Participant: Jari Sillanpää
Song: Takes 2 to tango
Writer(s): Jari Sillanpää
Composer(s): Mika Toivanen
Information about the singer
In Eurovision history Finland never really did well and often was found amongst the lower ranks on the scoreboard. This is probably due to the complicated Finnish language on one hand and the country's odd taste in music, which never seemed to go conform with the rest of Europe, on the other. Unfortunately even after the 'language barrier' had fallen, Laura in Tallinn in 2002 only received 24 points and went 20th, even though the song "Addicted To You" was catchy and modern. So this year Finland has to participate in the Qualifying Round on Wednesday May 12th in order to hopefully make it to the final.
However, this year Finland again stays true to the more weird side of its taste in music. The singer Jari Sillanpalää was able to gain 36% of the votes at the Finnish national final, leaving all nine of his competitors behind him. Jari is verz well known in his home country Finland and his name has always been connected to Tango. No wonder he is going not only to sing about Tango in Istanbul, his music will also be Tango. This is not new in the Eurovision - we all remember well Lucia with "El" (Spain 1982) or Tommy Seebach's "Disco Tango" (Denmark 1979). This years entry sounds a bit like taken out of "Phantom Of The Opera" and only the ten best countries of the qualifying round will make it to the final on Saturday - so the question here is whether Finland will make it this year with this rather dated traditional style of music. Well, anyway, paljon onnea Suomi!
