… fantastic and excellent and every other word that adds to my personal general consensus that this is the winner.
Finland’s entry in Athens is Lordi, the masked hard-rock and heavy-metal band singing Hard Rock Hallelujah, written by their lead singer Mr Lordi (Tomi Putaansuu). They won Finland’s Euroviisut selection on 10 March, with the public vote giving them more than 67,000 votes in the final round.
It’s pissed all over everything that will go before it and it has a significant chance that it is going to win — and win handsomely.
The monster costumes, theatrical staging and thunderous rock make Lordi look like a gimmick in a show of gimmicks, but that is precisely the point. They are strikingly different from the more conventional pop songs and ballads, and this is not merely novelty: the song is a serious contender.
Keith Mills thinks it’s a gimmick in a show of gimmicks — he’s a fool!!
Retrospective: At the time of writing, Finland still had to negotiate the semi-final on 18 May. Lordi qualified, then won the grand final on 20 May with 292 points — Finland’s first Eurovision victory and the first win for a hard-rock or heavy-metal act. So, yes: the Finns were loud, brash and fantastic, and the prediction was right.
