Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Yle organized among its other consolation Eurovision 2020 programming also a voting to find out the most loved Finnish entries of each decade (here). The clear winner was Something better and saara Aalto finished where she usually lands to: second. 2014 Softengine - Something better  29,3% 2018 Saara Aalto - Monsters  19,3% 2017 Norma John - Blackbird  12,5% 2013 Krista Siegfrids - Marry me   12,3% 2011 Paradise Oskar - Da da dam   10,5% 2015 Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät - Aina mun pitää   5,7% 2010 Kuunkuiskaajat - Työlki ellää  4,8% 2019 Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman - Look away   2,1% 2012 Pernilla Karlsson - När jag blundar  2,1% 2016 Sandhja - Sing it away  1,3%

Sandhja turns 26 today and surely sings it away ! Congratulations! As life goes on she has released recently a new video from her forthcoming album:

Sandhja has released the first single off her new album in the making. It features also Gracias and Ekow. She sings it away and goes on with We go on !

There are no semifinals this year but it doesn't mean one has to settle with one off final. No no no. YLE is having on Thursday and Friday pre-shows for #umk17 hosted by Mikko Silvennoinen live on stream and later recorded on TV2.  Let's see what we can expect later this week: Thursday - live stream at 5pm CET and in TV2 9pm CET The stage is revealed with footage from the rehearsals. The online prevoting closes   The pre-voting result will be revealed! Krista Siegfrids , Club La Persé , Lauri Yrjölä , My First Band , Norma John and Zuhlke will be present.  Friday - live stream at 4pm CET and in TV2 9pm CET Alva , Anni Saikku , Emma , Gunther & D'Sanz and Knuclebone Oscar & The Shangri-La Rubies will be present along with Marcus & Martinus .  Also on Friday 5.30pm  CET Puoli Seitsemän will reveal the Cow milk-o-meter results! Saturday  - live stream 8pm CET and TV2 8pm CET Pre-show starts 7.30 CET with the late...

Now this is surprising. One would think Sandhja's Sing it away was a kind of a flop, but here comes Radio Yle Suomi's most played songs chart of 2016 and guess what? It's number one! And even more so, Eini's entry Draamaa is n.o 3. Now that pretty much sets the tone this radio channel is; schlager and and pop schlager.  Further down the shart Kuunkuiskaajat's Unelmaa is n.o 24, Laura Voutilainen at n.o 35 with Miks ei and at n.o 49 with Olet mulle enemmän . This year's UMK entrant Zuhlke is n.o 54 with Huominen on meidän . Eurovision winner Celine Dion is there, too, N.o 68 with L'étoile . Previous Euroviisut entrant Mikael Konttinen n.o 82 with Ei koskaan and Hanna Pakarinen n.o 84 with Herrojen kanssa pellon laidassa , UMK entrants Hukka ja Mama n.o 91 Sun pitäis olla mun ... Check out the full listing here

Sandhja told MTV3  at ELLE Style Awards that the Eurovision hangover is finally over and she feels sober again, full of energy, inspiration and new plans. Finnish media didn't exactly treat her nicely after the semifinal, and some ever before Stockholm to be honest. She deserved fair game and didn't get it. It has taken awhile, five months to be exact, but she thinks her trip to Stockholm was very useful and she learned a lot about music business for example, how everything works for real.  "Eurovision song contest it self is a huge machine. One always thinks the artist is the main thing but there are so many things behind it. I think the people who are involved in it all the time have a hard time.  Changing from a nobody to a worldstar in a moment and for a moment can be hard to anyone" "Krista has helped me a lot how to deal with it all. Especially what happens after Eurovision. She's been such a support. Our talks got really deep at times"....

Eurogames 2016 are happening as we speak in Helsinki and the Eurogames village has been set to the city center, in the Helsinki people's living room next to Music Hall. Tonight the opening ceremony will take place and yes, they are all there:  Krista Siegfrids (ESC 2013),  Softengine (ESC 2014),  Sandhja (ESC 2016),  UMK runner up Mikael Saari and  eternal runner up in everything Saara Aalto.  Even Tuuli Ukkonen of UMK fame makes an appearance. Altogether 14 disciplines, 1500 athletes from 40 countries all around the globe it's a little bit like Eurovision bubble. It's also the Pride week and Saturday's parade will be propably the biggest Finland has seen yet, and the Closing party will be the biggest gay event ever held in Finland.  And yes, Krista is there, too! 

Jamala appears at number 64 at the most played songs in Finnish radios this week. The real winner is however Sweden's Frans who enters the download chart at number 7, the streaming charts at number 50 and is still number 80 in the radio chart after 5 weeks.  Also Dami Im and Sergey Lazarev enter the download charts, at number 11 and number 17.  The official album re-enters the album chart at number 10 Finland's Sandhja is already out of the charts. She peaked at number 8 in the download chart and stayed in the radio chart for 7 weeks peaking at 29.  No trace of any of them in the official singles chart though....

A lot have been said about Sandhja's dress or rather catsuit in the past 24 hrs. Social media in Finland has heated up.  The designer Jukka Puljujärvi (left) who himself comes from Lapland contacted Sandhja's stylist the moment she won the UMK2016 as he had a vision. The suit is made of reindeer leather and it's really turquoise reflecting her Caribian roots while the waist decoration reflects her Carelian roots and the material of course Finland. Leather isn't the best material for dancing, so he asked her to "warm up" her suit well before the performance to be able to dance and move freely in it. And besides, if you haven't noticed catsuits are back and very cool and in. Azeri Samra is wearing one for example.  But celebrity stylist Riku Campo says the catsuit was horrible, make up and hair wrong. The whole visual image of Sandhja and Akkabellas was a disaster. It looked like they were going to a suburbian mall, according him. It was a mess in sho...

After the huge media and social media outcry YLE's UMK producer Anssi Autio has met the press. When Sandhja didn't qualify for the final last night in the first semifinal, it marks only Finland's second run of two years in a row since the semifinals started 11 years ago as we missed the 2004 and 2005 finals (only to come back in 2006 and win it!).  People have critizid everything from singing offtune, to her dress, styling and choreography and staging. And the way she was selected. Saara Aalto and her fans are all over the press again....  This year the UMK voting had 50-50 televote and the civil juries, while last year it was 90-10 and both acts failed to qualify. Last year PKN won the televote, too, while this year Saara Aalto won it but lost to Sandhja in combined result. In 2014 Softengine finished 11th in the Eurovision final having been selected by combined televote/jury vote.  "I wouldn't start blaming the UMK voting system, but maybe we have to che...

People haven't been exactly kind in social medias after Finland's Sandhja's Sing it away was shown on television last night, even before the results were in and Finland was out from the final on Saturday. Chatrooms are filled with nasty comments and critic, and some constructive views of what went wrong. Some are demanding the whole YLE's Eurovision team to be sacked, some blame Sandhja and her backings singing out of tune. Her dress gets a lot of critics as well, so does the whole team lookwise. Everyone's opinion seems to be it was too plain and simple, and it's not enough just to walk on stage and dance it away when you have the world's largest stage and the most imaginative props and lights in use, if you want to. One doesn't have go to the Russian way but at least something. Anything! It seems it worked in arena but on tv screen no. To this blogger this seems a dejà vú from 1978 when Seija Simola was crushed in media and eventually her long and...

Sandhja tells YLE today about her feelings the day after. She says she has hopped off the Bubble and is feeling good if worn out. Last night after the emotional post-broadcast where a tear or two have been shed in the backstage the Finnish team entered the press center smiling and singing. After that off to the EuroClub with the intention to party on and dance it away but so many people wanted to tell how unfair it was and take photos and all that so she didn't manage to dance a lot really. Then just off to bed and after good sleep and proper breakfast today's a new day. Now she feels just empty, has given it all. She tells she can feel it in the girls, too, and therefor they have decided to meet up only next week to talk it over. Now she just wants to eat and sleep and think about something else. Being inside the bubble was so intense. She thinks this whole Eurovision has been a school; how to deal with pressure and stress, huge audience, media.... very important for he...

YLE's morning television had the weird idea of asking the runner ups from UMK2016 to come and comment last night's semifinal the day after with Jorma Hietamäki, YLE's Radio Suomi's commentator last night.He thinks there were the obvious Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and then many that were there 50-50. he's surprised Estonia didn't make it but then again he says their Jury final didn't go that well and may have caused that. Maybe Finland suffering from the same as well. The positive surprise was Czech Republic who's Eurovision journey started from Helsinki 2007 and now finally qualified.  Saara says she was supporting Sandhja and feeling her but of course seeing the stage one starts to think what kind of show she would have made for that stage. It's just so tempting. Mikael says there's been already a few months in between and it's in the past and one needs the right orientation and preparation also mentally for it. But indeed, the th...

Since the semifinals were introduced back in 20014 Finland has now qualified seven times, and not qualified six times. This is however only the second time Finland fails the final two years in a row, the first being the first two semifinal years 2004-2005 and then Finland came and won it all the year after. Let's hope that's a good omen for 2017.  I still stand by our choice and think she was the best. I don't think any of the UMK2016 finalist would have done any better. I'm talking about fan favorites Saara Aalto and Mikael Saari. UMK2016 was great but none of the songs was really outstanding with that special "it" that would have made miracles. To prove the point none of them have become even a minor hit.  As for the running order, I totally understand why Sing it away was chosen as the opener. This said, it wouldn't have done any better elsewhere in the running order I suppose. I'm always saying less is more and keep it simple, but this st...

There are familiar names and faces in the Sandhja's backing group Akkabellas. Besides being her friends for a long time, they are all true professionals.  Jenni Lambert may not ring a bell but if I say Lili Lambert and UMK 2014 and The Voice? She's been also backing names like Snoop Doggy and Elastinen besides her solo career.  Reetta Korhonen as a name may not also be familiar but if I say she's the girl who kissed Krista in Marry me in Malmö? Yup, she's the one.  Then we have Linda Ilves and sisters Heini and Tuuli Ikonen from the talented Ikonen family, that includes also among others their bother Osmo who almost got to Moscow back in 2009 with Signmark. All three have a lot of talent and experience in music. 

Sandhja wishes a great Eurovision journey for all us. For me, it's been one so far.  Sing it away!

Big opening party tonight in Stockholm when Douwe Bob hosting the opening of his home away from home, a bar in Stockholm! Many other artists have been spotted, among them Spain's Barei and Finland's Sandhja along with Krista Siegfrids. They also had a live connection to YLE's live review show with Jaana Pelkonen and Cristal Snow among others. When Krista asked him to sell himself to the Finnish viewers in 1o seconds he said: "I'd rather use that for slowing down...." Zoe, Sergey Lazarev, Amir..... and Rykka, Serhat, Juri Pootsmaa, Francesca Michielin... the place to be tonight!   Say yay yay yay? Belle histoire? Hey Zoe, we dueted together, how about you? Looks like Douwe and Sandhja are having fun..... singing it away? Or slowing it down?

There are always a lot of theme parties at Eurovison city and at EuroClub. Last night it was time for the Nordic Light one when the artists from Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Estonia got together and shared the spotlight with only Norwegian Agnete missing out for health problems.   Hera & Greta  Selfie time for Sandhja and Greta! Check out some videos after the jump .-)

The cold is gone and Sandhja is feeling gooood. The staging is the same but they have tired to pump it up with more energy, sass and class and Sandhja's new shoes with high heels and bunny ears (Minna Parikka's I suppose) Overall better vocally and better in every way it seems. But yet maybe there's a bit missing, me wonders. But then Sandhja is one who lights up with the audience so all is not lost yet. I notice the stage and catwalk seem rather low. Are getting another Monetta gate when people walking the catwalk will be hidden behind the waving flags?