Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

As Solju in Finland also Jon Henrik Fjällgren joiked himself directly to the national final. The other qualifier in Sweden is 16-year-old Isa. Andreas Weise and Kristin Amparo will get another chance in Andra chansen while Ellen Benediktson was left 5th, Kalle Johansson 6th and Andreas Johnson 7th and last..... 

Tonight the joik made it in both Finland and Sweden! And we completed tonight the Finnish national final line up when Solju, Järjestyshäiriö and Angelo De Nile made it through. So the line up for next Saturday's final is: Angelo De Nile - All for victory Jouni Aslak - Lions and lambs Järjestyshäiriö - Särkyneiden sydänten kulmilla Norlan El Misionario - No voy a llorar por ti Opera Skaala - Heart of light Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät - Aina mun pitää Satin Circus - Crossroads Shava - Ostarilla Solju - Hold your colours YLE and the team behind #umk15 has done a great job so far. This season it has been fun, good television, fresh presenters, just enough glitter and glamour, kitch if you want. The stagings have ben thought after, artists have delivered on stage. It can ony get still better in the final. Well done YLE and Elias, Reija and the rest of the team!

Finland will chose its last three finalists tomorrow. No big favorites for the victory in this one, but some interesting and possible surprises in this heat anyways. Solju might be the front runner and surprisingly Järjestyshäiriö won the YLE's poll . In my poll here on right Solju rulesbig time. Will the tango people be watching and voting sending Heidi Pakarinen to the final? What about the only hard rock epic fantasy cocktail by Kim Blom's alter ego Angelo De Nile? (Kim himself qualified to the knock out stages of The Voice of Finland tonight) He's supposed to be bringing on stage eight gladiators.... Be ready! Anyways, as always I will be LIVE BLOGGING the semifinal so join me Satuday night or read it afterwards... I'd be happy with Solju, Ida and .... can't decide, depends on performance: Järjestyshäiriö or Angelo? What did my litle Finnish-Swedish-Italian-British panel think of these songs? Read below: Solju - Hold your colors  12/20 Ida Bois - ...

Once again YLE's poll has given a result. It looks good for Järjestyshäiriö and Solju as in the first two semifinals the top-2 has qualified for the final. Ida Bois might be in danger as in the first semifinal Norlan El Misionario surpassed both Pihka ja Myrsky and Vilikasper Kanth and qualified and in the second one Jouni Aslak qualified ahead of Siru who was third. We will see how this ends. Curiously my little international panel ranked these three as qualifiers as well! In my poll her on right Solju is leading big time, followed by Ida Bois and Angelo De Nile. Do you agree? If not, take a moment and vote! In various media polls Heidi Pakarinen has featured well so my wild guess is she will qualify ahead of Ida... Or I'd like to think only Solju is safe from this one as we can't forget Angelo De Nile, the only hard rocker in #umk15 and who knows if Aikuinen's humour will hit home as well on Saturday night if the staging is right? This semi is the most difficult t...

Solju comes way up North and is a mother and daughter duo, Ulla and Hilda and they started this Solju project only last year, but Ulla has a long career already. She was also a member of famous group Angelin tytöt . Hilda has been involved in many projects. They both work to save and give joik a new breath of life. They both like culture and art in general, and for example make their scene wardrobe, with a clear Sami inspiration of course. Their entry Hold your colours also talks about that and united traditional joik and modern urban music. The song may not have been written for them (read the story here ) but they certainly have made it their now. An indigenous musical duo that consists of mother and daughter Jack: Stunning. Hold Your Colours has a beautiful message and I personally would like to see Solju represent Finland.. but I don't think it will happen. If they perform it well, they might make the top three. You never really know what will happen until the songs...

Ingá-Máret Gaup-Juuso has revealed she was offered a song for Eurovison song contest 2015. Hold your colours could have been sent to either Norway, Sweden or Finland and it's written by Ylva & Linda Persson. It ended up in #umk15 sung by Solju. "I didn't feel it was joik enough, I don't think myself as a pop singer. I can sing but I do joik. I'm very delighted to hear the song, it turned out very well. I couldn't have done it better!" she says.  Ingá-Máret isn't just any random joiker. She performed to the king of Sweden last summer with Loreen, and has performed also for the king of Norway and various festivals in Finland. She hopes to get funding to record a joik album. Maybe she could get help from Andte, Finland's Big Brother winner and her brother? 

And here are the last six songs in UMK 2015. Three of these will be televoted to the final. Aikuinen - Kyynelten lahti Ida Bois - Kumbaya Järjestyshäiriö - Särkyneiden sydänten kulmilla Angelo De Nile - All for victory Heidi Pakarinen - Bon voyage Solju - Hold your colours

UMK 2015 artists leaked earlier and before we hear their entries next week let's have a look what they have in store us, what kind of songs to expect and what they have released before and what kind of music they are making.... Solju is a duo project by mother and daughter. None of their music is online as yet but here's an example of the mother's music. We can expect some Lapland exotism, polar lights and joik? Northern ethno for sure. Here is another example.  Jouni Aslak is featured in Temper2's video Set it free . He has background in various bands and is a singer/songwriter so what kind of music he will do solo remains yet to be seen and heard... Norlan El Misionario seems to be very active and his video online include his hit Sauna caliente from 2008 as well as Carnaval , Barbershop and One goal .  Vilikasper Kanth has done Idols and The Voice (and the rumour is he's doing again The Voice again this season besides UMK). It would be e...