Introduction

• Participant(s): The Rasmus
• Song: Jezebel
  
• Writer(s): Lauri Ylönen / Desmond Child
• Composer(s): Lauri Ylönen / Desmond Child
• Broadcaster: YLE
• Social media:      
  
• Team review: 

It seems that Finland is very successful when it is sending rock songs to Eurovision. Beside of the big victory of Lordi in 2006, there were Teräsbetoni and Blind Channel, who rocked the Eurovision stages with success. This is probably the music which is strongly connect with Finland.

In the Finnish national selection UMK, the popular band The Rasmus could convince the most both the jury and the Finnish public. This year it has been the 11th time to use the UMK format for choosing the ESC song.

The Rasmus was a garage band, founded in Helsinki in 1994. The group members have changed over the years, the current members are Lauri Ylönen (lead singer), Eero Heinonen (bass), Aki Hakala (drums) and Emilia "Emppu" Suhonen (guitar). In the meantime the band has released nine albums. Their international breakthrough came with the album “Dead Letters” and after that they toured trough Middle- and South America as well as Mexico and South Africa. The band is working with the music producer Desmond Child, who has also been composing “Believe In Me” for Bonny Tyler in 2013. The Rasmus have been awarded many times such as "Best Nordic Act 2003", "Best Finnish Act 2005" in the MTV European Music Awards. With the song “In the Shadows” they were able to get 100 million streams on Spotify.

Due to the Corona pandemic the band was not able to give any concerts and therefore they decided to apply for the UMK. With the participation at this year’s ESC the band hopes to get a wider audience for their music.

The song “Jezebel” is a pop rock song with a strong repetitive melody. It is to be expected that the stage show is similar to the one in the national final. The success of Måneskin last year is also a good sign against all sceptic, the variety of music is diverse and every music genre can win.

History

• Debut: 1961
• Participations: 55
• Victories: 1
• Finals: 46 (9 since 2004)
• Top 10: 13

Finland will celebrate its 55th Eurovision entry this year. Last year the band Blind Channel could achieve the sixth place in the Grand Final in Rotterdam.

Finland has joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961, but due to the official regulations, Finland had to miss out some years between 1995 and 2003. Bad placings in the year before led to a pause in the following year. Over all the years Finland’s reputation in regards of success has suffered, despite of sending songs of outrageous quality quite often. There were great evergreens, but the points did not flow as for other countries and therefore Finland was often found on the bottom of the scoreboard undeservedly. Three times Finland received not even a single point. Maybe this was due to the language issue or it has just been the wrong choice or a too strict judgement by the juries. Nowadays every country could chose the language of its choice and the Finnish entries are mostly sung in English, with some exceptions.

After all the long years of waiting the hard rock band Lordi came with “Hard Rock Hallelujah” in 2006 and Finland had its first fulminate victory in ESC history. This was very well deserved and overdue at the same time. The entire country was in a kind of Lordi-fever and a long-cherished wish came true. A wonderful and unforgettable contest has been held in Helsinki a year later.

At least Finland is quite often passing the Semi Finals recently, eight times out of sixteen Finland has made it into the Grand Final with the utmost different styles from hard rock, ballads pop up to folkloristic songs.

Biggest successes

• 1x 1st place
  “Hard Rock Hallelujah” | Lordi (Athens 2006)
• 2x 6th place
  “Tom Tom Tom” | Marion Rung (Luxembourg 1973)
• 4x 7th place
  “Dark Side” | Blind Channel (Rotterdam 2021)
  “Tipi-tii” | Marion Rung (Luxembourg 1962)
  “Laiskotellen” | Lasse Mårtenson (Copenhagen 1964)
  “Old Man Fiddle” | Pihasoittajat (Stockholm 1975)
  “La Dolce Vita” | Anneli Saaristo (Lausanne 1989)
  
  

Video Nostalgia

• “Kuin Silloin Ennen” | Jarkko and Laura
  Rank 12, Madrid 1969
• “Lapponia” | Monica Aspelund
  Rank 10, London 1977
• “Sata Salamaa” | Vicky Rosti
  Rank 15, Brussels 1987
  
  

First Rehearsal