The Finnish finals for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest were held in Turku's Hotel Caribia on Saturday and televised by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. Victory went to Hanna Pakarinen, a former winner of the Idols talent contest, with her song Leave me alone.
Pakarinen's song gathered some 44 per cent of all phone and SMS votes. The heavy metal band Thunderstone finished second with its Face in the Mirror, after receiving 33 per cent of the votes, and the rock band Lovex from Tampere was third with 23 per cent of all votes. These three songs competed in a final run-off after nine other hopefuls were eliminated.
The total number of votes cast in the final round with the top three performers was more than 250,000.
Following Lordi's shock win in Athens last year, the semi-finals and finals of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in the Helsinki Arena on May 10th and 12th. Among the finalists will automatically be the host country's representative, Hanna Pakarinen.
