A Swede who lives in Finland and who is lost in Euroland - the wonderful world of Eurovision
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Sunday, May 8, 2016

ESC 2016: Alright then, we lost

The first semi final is in two days and I think it is about time to throw in the towel. There are some countries that are just not going to make it to the final for various reasons. One of these countries is very likely to be Finland.

I have not changed my mind a single bit about the song itself. As I wrote in my review I find it bouncy and happy and I love the energy in it. But sometimes you just have to resign to certain facts.

First fact: nobody else believes in it except me. I haven't seen one single person on location in Stockholm who expects Finland to make it into the top ten on Tuesday. That doesn't mean anything in itself. Very few people saw the qualification of San Marino coming in 2014. But still.

Second fact: Number one is not a very good starting position. Especially not for Finland. Our songs are seldom particularly mainstream and often look better when there is someone else to compare you to. Had Sandhja come in after Greece-Moldova-Hungary-Croatia instead of before them, she would have appeared like an energy injection. Now she's just a pleasant opener that few people will remember.

Third fact: Luck is not Finland's forte. Finland is the kind of country that seldom performs better than anticipated. We usually underperform instead. Every single Finnish entry after Lordi (with the exception of Softengine) failed to live up to expectation. Every. Single. One.

Would Finland have been better off with another song from UMK, then? A hyperactive and over-excited Saara Aalto would have felt as out of place as a Moldovan cosmonaut and Mikael Saari would have been just another handsome male with a slower song. Sandhja was the best choice. This just isn't our year.

Now I'll publish this text and spend the next days hoping this is all rubbish and I'm all wrong. I just don't think I am.

1 comment:

  1. I think the bottom line is that Finland picked the wrong song. I know you'll disagree. But Mikael or Saara simply could not have done worse than Sandhja is about to do. Finland just seem to not pick correctly most of the time.

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