Finland revving up for Eurovision gala
Finland hosts this year's Eurovision Song Contest thanks to last year's victory in the annual spectacle by those outrageous, can-they-be-serious?, monsters of heavy rock and sweaty latex, the band called Lordi.
This year's Finnish rep will be the winner of the qualifying rounds now under way up here at 60 North.
A record 42 countries are competing this time but only the lucky top 24 will take part in the final at Helsinki's Hartwall Arena on May 12.
It looks like being the biggest display of songs, spangles (and the odd ghoul if Lordi's legacy still lives) ever staged by Finland; and then add on the huge worldwide television audience expected to tune in.
The STT news agency says the TV audience will surpass 100 million but surely that can't be right; there must be a zero missing. Anyway, the bigger the better because this is still too often the country the map makers forgot.
Huge audience, self-centred media
Executive producer Heikki Seppälä points out that far from being just a gathering of European clans, the contest has now spread its appeal much wider and will be seen also in the USA, Japan and Australia.
Still, it would be wide of the mark to regard the contest as a big promotional event tailor-made for Finland, unless this country wins it again.
Kjell (pronounced 'chell') Ekholm, Finland's delegate in the Eurovision Song Contest management group, says the group are well aware of what interests reporters at events like the ESC.
The hacks quite simply want to know what the contestant from their own country has done, is doing, and will be doing. The rest of the assembled company can take a hike.
Helsinki as host
The Eurovision circus comes to town a working week before the final and those five days are going to present a big challenge for the host city, Finland's capital, Helsinki.
But it's a challenge the city is ready to take on, says Helsinki's project manager Mikko Leisti. Regardless of the egocentricity of the show biz media and the performers, the event will still be an oppoprtunity for Helsinki to show its smiling face to the world.
"Our aim is to present to the world a Helsinki that is cosmopolitan, energetic, innovative and friendly," says Leisti.
The song contest opens officially in Helsinki's Finlandia Hall on May 7. The semi-final and final are on May 10 and 12 respectively, at the Hartwall Arena. If you're dropping in, and you're not from Finland, you won't be alone. Some 30 per cent of tickets for the week's various events have been sold abroad.
Text: Joe Brady / Virtual Finland
Eurovision Song Contest - YLE's Helsinki 2007 website(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)
http://www.eurovision.tv/(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)
Helsinki Location Guide(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)