Waldo’s People will represent Finland in Moscow with the song, Lose Control. They won thanks to the votes of the Finnish public in what was a close contest.
Before the main event, there was the Second Chance contest, where all the acts who didn’t qualify from their semifinals were given another opportunity to be in the final. Passionworks feat Tony Turunen were first on stage with the rock song Surrender. They were followed by Tiara singing Manala. She was followed by Rikka with her song, Meren, who has already been a backing singer at the Eurovision Song Contest. Next up was the second band of the night, Vink, who sang the second rock song of the evening, The Greatest Plan. Martian, sung by Janita was next with another rock style song. Finally, Sani, formerly of popular Finnish band Aikakone sang a song written by another Aikakone member Maki Kolehmainen (who wrote Addicted To You, the Finnish entry in 2002). The song, Doctor, Doctor was very much in the style of Aikakone.
When the votes were counted, Passionworks feat Tony Turunen and Vink could celebrate their place in the final.
Kicking off the final itself was Kwan. Their song, 10,000 Light Years is a very contemporary number. They qualified in second place in the first semi final. Jari Sillanpaa also came second in his semifinal. Jari is well known to fans through his participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004. There, he sang a mid tempo song. His effort this time, Kirkas Kipina, is a good ballad which builds well towards the end and is very Finnish in its style.
Signmark feat. Osmo Ikonen qualifiedfrom the third semifinal with the highest share of the public vote. The Hip-Hop Speakerbox was therefore one of the favourites to reach this evenings Superfinal, where three songs would battle it out for the ultimate prize. Another winner of his semifinal was Tapani Kansa. His song, Rakkautta on, Rauhaa ei is a very Finnish sounding ballad. He had said in interviews that he would sing in Russian if he wins. Would he get the chance?
Waldo’s People won the second semifinal with Lose Control, which is the only dance song of the night. They won the semifinal convincingly and so were another of the favourites to reach the Superfinal. Last of the automatic qualifiers was Remu, who was the runner up to Waldo’sPeople in the second semifinal. His song, Planeetta, is a rock song.
Bringing up the rear were the two qualifiers from the Second Chance contest earlier in the evening.
The voting lines opened again to decide which three songs would qualify for the ‘Superfinal’. When they closed and the three songs were announced there was one surprise. Signmark feat. Osmo Ikonen and Waldo’s People had qualified and this was no surprise given their strong showing in their respective semifinals. The third act to qualify was Passionworks feat Tony Turune, a bit of a surprise as they had to qualify for the main final via the Second Chance round.
After all the songs had performed again, the phone lines reopened and a short while later, the results were announced. In third place, with 13.7% of the vote was Passionworks feat Tony Turune. In second place, Signmark feat. Osmo Ikonen with 42.2% of the vote. Waldo’s People were therefore declared the winners with 45.1%.
Watch the winning song below.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gWsM2t5kk60&feature=related
