Finland, often the scrawny little sibling of the Nordic countries, have come into their own recently when it comes to Eurovision. They’ve gone from a country with four non-qualifications and a second-last place in five years to arguably the strongest national final that has been revealed this year. How did they manage to do this with a national final that had given them such poor results, including two dead last places in the semi final? Well, let’s take a look.
One thing that must be noted about UMK is that big artists never shy away from it. Between internally selecting X Factor legend Saara Aalto (who had previously participated in 2016) and legendary “Sandstorm” DJ Darude in 2019, to the open call for artists finding such well known artists as the Teflon Brothers and Blind Channel in 2021, Finland have had a fair few big names applying for their selection, and with the presence of The Rasmus and Cyan Kicks this year, it certainly hasn’t stopped. Participating in Eurovision seems to be seen as an actual successful part of your career, rather than a laughing stock which the broadcaster doesn’t care about, and that has allowed Finland to succeed at the contest. Another part of what makes UMK successful is the panel of experts who vet the songs and decide which ones are best – with music journalists, heads of music at radio stations and even an editor from Spotify involved, they get the right songs vetted and get a good quality bunch.
So, let’s talk about this year’s songs. The first one to be revealed was electronic-rock band Cyan Kicks, with their much hyped song “Hurricane”. It’s a very typical song of Finland’s kind of genre, with a powerful instrumental, an inspirational message and a loud, driving chorus including lyrics such as “Don’t try to shut us off! We’re not gonna shut up! We will never give up!”. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Cyan Kicks and from Finland on a Eurovision stage. I’m not a huge fan of the lyrics but this would be superbly performed on a Eurovision stage.
After this came BESS‘s pop banger “Ram Pam Pam”. With Finnish lyrics, a punchy instrumental and an addictively catchy chorus of “Ram-pam-pam-pam-pam-pam-pam-pam, Ram-pam-papam-pam”, this is probably the early earworm of the Eurovision national final season. It’s got shades of Cicciolina (Erika Vikman’s fan fave entry which very nearly won in 2020) to it, and it seems to be the fan favourite at the minute – every national final needs a bit of punchy party bop to it.
The third entry to be revealed was probably the most well known and most hyped band in the selection in The Rasmus. Their song, “Jezebel”, is a rock song that is typical of The Rasmus, written by both The Rasmus’s lead singer Lauri Ylönen and songwriting hall of fame inductee Desmond Child. It comes complete with a powerful rock instrumental, a strong drum beat and lyrics about how this “Jezebel” is a real man-eater, with a surprisingly well executed key change. If Cyan Kicks would be a barn-burner live, I’m guessing this would be even bigger. This is currently the bookies favourite and it would be no surprise to see Finland go down the punchy rock route once again.
At this stage, we were at the halfway point and we got a break from pop and rock with Younghearted‘s sweet little Finnish-language entry “Sun Numero”. The song, written about regret after a difficult breakup, is very sweet and has a strong buildup to a climactic final chorus, complete with guitar-solo with shades of early 2000s Coldplay. I don’t expect this to do well, but the fact that the weakest of the entries so far (on a competitive level) would easily win any other given national final is a sign of how strong Finland is going.
And now for something completely different. Nobody was quite sure what to expect from Olivera and the song title “Thank God I’m An Atheist”, and I personally thought we’d get a comedy song, but my God, this one blew me away. The song itself has shades of the sort of sad-girl pop which has become incredibly popular lately, the instrumental is an absolutely gorgeous piano-driven beat and the lyrics are SO good. You just don’t get this lyrical quality in any other national final, especially not discussing the complicated relationship someone has with religion. This is ASTONISHINGLY good. My only criticism would be that it ends a bit too quietly and misses that oomph needed for the final chorus, but there’s nothing a quick revamp can’t fix.
Every year, a veteran performer is invited to perform in Melodifestivalen, presumably to keep the 65+ viewer numbers up, and it seems as of recent years UMK has begun to adopt that same tactic. Last year, they had Danny singing about the day of his funeral (he came 6th, beating the Estonian former competitor Laura Poldvere), and this year they have former Finnish best-selling singer Tommi Läntinen. I mean, I knew this wasn’t going to be my kind of music, but no harm in a bit of genre diversity. This song, “Elämä kantaa mua” (meaning “Life carries me”) has shades of dad-rock to it, with Tommi’s “I smoke four carpets full of tobacco a day” voice rasping about how you need to take the plunge and just do it! This is alright for an old-guy entry in the contest.
And last, but by no means at all least – the artist I was most excited for, Isaac Sene. Sene has brought another Finnish entry to the competition in “Kuuma jäbä”, which is an otherworldly bop. The song itself actually has the word “Oisin” written in the lyrics (props to you if you can spot it!), which is perhaps unsurprising because “”Kuuma jäbä” is Finnish for “hot dude”. Love that for me. This is a traditional gay-bop, which we love to see. With a funky instrumental backed by Isaac’s strong vocals accompanied by a good bit of vocal effects on the side, this is a very formidable way to close the contest, and my favourite one in the whole contest.
It’s incredible to see Finland getting such a strong national selection after years of what can only be described as mediocrity, and I am over the moon for all the Finnish fans. I can only hope Ireland does that some day soon and has the almighty glowup you lot have had. Finland have set the bar high for national finals this year and I am very impressed.
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