411/971 Riki Sorsa: Reggae Ok (Finland 1981)

Riki Sorsa is the other Finnish Eurovision legend to leave us during the Eurovision week of 2016. The death of Riki Sorsa did not come as a surprise. He had already beaten throat cancer in 2008 but the second time around the lung cancer got the better of him. Before his death Sorsa mad his illness public talking about the dangers of smoking. In a poignant  and dramatic video from 2016 he talks about having smoked for 30 years and now having cancer. "Did I stop too late" he asks in the video where he can be seen with and without his hair. Soon after that he died as a respected and loved pop singer at the age of 63 on the day of the first Eurovision semi final. 35 years previously he was in the beginning of his career.

In 1981 the Finnish Eurovision selection (watch it here) was full of established pop artists, and the popular favourite was either the Ralph Siegelish song Titanic sung by Frederik or a love duet Mun suothan tulla viereen sun sung by Eurovision veteran Markku Aro and his Singaporean girlfriend Nisa Soraya. There where also other popular entries and well known artists and there was a loud outcry when the jury of experts chose the most unknown performer of the evening with the most unlikely Eurosong.

I was among the large crowd of Finns who thought that by that choice we could kiss goodbye a decent placing in the final results. The 16th place in Dublin proved that the majority was this time right.

The expected low result did not harm Riki Sorsa, quite the contrary. Having sung previously rock in english he now changed the language permanently to Finnish and the style closer to the mainstream Finnish pop. His major successes included a finnish version of a Swedish hit Aftofalken (Muuttohaukka in finnish) and Haaveissa vainko oot mun, which narrowly lost the Finnish representation in 1985 Eurovision song contest to Sonja Lumme. In 1985 Riki also had another entry Lapset maailman which he sang together with another Eurovision veteran Ami Aspelund. That song came fourth. He entered Euroviisut twice after that with songs Viimeinen tie (3rd in 1991) and Silmiisi sun (4th in 1992). 

Years have been good to Reggae Ok. In the 21st century we have been accustomed to a larger variety of styles in Eurovision than in 1981 when the audience and juries expected disco, pop and schlager. The performance of a 28 years old singer is charismatic and he seems to be surprisingly at ease with his peculiar outfit that caused a lot of criticism particularly in the home front.

The band (with the composer Jim Pembroke with dark hair and in dark glasses) does a good job but the main asset of the group is the keyboard-player and accordionist Pedro Hietanen (a stand up comedian as well as an established musician), who all but steals the show from Riki Sorsa, The whole team seems to have a ball on stage.

After hating the song, I've since grown to appreciate and almost love the Finnish entry and I'm very proud that, once again, Finland dared to do something different in Eurovision.

My points 4/5.

111/917 Lasse Mårtenson: Laiskotellen (Finland 1964)

The Finnish Eurovision community (and the Finnish pop audience in general) got to her news of passing of two pop music legends in the final week of the Eurovision Song Contest of 2016. Although Riki Sorsa (FIN 1981) and Lasse Mårtenson (FIN 1964) represented two different styles and two different generations, both were popular and loved well beyond their Eurovision appearences.

Lasse Mårtenson had tried to represent Finland already in 1963, when his Kaikessa soi blues (written by Toivo Kärki & Reino Helismaa, the most popular and productive song writing team in Finnish pop music history) narrowly lost the bid to Laila Halme's Muistojeni laulu. In 1964 he was already an established and experienced songwriter and singer and his own composition Laiskotellen (words by Sauvo Puhtila) faced no real challenge in the Finnish selection, on his second attempt Lasse Mårtenson was chosen to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest held in Copenhagen.

There's no existing video recording of the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest, but the soundtrack suggests that he was well at ease on Copenhagen stage, even though he got mixed up with the lyrics at one point. Laiskotellen has never been a particular favourite of mine,  but one cannot be but proud of his relaxed and professional performance. According to the result, 7th place among 16 participants, the juries agreed. Laiskotellen became one of Lasse's favourite songs and he recorded the song in addition to the finnish version at least in his maternal language swedish and italian (Cara Domenica). You can watch a television performance of the swdedish version and a snippet of a 1992 performance of the finnish version on YLE's Open Archive.

At the time of his Eurovision participation Lasse Mårtenson was married to his Swedish Eurovision collegue Siw Malmkvist, who had represented her home country in 1960 before their marriage and would take part again in 1969 for Germany when she and Mårtenson were already divorced. Tove Mårtenson is probably the only person in the world who can claim to have parents having represented three different countries in Eurovision in three different languages.

Already a year after his Eurovision participation Mårtenson wrote and sang a song with Marjatta Leppänen in scandalous 1965 Finnish selection.  Their song Iltaisin won the public vote but this was overruled by the so called Nordic jury, which chose Aurinko laskee länteen instead (sung by Viktor Klimenko and written by the same team that had penned Lasse's entry 1963). In 1967 in Vienna he took part as a composer of the song Varjoon suojaan, and he would continue to take part in the finnish selection as both composer (1966, 1967, 1971, 1973, 1975 and 1977), artist (1966, 1967, 1971, 1973 and 1977) and host (1987, you can watch the 1980's Finnish selections Yle's Living Archive).

Pop music was not the only field Mårtenson used his talent. He performed and recorded jazz and blues, and in 1967 he topped the Finnish album charts with a gospel album Voisiko sen sanoa toisinkin. In the late 1960's he started acting and composed music for movies and films, most famously for a tv drama Stormskärs Maija (or Myrskyluodon Maija in finnish). The exquisite theme of the series became his most loved and most performed song, which Anna Järvinen chose as her walk in music in Melodifestivalen 2013.

Lasse Mårtenson was a multitalented and loved musician right until his death at the age of 81 in 14. May 2016. The only sour note came in 2006, when a group of young musicians made a tribute album and concert on his honour. Surprisingly Mårtenson disapproved and loudly voiced his dissatisfaction of the new versions of his work.

My points 3/5.

394/917 Vesa-Matti Loiri: Huilumies (Finland 1980)

After a very controversial local selection procedure Finland chose one of the most loved actors, comedians and singers to represent it's colours in Hague in 1980. The 394th Eurosong was composed by the celebrated songwriter Aarno Raninen (who had composed the Finnish entry three years back) and on paper it looked very promising indeed. In reality the hopes were not that high.

 

Vesa-Matti Loiri was, and still is, one of the most popular actors in Finland. He became also famous as a singer of old poetry set to contemporary music. Apart from this he also is a competent jazz flutist. This versatility of talents was vey useful when he was asked to participate in the Finnish selection of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980 with a song Huilumies (= The flute man), which combined schlager and jazz tunes with a hint of comedy added. 

The two part selection in Finland caused loud outcry as the people's favourite artists and songs failed to proceed from the semifinal to the final. The lineup of the final consisted of more artsy and jazzy songs, none of which were worthy of the international final (according to the loudest protesters). When Vesa-Matti Loiri was chosen, the general public was unanimous, Finland was not to expect high points in the international final.

Despite of this Vesa-Matti Loiri and his backing team managed to put some fire on the final performance, which is much better than the version in the Finnish selection or on the record. The song is well arranged and the conductor Ossi Runne is clearly enjoying himself during the instrumental break (check the video above from 2:00 on). Hardly no-one was surprised, that Finland received its fourth last place.

To me time has healed the wounds and the performance by the team Finland is fun to watch and to listen to. The last place in Hague did nothing to Vesa-Matti Loiri's career, he continues to act and sing to this day to enthusiastic audience.

My points 2/5.

320/917 Fredi & Friends: Pump pump (Finland 1976)

To fill a friends request, the second song in my blog is the 320th song to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest, a song that for us Finns represent the high expectations and the big disappointments that so often has plagued our entries. Apart from that it was a fun song with more good feeling and humour than all the other Finnish entries put together.

Fredi (real name Matti Siitonen) was a big singing star in Finland in the mid 1970's, famous for his beautiful love songs and well trained tenor voice. He had taken part in the Eurovision song contes already in 1967 as a new young artist in Vienna with a dramatic Varjoon suojaan.

In 1976 Fredi surprised the home audience presenting not a love song but a fast paced song of bumping the bottoms. This fun song, written by Mr Siitonen himself, was first supposed to be a duet between the composer and Marion Rung, but after the Finlands number one female singer declined, Fredi decided to form a group of "Friends" to sing the song with.

In the local selection Pump Pump was a runaway winner. After developing the stage show and translating the lyrics to English a success was almost given in the international final of Hague. With expectations like this, the resulting 11th place (of 18 countries taking part) was a big disappointment. 

However, Pump pump was certainly a song not easily forgotten by the audience. The good humour of the Finnish selections tranferred well to the Eurovision final and the show was as fun to look at as it was to listen to. Considering the overall success of Finlands entries, the final result was not bad at all.

Matti Siitonen returned once more to the Eurovision final by composing the Finnish entry of 1979, Katson sineen taivaan.

My points 3/5