Lordi and Hard Rock Hallelujah bring it home after more than 40 years

Eurovision Song Contest success at last in Athens

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By William Moore
     
      On Sunday morning, waking Finns could have been forgiven for pinching themselves.
      After forty-something years of trying and failing, in various forms and guises, the nation had finally won the Eurovision Song Contest - and with a heavy rock entry delivered by characters dressed as scaly horror-movie monsters. Lordi, a theatrical band from Rovaniemi, took the 51st annual Eurovision Song Contest by storm, scored a record 292 points, and - in a small way - changed Finnish life forever.
     
Many had predicted disaster when Lordi and their song Hard Rock Hallelujah won the Finnish qualifiers for the event, suggesting that it would all end in tears and utter embarrassment, with the rest of Europe jeering at the "Satanic" monsters of Lordi and their very un-Eurovision offering. But as it turned out, the doomsayers were all quite wrong.
      Negative publicity, as so often happens, proved to be just as potent as positive: the fact that some Greek groups had called for the monsters to be banned only whetted the enthusiasm of those who felt that the glitzy, campy competition needed an injection of something new.
     
From the beginning of the televoting on Saturday night, it was obvious that Lordi's and Finland's window of opportunity had come.
      Votes poured in from across the continent, from Andorra to Ukraine, and what one Helsingin Sanomat journalist described succinctly beforehand as the "Battle of Latex versus Botox" turned into a complete rout.
      Countless acts from across the continent featuring silicone-enhanced and scantily-clad dancing girls were floored by four men and a woman wearing more than enough clothes. Or more than enough rubber scales and masks, at least.
      A wave of support for the only significantly different show in a competition that has long since been more about style than substance meant that there could only be one winner: the most unlikely winner, perhaps, in the history of the event.
     
When the dust had settled, and when the millions watching at home had done cheering and clapping each new regional breakthrough, Lordi had a record-breaking 292 points, beating off the challenge from Russia (248) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (229), and leaving former Eurovision greats like France and the United Kingdom far, far in their wake.
      The UK, presenting an entry featuring a white rapper and girls in the alluring school uniform attire of the dirty postcard, received the dreaded "null points" from no fewer than 28 international juries, while Finland's song was dismissed by just three: Albania, Armenia, and Monaco. Naturally we shall be working on them for next year. We do not need to work on the Brits - they gave us 12 points, bless them.
     
There was media attention aplenty after the show. The British conservative broadsheet The Daily Telegraph, raising a quizzical eyebrow as to what Lordi's victory might mean for the six-month Finnish EU Presidency, summed up the events of the night in fine fashion:
      "Self-styled 'meat-eaters in a vegetarian cafe', Lordi's studded-leather costumes, blood-spurting chainsaws, and spine-tingling lyrics left the traditional spangle-suited, love-ballad-singing entrants strewn around the Olympic Stadium in Athens like extras in a zombie film."
      Exactly! The Arockalypse had arrived, and not just in the form of Lordi's new CD. And next year there will probably be even more outlandish bands on display.
     
"Next year" is of course the next big question. How are the cash-strapped Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) to rise to the challenge of arranging the enormous Song Contest circus? And who will be drafted in to do the honours with the compereing? Conan O'Brien, anyone?
      The YLE Director-General Mikael Jungner has promised there will be no licence-fee hike to pay for it, but he has also hinted darkly that support will have to come from somewhere.
     
Fortunately, at least for the present, helping hands seem to be in abundance.
      Finland's Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen was quick to point out that arranging the spectacle is a national project, and announced that the government would help out, though without writing a blank cheque for the public service broadcasters. Money is also likely to be forthcoming from the European Broadcasting Union and from ticket sales.
      Vanhanen sent his greetings to the Lordi members and entourage in Athens, but intends to congratulate the band in person himself.
      President Tarja Halonen and Minister of Culture Tanja Saarela (Centre Party) have also congratulated the winners. Halonen sent off a telegram within minutes of the victory becoming clear. As for Saarela, formerly Tanja Karpela, she had her work cut out at the weekend - she also remarried and took a new name.
     
It may seem like a flippant and even gross comparison, but there was a sensation in Athens before the competition that if Lordi were actually to win, it would represent a "9/11" or "5/20" moment for Eurovision, marking a turning-point after which there was no return.
      "The Lordi show is so extreme that there is no going back to the old ways", argued the CEO of Sony BMG Finland Kimmo Valtanen. The band are signed to the SonyBMG label.
      During the week in the Greek capital, the band members under their leader Mr. Lordi, a.k.a. Tomi Putaansuu, carried themselves with great credit on and off stage, and Putaansuu's performance at the post-competition press briefing would have put many Finnish politicians to shame, along with nearly every Finnish sporting personality throughout recorded history.
      He was articulate, spoke excellent English, and will have gone a long way to dismantling the charges that the band are a bunch of Satanists that your mother always warned you against.
     
It was planned that there would be a welcome home ceremony in Helsinki's Market Square today, but this has been postponed until later in the week.
      One thing is certain: the band members are adamant that they do not wish to remove the masks or destroy the mystique behind their costumes.
      They appealed to the media to respect their privacy and not to go in search of paparazzi images of them out of make-up and costumes.
      Leaning on his Lappish roots, and referring to another hero of the Finnish North, Putaansuu pointed out drily that nobody really wanted to "out" Santa Claus, either.
     
The Finns have never taken the pomp and circumstance of the Eurovision Song Contest as a life-or-death matter. Over the years they have died on stage too many times for that, with a range of entries from fey folk music in national costumes to anti-nuclear protests, to ethereal ambient, to world music, and even a reggae act. It's a show, after all.
      However, it is probable that a small frisson of pride will run through the nation in roughly a year's time when the words ring out: "Finland welcomes the Eurovision Song Contest!"
      It's been a long time coming.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  SATURDAY NIGHT AT EUROVISION: LORDI, LORDI, LORDI, what HAVE you done? (19.5.2006)
  Finland´s monster-heavy band hardrocks into Eurovision final (19.5.2006)

Links:
  Eurovision Song Contest 2006
  A selection of pictures of the Lordi triumph in Athens (captions for now in Finnish)
  Lordi - Official Site

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