Finland Heat 2: Review

Finland hold their second heat tonight. Before this I take a look at the songs the Finnish public will hear tonight

Arion – Lost In The Woods

Similar to many Nordic rock songs that we have heard a few times already but I think I might get to like it over time i.e. if Finland selected it as their song. However in the short run it would not feature on my playlists so the songs grade is capped at a D. Grade: D

Lucy Was Driving – Dancing All Around The Universe

The beat of the song certainly does make the song a bit interesting. The song develops into a song that is actually quite good and I am liking the song overall. It feels just a little bit dated but I’m not complaining hugely. This needs a good live performance to lift it. Grade: B

Krista Siegfrids – Marry Me

This is probably the most eye-catching song by any standards. Krista delivers a great performance of the song and I am actually very impressed by this. It is much better than the studio version. [Ed - I wrote this review over two weeks ago and this has definitely been one of the songs I've listened to the most in the national finals. Grade: A

Atlético Kumpula – Paperilyhty

One of the more traditional songs in UMK this year I think it is nice to listen to (as opposed to all the rock we have to endure in Finnish national finals). It is a soft and gentle song, which I like while I am paying a lot of attention to it but I would be concerned that the song will fade into the background in the heats or national final. Grade: C+

Great Wide North – Flags

I think this is meant to be a hands up in the air rock ballad. However while the chorus does live up to the songs aspirations I think it fails to deliver as strongly in the verses. Grade: D

Elina Orkoneva – He’s Not My Man

A great retro song that has really great potential but still it is highly dependent on the performance. I like this though. Grade: B+

Semi-Final Draw, Finland First Semi-Final and A Theme

I was going to write up a post on today's semi-final draw but ESCInsight has pretty much said everything I was going to say. So I strongly recommend that as a piece. From an Irish prespective I'm prett happy the the draw and think that we have a reasonable hope of making it through to the final, though how we will get on in their remains to be seen.

Elsewhere in Finland Mikarl Saari and Diandra both made it to the final of UMK. I like Mikael's song but I am not a huge fan of Diandra's.

Finally the theme of Eurovision "We Are One" was revealed today. Personally I do like it and feel that this is probably something the contest should be attempting to promote at this point of European history.