Finland – Linda and Pete – Liekinheitin
Now this is more fucking like it. There were only ever two songs in UMK for me and I wouldn’t have minded either winning but this is the more “serious” song of the two. Pete looks like he’s had a life written on his face and the sweaty hair is a great touch but by Christ can he emote with a look rather than a note – he’s smouldering down the camera as he is singing the song. I feel every damn emotion whilst I am looking at him.
At the other end of the stage you have a completely superfluous violin player who you could actually remove and the song would still be the same but Linda is clearly there to accent the dramatic bits of the songs with some string on string action and is the object of Pete’s desires. The song itself has a great defined structure that everyone should be familiar with. Sometimes that doesn’t come off but here it feels…. right. It also doesn’t detract from the emotion of the song that it is in Finnish because you don’t need to know any words to “get” what it is about and in a televised song contest, making an instant impression with the gawping millions is a required element to this thing doing well and this certainly does that.
It’s very cleverly shot, specifically for television if you have seen the BTS footage, and that’s totally right as well. It broke the internet – well bits of it, when they revealed that yle put in 30 pages of stage directions – that’s because they know how they want this to come across to the real world. It’s a made for television, dramatic song that you don’t need to get to know that it gets you in all the feels. I can see the credits rolling all over this and deep in your soul, you know it too.
Phil’s Score – 12 Points
