Finland – The Finnish national broadcaster YLE has published all 15 songs that will be competing to represent the Northern European country in Düsseldorf next year. The Euroviisut will be organized in three heats. The grand final will be held in Turku on February 12. You can listen to all the participating songs here:
The competing songs in the first qualification round:
Automatic Eye – I’m not the one who’s sorry
Marko Maunuksela - Synkän maan tango
Johanna Iivanainen - Luojani mun
Jonna - Puppets
Cardiant - Rapture in time
You can listen to the songs here
The competing songs in the second qualification round:
Soma Manuchar – Strong
Paradise Oskar – Da da dam
Jimi Constantine – Party to party
Milana Misic - Sydämeni kaksi maata
Father McKenzie – Good enough
You can listen to the songs here
The competing songs in the third qualification round:
Eveliina Määttä – Dancing in the dark
Sami Hintsanen - Täältä maailmaan
Tommi Soidinmäki - Seis!
Saara Aalto – Blessed with love
Stala & So - Pamela
You can listen to the songs here
Source= YLE, ESCToday
I’m shocked no one comments on this : it’s after all the actual songs of one of the top 5 best NF in esc season…
Anyway as every year I hear around the net “not so good this year from Finland” which if you think about it implies retrospectively that the year before it wasn’t that bad… Actually, I draw a fine line of what is good and not good based not on music talent only but also on the average esc level… Maybe old Euroviisut which gave Lordi to Eurovision can be missed (Lovex being the best act in all esc 07 season) on a pure music level, but on an average esc level there is no doubts whatsoever that this is another great year for Finland
the level is definitely up the esc standards : in the most pop esc styles, most of the songs are better than let’s say “Je Ne Sais Quoi” which is the worst anyone can do in the esc type (here I’m thinking mostly of “Strong”, “Luojani mun”, “Seis!” and “Dancing in the dark”). Also many of the pop entries are definitely close to the schlagery pop but end up being much stronger musically : in other words, they are nothing but irrelevant pop songs which you like to listen to but they are actually not poorly and fastly written (here I’m mostly thinking of Paradise Oskar or Jimi Constantine)…
As usual in Finnish NF, whatever the format is, a lot of songs mix the amazingly musical Finnish language to various music types not considered typically nordic and the outcome is simply enchanting : Marko Maunuksela & Milana Misic prove it quite well…
The webcards are definitely among the lesser good entries, as usal nowadays… Only Cardiant fit well the level of the show, but both Father McKenzie and Saara Aalto bring the level down in very cliché song. Interestingly enough, the worse song in the bunch is “Täältä maailmaan” which in itself is not a bad song, but it’s extremely boring. The fact the worse song is actually pretty well written proves the overall level is good.
Good, but is it excellent? This time we turn to the top of class : Jonna, Stala & So. and Automatic Eye. Three different songs : pop rock would characterize all thre though. Definitely strong songs I can see myself having in top at the end of the season (though we never know) but all three will have quite a challenge imo, being good live. All three songs are definitely instant hit to ou ears, but they’re not quite the performance type of entries. Rock is often static, Automatic Eye risks playing the teenage card and an off-beat song like Jonna’s could turn into a joke entry. If any of them finds the good balance live they would get my first place…
So far, I have this as a ranking from an audio point of view ;
04 – Jonna – Puppets
15 – Stala & So – Pamela
01 – Automatic Eye – I’m not the one who’s sorry
02 – Marko Maunuksela – Synkän maan tango
09 – Milana Misic – Sydämeni kaksi maata
08 – Jimi Constantine – Party to Party
07 – Paradise Oskar – Da da dam
03 – Johanna Iivanainen – Luojani mun
05 – Cardiant – Rapture in time
13 – Tommi Soidinmäki – Seis!
11 – Eveliina Määttä – Dancing in the dark
14 – Saara Alto – Blessed with love
06 – Soma Manuchar – Strong
10 – Father McKenzie – Good enough
12 – Sami Hintsanen – Täältä maailmaan
this can be an editorial if you want Manuel…
ps : more than half of these songs (8 of them actually) are better than all the songs in the Romanian or Ukrainian NF and in Switzerland only 3 can compete with them (“Come What May”, “Sur Les Pavés” & “Home”)
Can’t agree with your comment about 8 of them being better than the whole of the Romanian and Ukrainian selection. After listening to all the Finnish selections there were only two that were worthy of a second listen – Milana Misic (which should be the winner here) and Johanna Iivanainen. The rest of them were average at best. Not a vintage year for Finland, and doubtful qualifiers.
even if some Romanian songs could stand out with a good live (Hotel FM, “Bang Bang” mostly), I definitely would like to know which Ukraine songs after seeing the 33 songs (32 horrors and Bahroma) could stand a change against this…
I’m not saying that, at the end Ukraine won’t do better than Finland of course (so many details one can’t know at this stage, not to mention the very strong political votings in favor of Ukraine, and after all, who knows if they don’t get to change totally the song after picking too!) but on a musical level, there is no doubts that the Finnish songs are much more thought out and written through
I hope one of these songs will grow on me. None of the ones I’ve listened to so far have had the instant likability, at least in my opinion, that ‘Työlki Ellää’ did this year.