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First Finnish Semi Final at Tampere
13^th January2006

By Jukka Väisänen

"What a peaceful atmosphere", I thought, when I arrived at Tohloppi. Everything was just amazing. I had to look around and try to keep my attention on what was happening.

The first big thing was the press conference. There we had three different artists present: Tomi Metsäketo, Jennie, and Lordi. Also the guest stars, Katri Helena (Finland 1979 and 1993) and Kirka (Finland 1984), were both invited.

Tomi Metsäketo liked the idea of inviting the artists instead of an open contest. He likes to sing in Italian. He also told that he received many suggestions for his contest entries.

Jennie was very glad to have a second chance in the Finnish preselection. She liked both of her songs very much. She compared them with her earlier entry and stated that now she has more "show" in her presentation, and admitted that singing and dancing at the same time requires very much effort.

Lordi described their participation as a very funny situation. They told that they have two good entries. The band was working on new songs, when they were asked to participate. They also told that they had to renew their versions because of the three-minute rule.

Then there was the dress rehearsal. Kirka was honoured to start with his Hengaillaan Eurovision entry. The first competing song was Eternamente Maria by Tomi Metsäketo, which is written by a well-known Finnish ESC fan, musician and radio journalist Mr. Petri Kaivanto. It was a very peaceful schlager song. The second song was Look At Your Love by Jennie, which was a pop entry with rhythm and blues effects. The third song was Hard Rock Hallelujah, and it had some amazing visual fire effects. It was hard rock with catchy lyrics.

The other guest star was our beloved Katri Helena. She sang her former 1979 entry Katson Sineen Taivaan. I had an opportunity to ask her a few questions, and she told me that nowadays it is quite difficult to do new translated cover versions. She also told me that she still sings many ESC songs in her concerts. She became very surprised and happy, when she heard that she has many fans in Europe.

The second round was very interesting. Un Posto Fra Le Nuvole by Tomi Metsäketo was a very beautiful ballad. Jennie's second entry was Take Me Higher. It was quite a typical Eurovision pop entry with a show. The last one was Bringing Back The Balls To Rock by Lordi, which was also interesting, a heavy metal song.

Proceding to the end of this semi-final wasn't difficult at all. The public voted for the better song of each of the artists to go to the Finnish final. We got the results, and the songs which went to the final were Eternamente Maria, Take Me Higher, and Hard Rock Hallelujah.

Next week we will see Ms. Johanna Pakonen, Ville Pusa, and Nina and Hanna-Riikka. The last duo was formerly known as Taikapeili.

Kirka (Finland 1984) & Katri Helena (Finland 1979 & 1993)

Tomi & Jenni (current semi-finalists)

Tomi, singing Eternamente Maria

Lordi - quite hard to miss!