Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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 ...

Yle has announced the rules for Umk 2023 aka the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision song contest 2023 to be held somewhere in the United Kingdom on behalf of Ukraine. While doing so they also promise that Umk 2023 will be bigger than ever! The submission period is from September 1 to 5 . One artist is allowed up to three submissions (but only one of them can qualify). If chosen the final versions must be ready by November 3. The final will take place in February 2023.  The songs can't be sent to any other country's selections and at least one writer must be a Finn, as well as the main soloist, or at least have a permanent residence in Finland. Rest of the rules are the common Eurovision rules set by Ebu. They also launched a sort of Who do you want to take part? commenting on their Instagram and here is the short list of those names mentioned most often (or just mentioned and who this blogger agrees with ;-) As we've had two rock acts in a row I hope for a more p...

Local teenage superstar aiming for post-army international career with new style.... Half Portuguese Abreu keeps flirting with Latin sounds Title track from his third album that went to #3 in charts following his success, he had the most played song of 2017 in radios with Antaudun  ... ... and this one was the most played song in radios in 2018!

Yle is going internal again in 2019 and it will be very curious to see who they choose (or get) after Saara Aalto - will they go for big international name or something big in Finland.  Or someone new and emerging? If Robin has been the biggest teenage sensation in Finland ever, Isac Elliot comes close second but most of his repertoire has been in English and more international. Now that he's finally 17 he could well be Eurovision worthy. Already popular in Norway - apparently causing teenage hysteria there - and Poland, Singapore and some other markets, and being in some American radios playlists including Disney and Billboard's Next big sound and winning the MTV Europe best Finnish act twice already... Do I need to say more? Three albums, two EPs and a dozen charting singles to his credit so far wouldn't Eurovision be a logical next step in the world domination? After all he already did Estonian national selection - as a guest star!

A total of 18 songs made it to the number one in the official Finnish singles charts in 2017;  15 of them being Finnish! But as the Finnish ones, mostly various pop rapper, shot to the top and dropped out in a week or two mostly, the foreign ones stayed on top for several weeeks and months making a total of 30 weeks! The hugely popular Vain elämää's two seasons both gave us countless radiohits but only two made it to #1 (Nikke Ankara and Cheek with a Jari Sillanpää cover) last year, one from each series. Without further a do, have a listen below.... ARTTU LINDEMAN - HUKUTAAN (Week 1) ED SHEERAN - SHAPE OF YOU (Weeks 2-6, 12-15) MIKAEL GABRIEL & ISAC ELLIOT - LIIKAA SUSSA KII (Weeks 7-8) JVG feat. ELLINOORA - SITÄ SÄÄT MITÄ TILAAT (Weeks 9-10) ANTTI TUISKU - RAHAN TAKII (Week 11) REINO NORDIN - ANTAUDUN (Weeeks 16-17) NIKKEluis f ANKARA - PETTÄVÄLLÄ JÄÄLLÄ (Week 18) LUIS FONSI  ft. DADDY YANKEE - DESPACITO (Weeks 19-23, 24-31) ANTTI TUISK...

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.10 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. Vesala is singer-songwriter, actress and playwriter, started in hugely popular PMMP before going solo, writes hit songs to other artists as well and Lauri's ex-wife and mother of his kid. Past few years it seems everything she touches turns into a success and she's got her shelves full of awards to prove it. This week it was revealed she has written the Finnish version of  hit musical Mamma M...

  It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.9 Check out the previous posts by scrolling down. Zühlke is the reigning runner up with Perfect villain and definitely deserves a second chance.  Since then she has released Closer (below) and Die again .  Woman's got the voice and the talent. Sanni has been one of the most succesful female artists in the past few years; three alnums and 13 Top-5 hits to prove it. She also did Vain elämää reality show that made her a household name and curr...

It's September and the Eurovision 2018 season is officially on. I will feature in coming days names that could be in UMK18, if only...... I say if only, as most likely we won't see any of them in there for UMK is profilied as a newcomers contest instead of being our own Sanremo or Melodifestivalen. In short: a major contest all the big names want to take part not only to win but to boost their record sales and score hits. But one can dream, right? I have thrown in some not so known names for variety. Let's go.... Vol.4 (Check out Vol1 , Vol2 and Vol3 ) Samu Haber , the frontman of Sunrise Avenue, a band that has always been more succesful abroad than at home, make himself known to great public in the latest edition of Vain elämää music reality show and conquered many hearts. He also revealed Forever yours was actually ment for Hanna Pakarinen for Eurovision 2007 so he does have a certain interest for Eurovision. Check out some of his covers from the show: Joutsen...

Here are some selected songs from Finland for your summer mood listening.... In brackets their peak (so far) in the official singles chart. in the past weeks. Some are yet to chart while doing well in either radioplay or streaming/download charts. Enjoy! Alex Mattson - Good kids  Gabriel Lion - Mä en haluu tietää Evelina - Kylmii väreitä (#2) Keko Salata - Pari kilometriä Mikael Gabriel - Riippumatto (#4) Hesaäijä - Sauna lämpee (#19) Robin - Hula hula (#1) Reino Nordin - Antaudun (#1) Antti Tuisku - Hanuri (#1)

  Finland celebrates its 100th anniversary as independent country in 2017 and one of the hundreds if not thousends official events is the Hula hula challenge. Come midsummer eve, the whole of Finland (and not only as groups of people have entered the game abroad as well from the United States to Colombia, Greece and Spain) will be dancing Hula hula at the same time and make a new world record! YLE has created a great fuss around the Hula Hula Suomi event and even an alternative video was made based on the participant videos. If only the same effort was used for UMK..... Join the fun on Friday June 23 and learn the choreograhy. YLE1 is broadcasting Hula Hula Suomi all evening from 5pm til 10.15pm live from all over Finland. The biggest Midsummer party ever!

The media keeps wondering why Norma John an Blackbird failed to qualify for the Eurovision song contest 2017 final. Here and there pops up the idea that YLE should just drop UMK2018 (that is already in the planning with the first submission phase long gone), save the money and get Saara Aalto to do a X Factor UK like staging extravacanza for next year. Luckily no one's taking it with Norma John. They receive praise and consolances unlike for example poor Seija Simola back in 1978 when her until then flourishing and succesful career just died that night in Paris and she never recovered. Today, rumours tell, she's a bit bitter old lady living outside the spotlights in southern corners of Helsinki incognito.  But back to UMK. UMK stands for Uuden musiikin kilpailu aka Contest for new music. Sadly everyone has understood it stands for Contest for new artists. Or at least anyone with an ongoing career to speak of is taking part. Unlike in Sweden taking part in UMK or Eurovision...

After Robin ja Isac Elliot comes Benjamin, third wheel in the teenage sensation 3some in Finland. Benjamin's got things moving in Spain first it seems (his album debuted there at #3 while in Finland it peaked at #17) , and now Finland is following. Body is his fourth single. He's gone a long way from being just another pretty boy on Instagram. 

Finland's brightest pop star Robin has teamed up with Eurovision 2014 rockers Softengine in his new single Salamatie , off his Super Deluxe version of Yhdessä album, where he duets with another Eurovision veteran, Vesa-Matti Loiri in Lapin kesä  andothers like Sanni and Kasmir. Robin may be still only 17, but he has already released seven albums/re-releases over the past four years, and Salamatie is already his 19th single! Each album has sold multiplatinum and he has already 9 top-10 hits. Talk about teen hysteria.....

The Emma aka Finnish Grammy nominees for the Best Male artist include Antti Tuisku , who finally seems to have broken into a mainstream and wide audience favorite challenging Cheek and Robin as the nation's main hearthrob of the moment. Then there's Mikael Gabriel who's still not mainstream but appears all the time here and there also with his collaborations, and Juha Tapio , still holding strong and being the pet of the slightly older generations. The award gala will take place next month.  Check out their latest videos after the jump....

The nominees for the best video. The winner will be voted by the public in this category. Four out of ten are also nominated for the best song.... Among them UKM host Roope Salminen, tongue twisitng SAARA, JVG and now also JVG's VilleGalle in another video....  And way too much Finnish humour rap here, too. Thank heavens there's Chisu at least!

And we go on dreaming. After my totally impossible semifinal one and two here would be the dream team for semifinal three. If only..... Who knows? Maybe one day soon we will have a good old Euroviisut back? With big invited names next to open submission.....

The Finnish Grammys aka Emmas will be awarded next month in Barona Arena in Espoo. Here are the nominees for the best video: Cheek - Äärirajoille Isac Elliot - Baby I Haloo Helsinki - Beibi My First Band - Don't break my corazon JVG ft Anna Abreu - Huominen on huomenna Olavi Uusivirta - Kauneus sekoittaa mun pään Janna - Läpinäkyvää Stam1na - Panzerfaust Robin ft. Nikke Ankara - Parasta just nyt Kasmir - Vadelmavene This award will be voted by the public. Would you have wanted to see any of these among Eurovision preview videos?

Emma, the Finnish Grammy award nominations have been revealed today. Among the various nominees in different categories we have Softengine , the band that scored 11th in Copenhagen Eurovision 2014. They have been nominated as the newcomer of the year, and they are also among the nominees in the People's Choice award. In newcomers they fight it againt Arion , from UMK 2013. Jari Sillanpää has three nominations: Schlager album of the year, Male artist of the year and he's also listed for People's Choise. Another Eurovision veteran Katri Helena is still going strong; she scored also nomination in Schlager album of the year and also Female artist of the year. Diandra , Idol winner and UMK participant is also nominated for the Female artist of the year and People's Choice. Finally we have Tango King and national selection participant Amadeus Lundberg up for Peoples Choice. Also UMK judge Redrama and national final participant Samuli Edelmann are nominated. The...

The numbers are out and nicely filling the summer gaps in the news. Despite the economical situation and the changes in the music business Finnish music seems to be doing resonable well, at least the big names. The unthinkable of doing stadium gigs is no longer unthinkable when Cheek will have two sold out Olympic stadium gigs this summer and nine out of 10 best selling albums in 2013 in Finland are Finnish and in Finnish. If we count in the compilation albums of Tv-series Vain elämää (Only life or rather C'est la vie) it's a top-11 finish for Finnish music. Robin: Boom kah 83.446 (multi platinum) Teen sensation Robin continues to sell. Album features hits like Boom kah , Erilaiset and Onnellinen . he has just released a new song for the summer (promoting the use of condom btw, already a tradition in Finland) titled Kesärenkaat . I wouldn't be surprised if that will be added to the album that will be resold with new packaging :-) Cheek: Kuka muu muka   73.836 ...

Justin Bieber was in Finland and resulted as fainting and screaming fans as everywhere. On Friday afternoon a warm-up concert was held in Kaisaniemi park with some 4.000 fans attending and the list of artists included Robin (not the Swedish one but the Finnish teenage sensation), Diandra, Mikael Gabriel, JVG and most of all Krista Siegfrids! She performed obviously her Marry me as well as the new single Amen . In true wedding tradtion to Krista's surprise a maiden heist was performed, and it was for a moment unclear if it was the beginning of her hen party or not? Later she went to Bieber's concert along with other 12.000 fans in sold out Hartwall Arena as well and commented that he's cute, and if he proposed she'd say yes! And she said she'd keep eye on the show to find possible new ideas... Today she'll be entertaining the crowds again in the Linnanmäki amusement park's opening party in a free open air affair. Another occasion to catch pheunomia as t...