Love them all except for Knucklebone, My First Band, Norma John and Zuhlke.

Emma - Circle of Light aka pretendy Saara, is definitely the standout.

Just had a quick listen, surprisingly I kinda like all of them! In different ways! Will have another listen later.

Caveman sounds like something that was cut from Rocky Horror at an early stage. I'm guessing they'll look like they've gone mad in their mother's wardrobe on stage.

It's a bit of an earworm all the same.

Well this is an extremely promising start. The only one I'm a bit baffled with is Knucklebone and even that's catchy enough.

*Whisper it quietly* Even with the better ones I can still see Finland struggling again.

Blasphemy! Our Finnish residents will be after you now, Lisa.

I'm going off to have a quick listen... NF season is here!

I forget myself. Of course we need the approval from that Finnish Forum first.

I wonder what Rosetta thinks of them?

They are good enough. Finland always churn out bizarre acts.

Well, I think Lisa hit the nail on the head with this lot. They either get something utterly bizzare or something so dull it would send the insomniacs to sleep. Best of luck!

Arrows: Harmless little ditty. Very pleasant, but would probably get lost at the contest.

Reach Out For The Sun: Again, I like it. A little too heavy on the beige, though. Ok, bored now.

My Little World: Well, they look fun. Why even tempt the Finns with this glorious bunch of mental cases?

Circle of Light: Oh now this I like! Bop-worthy. It's not queen Saara but it's probably the next best thing!

Love Yourself: Samir & Viktor on smack. I'm waiting for the half-naked shower scene. "I've got a potion for you to taste" Utter vom.

Caveman: Wunderbar! "I have my pole set for a loving flag" I'm done. Really. Done.

Helppo Elama: Token Finnish dirge. Don't even bother turning up, mate.

Paradise: Don't mind this. It's going in the 'Harmless but dull as' section.

Blackbird: Tuneless blather. Not to be prescribed to the suicidal.

Perfect Villain: "What would the X-men do" I can't! What's going on this year! I actually don't mind her song, though.

Going through them now, the first three were horrible but Emma's got something to her.

eta: Okay, Emma or Norma John for me. Zuhlke has a good song but one of those voices you just know will be a disaster live, the rest are SHITE.

Well, I wasn't planning to post here anymore, but since you asked...

It has to be either Norma Jean's Blackbird or Emma's Circle of Light. (Zuhlke's good too, but wouldn't send her to Kiev.) Blackbird's ethereal and beautiful, reminds one of Anouk's Birds, and Circle of Light nicely combines pop with folk/ethnic elements, reminds a bit of Saule riet

The rest are not very good, and really wonder why they bothered with so many "humour acts" this year... Luckily the foreign juries (yeah, no asphalt men or taxi drivers this year ) will probably save us from those!

Time to sink my teeth into the offerings from Finland. From the snippets alone there are some promising (and some not so) gems in this mix so here we go....

Alva - Arrows
Not great not terrible, kinda like a mixture between Iceland 2015 and Norway 2016 which makes it sound quite familiar. Her high vocals make the song sound a bit too sweet and sugary for my liking.

Anni Saikku - Reach Out For The Sun
It's OK, I like the instrumental but the vocals seem bit effortless. Inoffensive but far from a contender.

Club La Persé - My Little World
Oh my! This makes the Hungry Hearts look like Atomic Kitten. It's no Verka Serduchka but I think we already have a certain entry for 'NF Guilty rejects Part 2'

Emma - Circle of Light
No we're talking! I see something in this song which I think I wasn't seeing in Only Teardrops, I'm also getting Hear Them Calling vibes but I like this song more. This would definitely be a good pick, Finland.

Günther & D'Sanz - Love Yourself
*shudder* What do you do when you're a one hit wonder that failed to win the hearts of Sweden 10 years ago? Go East of the border and try your luck there, you'll need it! I remember an episode of Regular Show did a very funny parody of Günther, if that's not proof that you've already made it big then I don't know what is.

Knucklebone Oscar & The Shangri-La Rubies - Caveman
Is that you Engelbert? Cringeworthy lyrics and flashbacks of Belgium 2009 = the kind of song I love to hate. So god awfully terrible it's something of a beauty.

Lauri Yrjölä - Helppo elämä
AKA I took a pill in Helsinki. A bit bland and doesn't really go anywhere, the only thing I can appreciate is the quirkiness of the Finnish language.

My First Band - Paradise
I like this! I was hoping that Satin Circus would have another go but I think these guys compensate that very well. I certainly have no qualms about giving this the golden ticket to Kiev.

Norma John - Blackbird
Well it definitely stands out from the others, whether that will work in their favour or not is hard to tell so early on but this is an interesting one, rather nice actually. Our girl Saara could pull this one off down to a T.

Zühlke - Perfect Villain
I like this one too, good beat and catchy rhythm with quirky lyrics.

Irrelevant side note: Kryptonite is from the DC universe, X-men is Marvel. So that lyric makes no sense. I don't even read comic books, but come on girl you don't have to be a geek to know that!

Overall a pretty good standard, I won't listen to them again until possibly the new year (assuming I can hold off for that long) then I can rank them accordingly. From first listen Emma and My First Band are the ones to root for IMO, but the live performances could change everything.

Oh, hai Rosetta!

I hope you've forgiven us for that whole 'greasy long hair' fiasco we had earlier in the year.

To save Rosetta the embarrassment of translating, Perse means Ass in Finnish... make of that what you will.

Surely Zuhlke's would end up having to be rewritten because of all the brand mentions?

It wouldn't be the same without your wisdom, Rosetta! I pretty much agree with all of the above. I hated "Blackbird" on first listen but I kind of see its appeal when stuck in the middle of the rest of the songs. I didn't think about it that way.


Oh, you're right! This is definitely Emmelie themed. The 'copy the past winner' thing never works out, though. Greta says 'hi' from her ice-cave, made from her frozen tears, no less. I do like My First Band but their lyrics are a bit risqué. I'd rather be left hypnotised than paralysed. Surely that's an offence? I don't even want to know what they're saving their appetite for... A nice roast dinner, perhaps? Ok, maybe not...


Us? I don't know what you're talking about Foxy...


Wouldn't worry about it too much... On another note, she reminds me a little of Traincha Oosterhuis after her plastic surgery addiction went too far. It's definitely a Traincha outfit.

Circle of light has a lot of potential if staging is good

You liar! You were worse than I was!

Zühlke to win! The best of a very, very, very bad bunch.

X-Men could be changed to heroes and Krypotnite to poison and still fit fine.

Oh dear...this is not good. As will come as no surprise to anyone who's put up with my DSFE ramblings for the last 40+ contests, I really like Circle of Light. Unfortunately, I'm not really keen on any of the others. I hate it when this happens at an NF, because I know the inevitable result

Circle of Light and Blackbird are the two standouts for me, or at least the two that stand out in a good way.

No Fear

1. Circle of Light - Winner. <3 I need me a Saara/Greta-esque tribal anthem. Love that it has just one random Finnish word in the lyrics, just because.
2. Reach Out For The Sun - Very anthemic. Loving the drums and the electro beats.
3. Arrows - It's very now. I guess it will hinge on the performance. May get a bit repetitive by May though...

Still Not Worried

4. Love Yourself - Haha my favourite pervert is back. My childish humour approves, not sure the EBU will though...
5. My Little World - Are Sweet Brains going undercover in Finland? Hilarious. <3
6. Helppo elämä - I wasn't sure at first, but after a few listens the dulcet Finnish vowels and house beats won me over.

Mild Panic

7. Perfect Villain - Might end up an aggressive, shouty mess on the night. My inner geek likes the superhero references though, although again the EBU might force some cuts.

Terrified

8. Paradise - These creep me out more than Gunther. No thanks hipster manband, stay away from my paradise. My First Band - yes it shows.
9. Blackbird - Yes it's very Birds isn't it and I bloody hated that... although this is marginally more tolerable only because of her voice. Can't really wave my poppers and glowsticks to this one.
10. Caveman - Err yeah don't do drugs kids, they mess you up... at least the staging should be interesting. I'd say they'd have to cut the Mickey Mouse reference, but they won't need to worry, it'll be finishing last in the final.

None of them are Opera Skaala levels of brilliance but Circle of Light is the only option really for them.

Solid selection of songs from Finland.

NormaJohn, Emma or the budget Army Of Lovers (because it really is just a Rockin' The Ride rehash!) for me

UMK looks good this year – hopefully they pick the right song this time!

So RTBF went for an internal choice. I Googled her and I quite like Blanche so far. Belgium will certainly have to pull the stops out to get a third Top 10 in a row, me thinks the competition is going to be fierce this year….

O’G3NE – I’m positive. Of course it depends on the song but they are great doing ballads. Their up-tempo stuff so far is crap and they don’t chart that high, but Netherlands has done pretty well doing their own thing since Anouk. They’ve got that BeeGees family-doing-awesome-harmonies-strong-stage-connection thing. They are very experienced with TV music contests, so who knows. Denise on wiwiblogs seems very happy so hey….

Jana Burčeska – our best showing this century was Jessica Garlick who was 3rd on the first Pop Idol…. I think MRT have the right idea, building a team to deliver a modern song with helpings of Macedonian culture.

It’s supposed to be a song competition showcasing different cultures and styles after-all, not an annual battle between rival teams of Swedish song-writers and producers becoming ever more homogenous. National Selections should be just that – the best talent from within the country. I’m not saying no reflagging at all, but the song should have the country it came from at its heart somewhere. I like that MRT trusts that. That’s the main reason I had a soft-spot for Bosnia and Kaliopi and was disappointed by Greece, Spain and Italy this year. Never-mind ‘1944’ which literally screams cultural pride at glass-breaking volume…. True, the BBC needs all the help it can get and San Marino would have to chain Valentina Monetta to the stage and a restriction of one song per year wouldn’t go a miss either, to help broaden the range of songs entered.

I’d like to see more bilingual non-English songs. Finland, Armenia, Hungary, San Marino and ‘Donut’ were all songs easily misunderstood. Hell, Jamala has a hell of a thick accent, got away with murder. Sing in your own language, there’s less risk of weird translations, accents causing trouble and it just feels more real. It certainly didn’t hurt Ukraine, Bulgaria or France one bit. I like You’re My Only One vastly more in Russian.

On the other-hand I am disturbed by William from wiwi-land. Please God no! Stop this madness! Of course they won’t stoop to competing honestly against the semi-pros who will be dredged up and destroyed by the BBC. They are 20 years old – i.e. far too long ago. It’s just preposterous and I feel nothing for the song. The absent Mel C is the best thing about the Spice Girls and that isn’t saying much. No! No! No!

Yes, Joe and Jake were a glorified boy-band who should have been left to be that. I am proper pissed for Molly! The BBC is slap-dash and amateurish combining the sins of being both exploitative and negligent rather than just merely crap. Baring 2009 and 2011 they haven’t really tried probably since 2002.

Yes it’s partly business and Eurovision’s reputation as not being ‘credible’, but the BBC has done absolutely nothing about that. Don’t enter if you are going to be so slipshod with people’s futures – whatever their talent, it’s not just their careers, it’s their lives you are messing with. Either go to the mattresses to win, or b****r off. Everybody else is going to – Norway, San Marino, Belarus, Macedonia, Bosnia scored better in the Semis than Germany and the UK in the Finals and would have killed for those spots. Hell, nearly bankrupt NTU will, them trying to loose without being obvious about it is guaranteed to be vastly superior to anything the BBC sends which is deeply sad.

I am not a great believer in the concept, but I was unsurprised Georgia won JESC. I thought Malta, Netherlands and Australia were going to do better. Liked Italy a lot. Cyprus had too much dancing. Russia will be pleased beating Ukraine. It’s becoming too much like a mini version of the adult contest – they are talented kids but its loosing its charm.

And what a weekly poll! Good Lord! What a choice to make! The agony!