Oh Lordi
Some of you asked me about Eurovision and the Finnish reaction to winning the contest. So here's the deal in brief. (You could also check out this nice explaination from Slate Magazine).
The Eurovision Song Contest has been around for about 50 years. Basically, each country in Europe (this is broadly interpreted - and happens to include Russia and Israel) sends a song and a performer/group and the winner is determined by phone-voting. The contest is broadcast on tv and is widely viewed despite the fact that the performaces are often terrible and most established musical groups shun participation like a trip to the proctologist. The music is often called "schlager" and is either bubble-gum pop or cheesy ballad (one song this year included the lyric "Why do angels cry? Why do babies have to die?"). However, some widely admired music has come out of Eurovision, including some of ABBA's greatest hits. You get the idea.
So some of you have asAnyway, Finland usually tanks badly in the contest, and this year to shake things up a heavy metal bad, Lordi, was entered. This met great consternation in Finland, as the band is basically a Kiss-meets-Freddy Cruger latex-costume band with pseudosatanic rhetoric. They insist that the whole thing is in good fun and that their music is just entertainment. That's not to say the music, or even the concept of the band, is any good. By the way, the title "Arockolypse" reminds me of the classic Mel Gibson flick Mad Max 2: Road Warrior, where the bad guy is introduced as the "ayatolla of rock and rolla". But I digress - some people were pissed.
The contest was two night ago, and before hand the general concensus was accurately summed up by the Finnish TV host when he said, "We'll find life on Mars before Finland wins Eurovision." Sure enough, Finland won, and in fact set a new record for the highest score. Reaction of Finns ranged from "It was just a fluke. Don't worry, we won't win next year" to "This is as important to Finland as peace and happiness in Iraq is to America." My personal favorie reaction was "Lordi is the next Beatles, only uglier and with less talent." Lordi is getting a hero's welcome in Helsinki and will probably not be forgotten by Finns for many years. Their mark on the rest of the world remains to be seen.
By the way, I took more pictures. You can see them on Flickr. Here is a sneak preview:
The Eurovision Song Contest has been around for about 50 years. Basically, each country in Europe (this is broadly interpreted - and happens to include Russia and Israel) sends a song and a performer/group and the winner is determined by phone-voting. The contest is broadcast on tv and is widely viewed despite the fact that the performaces are often terrible and most established musical groups shun participation like a trip to the proctologist. The music is often called "schlager" and is either bubble-gum pop or cheesy ballad (one song this year included the lyric "Why do angels cry? Why do babies have to die?"). However, some widely admired music has come out of Eurovision, including some of ABBA's greatest hits. You get the idea.
So some of you have asAnyway, Finland usually tanks badly in the contest, and this year to shake things up a heavy metal bad, Lordi, was entered. This met great consternation in Finland, as the band is basically a Kiss-meets-Freddy Cruger latex-costume band with pseudosatanic rhetoric. They insist that the whole thing is in good fun and that their music is just entertainment. That's not to say the music, or even the concept of the band, is any good. By the way, the title "Arockolypse" reminds me of the classic Mel Gibson flick Mad Max 2: Road Warrior, where the bad guy is introduced as the "ayatolla of rock and rolla". But I digress - some people were pissed.
The contest was two night ago, and before hand the general concensus was accurately summed up by the Finnish TV host when he said, "We'll find life on Mars before Finland wins Eurovision." Sure enough, Finland won, and in fact set a new record for the highest score. Reaction of Finns ranged from "It was just a fluke. Don't worry, we won't win next year" to "This is as important to Finland as peace and happiness in Iraq is to America." My personal favorie reaction was "Lordi is the next Beatles, only uglier and with less talent." Lordi is getting a hero's welcome in Helsinki and will probably not be forgotten by Finns for many years. Their mark on the rest of the world remains to be seen.
By the way, I took more pictures. You can see them on Flickr. Here is a sneak preview:
posted by Kevin at 1:12 PM
1 Comments:
eurovision 2006 came up in conversation during a party at juha's house (serban successfully defended last week), and i was curious enough to catch a clip of lordi's act on youtube.com
they look .. well, eerie, and if i didn't have a sense of humor .. a bit scary.
i did think that the hydraulic pterodactyl wings were a nice touch, though. (;
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