"Lord have mercy on us Finnish people now."

**Vega Van-Derveld** · Apr 23rd, 2006, 10:51:10 AM

Read the full article here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4926020.stm

Finland's controversial entry for this year's Eurovision Song Contest - a heavy metal band called Lordi (The Lord) - has upset many Finns.

The band members wear scary masks, which they refuse to take off, and the lead singer wields a chain-saw.

Their song Hard Rock Hallelujah is a radical departure from the folk songs usually associated with Eurovision.

Finnish online chatrooms are full of comments from people concerned about their country's reputation abroad.

Some Finns have even asked the president to intervene.

But Lordi was a people's choice: their hit got more than 42% of the votes cast by televoting in the Finnish final.

I don't know about the rest of you but I think this is awesome. Eurovision has always been terribly camp and tongue-in-cheek so a band like Lordi should fit in perfectly!

***Lilaena De'Ville*** · Apr 23rd, 2006, 10:59:58 AM

What *is* Eurovision?

**Droo** · Apr 24th, 2006, 05:10:40 AM

Folk songs? What a load of nonsense! The Eurovision has been cheesey pop for as long as I can remember. I don't usually watch it but I'll make an effort to see a band like Lordi.

**Vega Van-Derveld** · Apr 24th, 2006, 08:38:43 AM

I just like hearing Terry Wogan's commentary

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
What *is* Eurovision?

From wikipedia:

The Contest's name comes from the EBU's Eurovision TV distribution network. Because it is the highest-profile event distributed by the network, the Song Contest itself is often simply called "Eurovision". ESC is an abbreviation used when referring to the Contest on websites and in forums.

The structure of the Contest is as follows:

* Each country, through a variety of means, chooses an artist and song to represent them.
* Each song from every country is then performed once on the night, vocally live.
* After all songs have been performed, viewers have ten minutes to vote for their favourite song. Viewers can not vote for their own country e.g. voters in Ireland can not vote for the Irish entry.
* All the votes are added up per country (e.g. all of the votes from Irish televoters, from French voters etc.)
* Each country, via satellite link, reveals its votes. The top ten songs voted for in each country receive points, from 1-8, then 10 and 12 points. Points are announced per country in reverse order.
* In the end, the winner is the country with the most points. In a tie, it is the country with the most 12-points awarded to them that wins.
* The winning country receives the honour of hosting the next year's Contest.

The programme can reach a potential television audience of more than one billion.

The songs are routinely awful, but usually entertaining in a cringeworthy way. One year a tranvestite woman and that was quite amusing. ABBA and Celine Dion represented their countries at one point, apparently. I seem to remember Ireland winning it a lot, then having to give the oppoorunity to host the contest to another country because they could no longer afford to do so themselves.

**Vega Van-Derveld** · May 18th, 2006, 05:21:35 AM

Haha it's almost here

only a few days to go...

You can see the website here: http://www.eurovision.tv/english/

**Yog** · May 18th, 2006, 06:58:21 AM

As much as I would like Lordi to win, I think the eastern european countries will vote for each other and then we will end up with something more conventional winning. As usual. Last year, the Norwegian contribution Wig Wam tried something similar, what is referred to as glam rock, with inspirations to Kiss. They were one of the big favorites but did not get that many votes in the end.

This year, were sending some incredible lame and boring "elf song" crap that I hope get zero points. Although the chick singing is kinda hot.

It was more interesting to watch in the 80s and 90s as there were not quite that many countries. I also tend to prefer Idol. Bottom line, I am not sure I will bother watching