Peltsi Peltola are hosting the show live from Tampere. It might be -22C outside but the fans are hot as usual inside the venue. Renewed show with  new tricks and looks is  in store for tonight. Televoting only will take three songs to the final on January 30. YLE jury will provide a wildcard to one of the drop outs of all three semifinals. The show has just started. Jaana and Peltsi conduct the show from greenroom and after a very quick introduction to the rules off we go: the postcards! Funny ones with the (childhood) photos of the artist. 1. Amadeus - Anastacia Amadeus  is the first one on the triangle stage with three dancers and his sister Miritsa playing violin, another sister Gilda joins in later as a dancer, too. Vocally good, simple performance . 2. Nina Lassander - Cider hill The cembalo introduction of the songs must have given the idea for this staging as it's very liaisons dangeroux... dresses, hairdos, coreograp...

Tonight at 8pm CET it finally starts, the Finnish Euroviisut selection. Unfortunately there won't be a webcast after all (YLE blames the Finnish copyright laws as usual) so you have even better reason to come back here and follow the live report! Will Bääbs outshine everyone in her mirror dress? What is the role of burlesque artists Mimi de Froufrou in the act? I think Amadeus, Bääbs and Nina Lassander will qualify but can the fans of Pentti Hietanen and BOB change that? PS. Don't forget the cool remix of You don't know tomorrow here !

So here we have them, the 15 songs that will fight over the right to fly the Finnish flag in Oslo 2010. The first hearing left me a bit disappointed as there is very little "Eurovision friendly" songs there. Half the songs are in Finnish and propably will stay so if they win with the exception of Amadeus and Maria Lund I suspect. Most of the songs also seem to have not been written Eurovision in mind but are just radio friendly future hits to their performers and that in the end is not a bad thing! Here are the songs from the first semifinal: AMADEUS - Anastacia I think we will hear the winner first. If Jari Sillanpää managed to win with similar but much more mediocre Takes two 2 tango Amadeus shouldn't worry. He is also more popular than Sillanpää was back then so the televotes will be flying. The song falls though to the usual Finnish use of rather bland arrangements. Someone remix the song, please and we have a killer! He will bring his sisters along, one as backin...

Nina Lassander (22) has just graduated from Berklee Collage of music in Boston and has been working on Finnish swedish speaking tv's summer show Fångad av en sång the last three years. She is currently recording her debut album and considers the invitation as a big honor (and it is).