Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

 It's almost August but #Finpop 2025 keeps delivering. First we have BEHM singing for the first time in English as she enters the movie business blonde starring and headlining a new movie Anna minun rakastaa enemmän. Curiously not credited. She sounds great also that way though. The rest are more or less newcomers to the scene and this series except Henna. (BEHM) Anna minun rakastaa enemmän - Brooklyn Bridge Henna Uoti feat T. Léon - Valaise pimeä Domiviio / Hra Pulu - Oi Amor Amor WIL / Phimi - Lähellä

Perche Sanremore è Sanremo - because Sanremo is Sanremo, the old slogan has turned a bit sour this year. Sanremo the municipality and Rai the broadcaster have been discussion and trying to find a solution to various topics over the summer and now Rai has set an ultimatum for the decision so they can fully start focusing on the next edition of the Festival della canzone italiana di Sanremo as it is fully named. To cut a long story short the latest break up started with a legal dispute regarding the direct assignment of the festival to the broadcaster as it was considered illegitimate by the regional administrative court of Liguria last December. Well, an open bid was launched for the 2026 edition but not surprisingly only Rai applied. Next the municipality of Sanremo demanded a financial increase for hosting the festival up to 6,5 million euros instead of the previous 5 million plus required Rai to produce additional tv-shows in Sanremo besides the five nights of 4-5 hours of live broad...

  The month is almost over but this series is not, here's another dose of #finpop 2025! We have the latest from UMK winner Aksel Kankaanranta, already familiar Runo and Kiki with UMK veteran Mikael Gabriel and newcomer Lumo. Enjoy! Runo - Raudasta tehty KIKI / Mikael gabriel - Veri viiniks Lumo - Tuutko kiin aina pitämään Aksel Kankaanranta - Elää ikuisesti

 Some more #Finpop 2025 for your enjoyment: first of all KAJ with another nager after Bara bada bastu, Karim B with Pyrythekid, Pihlaja and Lasse Havu - all already names featured in  this series! Karim B / Pyrythekid -Tuhat ja yksi yötä Lasse Havu - Rauhaton sydän Pihlaja -  Vamonos KAJ - Mosquito

  Another week, another dose of #Finpop 2025. This time with UMK 2025 artists Viivi and Costee who has teamed with jemina, already featured in this series a few times. Hugo has teamed up with superstars JVG and finally Tomi Saario with his latest effort - he's been on a hot list for UMK by fandom a couple of years so who knows, maybe 2026 he'll be lucky enough? Jemina / costee - Epäreilu maailma HUGO / JVG - Kellon suuntaa Viivi - Ilman sua Tomi Saario - Kuka sä luulit että mä oon?

  Yet another dose of #Finpop 2025. We have a still pretty unknown TINA with a string of ,more or less young males with various degree of success and experience collaborating with each other: Joe L, ANI, AHTI, Ollie, Aste and Juuna Chill - all already familiar to this series of #Finpop. And yes, there's again a song co-written by Goldielocks (Joe L/ANI) as well as Kuumaa's Johannes (Aste/Ollie)! Enjoy!     TINA - Ei kenenkään maa Joe L / ANI - Alkuhuuma Juuna Chill / AHTI - Maa ilman vettä Aste / Ollie - Nuori & kuolematon

 Eurovision veterans join forces as The Rasmus gets help from Blind Channels's Niko Vilheml in their latest affort. UMK superstar Goldielocks keeps delivering as does Haloo Helsinki with their comeback single as does Juha Tapio with his latest after a little break. Enjoy! The Rasmus /Niko Vilheml of Blind Channel - Break these chains Goldielocks - Push back my alarm Haloo Helsinki - Gardenia Juha Tapio - Koska sinä

  Another dose of #Finpop 2025: True veterans kaija Koo and Mikael Gabriel with their latest efforts along with already up and coming Aliisa Syrjä and newcomer Minttu with her second single - the first one I have already featured before. Enjoy! Minttu - Mokaamisen maailmanmestari Mikael Gabriel - Tää yö Kaija Koo - Räsypokka Aliisa Syrjä - Aamunkoi

 Here we go again. BESS keeps delivering songs and duets and here's another one. Already familiar Disco and Pihlaja offer something new as well, and then we have Aste, co-written by Goldielocks (and is it her in vocals?!). Enjoy! BESS - Suutele mun silmii Aste - Dyynit Disco - Sulje sun silmät Pihlaja - Encore

  Another day, another dose of #Finpop 2025. This time with alreadyfamiliar names for this series  ANI, Mikko Harju, Jannika B and Uniikki teaming up with Diabdra's vocals. Enjoy! Uniikki / Diandra - Harmaampii Mikko Harju - Mä nään sut ANI - Öis Jannika B - Älä rakasta mun rakasta

 Here comes the next dose of #Finpop 2025: We have newcomers with with little notoriety yet Eino and Annieeva with Karim B and Tuuli who have already some name and then last year's revelation Hugo with his new song. Enjoy! Karim B / TUULI - Miljoonii Annieeva - Siirrän vuoret, halkaisen vedet Eino - Haamuja HUGO - Väärään ihmiseen 

  Another dose of #Finpop 2025 with super popular Lauri Haav and Mirella in their second joint effort, ever delivering Noto and Frans Harju and a duet by UMK goddesses Nelli Matula and Sara Siipola written by KUUMAA's Johannes - who had that in their bingo cards? Lauri Haav / Mirella - Aja tai kuole NOTO - Notre Dame Nelli Matula / Sara Siipola - Roskat Frans Harju - Ei kenenkään maa 

  Another week, another dose of #Finpop 2025. With UMK veterans Neea River, Isaac Sene, Costee and Goldielocks with their latests. Do I need to say more? NEEA RIVER - I'M ON THE RUN ISAAC SENE - KOPIO COSTEE - SUT TAHTOISIN BBYBITES / GOLDIELOCKS - OUT OF TIME

  Another week, another dose of #Finpop 2025. With a full set of ladies. Superstar Behm with newcomer Minttu, UMK veteran Ilta and Eurovision veteran Laura Voutilainen with their latest efforts! Enjoy! BEHM - KAIKEN ARVOINEN MINTTU - PAPERIHAAVOJA ILTA - VALINTOJEN VALTAKUNTA LAURA VOUTILAINEN - TANSSIN

This time we have a couple of covers of Dingo songs featured in a movie made of themir story. Dingo was huge in the 1980's causing a real hysteria among teenage girls and not only, and gave us feew evergreen songs like these two. Autiotalo was covered even my Lordi back in the days. Then we have a livign legend Katri Helena (ESC 1979, 1993) with her very last release before ending her career in the Olympid stadium next August. How many stars of today can you spot in her backing choir?! Yes, everyone from Erika Vikman to Hanna Pakarinen, from Bess to Jenni Vartiainen and all the others! And then some Eurodance from Ostrobotnia.  AURIUM - LEVOTON KATRI HELENA - ELÄMÄN TIE AURINGON LAPSET - AUTIOTALO EMMA & MATILDA - LEVOTON TUHKIMO

  Let's restart the #Finpop 2025 series again now that the Eurovision season is over and done. Ida Elina plays kantele, the traditional Finnish Carelian instrument and is one name that I wouldn't mind seeing in UMK2026 with some ethnic banger. Jannika B and husband Toni Wirtanen are well known names and have their first duet released as far I can recall. I have featured James-J before but Biti is a new name. Enjoy! IDA ELINA - UNDER THE NORTHERN SKY JANNIKA b / TONI WIRTANEN - KAUNIITA LAUSEITA JAMES-J - EN RIKKI MUTTEN EHJÄKÄÄN VITI - IRINA

  Let's kick off another string of #Finpop 2025 posts for summer! ABREU is back as is her bestie Benjamin with yet another release. BESS has teamed up with Ramses II this time and Evelina with Juuna Chill. Chill out and enjoy! Evelina / Juuna Chill - Tranquilo Ramses // /BESS - Samat silmät ABREU feat Bizi - Äiti Teresa Benjamin - Lokki

Rim Tim Tagi Dim and Cha cha cha everybody.  After this exhausting Eurovision season's end this blogger is off to holidays  and will be back eventually someday. Have a great summer!

Yle has released data on viewing figures during the Eurovision song contest final. An average of 1,7 million people watched the show with peak up to 2,6 million. The streaming platform reached over 500.000.  The first semifinal with Finnish KAJ representing Sweden got 1,5 million viewers with an average of 808.000. The second semifinal with Finland's Erika Vikman did better with 1,6 million viewers and an average of 930.000. Meanwhile Yle has announced the UMK 2026 will take place again i Tampere on February 28, 2026.

The Eurovision song contest 2025 was the most variable in languages since the free language rule and several songs were featured in French for example and three of them being among the biggest favorites: France, Netherlands and Switzerland. We might add also Luxemburg that was gaining momentum in the last minute and yet they all bombed in the televotes. What happened?  Besides the language they were also staged very dark, that's common but then again the winner was all black and white. After jury votes Switzerland was second with 214 points, France third with 180 points and Netherlands 5th with 133 points. Then the televotes rolled in: Netherlands got only 42 (15th), France 50 (14th) and Switzerland flat zero! I mean, how? France dropped to 7th, Switzerland 10th and Netherlands 12th. Luxemburg finished 22nd overall.  As a consolation these gons swept away all the Marcel Bezençon awards: France won Press and Artistic ones, and Switzerland the Composer award.

Erika Vikman placed 11th in the grand final of Eurovision song contest 2025 after being all spring and EuroviSIon week in the Top-6 in the odds reaching top-3 during the broadcast after her performance. Yet only 11th.... Feels a little bit let down but then again it's worth remembering it's Finland's 4th best placement in modern Eurovision after Lordi's win 2006, Käärijä's 2nd place in 2023 and Blind Channel's 6th place in 2021 together with Softengine's 11th place in 2014.  In the semifinal Finland was third after Israel and Latvia before Greece and eventual winner Austria. Here's break down of the televotes in the semifinal ( 115 ): 12 -  10 Australia, Malta, Denmark 8 Latvia, Serbia 7 Ireland, Lithuania, Czechia 6 Montenegro, Armenia, Luxemburg, Germany, RoW 5 - 4 Austria, Georgia, UK 3 - 2 Greece, Israel, France 1 - 0 - (Israel scored 13 times 12, 3 times 10, once 8 and 7 and 2 from Armenia...) In the grand final Finland got jury points as follows ( ...

Ebu and Eurovision world just avoided a bullet and in the end Finns have only a small tiny consolation that the winner JJ's outfit was Finnish design and made as well was the staging and he even rehearsed it in Vantaa, Finland over the spring. He only managed 5th in the semifinal but it all changed in the grand final. I leave the vote analyzing to else but ..... This was a weird weird year. But dear Lord the jury voting was all over the place! Austria managed only 8 full sets of 12s, Italy six (I told you so! read more here ) and France 5, Greece 4, Switzerland and Latvia 3, Germany (!!!) 2 and Israel, Armenia (!!!), Finland, Albania, UK and Sweden one. A bit like here's something to most everyone! Then the televoting: Only 50 to France (!!!), Switzerland zero!!!! I mean... what the hell just happened (oh yes, zero to them, too, but that was already a norm). I have no words. Final results (jury votes/tele votes) 1. AUSTRIA (258 + 178) 436 2. ISRAEL (60 + 297) 357 3. ESTONIA (98...

As the Jury show was leaked in full (sigh) and I couldn't resist watching it once (or maybe twice in parts) during the Saturday afternoon as warm up for tonight's grand final it's a good excuse to share some impressions and opinions. And a prediction. First of all it was very nice and nostalgic to an old fart like me to hear and see again on stage Io senza te , one of my all time favorite Eurovision entries, as well as Canzone per te , a song that I still remember by heart and also Cinema that I remembered surprisingly well even if I never was a huge fan. Only proves the fact that when you are young your memory works so easily! The opening was nice playing on the Nemo's broken trophy but the final line delivered by Sandra could have been delivered a bit funnier somehow.  Sandra is doing solid job while Hazel is letting it loose. Michelle is a nice add to the final line up as and I just love this grandmother (!!!) and her sense of humor I can excuse her Volare as well. ...

  So, Erika Vikman got the same slot 13 than Käärijä did in 2023, both also closed their respective semifinal. Also the combo of Luxemburg-Estonia-Israel-Lithuania-Spain one after another is the same as last year - you only need to switch Netherlands to replace Estonia performing just before Israel. Intentional? Kids friendly Norway and Luxemburg will open the evening and we close with top favorites Sweden and France before going out with a bang with San Marino and Albania.  Below are the odds as of Friday morning 7am CET. Last night Finland passed Israel and France passed Netherlands, otherwise no change on top. 

The second semifinal is over and we have the full line up for Saturday's final. If the results of the first semifinal were somewhat surprising this second was a total chaotic surprise for most everyone. Had I done my list after the performances I would have dropped Czechia, Serbia and Australia from my list and had added Armenia and Lithuania and scored a lot better than my prediction list 6/10. From my wish list I got only 5/10 while the Home jury also got 6/10 right. The worst results probably ever! The show was somewhat more boring than the first semifinal except for Hazel who was letting it loose and can't wait what they combine with Michelle in the final at this point. The idea of the 2020 artists getting chance to perform their 2020 entries was nice and should have been done already in 2021. Or 2022. Or 2023. Or 2024... But why, oh why they chose those four who actually did return in 2021??!! WHY?? Why not giving a chance to Arilena Ara, Athena Manoukian, Damir Kedzo, San...