Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Another dose of #Finpop. This time familiar names from UMK Isaac Sene and Olivera with their latest with Joalin, who could possible be a good one for UMK2023 as well as Titta with yet another goodie. Enjoy! Isaac Sene - Oon vaan mä Olivera -Human child Titta - Ihmeitä Joalin - I'm the one

It's already October in full swing and here are some new releases from Finnish popsters. Including UMK  veterams Olivera and Isaac Sene with their latest releases, as well Antti Ketonen and Tuure Boelius with new look and sound.  Olivera - No tomorrow Antti Ketonen - Ainoo tie Isaac Sene - Coco elämä  Tuure Boelius - Mehän vaan tanssittiin

After a tiny little break here's another dose of #Finpop. Olavi Törmänen delivers one of this blogger's favorite this season with a song that would have been a beautiful Eurovision entry as well. Olivera from UMK2022 is back with a new goodie, as are ABREU and Lauri XCVII Olavi Törmänen - Vahvasti elossa Olivera - repeat this song ABREU - Kaikki paitsi sydän Lauri XCVII - Vaikea rakastaa

UMK 2022 has been a success already. The international praise when the songs were released, approval by the fandom and the chart action in Finland proves it. Four out of seven songs has made the official singles chart besides making waves in streaming platforms, and each song has made the Radio play Top-100 as well. If we were to believe charts BESS would be clear winner, being at #1 for the fourth week at the moment, and also the highest entry on radio charts but is it destined to be a domestic hit only? We'll see. On top of that the UMK final in Logomo, Turku, sold out in record time. It is also a record it sold out completely unlike the previous attempts to have a national final arena style. I personally have three favorites, a couple of other that would be fine. too, so it's very hard to say how this will end and what would be the best choice, I let the live performance guide me. And there lies my biggest fear. We all remember what happened to Cicciolina on stage and how w...

Olivera (or Katriina Ullakko from Espoo) is pretty much unknown yet to the wider audience despite having millions of Spotify streams and important international releases. She has released so far four indie-pop EPs on her won, but she has written (and sung) for other artists like Tiësto's Affliction . Her UMK 2022 entry Thank God I'm an atheist was born from an idea she had played with since childhood: What if one of the religions is actually right and we are living forever? She finds the idea of eternal life depressing but she thinks the song itself is her best and most important so far. She started writing songs at 11 and this particular song was written in half an hour! She has dreamed of Eurovision since 2011, when Da da dam made an impact. Today she's friends with Paradise Oskar so he can surely give her some tips. For further listening here are No more , Trust , Lot to live   and I can't sleep . Listen Thank God I'm an atheist here . 

Here they are, and for once the names were not leaked ahead of time (let's see how it goes for the songs though....) and as the fandom had been speculating and investigating the clues the past week none of the names was a surprise, on the contrary. All were out and loud and some even a certain thing. But let's have a look in order of my excitement from most to none. I will do a better bio and review one by one as the songs are being released at midnight Finnish time.  Out of names that were also heavily circulating Tomi Saario is one of the writers for Bess, Haloo Helsinki for Tommi Läntinen. Ad Elize Ryd of Amarathe as a co-writer for Cyan Kicks, Desmond Child for The Rasmus, Vilma Alina for Younghearted so the name dropping wasn't in vain. The Rasmus - Jezebel I was a bit of a The Rasmus fan, and especially Lauri's solo fan and if this combo with Desmond Child took part in say 2010 I would have been pissing my pants in excitement. Now all I do is hope for a real har...

Sebastian Da Costa Spotify