Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  The 2020's have been very good for Finland, the best era of the whole Eurovision history by far. Four out of six our best placements ever have been in the past six years.  1. Lordi - Hard rock hallelujah - 1/37   2006 2. Käärijä - Cha cha cha  2/37  2023 3. Blind Channel - Dark side  6/39    2021 4. Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen -Liekinheitin  6/35    2026 5. Erika Vikman - ICH KOMME   11/37    2025 5. Softengine - Something better  11/37    2014

Topi Latukka was the lead singer of Softengine that brought Finland its third best placing at the Eurovision song contest ever in Copenhagen 2011. The band is no more and  28-year-old Topi has been busy launching his solo career a few years ago and then silence. The silence was not due pandemic like for many but a rare bone cancer, adamantinoma. He has been operated this week, his leg basically rebuilt and now he has expect a full recovery in 6-12 weeks, including learning to walk again as he tells in his Instagram . This blogger wishes Topi a speedy recovery. #Cancersucks .

Eurovision 2020 may be cancelled but the various broadcasters are filling the empty hours with Eurovision related programmes and their plans are slowly coming out. Besides the specials in the making in Germany and Sweden, and EBU's own Love shine a light show airing on May 16 that should involve all the artists of Eurovision 2020 somehow there are alternative ideas. Yle has decided to celebrate the brightest moments of Finland in recent years instead. On May 14 Krista Siegfrids and Mikko Silvennoinen will be hosting a Top-10 show (19.00-20.30 local time). Finns have an opportunity vote online before hand the Eurovision 2020 songs and they will reveal and showcase the top-10. The voting opens on May 8 and the show will feature also other performances and guests. After that Yle will broadcast again the Eurovision 2014 final , where Softengine placed 11th with their Something better .  On May 15 we will have Krista and Mikko again (19.00-20.30 local time) and this tim...

Softengine has been talked a lot in the past week as Finland is expecting a similar success at the Eurovision song contest as they did back in 2014 placing 11th - nation's best since Lordi's win 2006 and overal the second best placing if we look at the number of countries taking part. And now they have announced that keyboardist Henri Oskar has left the band due to musical indifferences, just like bassist Eero Keskinen, when he left the band after Eurovision. Good luck as trio!

Softengine has released the first single off the forthcoming EP, Free rider . And once again it's a very catchy rock-pop affair, that would make an awesome dance mix, too (hint, hint!).  Topi Latukka tells there was a rather mystic coincidence with this song: the very day they finished the demo for this song Prince died. The song includes the line "party like it's 1999"....

Softengine has something better cooking up: a mini tour in Baltics! And guess what? You can join in and tour with them! Check out the itinerary below and join in the real rock'n roll tour bus experience! Meanwhile the band is prepairing an EP to be released in November following the release of their latest single All about you & I.   October 27, 2015 Departure from Helsinki 7.45 and arrival in Tallinn at 11.00. With tour bus to Tartu where you can hang out the afternoon after checking in and  before the gig in Glen.Klubi around 23.00 October 30, 2015 After breakfast the travel continues to Liepaja. Check in and gig at Fontaine Palace around midnight after pre-party in guys' room. And then of course after party til morning light. October 31, 2015 After breakfast to Riga . Check in, hang out with hangover before pre-party in Cafe Leningrad or similar. The gig at 23.00 in Nabaklab. Party on! November 1, 2015 Check out before midday and back to bus...

Softengine has released the first new single, that's not from the debut album just in time for the summer. All about you & I continues where we were left with the previous singles and the guys have proven they are not one hit wonder as all singles Something better , Yellow house ,  The Sirens  and What if I? did well with radio play and the album went to #7. Their summer is filled with gigs, including the legendary Provinssirock festival. After this year's Eurovision disaster their 11th place last year feels even better....

Softengine continues their success story with yet another single and video off their debut album We created the world . This time it's the piano driven ballad What if I? The video is so simple that only lead singer Topi Latukka is seen in it (and Henry's hands on piano most likely) but it fits perfectly with the song. Their previous singles are Something better , Yellow house and The sirens . In May the band scored the best placing in the Eurovision for Finland since Lordi's victory back in 2006 when they placed 11th. It's also one of the best placings for Finland ever in any way you look at it.

Softengine has released their third single following Something better and Yellow House called The Sirens . Will this siren lure the fans and non fans to buy their debut album We created the world that is almost here? The song is kinda epic but then something happens at 2:58 - something that has made some people speculate that's the reason why Eero left the band as it was stated it had something to do with the musical direction of the album. Mind you, I like it! I think it's an awesome twist of sound! But it surely creates some question marks what the album will sound like.....  Here's the tracklist for the album: Our New Age - Broken Reflection - Yellow House - Phone Call from Unknown - The Sirens -  What if I? - Narcissus - Something Better - In Disarray - Circle - Our Life, Our Love

Here it comes, the debut album by Softengine. The release date is October17, 2014 and the title very humble We created the world . Before that the third single The Sirens will be released on October 3, 2014 that follows their UMK winner and Eurovision song contest 11th placed Something better , and the follow up Yellow House .  The lead singer Topi Latukka tells The Sirens is a very atmospheric track that grows throughout the song until the end. It is perhaps a little unusual single choice, but they wanted to publish it, because it illustrates probably best what their music is, and what the album will be like. It can give a new, perhaps surprising view of their music if one knows only their first two singles."  The album includes 11 songs, all new. You can order yours from here . 

Softengine has released their second single and follow up to Something better . The title is Yellow house and they already premiered it in Copenhagen's Eurovision if you happened to be present there. Is it something better? So it seems. It shot straight to #1 in iTunes! The critics and comments so far have been more than positive, and it seems the guys from Finnish countryside are in demand for bigger stages in Europe, Germany and Sweden first. Among their fans are Fredrik Kempe and Ricky Gervais.  Lead singer Topi Latukka tells it's a story of a guy who sees a person  in a yeallow house in his dream. He sets to search for the house and the person without knowing if neither of them really exists. The chains and blindfold make it particularly difficult. It's a kind of a metaphora for a dreams each and everyone  of us should chase. Never give up. Like Softengine were the past few years in the garage doing their thing and believing in it - and look at them now! Mean...

After last year's glitter and crazy Ding dong here comes a cool rockband with some stadium sized rock. All the guys are still under 19 so it would be propriate to talk about a boyband but for me boyband screams pop, and these guys are rock. The lead singer has a voice like no one else and they have some youthful charm to add and make it look and sound beyond their years. They got a recording deal already before winning UMK (just like Krista last year) and are backed by the label big time. Let's see how it goes..... Are they Something better ? Robert: Slowly I start to like this song a bit but I must admit I was quite upset with UMK, the Finnish national preselection, this year. I had two absolute favourites, Sängyn reunalla by Mikko Pohjola and Going down by Lauri Mikkola  and Selja by Hukka & Mama was also very nice. None of them won but a sympathetic boyband instead. Just sometimes I do not understand the Finns.... Oh well..:) Blogilkar: I agree with Robert ...

Softengine, that will fly the Finnish flag in the second semifinal in Copenhagen 2014 Eurovision has also released their music video for Something better . Curiously the live performance from the Finnish UMK final has been uploaded on eurovision.tv. This video may or may not give an idea how it will be staged in May....

Softengine has been busy since their win in UMK 2014 but this week they returned to television and had a chat with Bettina and also performed their entry. You can watch it here from 29:30 and 35:30 for the performance (in Finnish with Swedish subtitles, bien sur). For those who don't understand either and I don't blame you,  here's in short what was told and said: The interview was done by Topi but he stressed he's not Softengine alone. Being the lead singer, and in this case also the composer of the song he's the front image of the band and therefor ends up doing most of the interviews. As the band's average age is around 18 and they were totally unknown before UMK their lives have really changed afterwards. But it's been great and thinking about the 100 million people watching them in May, it's crazy!  Indeed Topi looks rather confused about all of it still. He admits it is very confusing still. Every day. Then he reveals he and Henri (co-author ...