Lordi to carry Finnish Eurovision greetings to Athens

Rovaniemi's monster-heavy band took 42% of popular vote in Eurovision poll

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By Pirkko Kotirinta
     
      "There's never been an outfit like this at the Eurovision shindig, certainly not representing Finland. I reckon we've got a shot at placing at least higher up the table than the Finnish entry does on average", argues Mr Lordi, a.k.a. Tomi Putaansuu, frontman of Lordi, the band that won the Finnish Eurovision qualifiers in Turku on Friday night.
      He was speaking of Lordi's prospects for the Eurovision finals in Athens while the band made their way from Turku to a gig in Helsinki.
      "Hey, we've at least got fans in different parts of Europe. That can't be bad for our chances."
      Lordi, who hail originally from Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle, parlayed their heavy number Hard Rock Hallelujah into a ticket to represent Finland in Athens on May 18th to 20th. The Finnish finals were held late on Friday night in Turku.
     
The excitement at the finals went right down to the wire: when the regional phone-in votes had been totted up, Lordi and Tomi Metsäketo's Eternamente Maria were running neck and neck - each had 35 percent of the votes given.
      SMS votes were the clincher, and they dropped clearly more in favour of the heavy mob than Metsäketo's pretty ditty in Italian.
      Lordi received a total of 67,369 of the roughly 160,000 votes in the second round or 42.2%, while Metsäketo had to be content with 45,431 votes (28.5%). Third place went to Annika Eklund and Shanghain valot (Shanghai Lights), with 19,565 votes and around 12.3%. Six entries made it through to the second round.
     
In this 40th year of Finnish participation in the annual song contest, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) decided to throw caution to the winds and to rely solely on audience voting in the final selection: no expert panel was used as was the case last year.
      The choice of artists to take part in the invited semi-final competitions (in which each artist or band presented two numbers) that would determine the dozen finalist songs was in the hands of record companies.
      Lordi was one of the strong ante-post favourites to win. The band was advertised on TV before the event, and on its website forum the board-members encouraged fellow-fans to take part in taking Eurovision by storm: "Change the world, be on the side of the good guys and vote Lordi into the Eurovision finals... and tell dozens of your friends to do the same The time for change is TODAY!!"
      The other heavy outfit in the finals, Kilpi, also supported Lordi and vice versa. Kilpi eventually finished in 6th spot.
     
Lordi have been around the block a bit. They have turned out their visually-striking theatrical version of 1980s heavy since 1992, and have been gigging abroad on a regular basis since 2002.
      The band has also opened for the popular Finnish "opera metal" outfit Nightwish in Germany and Sweden.
      Last year Lordi toured their strongest fan-base of Germany, and also played gigs in Spain, Switzerland, and France.
      Lordi's first album Get Heavy was released in 2002. It has since sold more than 42,000 copies hereabouts, and has gone platinum.
      Their third CD release The Arockalypse went into stores on March 1st this year.
     
Tomi Putaansuu, 32, is Lordi's composer and lyricist, and also handles the band's vocals. He not only composed Hard Rock Hallelujah and supplied the lyrics, but also provided the current arrangement.
      The other members of the five-piece are Amen (guitars), Ox (bass), Kita (drums), and Awa (keyboards).
      They have not gone public with their real names, and Putaansuu had originally intended to follow their example. "But in the first big press interview four years back it was wheedled out of me and then the game was up in that respect", the front-man sighed on Saturday.
     
Mr. Lordi himself spent around a quarter of an hour on the decision of whether or not to go for the Eurovision gig, after the record company called up and asked the band to take part.
      The other members took rather longer to be persuaded: "The opinions were pretty much 50/50 for and against the idea. Some felt that getting involved with Eurovision was absolutely the last thing we should do. For me, I don't figure we have anything to lose or anything to be ashamed of."
      In Finland at least, Lordi have not given any interviews in their extravagant stage get-ups, and the band members do not appear in public without their monster masks.
      How the hell are you going to do the necessary press conference routine in Athens?
      "Ah, now there's been a bit of a misunderstanding here. The way it goes is that I don't give any TV-interviews in Finland, because basically it would sound so lame", says Putaansuu in his broad Rovaniemi dialect. "I mean, it would take all the credibility out of the monster routine."
      But in English, things are bit different. Interviews are granted, but only in full make-up. "Without our masks, Lordi do not exist."
     
The business of "getting the facepaint on" takes around three hours for Mr. Lordi himself.
      The most challenging thing is not so much heat as relative humidity. If the air is very damp and humid, the glues and resins tend not to stick too well.
      Putaansuu, who was singing in Turku despite running a temperature, is hoping that when it comes to Athens he will at least be able to perform in good health. "And we are taking the line that we don't make any compromises for the show. We're serious about our music."
     
The YLE Eurovision message-boards rapidly gathered posters for and against the selection on Friday night and into Saturday.
      "Finland's going to bag last place yet again", wrote one unbeliever, and "It's shocking how low the Eurovision people can sink", declared another. "Congratulations, Lordi. Could this be Finland's big chance at last?" hoped a third.
      Kjell Ekholm, who represents YLE on the Eurovision international delegation, is naturally hopeful, yet again.
      "We got a call from Sveriges Radio [the Swedish public broadcaster and YLE's opposite number across the water] first thing on Saturday morning, congratulating us. They said that this time Finland will make it into the final", enthused Ekholm.
      The reference to "the final" is a reminder that Finland will have to compete in a semi-final round against 23 other countries on May 18th, and the top ten will go forward to the final on the 20th, along with 14 other pre-qualified song-entries, from countries that did well last year, or - like the UK, Germany, and France, who all finished at the very bottom of the pile in 2005 - from countries that are simply too big to be excluded without hurting the audience ratings.
     
Despite their rich Eurovision heritage, the Swedes, too, will be having to battle against the other mortals in the semi-final this time, having bombed in Ukraine last May.
      "Now it is time for revenge. We may have lost the ice hockey gold medals to the Swedes, but we'll take them in Athens", blusters Ekholm.
      Sweden is choosing its champion for the fight next Saturday.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.3.2006

More on this subject:
 COMMENT: No need to worry about getting noticed

Links:
  Eurovision Song Contest Athens 2006
  Lordi Official Site
  Eurovision (Wikipedia)

PIRKKO KOTIRINTA / Helsingin Sanomat
pirkko.kotirinta@hs.fi