In the second episode of their Eurovision warm up programme DR visited Mr. Lordi and Finland to find out what is so particicular Finnish about a hard rock band dressed as monsters and also to look into what Finland actually is: Are they the odd counsin to Scandinavia or Russia’s shy younger brother?
In the first episode host Sisse Sejr-Nørgaard went to Ukraine where she visited Verka Serduchka. In the second episode premiered on DR Thursday evening she went to Lapland, Finland where he met up with Mr. Lordi, the leadsinger of the band Lordi that represented Finland at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest – and dressed as monsters won with the quite untraditional Eurovision song Hard Rock Hallelujah.
The episode started with the host Sisse having quite some difficulties finding Mr. Lordi’s house. He lives isolated in Lapland on a secret address as he does not want visits from some not invited. Sisse however was invited so after a bit of time she finds the right address. At the door she was met by Mr. Lordi who scared her with his monster outfit.
Inside the house we see Mr. Lordi’s big toy collection; primary Kiss merchendaise but also a lot of items from The Muppet Show. When asked if he is a geek, he says no and explains that he instead see himself as a kid.
Most will probably argu differently, but Mr. Lordi says that he sees Lordi as the pretties band in the world! The monster outfits might not appeal to everyone, but as he says it then they are gift wrapping and as it takes many hours to wrap themselves in surely they must be the prettiest band in the world.
As Finland is described as one of the only countries in the world where even hard rock is considered mainstream the big question is why is like that? Why Is Lordi actually typical Finnish? Mr. Lordi himself says that it is becaused of the Finnish mentalty with having low self esteem and not wanting to show your emotions. Sisse Sejr-Nørgaard travels around in Finland to meet the ordinary population to find out if they answer the same thing and she quickly realises that there is something about. The Finns talk about that it is normal with dark thoughts, quite some melancoly and indeed the thought that they aren’t particular good at anything. Some says that these thoughts comes from that in the winther you have parts of the country where you only have two hours of daylight.
The dressing up is also nothing special in Finland. When you dress up you can be whoever you are and live in your own fantasy world. That way you can make up for the low self esteem which most Finn have. You want be looked down at if you stand out, of the simple reason that most of the country feel like an outsider. This apparantly comes from Finland over the years having problems defining themselves. Are they a Nordic country, a Western European country or are they actually more Eastern Europe? They don’t know, and Mr. Lordi himself doesn’t have the answer either, but he do know that Sisse is what he describes as "a lego sized Danish blonde".
You might also like to read:
- Europe in Glitter: DR warms up to Eurovision with Verka Serduchka
- Learn Danish for Eurovision – Episode 1: Numbers
- Learn Danish For Eurovision – Episode 2: Greetings
You can see Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah in the video below:
