Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest

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Finland
Member station	YLE
National selection events	Euroviisut
Appearances
Appearances	43
First appearance	1961
Best result	1st: 2006
Worst result	Last: 1963, 1965, 1968, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1992, 1996, 2009
External links
YLE page
Finland's page at Eurovision.tv

Lordi the 2006 Eurovision winners

Hanna Pakarinen at Helsinki (2007)

Teräsbetoni at Belgrade (2008)

Finland first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961, and has participated a total of 42 times. Finland won the contest for the first time in 2006 with Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah". Previously, its best showing was Marion Rung’s song "Tom Tom Tom" in 1973, which was placed 6th.

Before the 2006 victory, Finland was considered by many as the ultimate under-achiever of Eurovision. It has placed last total nine times and scored "nul points" (zero points) three times. Finland's entry in 1982, "Nuku pommiin" by Kojo, was one of only fifteen songs since the modern scoring system was instituted in 1975 to earn no points. (Norway has placed last ten times and scored zero points four times, but it has also won three times.) Before 2006, there even was a popular joke circulating in Finland, where a man frees a genie from a bottle:

Genie: Thanks for freeing me! I will now grant you one wish.

Man: Bring the Finnish Karelia back to Finland!

Genie: That's too big a wish, maybe a smaller one?

Man: OK, let Finland win the Eurovision Song Contest even once!

Genie: Hmm... let me see that map again...

In 2006, Finland finally gained victory, with an entry radically different from the mainstream europop that dominates the competition: a hard rock song, played by a monster band in an over-the-top fashion. The band Lordi and its song Hard Rock Hallelujah broke records scoring the highest number of points in Eurovision Song Contest history (292) but its title was taken by Norway in 2009 (387).

All of Finland's entries were in English between 1973 and 1976 and again since 2000 (except in 2008); both of these periods allowed submissions in any language. All of Finland's other songs have been in Finnish, except in 1990, when "Fri?" by Beat was in Swedish.

In voting patterns, Finland has traditionally supported and been supported by the Baltic nations, such as Estonia and Latvia. However, it also has close ties to other Nordic countries. In 2004, Finland's first-place vote went to Sweden; in 2005, it contributed 12 points to Norway; in 2006, it was Russia's turn to get the 12 points, but it was Serbia who got their top score in 2007. The first time in Eurovision history that Sweden gave Finland 12 points was in 2006 for Lordi's song "Hard Rock Hallelujah". In 2007, they repeated this, giving 12 points to Hanna Pakarinen with "Leave Me Alone". Finland has also given notably high points to Italy, but that country has not competed since 1997. In 2009, Finland was sent to the final by the jury after they placed twelfth in the first semi final. In the final, they reached last place, which is familiar to the Finnish people in the Eurovision Song Contest as they now have 9 last places.

[edit] Contestants

As of the 2009 contest, there have been 43 Finnish entries in the contest: 31 in Finnish, 11 in English and 1 in Swedish.

* In 2009, Finland qualified through the jury selection.

[edit] Voting history (1975-2009)

Finland has given the most points to...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Sweden	137
2	Israel	115
=	Italy	115
4	United Kingdom	104
5	Switzerland	98

Finland has received the most points from...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Sweden	92
2	Norway	69
3	Iceland	63
4	Greece	59
5	Ireland	55
=	Israel	55

NOTE: The totals in the above tables include only points awarded in Eurovision finals, and not the semi-finals since 2004.

[edit] Hostings

Year	Location	Venue	Presenter
2007	Helsinki	Hartwall Areena	Jaana Pelkonen and Mikko Leppilampi

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• National Final 2009
• Points to and from Finland eurovisioncovers.co.uk