Skip to main content

FINLAND: YLE APOLOGIZE - NEXT YEAR CLEAR FROM THE START

YLE has sort of apologized the mess they created late last year when they threw away the UMK2018's 300 submissions and chose internally Saara Aalto out of the blue angering the Finnish musicians and authors, and most of the public as well. Not very fair indeed. But YLE says they got fed up."Last year we had a great song, performance and artist and it failed. Like many times before."
YLE promises in the future this won't happen: it will be clear from the start: internal choice or business as usual next year. "People have been asking us big names in UMK, but the big names don't want to participate. Maybe they are afraid of losing. Or then winning and failing in the main event and Finns can be cruel afterwards. We knew Saara Aalto wants to do this and she has experience of big stages so why not?"
YLE's Antti Autio still believes they did nothing wrong and there's a weird case of blaming one person, Finnish Musicians association's boss Aku Toivonen (that YLE's boss Ville Vilén had to come out and apologize) for all the negative comments as "90% of the population supports YLE's choice". Really? That's not what I hear at work and among friends and people who know I'm following Eurovision and have opened their hearts and shared their thoughts about the whole affair. None has been happy about her selection but then again, maybe they are just not her fans?
"We are getting a lot of positive feedback!" he says. Yes, Saara Aalto fans are thanking you. YLE also blindly believes various Eurovision fansites forgetting Eurovision fans live in a bubble while the real world that votes makes up about 95% of the votes come May. Those 12 points from UK YLE is taking for granted won't take her that far.... 
But it didn't end there. Now people are not so happy for the fact all her song are written by foreigners.
Autio also tells there were 23 songs for Saara in the end, half of them Finnish written. Yet they chose those three, two of them from the Swedish Eurovision factory and clearly not their best efforts. And in my opinion rather bland and unimaginary, and most of all underlining Saara's struggles so very familiar already from tabloids, and the performances - at least the videos and I'm afraid even more the staging - showcasing tired drag queens and LGTB stereotypes. That would have been cool and innotative around 1995. But maybe it still works in the bubble? What do I know? 
I can only wish YLE and Saara luck and hope and pray I'm totally wrong and she brings home if not the victory but at least the 2nd place.... and that next year's selection will be clear from the start. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ESC 2016 WISH LIST: MARGARET FOR POLAND

Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?

SONGS OF THE YEAR 2015: #5 KRISTA SIEGFRIDS - ON & OFF

Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!

MALTA: THE QUEEN OF L-GHANJA TAL-POPLU - CORAZÓN MIZZI!

If The Travellers have proven recently one can do great singing in Maltese there's also someone else doing great stuff: Corazón Mizzi. While in Malta I was looking for some Maltese CDs only to find out they pretty much don't exist, and the most helpful staff in legendary D'Amato - probably the world's oldest record store today - suggested me Corazón's Hawn jien (2014 album). Having nothing else really to bring home I decided to go or it without even realizing it is the Corazón from Maltese Eurovision selections. And what a find it was! Thank you D'Amato! But let's start from the obvious: Eurovision. Corazón has been offering us songs in the Maltese Eurovision selection since 2009, actually making her best result this year with Falling glass , one of my favorites btw. I also liked last year's Secretly but that failed even the final. But Corazón's true calling is singer-songwriter in Maltese as this excellent album clearly shows. We have al

ESC 2016 BELARUS: NAKED WITH WOLVES?

Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further?  No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )

EUROVISION 2024.... COMING UP!

 

EUROVISION TWEETS REVEAL DETAILS....

Brandwatch, one the world's leading providers of analytics of social medias has summed up the Twitter buzz during the Eurovision 2013 final on May 18, 2013. Over 1,8 million tweets have been analyzed and it's rather fascinating stuff. On top you can see the figure showing topics. Romania and Ireland got the tweeting go wild as did Greece, Belarus, Malta and Armenia. And you can see political tweets took over during the voting..... The figure above is for the emotions. Once again Romania and Greece got it going wild. A lot of love and joy was spread all over during the show while hate & anger increased during the voting. Is someone surprised? But have a look and analize yourself here . And here you can access to country by country details. Did Ukraine's giant get people's attention? or Moldova's outfit? Did Ireland have sex factor? Or Azerbaijan? And what about Belgium's dance routine?

GREECE: HELENA PAPARIZOU HITS AGAIN WITH HAIDE

Eurovision song contest 2005 winner Helena Paparizou has been enjoying Top-5 hits every year since 2003 with the exception of 2010 and 2014, this latest one being already her 27th! And Haide is charting also in Bulgaria and Finland, of all places. The catchiness of her hits has changed less over the years than her face....  Here's the English version , below the Greek version. 

FINLAND: CONGRATS HANNA PAKARINEN - BABY IS COMING!

No more leave me alones as Eurovision 2007 veteran Hanna Pakarinen has published in her Youtube channel a video unboxing the Finnish state's maternity box aka layette set thus announcing she's due to have a baby later this spring. Congratulations!

Regina Lund - naked and censored

Regina Lund's new video Jag är osynlig was censored by Youtube only minutes after it had been uploaded. In the video she was playing a female Jesus who gets crusified in the end. "I was shocked!" she says. "There's nothing more naked in it as in every church! It's ok to have naked man hanging on the wall but my nakedness is too much on internet? ". Oh well, no comment. She's prepairing a new album Dare Regina Lund and we of course remember her from her Melodifestivalen 2007 adventure with Rainbow star .