Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Finland's Darude with "Look Away"...

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Moving on with my spotlight on the countries and artists competing in this year's Eurovision Song Contest being held in Tel Aviv, Israel, next month, we come to the Scandinavian country of Finland. Last year, the bubbly and then gay-friendly (now out lesbian) Saara Aalto squeaked into the finals with her club banger "Monsters", which came in at 10th in the semi-finals (just enough to qualify) then next-to-bottom 25th in the big show, only beating out host country Portugal. However her personality and energetic performance (including a free fall at the end) had won over a lot of fans, especially a big chunk of the LGBT community. Going into this year, Finland didn't so much change the style of their entry, but the prestige of the artist, with what you can say could be seen as the "ringer" of the contest this time out.

Finland - "Look Away" by Darude featuring Sebastian Rejman

DJ/producer Ville Virtanen, from the western town of Eura, has been recording under the moniker Darude since the mid-1990s. His instrumental techno single "Sandstorm" was a massive international hit and remains one of the biggest successes of the genre. In case you missed it, here it is...

No one alive in 1999 avoided this. The single reached #3 in the UK, and made the top-ten all over Europe, even topping the list in Norway. Even in America, the track went to #5 on Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart, and stumbled into the main pop Hot 100 chart at #83, and #38 on the pop airplay list. Darude scored a second hit with "Feel The Beat", going to #1 in his home country and #5 in the UK and on the American dance chart. Even though he hasn't had a big hit since 2007, his name recognition alone remains strong, and immediately pricked my ears when it was announced he would be the chosen artist for Finland at Eurovision this year. You see, in this country, there is a national contest, but like last year, it's between three different songs performed by the same artist. Providing vocals for Darude is singer Sebastian Rejman from the capital city of Helsinki, who had previously been with the band The Giant Leap. So out of the three entries they chose, the song that won was "Look Away". And I've got to say that I'm a bit underwhelmed. The record is definitely a professionally-done EDM banger, with the three-minute limit easily contained by the nature of the genre, but while the lyrics portend some higher meaning to a global crisis (with visuals pointing to global warming triggers), the words in total are rather vague, with "Look Away" repeated so many times it starts to become almost monotonous. However with the stage visuals, which put Darude in a box with LED screen walls that caught your eye and a dancer on top, it did the trick for the country's pick...

Now that it's up against 40 other songs of different styles and attitudes at Eurovision, it's a different story. In fact, with Estonia also going EDM with Victor Crone's "Storm" in the same semi-final, it'll be hard not to compare the vocals of Sebastian and Victor, which I think Crone's nuanced delivery may actually have an edge. Of course they probably can count on Estonia for points, as well as Iceland, but in this weak but equalizing free-for-all 1st semi, where Darude will be performing third, and Estonia 14th, it's very much possible that his song could be forgotten or overstamped in the memory by "Storm". It all depends on the staging (not sure if they will repeat the cube) and Darude's own name recognition frankly. Not an embarrassing entry, but definitely not the strongest I would've given from him. (Rating 5/10)

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Finland has been taking part in Eurovision since back in 1961. Although they reached the top ten sporadically during the 60's, 70's, and 80's, they also had been last place eight times during that period. The 1990s and 2000s were looking especially cruel, but in 2006 the GWAR-ish costumed metal band Lordi scored the country's sole win so far with the extra-campy "Hard Rock Hallelujah", with the most amount of "points" for song up to that moment. (I have to show the live show performance of this song. No question.)

But my personal favorite from the country would be from 2013, when Krista Siegfrids brought her appeal for marriage equality in her land to the contest with "Marry Me". She came in 24th, and created a stir with the woman-on-woman kiss that had Turkey cancelling their broadcast, but it made a statement and was insanely catchy and well performed onstage...

Though a close second would be the beautiful "Blackbird" that was criminally kept in the semis in 2017, a really strong song year, by the duo Norma John...