The hype is very real around Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the Finnish national selection for Eurovision and the race to Malmö continues with a ballad this time!
Sara Siippola - Paskana
youtube
Sara Siipola is fairly a new name in the sky of Finnish female artists. She kind of popped out of nowhere making a record deal with Sony Music in 2019 and releasing her first singles which were fairly successful. She also released her debut album "Kaunis Kun Itken" two years later and last year she was seen in popular music tv-show "Tähdet, Tähdet".
Still never heard of of her before and the artist announcement did nothing to me.
Paskana is power song that gives no hope. It's very raw lyrically and vocally.
It's a modern ballad with immediate hook. The song itself is not a traditional power ballad but does instrumentally push its boundaries. The electronic beat has 80's sound which also reminds many of the Russian girl duo t.A.T.u's sound. R'n'b beat separates it from an average ESC ballad and makes this super easy to listen.
Sara's voice can be compared to Amy Winehouse's being capable of interpreting the painful text brilliantly. The topic of being "paskana" which is translated as fucking wreck, is easily relatable. Social media quickly filled on Monday night with heartfelt comments from people around the world crying and feeling this song.
This is simply captivating - you can't pass this without stopping to listen to this and feeling what she sings. This will translate across language barriers.
ESC doesn't allow swearing so in case of winning UMK Sara would have to find another title for her song which might be a difficult task. There have been hopes of her translating this into English or pieces of it but I do hope this masterpiece remained in Finnish. Also this would differ quite a lot from our previous ESC entries. The last time we heard a female ballad from Finland was in 2017 with NormaJohn.
In a scenario where she didn't win UMK she might be the next Bess (Ram pam pam, 2022) or Kuumaa (Ylivoimainen, 2023) which either were the winning acts but made the biggest hits of their careers with the help of UMK. Reactions have been positive everywhere you go and her UMK videoclip has already been viewed over 240 000 (more than Sexmane) times. She's on her way to stardom!
What do you think of the third UMK24 track and would you vote for Sara Siipola to go all the way to Malmö? UMK final takes place on February 10th!
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you might be familiar with my obsession with Eurovision Song Contest.
It was difficult to find the time to watch any Bravo content the last couple of weeks, because… if you know, you know.
Eurovision is an all-consuming party.
It’s not that I don’t care about all the twists and turns of Scandoval, or Real Housewives, but I’ve got bigger obsessions in May.
The semi-finals and the final were last week and I’m still trying to process it all. And, frankly, the Post-Eurovision Depression has started.
If my favourite had won, I might have handled the transitioning better. But he didn’t. So, I’ve been obsessing over other Twitter-content than Bravo stuff.
Like, fanfiction. And getting lost in conspiracy theories. Like, how convenient it is that it’s ABBA’s 50th anniversary next year and Sweden is hosting the competition.
Käärijä was supposed to win Eurovision Song Contest of 2023 and I will never get over the disappointment of the juries!
It felt like the song contest was ruined by favouritism. The crowd was screaming “Cha Cha Cha”! He was the public’s favourite, but his victory was robbed by snobbish juries.
This has happened before, with KEiiNO in 2019. The juries butchered their votes, so they finished 6th, even with an enormous number of votes from the public.
So, I don’t care. I won’t listen to the winning song. It won’t exist in my world.
I’m waiting for Käärijä to announce a tour in Scandinavia and for him to launch some merchandise. I’m definitely painting my nails green!
But that wasn’t the only shock of 2023. Like, what the fuck happened to Austria?! And don’t get me started on United Kingdom and Germany!
There’s so much to process after this year. I’ve been spoiled with my favourites winning the last couple of years.
Måneskin and Kalush Orchestra have been worthy winners. But this year hurt me. I’ve forgotten how heartbroken I can get over this competition.
That what I like. That what surrounds me. That what creates my mood.
*Created by my preferences only*
The chart is composed of songs I liked at the Eurovision Song Contest this year.
This time, my musical tastes did not agree with the national jury of the competition, nor with the taste of the majority of TV viewers. Well, such things happen.))) I think there were a lot of underrated performances this year, like Australia and especially Germany. I hope that in the coming years there will be more similar songs of these genres at the competition.
Sincere congratulations on the victory of Sweden!
Аll positions in 2 minutes here -> https://youtu.be/08ECqPQnnac
The hype is very real around Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the Finnish national selection for Eurovision and the race to Malmö continues!
Sexmane - MANIA
youtube
Max Scene aka Sexmane is currently the most streamed artist in Finland and also he has a connection to UMK. His little brother Isaac Scene competed in 2022 with Kuuma Jäbä.
Since releasing his debut album Sextape in 2019 he has been Emma awarded (Finnish Grammys) and he's managed to beat his previous successes with each release. He will no doubt have a lot of loyal young voters out there!
As a background info he and his brother grew up in a religious community where hymns were in and commercial music was not. He mentions this fairly often in the interviews so I believe it had an impact on his creativity and that he even ended up in the music industry.
MANIA is a song about mental health. "It's ok not to be ok" he says.
The song slaps you right at the face with MANIA. There's a lot of autotune in here from the very beginning and many have questioned if he can pull this through live. This is no basic pop tune you can put into a box within a certain genre. This is a hip hop / rap song with a heavy rock push. Music experts can peal this like an onion because it has plenty of layers to go around for all.
The song goes on smoothly having a strong pre-chorus and the anthemic MANIA is catchy and difficult to forget. I'm not a fan of rap music but I do enjoy listening to this even though my very first reaction was fear. The guitar solo at the end of the song is impressive and much needed add. The song ends with a scream.
Musically there's a strong pull towards our last ESC entry and a lot of people are criticizing of sending MANIA right after Cha Cha Cha (can anything be better?). In contrast to Käärijä's drinking party hit, there's some real pain and seriousness here. The beat is pushy and urges you to rush to act. And him desperately screaming in his pain and getting it out of his space - we see a lot of symbolism in the videoclip.
I kind of play with the idea of this winning because of the orange theme. In 2022 we had The Rasmus with Jezebel having a yellow staging, Käärijä last year obviously with his green effect, this would be a great continuity with the orange look.
What do you think of the second UMK24 track and would you vote for Sexmane to go all the way to Malmö? UMK final takes place on February 10th!
Put it in the Record Books: Saturday 14 May 2022, the day Sam Ryder finished Second Place at Eurovision, gaining 466 points for The United Kingdom, with his song Space Man. 24 years since #UK finished in the Top 5. #Eurovision #EurovisionSongContest #ESC #ESC2022 #Eurovision2022 #SamRyder #SpaceMan t.co/cZK7g8rRFO https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdj38EQoGjo/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=