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

Petri Tuunainen writes:
I was one member of OGAE-jury and I was there in Helsinki on the 14th of February. As you can see, I liked the winner very much.

STORY OF THE MEMBER OF OGAE-JURY

Report from Euroviisut '98 with some backstage rumours too.

Saturday 14th of February

With regard to first news this event had to last 2 days, but then it changed and I had to be in Helsinki at 15:00 o'clock. The place was Hotel Hesperia where both two juries were going to meet. Soon, there were all members of our OGAE-jury: leader of OGAE-Finland, Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen, Juha Puranen, Marko Myller, Anna Muurinen, Max Mannola, me and the last who arrived were our international guests Dominique Dufaut and Irving Wolther. There was also one very familiar ESC-face among professional jury and I couldn't get it into my mind who is he even I had seen him several times. Them he introduced himself - Noel Kelahan.

So we were offered good lunch first and after it we were taken to tv-studios. There I begun to see famous familiars faces, like Kaija Kärkinen & Ile Kallio, Jari Sillanpää and Taikapeili-girls. I thought that what I'm doing here among these stars! Jari Sillanpää is the most famous Finnish singer right now so I had to use the opportunity and ask him to same photo with me. He did it with pleasure so now I have something to be proud of.

Next phase was the final rehearsal. Before it we were adviced of the voting. We could vote all songs from 1 - 10. We were able to give same number as many times as we wanted.

First 2 songs didn't convince me very much. When NylonBeat begun to perform I was sure that this must be good show. And I must say that "Umm-ma-ma" was impressive performance and great coreography. NylonBeat had also famous background dances, Finnish popsingers Mira and Terese. I expected a lot of Jari Sillanpää's entry because I like his music a lot. I was even a bit afraid that I would vote too well of him anyway. But when I heard his song, I knew at once that his song couldn't do well in Birmingham.

Ultra-Bra sang very loudly and this performance was one of the most impressive performances too. Edea was the 9th and last performer. Without doubt it made an impression to me after I heard it first time. How different song to others - like it wouldn't be Finnish at all. The lyrics of it are some ancient rune language. It doesn't even sound Finnish, but all the words on this song are really Finnish.

After hearing the songs I was very confused - and what's worse - I hadn't found my favourite one yet. There was 4 songs I liked a lot. They were the ones by Sari Kaasinen, Edea, NylonBeat and Jari Sillanpää. There was also great special guest on Finnish final - Sarah Brightman and when she sang to songs immediately after finalists - I thought it would be so easy if I could vote for her. I listened to Sarah singing with cold shivers running up and down my spine. There was also another special guest star, Swedish techno-band, Combayah, which was nice too.

After final rehearsal we begun to listen the songs from video. Both juries, OGAE-jury + professional jury was there on video room and we tried hard to think all the songs which would be the right song for Finland. There on video room the juries divided into two camps. Then we got a kind of conflict between others. The professional jury begun to discuss of the songs, and they didn't allowed us, OGAE-jury to take part to their discussion. We also weren't allowed to listen the songs from video anymore when they were discussing. This situation was quite irritating. We were told that we can listen the songs so much we want but it wasn't possible anyway. The professional jury spoke very badly of some songs. For instance they said that if we sent NylonBeat the whole of Europe will laugh again at us.

Here is my judgment of the songs and also how I voted for them:

1. EDEA - 10 points - Great! I haven't even realized yet that this performance will go to represent FINLAND. I have said it to myself and I will say again that this year I won't estimate the final position of this song. You see, I guessed that CatCat will be among best five and Jasmine between best ten. How will Edea do it in Birmingham. Will Marika Krook's voice be as bright like now. From these finalists Edea was simply the best choice. Think for instance Adiemus or Enya. A mixture of classic music and ambient music which should be popular right now. "Aava" is the work of art!!!!
2. SARI KAASINEN 9 points - I was sure I will like this when I saw the interesting lyrics "ee-hee-hee-hee-hee-he-he-hee-he-he". Sari Kaasinen gave me much positive feelings. I had heard so many times that Värttinä should be sent for Finland and now it was close when Sari Kaasinen begun her solo-career by this song. Well, "Mielessäni" would had been very ethnic song and this song really impressed Finnish national spirit. Very catchy and colourful song. Sari sings and performs greatly.
3. NYLONBEAT - 9 p - As I already told - impressive show, very fast going song with good melody. Maybe the best song from NylonBeat ever.
4. JARI SILLANPÄÄ - 7 points - yes, this is beautiful ballad. Especially part a-of the song is very beautiful and melodic, but the chorus is too easy. Typical "schlager"&ldots; I would certainly send Jari for Finland but not with this song. He's got much charisma on stage and sings so greatly.
5. ULTRA BRA - 6 points - Wild going!!! Strong interpretation!!! But what I missed most was the melody. Ultra-Bra has much better songs than this, so this would had been more like a joke and almost too old-fashioned memory of 70's. The final position of this could had been the same like Kojo or Pave Maijanen.
6. SAMULI & SANI - 5 points - very beautiful part a on this song and enough melody too. They both have good voices and they are impressive couple. Still something was missing.
7. ELENA MADY - 5 points - this was like some Swedish ballad which could do well in ESC. But the artist was too weak and unexperienced.
8. KAIJA & ILE - 4 points - they really would had resources for better&ldots; this is too monotonous. Certainly this was full of feeling and the chemistry of this couple works very well, but this would had do the same as "Hullu yö"&ldots;
9. LUKA - 2 points - I wonder how so easy going song like this was there. The lyrics were stupid and the song was so dull. Weak, weak, weak.

When the 2 juries had given their votes, Edea was leading. Then the female speaker Olga K found Marika Krook (soprano of Edea) sitting alone from the stairs. "Why are you sitting here alone?", she asked. "I'm so excited, I can't nothing for this, all others are there having a good time there, but this is unbearable to me". And finally 3rd jury, Finnish audience gave their votes and the winner was published: it is "Aava" !!!!! Edea was asked again to stage to perform "Aava" again. Finally then I'm sure that it had to happen this way and the choice was right. This year it's time to try something totally new. Certainly this is risky choice, but certainly the only from these songs, which could had chance to get those 130 which Finland would need.

Marika Krook is the goddess of the night. She poses for journalists together with Jari Sillanpää. "Are you disappointed?" Jari asks the journalists. "Not at all, it had to happen this way,". Anyway later in the evening I heard him saying, "It was the jury of euro-fans who spoiled my chances because they didn't vote for me". I also met dazzling Marika Krook personally. How sweet a person she seemed to be. I told her that I gave 10 points to her. She seemed to be so excited and happy of this task to represent Finland. And she was also very interested in OGAE-club - new member, maybe. Another very shining person was Sari Kaasinen who I met. She was so ordinary and despite of 4th position, so happy of it. Especially that Finnish citizens gave so many votes for her, too. Another group who was very disappointed was naturally NylonBeat. They were quite sure of their victory and especially our jury gave them hope by voting them best.

After this YLE had arranged the farewell party to the night club of hotel Hesperia. Unfortunately this room was quite close to so many who belonged to this team. It was great to be there among the artists who all looked so friendly and didn't look down on any of us. In a whole, YLE had organized wery well this event and the standard was the best in 90's.

Finally I will write the lyrics of AAVA. You see, it sounds like it wouldn't be Finnish at all, but all these words are Finnish. "Isa" is the name of Finnish woman, but it also means the silence and concentration.

Thanks Petri!

• Go to three post-contest reports
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