I agree. I think the Finnish vote has a very minimal affect.

That article is absolute trash from a dirty rag of a paper

Well, they are homecoming concerts, so she was hardly going to say Swansea was she...

I didnt do any of that..

Dan Wootton spoke about this today on TV. He said Xfactor are looking into it.
Thing is do we all remember at the beginning of the live shows no one liked her? She asked what she had to do to get the UK to like her. Louis said you are just not liked. She wasn't getting the votes then but suddenly it all changed & according to the story something deceitful has been going on, and a loophole for voting has been found (quoting Dan's comment). I sincerely hope they get to the bottom of this. I never expected her to go far judging by those early shows.

The entire population of Finland is around a third of the population of London.

The idea that they could have rigged the vote is absurd. This is simply nonsense from a very nasty newspaper. Because she is foreign. No more, no less.

I'm afraid you lost me at the bit in bold.

And of Finland's population maybe a small fraction of those who even support Saara has the technical knowhow + enough interest to vote for her through the app.

We have to remember that Saara has very publicly tried to be succesful in Finland for last 10 years. She does have some fans, but she definately is not everyone's favorite.

Sure, there is some "Finland"-hype going on now, but if Saara finishes AGAIN in the second, or worst, place Finnish media will be ruthless and rip her apart. So its either win or stay in the UK and never come back for Saara.

this isnt true at all

The show is being shown live on Finnish TV now I believe

I'm with you on this. I really hope it will be investigated fully. Very crafty tactics

The only things we have to remember are that:

a) The show has already said it is not a factor

b) It is the daily express. A xenophobic rag that hates anyone foreign. I suspect they will run something about 5AM before the week is out too. That rag will dislike them just as much, for a slightly different reason.

Thank you being honest about it. It begins to make sense now as to how she suddenly 'became popular' after the UK came across as really not liking her at all.

No you don't need to xx

Atleast this will not affect her Finnish career in any way. Maybe if she wins it would mean something, but she has placed second or third in so many competitions in Finland that it doesnt make difference. She has said in the interviews that Finnish media has treated her unfairly and that's why she wants to live in the UK for now on.


Semifinal and Final are shown live in Finland. Rest of the series has been on a week or two delay.

Really? So how did she suddenly go from being disliked & in the bottom to being so popular? Clearly it did affect things. It's just wrong.

OMG she should be disqualified immediately from the final!!!

It's live now. Up until the weekend just gone they were showing it 1 week behind. The semi final and final will be/are shown live

I saw a post with the voting instructions on Saara's Finnish FB fanpage (that her fiancé/manager was running or at least she was one of the admins) a while ago. They even translated the instructions from Finnish to English so that Eurovision fans can vote for her from other countries as well they are also saying the app works fine and votes are being accepted. She will win with the help of all of these votes .

I guess you did not watch any of those performances

For me - it was her fighting spirit, along with some impressive sing off performances, which then translated into main show performances that has seen me not really paying much attention to her in the early episodes to making her my favourite. Everyone else seems to have gone backward or stagnated whereas Saara has got better.

Not that I vote, and am not Finnish (just Scottish ), so my action shave no impact on her position whatsoever, but other people within the UK (who do vote) may feel similar. The fact that she is Finnish has no impact of my regard for her one way or another - she herself and her performances have.

Votes are being accepted by the app, but are they counted? Only X Factor production knows that for sure.

The same nonsense claims were made about the Philippines voting for 4th Impact on the app. A country of over 100 million as opposed to Finland's 5 million.

Remind me where 4th Impact finished again?

The xenophobia is real. Foreigners can only better Brits if they cheat seems to be the motto of many.

Matt and 5am going to their hometowns to canvass for votes if perfectly acceptable of course. Saara should go sit alone in the dark at the X Factor house.

Or it could just be that some of the UK actually like her now, and want her to win so vote, because she isn't a bland boring male or a boyband who can't sing and have to have a backing track.

I can easily see these news have more affect on final voting results than votes possible gone thru earlier stage even with all the hype here in Finland.

About Saara's popularity based on Spotify figures you need about 5000 streams to get last place on top 200 daily chart, most songs on Saara's 2013 released album have around 10000 total streams in 3 years.