Finland
selected its song for the 1998 final in their Euroviisut on February 14th.It is "Aava", performed by Edea, lead singer is Marika Krook.
Here is a picture of Edea taken from the Finnish TV site (apologies to Finnish TV).
Finland
selected its song for the 1998 final in their Euroviisut on February 14th.
It is "Aava", performed by Edea, lead singer is Marika Krook.
Here is a picture of Edea taken from the Finnish TV site (apologies to Finnish TV).
Here are three viewpoints from Finland on the Finnish final, which seems to have been excellent.
Thanks for these reports goes to Mika Sarlin, Pasi Vanttaja, and Mikko Suhonen.
Firstly Mika Sarlin writes:
The singer Marika Krook is best known as an actress in a recent Finnish movie 'Underbara kvinnor vid vatten' (Wonderful women at the water, or something like that). Marika's mother tongue is Swedish (Finland is bilingual), and the movie is also in Swedish. Nevertheless the winning song 'Aava' is sung in Finnish (Marika has quite a sexy accent!) but it has hardly any words in it (the same words keep repeating).
Pasi Vanttaja gives us a detailed report: (there's another one below it from Mikko Suhonen)
The setting for this years Finnish Final was somewhat different from what we've seen before. New method of selection was new, but the venue had been seen before: YLE (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) Studio 2 at the Pasila TV Center in Helsinki has been the stage of the Finnish Final many times before. This time with some pyrotechnics and more color than before, but still somewhat dull and unsurprising. But I couldn't expect anything more even though the songs for tonight's final were preselected to be something different.
The hosts for the night were two young Finnish radio voices with the other having also a great deal of TV publicity in Finland. They came through their task for the evening quite nicely. Still, the script seemed to be somewhat unrehearsed and I got the feeling that the TV director "lost it" a few times during the show... Nothing serious, but I got a few yawns.
We had three juries to judge the songs. Chairman for The International Eurovision Fan Club Jury was Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen from Finland who wished the viewers a pleasant evening and presented his jury: five Finnish members and two International members, the chairpersons of the German and French Eurovision Fan Clubs.
The International Professional Jury was hosted by the Famous Finn from the Music Television, Maria G. Her jury composed of eight members: Ted Curson (?) "The American Viking", Nina Honkanen (Finnish TV personality), Noel Kelehan (I think we all know him!), Per Möller Hansen (ESC Producer from the Danish TV), Iris Mattila (Finnish radio), Sanna Kojo (Finnish Radio, ESC European Final commentator for the past couple of years) and Jyri Pihel (Estonian TV).
And then there would be the Finnish TV viewers televoting. Every song had a phone number allocated for the votes and the call costs 2,95 FIM. Telecom Finland promised that the 1996 catastrophy with the phone lines collapsing would not happen this time.
So... It was time for the songs. Before every song there was a brief interview of the performer(s).
(#1) Ile & Kaija seemed confident with their song "Maailman laitaan" (To the Edge of the World). Typical Ile, I might say. The song sounded pretty nice but still, nothing special: I missed the climax of the song if there were any. Wouldn't do well in any of the three juries.
(#2) Elena Mady's "Honeymoon" was a slow, nicely flowing beautiful ballad. Don't know if there were something wrong with sound mix but her voice was almost completely lost for the last minute of the song. She didn't have enough power to break through the loud orchestra sound. It would be risky to send her to Birmingham, and the song wasn't actually up to it either.
(#3) Next we had Nylon Beat with "Umm ma ma". Full back-track Finnish disco dance song with a lot of dancing on the stage. The vocal sound and the way the girls sung made me wonder if the performance was playback... I wasn't much thrilled by the idea of this song to be presented as the Finnish Entry. Better than "Niin kaunis on taivas" (1996), though. [I liked it - GH]
(#4) Samuli & Sani were next on stage with "Olen luonasi sun" (I'm there with you). Plenty of tabloid coverage on them before the show. The song was slow but promising with rising feel in the melody. Sani's voice was mixed quite heavily over Samuli's but that didn't do any harm to the song. Didn't actually give me any "this-is-the-winner" feeling.
(#5) I had high hopes on Sari Kaasinen and "Mielessäni" (In my mind); the song she had written herself. And she didn't let me down! The song was pure "Värttinä" with very beautiful slow back-track sound in the first part and the refrain with fast rock style. Traditional Finnish singing. This would make a difference in Birmingham. My definite favourite.
(#6) Finlands most favorite male singer Jari Sillanpää was up next. He sang "Valkeaa unelmaa" (White dreams), a moderately slow ballad with quite dark images and beautifully curved melody. I might say: a traditional Finnish entry. Not actually my favourite song but very much loved singer so this one should do well in the public votes.
(#7) Then, Ultra Bra with "Tyttöjen välisestä ystävyydestä" (About friendship between girls) came on. Their song was exactly the one I expected from Ultra Bra; quite heavy 70's style pop song with a particular 3-women-2-men sound of Ultra Bra. Very strong orchestra background. Good song but not for the ESC. I would televote for this one.
(#8) Next one was Luka with "Tuun sun luo" (I come to you). Sounds more like a music for a TV advert than an ESC entry. Light pop song with light melody for a light singer. That's it, nothing special. Definitely won't make it.
(#9) The last one was Edea with "Aava". This song was sung on very old Scandinavian language (symbolic language, as they said) by an soprano opera singer Marika Krook. At first, it sounded.. strange. But then, as the song went along a bit, there was some nice beat coming up. Good-sounding back-track and some old Scandinavian sounds and traditional singing (I think..). Are we too late for this? I liked this one but will the juries..?
So... there were the entries in this Finnish Final. We saw short cuts of all the nine songs before the interval acts. YLE treated us with two playback songs sung by Sarah Brightman on the Finnish Final Stage.
Then we went swiftly to the voting. The hosts never explained the scoring system that the juries were using. Obviously every jury member gave points 1 to 10 (excl. 9?) to each song, then these points were added up as the jury's vote for that song. After each jury had given it's vote for each song, those points were converted to 10,8,7,6,...,1 for each song. Simple, huh?
Here are all the points give by (1) Fan Jury, (2) Professional Jury and (3) Televoting (number of votes). First total jury votes, then calculated (1-10) points and then the total.
(1) (2) (3) TOTAL RANK
#1 Kaija&Ile 44> 4 48> 5 534> 2 11 7th
#2 Elena Mady 33> 3 40> 3 541> 3 9 8th
#3 Nylon Beat 73>10 30> 2 2297> 7 19 3rd
#4 Samuli&Sani 32> 2 64> 8 1053> 4 14 6th
#5 Sari Kaasinen 64> 7 41> 4 2766> 8 19 4th
#6 Jari Sillanpää 48> 5 49> 6 6228>10 21 2nd
#7 Ultra Bra 52> 6 52> 7 1607> 6 19 5th
#8 Luka 23> 1 27> 1 211> 1 3 9th
#9 Edea 65> 8 69>10 1471> 5 23 1st ***
So, Edea with "Aava" was selected as the Finnish Entry to the European Final. Some sort of a surprise, I might say. Risky business but I think we'll score better than we did in 1996. Of course I'm a bit disappointed by the 4th position of Sari Kaasinen's great song which I think would have done well in Birmingham. But the Professional Jury didn't like it as much so I guess they knew better. Nylon Beat's third position was a pleasant surprise - note Pro Jury's low points once again. Is this the reason Finland hasn't scored high enough over the last few years?
Well, this time our entry scored 10 from the Jury with Noel Kelehan as a member. I hope that counts for something. The song might do well. Let's keep in mind that all European Final juries are European folks televoting, so they might not be tired with "Nocturne" style songs yet. Or at least I hope so!
Mikko Suhonen also gives us a detailed report:
You asked for views of this years Finnish final. Here are my comments on each song. I have given the songs points from 1-10 (excluding 8). You can decide, if you want to put these points and opinions on your page or not.
Eagerly awaited Finnish final took place on Saturday evening, and the rumours of the best ever Finnish final proved to be true. Here are the songs, short descriptions and my personal points to each song (on the scale of 1-10)
1. Kaija & Ile: Maailman laitaan Lot of guitars and also otherwise great arrangement. Good melody and great performance by the duo, although the song is slightly too slow. 5 points (on the scale 1-10)
2. Elena Mady: Honeymoon Ordinary, beautiful ballad, nothing special. Elena Mady does not convince as a singer but the choir gives her a great backing. 1 point
3. Nylon Beat: Umm ma ma Two young Gina G:s on stage and the song is very similar to Ooh Aah...Just a little bit. Well rehearsed performance and good choreography. 6 points
4 Samuli & Sani: Olen luonasi sun This popular duo sings a song which is very much like their earlier hit "Tuhat yota". Two great singers cannot do much with this boring melody. 4 points
5. Sari Kaasinen: Mielessani Sari Kaasinen has a magnificent choir and they together have a great time on stage with this very traditional karelian song. 7 points
6. Jari Sillanpaa: Valkeaa unelmaa Jari Sillanpaa is the most popular male singer in Finland at the moment and that would be evident when the telephone votes would be counted. The song itself is very typical finnish ballad with a powerful chorus. "Se pa mig" in Finnish, perhaps? 2 points
7. Ultra Bra: Tyttojen valisesta ystavyydesta This young group sings a very energetic song with an absolutely marvellous arrangement (just listen to the horns and strings!!!). This song might not do so well in the international final, but it would certainly wake up tje audience after some sleepy ballads. The group sings frighteníngly well! 10 points
8. Luka: Tuun sun luo Happy and relaxed song which Luka performs well. 3 points
9. Edea: Aava Edea combines African rhythms with traditional Finnish instruments. The singers voice is just one instrument among others, and what an instrument!!! Edea challenges Secret Garden and Eimear Quinn. 8 points
There you have it. The audio clip should be available on YLE internet-site next week.
Thanks to all three contributors!