Published EuroSong News no.79/80 (Handbook for Tallinn) of OGAE
After the obligatory absence of 2001, Finland is back for the ESC 2002 with big hopes!
Since the re-organization of the national TV the entertainment department is now operated from Tampere, the home of the second national channel. Therefore for the first time TV2 had the honour to organize Euroviisut.
The competition was open to everybody including foreign citizens yet some composers were specially encouraged to participate, but it is not public if they were specially favoured. By the deadline a record-breaking amount of 476 songs arrived.
The first jury was composed of YLE's own music journalists and producers plus the consulting fan Asko Murtomäki. They chose 25 songs for the international jury. The photos and names of the jury members can be found on YLE's Eurovision 2002 site in the news (Uutiset) section.
According the rules the language of the song couldn't be changed after the Finnish selection. This paragraph and obviously also the composition of the pre-juries resulted 11 songs in English and one in Italian for the televised final which took place in Tampere, the 26th of January.
YLE had decided to organize a little bigger event than couple of previous selections which were not open to public. However, organizing the live event was partly given to private companies. This proved to be a mistake: they didn't believe enough in the attraction of the Finnish selection (and Johnny Logan as guest star!) but combined it with the concert of Mestarit, the Finnish superstars Hector, Kirka, Pave & Pepe Willberg. It seems this historic quartet had already been seen by everybody interested and the new Kaleva Hall didn't quite fill since the tickets costed far too much. I wasn't there but anyway the feeling of Euroviisut was reported to be just great! It certainly was a better TV show than in the year 2000...
The 12 songs were performed in singback and 6 local juries gave their votes. Laura's victory was very clear also at this first stage where 6 songs were chosen for the last round.
The final selection was left to TV viewers as the 6 qualified songs were performed again. Over 193,000 calls arrived in 25 minutes and by the share of 36% Laura was a overwhelming winner! Even clearer was the success of the composer Maki Kolehmainen: he got a triple victory in Finland and a decent third place in the Estonian selection the same night (sung by Tanel Padar's sister Gerli)!
The discussion among the Finnish fans has been very vivid thanks to the discussion forum at the YLE website. The Finnish press seemed not to be very enthusiastic about the ESC selection, but certainly in May they will get hotter than ever since Estonia is so near and Laura is really well-known.
DISCLAIMER: The following descriptions of the participants do contain also my personal opinions, so don't get hurt...
1.AIKA: Stay Aikakone was a very succesful pop band in the 90's and Maki Kolehmainen as well as the other members of the band have collaborated also with other artists. Aikakone is now Aika and they have switched to English wishing to make it also abroad. They presented a strong uptempo disco song convincingly enough for the second position.
2.JUSSI SAXLIN: The closest thing to heaven Fairly unknown 22-years old Jussi sang in an innocent way a tedious ballad and didn't get a single vote. Clearly a mistake of the pre-juries.
3.JOHANNA: Who cares about a broken heart Thomas G:son got two songs to the selection, the less original was this ABBA inspired song which could be described as a sequel to his last year's "Listen to your heartbeat" by Friends. Johanna provided a solid interpretation and 5th position.
4.SHEIDI: Make the rain A nice and refreshing surprise. Young Sheidi ended singing this rocking midtempo song on a quite short notice since the original performer got ill and she did it well. 6th position.
5.GEIR RÖNNING: I don't wanna throw it all away Since Norway is out for this year, Norwegian Geir Rönning tried here with a ballad by Maki Kolehmainen and Tracy Lipp. Excellent performer and a strong melody were enough for the 3rd place: I believe the majority of the Finnish televoters wouldn't have accepted the idea of sending a Norwegian to represent Finland even if the other songs would have been lousier...
6.LAURA: Addicted to you
Laura Voutilainen made here debut album in 1994 and ever since she belongs to the top female artists of Finland. The absolute queen of the night performed a groovy disco song with the necessary energy and wearing a breath-taking decolté. Can Finland finally make it? I believe in Laura, but in my opinion the song is not catchy enough to impress at first listening...
For more about Laura see www.lauravoutilainen.fi
7.SAANA: My special one Lapland beauty Saana was the only singer-songwriter of the night. Her nice ballad seemed less calculated than any other composition of the night but lacked the necessary force and glamour...
8.MARKY: Goodbye, hello The Swedish ESC winners (1999) Lars Diedrichson and Marcos Ubeda chose a Hungarian-born Marky to sing their slightly messy and clearly Olsen Brothers -inspired song. I just heard this is now recorded by Barbados in Swedish.
9.TAINA KOKKONEN: Silenzio Nice idea: uptempo song with Italian lyrics performed by Taina Kokkonen, former tango queen and blonde with big boobs. Let's add also some dancers (in other songs there were none). Lousy and messy outcome: the Italian lyrics, written by a Finnish amateur, didn't fit at all the composition and were impossible to interpret in a way that it would have sounded Italian. Taina's nervousness and bad pronounciation were also too obvious obstacles for a melody which actually was quite nice and has gained now a lot of radio airplay in Finnish version. However, a BIG mistake of the pre-juries.
10.STIINA JEAN: If I do Risto Asikainen, the man behind the success of Nylon Beat and many others, participated this year with his wife Stiina Jean. Unlike most of the other performers of the selection Stiina Jean has done already some career in English. Nice reggaeish tune appealed to me as the best composition of the night but not to the juries.
11.SUSANN SONTAG: Welcome the world A very interestingly international team, Thomas Heinonen, Nestor Geli, Susie Päivärinta (remember Lili & Sussie!?), produced a genuine Eurovision anthem à la "Ne partez pas sans moi" or this years' Corinna May. Unfortunately this genre seems not appealing to the Finnish taste. Susann was 2nd in 1990 and 1994 but was left out from the final round this time.
12.RESSU: Say you will, say you won't To my big astonishment and for my critical taste this was the other sufficiently professional and charismatic performance of the night and my absolute favourite. Ressu Redford was the lead singer of the popband Bogart co. in the 80's and after that he has made a solo career singing in Finnish and produced other artists. 4th position for Thomas G:sons irritatingly catchy kiddie song.
The full score and more information (mainly in Finnish) can be found at YLE's website http://www.yle.fi/euroviisut/
What made me mostly sad is not that my own great proposals (like Anneli Saaristo debuting in Spanish!) did not make it through to the selection but that the overall quality was so homogenous and mediocre. There were certainly better singers and better songs among the 476 participating entrys. Obviously the juries had a very limited view of a suitable genre for the ESC.
Anyway, I am very happy that we can present this year a strong and professional performer, certainly one of the best we have. And if Laura for some reason should not win this time, I am sure she'll be back!
PETRI KAIVANTO
The writer is singer-songwriter, gossip columnist of Radio Aino (YLE) and an ESC fan(atic)
Full results of Euroviisut 2002 from Jarmo Penttilä's excellent site!