Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

How times flies? It feels like last week when ten years ago after two weeks of 24/7 Eurovision hassle non stop the grand final was here, I was sitting in the audience waving my Finnish flag and feeling so sleepy.... Amazing two weeks, house full of people, writing for a website, staying in the arena and in the press center from early morning to late night only to contnue to day at the EuroClub.  Amazing production also the final with Lordi's opening video and live performance. Who could forget Krisse, the princess of the republic? Jaana Pelkonen & Mikko Leppilampi the fantastic hosts? Santa Claus! The Apocalyptical interval act with more heavy rock than all other Eurovisions put together.... I'm a proud Finn!  Such wonderful colorful memories! Here's the final recap: And here's the full show:

Jedward boys have been in Lapland for a busy schedule of filming material for ... err, something that will surely absolutely fabulous or at least wow oh wow like their new video that features way warmer climates than their Lapland visit. But as you can see from the pic even the reindeers were laughing in the company of Jedward! I wonder if Santa thought they have been good enough this year?

Saara Aalto's Euroviisut 2011 runner up Blessed with love turns into Chinese when she belts it out as Ai de Zhu fu as part of the Santa Claus promotion in China. She's one of the Finnish artists (the others being Negative and Semmarit) that will promote Finland and the one and only real Santa Claus in 22 Chinese cities and their shopping malls. She has studied Chinese since this spring but she has studied Japanese for 8 years and says it was a big help. You can see the English/Chinese video here but the full Chinese video will be out next week.