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%

The rumors have been confirmed by Kasmir himself. Namely that he was also approached by Darude to sing in UMK and Eurovision but he said "no thanks" due to other projects like recording new album and releasing a new single and such. After this Darude convinced Sebastian Rejman to take up the opportunity. It's worth remembering the final three songs might and most likely would have been different ones with Kasmir, after all he's a succesful songwriter for many artists besides himself, and Look away was co-written by Sebastian himself... Things could have turned out differently but we will never know... Kasmir has been around since 2014 when he scored a huge hit with Vadelmavene . Before that he was active in EDM trio HeavyWeights so that fits with Darude. He has released two gold selling solo albums and about 30 singles solo or in various collaborations including eight Top-20 ones. 

23 points and last in its semi-final, third to last or 39th/41 overal if you count all the songs. That's a big slap in face to YLE and UMK who propably hoped they were 11th in their semi. Most remarkable is Finland got only 23 points when the second to last in its semi, Montenegro, got the double: 46. Finlang got points from the juries: Greece 4, Spain 2, Australia 2 and Poland 1.  And from televoters: 12 Estonia (and we all know these are mainly from Finns staying in Estonia), and 2 from Iceland. Not really worth celebrating, is it? How Finns voted? No surprise the televoters 12 went to Iceland, followed by 10 to Norway ( Monsters scandal well forgotten then, or was it because the past few days it was told everywhere and even several times during the broadcast that a Finn Henrik Tala is in it?), Estonia 8, Sweden 7, Australia 6, the Netherlands 5, Russia 4, Italy 3, Switzerland 2 and Slovenia 1 (!!!). Finns have no right to complain and talk about neighbouring voting. Th...

YLE, we have a problem. What happens now? UMK has delivered in eight years only three Eurovision finalist (2013, 2014 and 2018) and even two of those have placed  24th and 25th in the final, the only exception being Softengine's 11th place in 2014. A lot critizied internal selection for the artist used past two years hasn't been the key to success and last night YLE was once again asking people how they would like the Finnish entry be selected next year. Before they have told us nothing has been decided yet for next year's method.  Two years ago YLE angered the Finnish musicians and songwriters by throwing all their work, time and money invested to rubbish pin by changing it all all of sudden by choosing Saara Aalto internally. This year they came out telling how difficult it was to find someone when every big artist turned the offer down from Antti Tuisku to Sunrise Avenue, Jenni Vartiainen and The Rasmus, just to name a few mentioned. This put the artists in a bit a...

Cyprus - Tamta - Replay **  Cyprus started the day with Tamta's look all wrong and vocals left in Tel Aviv beach I suppose. This comes across rather weak what I can say from this short clip (I have kept away from any online comments and base my opinions at the moment only on what I see and hear). The staging and especially the outfits are rather clichè and unimaginary and her hair looks like she just got out of shower. Will this be enough for a final or will Cyprus we a shock non-qualifier? Hmm...   Montenegro - D Mol - Heaven * Where to start? The forced and uncomfortable "choreography" makes me feel a bit ashamed and sorry for them. The vocals aren't great either and the song is nonsense to start with, and the non existing staging isn't helping. Only one question comes to my mind: Why? Didn't they even try? Finland - Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman - Look away *** Contrary to Montenegro Finland is at least trying. The graphics are gr...

Ester enjoyed the sun.... ... as did Sarah.... ... and Luca. Sebastian relaxing.... ... Jurij posing.... Carousel went to that zoo.... Victor enjoyed his days with food + activities Today's visitors in Jerusalem were Tulia ... and S!sters have arrived!

Finland has on stage besides DJ Darude and vocalist Sebastian Rejman also dancer Etel Röhl and  off stage three backing singers Matti Leino, Heini Ikonen and Petri Somer. Matti Leino  is an actor/singer. His dad is from Kenya. He has acted in tv-series, hosted a youth program in tv and starred in various theater and musical productions in Helsinki and Tampere. Heini Ikonen is a seasoned musician, singer, vocal/music teacher from famous Ikonen clan musical family. She's already been backing in Eurovision Sandhja. Petri Somer is Sebastian's band member from The Giant Leap, but also crossover pianist, musician, conductor and arranger. He's also sought after session and backing singer and award winning composer.  Etel Röhl is a daughter of famous movie director Marko Röhl and Sunrise Avenue's front man Samu Haber's fiancee. These dismissive facts aside, she's already danced to world stages, including Vienna Opera's Carmen production and Fi...

We are midway of the ranking and here we have songs that actually should be a bit higher really.... Finland - Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman - Look away **** Is it in my head? Is it in my head? Look away Look away, hey, no-o-o Finland tries for the second time with internally chosen artist and after difficulties to find anyone (and YLE's people can take a long hard look at the mirror for that and think why?) they managed to get Darude aka Ville Virtanen (43) aboard who's claim to fame is Sandstorm 20 years ago. That's pretty much what he's known about even if he has continued making music and perform ever since non stop. However, that one song still gives him living. He took his friend actor and singr-songwriter Sebastian (41) as his vocalist and together they have also written this song that won the three songs final (I still may have preferred Superman though). The staging is great as is song's message but honestly who cares about the message? Som...

As we know Finland's entry Look away in the Eurovision song contest 2019 deals with climate change and worries it brings to our future like climate change. The national final staging already featured melting polar ice and rising waters. But that is nothing that is in store for Tel Aviv experience when yet secret 4D effects will rock the arena and its stage that is perfect for this kind of invasion. It has leaked YLEs team is working on dramatic special effects on screen as well: besides the familiar water tank the water will also start to rise and slowly fill the tv screen until it speeds up so that at the 3 minute mark it takes Sebastian and Darude under water underlining it's the future of most coastal metropoles if nothing is done and soon. 

From 16 to 54, that's the (known*) age range of this year's Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv.  Zena from Belarus is the youngest turning 17 in September while San Marino's very own Turk Serhat will celebrate his 55th birthday in October. Malta's Michela, Belgium's Eliot and Croatia's Roko are also born in the 2000's. The oldest artists besides Serhat come from the north: Finland's Darude (43) and Sebastian Rejman (41) with Tom Hugo (39) of Norway's KEiiNO. They're also the only artists born in the 1970's (and  Serhat the only one in the 1960s). Nineteen artists were born in the 1990s - 1994 being the most common year (Ester, Luca, Nevena, Duncan, Srbuk and Sarah). Thirteen were born in the 1980's with 1989 having the most (Katerine, Oto, Lake Malawi's Albert, Paenda, Conan and Fred of KEiiNO).  One could say it's a very youthful edition. And a very masculine one, too. It's also a year of masks, crowns and und...

UMK2019, the Finnish national final was held in Turku's Logomo, and YLE had put a lot of effort into opening and interval acts showcasing Krista Siegfrids' talents as a performer and showgirl, no doubt about that. On th other hand her side kick Kristoffer Sandberg was totally useless and I can honstly say I didn't laugh to his "humorous" monologues even at once and the show was over gay as usual underlining the fact most Eurovision haters say: it's all gay. How unoriginal. How boring. Yawn. The three stagings for the songs were a lot better than last year's efforts but didn't really have any truly original and never seen before elements; Eurovision fans propably thought about last year's UK's cage like staging, or Demy's water tank for Greece two years ago.... In the end Look away was a real winner with both international juries (incl. of course Wiwiblogger like there was no one else in the world to call, and Emmelie De Forest w...

Finland is choosing its entry for Eurovision song contest 2019 tonight in Logomo, Turku. DJ Darude of Sandstorm fame was internally chosen to represant the country and he presented three entries in February, all sung by singer-musician-actor Sebastian Rejman. Eurovision veteran Krista Siegfrids is hosting the live show with Kristoffer Sandberg and Mikko Nousiainen. Eurovision winner Emmelie De Forest will also perform. The winner will be chosen by 50-50 international jury (UK, Ireland, Spain, Israel, Norway, Sweden, Deenmark, Czech Republic) and televoters. It seems it's going to be between Superman and Look away as they have featured best in various polls. Superman has references to Sandstorm in arrangements while Look away is the only one Darude aka Ville Virtanen and Sebastian Rejman have written together. This blogger is team #Superman. 

Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman will have three songs the Finnish televoters and intrnational jury will vote for in the final of UMK2019 (Uuden musiikin kilpailu) in Logomo, Turku on March 2, 2019. The songs will be revealed on per week..... Here we go: Release me Superman Look away

Sebastian (41) is from Helsinki and found name as the singer-guitarist in The Giant Leap band, that released two albums in 2007 and 2010. Their debut single All in my head was a radio hit. Sebastian first ventured into television with Kuorosota (Clash of thee choirs) where he directed the Helsinki choir. He got more hosting jobs and The Giant Lap was put on hold. Meanwhile he started another project: Sebastian & The 4th Line Band. He has also co-written songs to other artists. Since 2012 he has been doing a lot of television from hosting The Talent and being the backstage host in The Voice of Finland. Since 2018 he has also been acting in a popular hospital drama Syke . His partner actress Iina Kuustonen also acts in the series and they have two kids together.  Now he steps to the unexpected spotlight as vocalists for Darude's Eurovision song contest efforts 2019 for Finland. 

Finland will bring sandstorm to Eurovision in Tel Aviv. Ha ha. Now that we got that over with I must confess I may have giggled a bit when the announcement was made. It was like if YLE had mistaken Tel Aviv 2019 with Jerusalem 1999. Next thought was Ok, he's going to have some cool vocalists for each song and then Sebastian Rejman walks in and is announced as the voice for all the three songs.... It did feel a bit of a letdown... The news broke quickly at work and generated in general amusement and giggles among people of different generations and musical tastes. Well, at least it made clear one thing: Everybody knows Darude and Sandstorm. Now, few hours later I'm feeling pretty cool about it and even Rejman who is a fine vocalist. If he has different vocalists for each song the national final on March 2 wouldn't be anymore about the songs but the singers again. The songs will be published like last year one per week starting February 8. The Finnish final will take pla...

Sebastian Rejman, the frontman of The Giant Leap has recently revealed that he and his band have been asked to take part in Euroviisut. "We have been asked twice and have turned the offer down as we will do in the future as well. Besides that we have been asked to take part in various TV-programmes but rejected the offers. Kuorosota was the first one I wanted to take part in" he says. Kuorosota (or War of choirs) didn't go particularly well for him as he was the first one voted out by the viewers. He was in with Helsinki choir, just like Marion Rung last year. Sebastian has worked in the past as a bartender and model, and released a solo single but broke the deal with record company when they wanted to make him sing in Finnish and music he didn't like before forming his badn The Giant Leap that is releasing its second album this spring. Well, I wasn't that far off with my ideas as you can read here .