Kuunkuiskaajat to represent Finland at Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo

Advance favourites did not perform to expectations; winners were 25/1 outsiders

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Finland’s representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 will be the folk-pop band Kuunkuiskaajat (”Moon Whispers”).
     
The band’s song Työlki ellää represents folk-pop spiced with gypsy music. The song gained 42 per cent of the public vote.
      Susan Aho and Johanna Virtanen, the members of Kuunkuiskaajat, seized victory from right under the nose of the advance favourites, as the humppa band Eläkeläiset (The Pensioners) came third, while the other favourites, singer Heli Kajo and the tango festival winner Amadeus, did not even make it to the top three with the highest number of votes.
      Nina Lassander and her song Cider Hill came second with some 38 per cent of all votes.
      Susan Aho and Johanna Virtanen of Kuunkuiskaajat are also members of the well-known Finnish folk and world music band Värttinä.
      ”We wish to show that Finns are cheerful people”, says Johanna Virtanen, while expressing surprise at the poor success of the advance favourites. Heli Kajo was both Aho and Virtanen’s own pick among the finalists.
      The winners themselves were rank outsiders going into Saturdays final: you could have got a price of 25/1 against their victory.
     
When it comes to Eläkeläiset, the opinions on the band’s performance polarised the audience.
      Many people said that the comedy humppa band might give a bad impression of Finland, and expressed some relief when the final outcome of the vote was revealed.
     
Finland has won the Eurovision Song Contest once, when Lordi and Hard Rock Hallelujah not only won but also set a new points-record for the competition in Athens in 2006. Recent contests have seen heavy metal music strongly represented among the Finnish entries, but this phase - containining the germ of a revolt against the entire ESC ethos - seems to have run its course.
      With Kuunkuiskaajat and the duo’s folk-pop song Työlki ellää Finland looks to be going back to the traditional themes of Eurovision songs.
      The finals for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest will be organised in Oslo on May 29th.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Amadeus and Eläkeläiset among entries to represent Finland at Eurovision 2010 (1.10.2009)
  Centre of Helsinki erupts in Eurovision frenzy Saturday night (22.5.2006)

Links:
  Kuunkuiskaajat - Moonwhispers
  Värttinä (Wikipedia)

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