Finland – Liekinheitin – Is the hot favourite to win
I think we can split the reaction to the Finnish song into 2 camps. The majority including fans and the betting odds think this is going to win Eurovision 2026. The minority don’t really understand what the fuss is all about.
The last time we had a winning Eurovision song with a dominant violin in it was Fairytale (Norway 2009). But Fairytale had another thing going for it. The thing which was going for Fairytale was was a simple yet extremely catchy tune. The violin was half dominant and gave the song the flare of a Fairytale. And here lies the first problem I have with Finnish song for 2026. It is neither catchy nor instantly memorable. For this review, I have listened to the song 5 times in a row and I still can’t remember how this goes. I will go as far and say there is not much of a song here. Someone doing a good job in hiding the fact that this is a substandard composition, for a song without a decent structure and while his voice is good, it doesn’t carry enough variation for me to keep it interesting.
Another problem I have with this song is that it all seems to be very forced. I just don’t buy the whole set up of this as a duet between a man and a woman, where the woman is represented by a violin, and although they are trying to show there is some kind of chemistry between those 2, there is not much interaction between the singer and the violin player. When there is interaction, it doesn’t seem authentic or even real.
Which brings to the 3rd problem I have with this song, which is the fake violin play. On the Eurovision stage, you aren’t allowed to play instruments live. What the audience will see is a woman pretending hard to play on a violin. It is a question whether the audience will buy this or just say this is typically eurovision. I think yle, the Finnish broadcaster, knows that this could be a problem, as they submitted a request for a live play of the violin on the Eurovision stage, well I don’t think they have a chance with this request.
As you can understand I am in the minority camp for this song. I don’t get the fuss about this song. I also think it will be a bad winner for Eurovision. If this wins, it won’t be the first time I don’t like a winner. It happened before and no doubt will happen again.
My marks – 3 points.
