Laura
Voutilainen (left) will perform Addicted to you in
Tallinn for Finland
Laura
Voutilainen (left) will perform Addicted to you in
Tallinn for Finland
The Finnish final took place in the Finnish second city of Tampere on
26 February.
Previously on this page I had wrongly said this was a Swedish-speaking
town. I apologise to the citizens of Tampere and Finland, and thank
those who pointed out this mistake.
All but one of the 12 songs were in English, the remaining song was in Italian
There was a high Swedish presence amongst the writers, with Lars
"Dille" Diedrichson
perhaps the best known for his "Take Me To Your Heaven"
which won the 1999 Final in Jerusalem. Marcos
Ubeda wrote the winning song by Afro-dite in this year's Swedish
Melodifestivalen
Thomas G:son wrote
last year's Swedish entry Listen
to your heartbeat performed by Friends
We also had Geir Rönning, a veteran performer in several Norwegian finals.
Aika
(song No 1) were formerly more famous as Aikakone,
and Susie Päivärinta (composer song No 11) was half
of Lillie & Sussie who sang "Okay, Okay"
in the 1989 Swedish Final.
This show seemed to go on forever despite some good songs. It had a two stage process, juries voted first and 6 songs got performed all over again, and then a round of telephone voting.
Somewhere around was veteran Irish winner Johnny Logan (right), who mercilessly slagged off the contest in an interview on BBC Radio 5 I did straight after the 2000 contest. Despite his disdain for this rubbish (as he called it) he still likes a pay cheque, and so here he was looking the worse for wear singing a few songs.
The show was broadcast in widescreen, which I personally despise. Notice how most screen-grabs below have space to the left or right. Widescreen is great for long horizontal subjects like aircraft carriers. People don't usually fit.
Anyway, in the end Laura Voutilainen won, and her soulful song Addicted to you should do better than some Finnish entries. My favourite song was Make the rain performed by Sheidi.
Interesting that writer Tracy Lipp had a hand in all top 3 songs.
|
# |
Title |
Composers |
Performers |
% |
Place |
Picture |
|
1 |
Stay |
Maki Kolehmaine, |
Aika |
21% |
2 |
|
|
2 |
The closest thing to heaven |
Toni Nygård |
Jussi Saxlin |
|
||
|
3 |
Who cares about a broken heart |
Thomas G:son |
Johanna |
8% |
5 |
|
|
4 |
Make the rain |
J-P. Järvinen |
Sheidi |
5% |
6 |
|
|
5 |
I don't wanna throw it all away |
Maki Kolehmainen, |
Geir Rönning |
19% |
3 |
|
|
6 |
Addicted to you |
Maki Kolehmainen, |
Laura |
36% |
1 |
|
|
7 |
My special 1 |
Saana |
Saana |
|
||
|
8 |
Goodbye, hello |
Lars "Dille" |
Marky |
|
||
|
9 |
Silenzio |
Pertti Haverinen, |
Taina Kokkonen |
|
||
|
10 |
If I do |
Risto Asikainen |
Stiina Jean |
|
||
|
11 |
Welcome the world |
Thomas Heinonen, |
Susann |
|
||
|
12 |
Say you will, say you won't |
Henrik Sethsson, |
Ressu Redford |
11% |
4 |
|
If you have any news or updates on this country's National selection I'd like to hear about it. E-Mail me, Geoff Harrison, at my contact page
