Mark your calendars for this year's Eurovision song competition (May 20), because this year's entry from Finland might give Dschinghis Khan a run for the title for Best Costumes. Say hello (or "hei" in Finnish) to Lordi, who are in the running with their toe-tapping and head-banging hit "Hard Rock Hallelujah" (YouTube link). And if they don't win, at least Lordi should go down in history as the band that inspired the following paragraph to be published in the New York Times:
As he stuck out his tongue menacingly, his red demon eyes glaring, Lordi was surrounded by Kita, an alien-man-beast predator who plays flame-spitting drums inside a cage; Awa, a blood-splattered ghost who howls backup vocals; Ox, a zombie bull who plays bass; and Amen, a mummy in a rubber loincloth who plays guitar.
Just in case you were wondering which country is currently the leader in zombie bull bass-playing technology, now you have your answer.
May 20 update: Lordi victorious! How about THEM apples?
Hopefully Jordy will bridge the French/Finnish gap, and pull a comeback collaboration with Lordi.
Posted by: Walkathon | April 24, 2006 at 05:40 PM
Can someone explaineurovision
to me, I find it baffling. Are they making fun of us?
Click on 'video' at the top and don't miss out on the entries from Iceland and Germany.
Posted by: geos | April 25, 2006 at 12:34 AM
First things first: The original Finnish greeting is "Terve", short for "Tervetuloa", though the Swedish import "Hei" is quite popular, to the dismay of some traditionalists (and/or nationalists).
The Eurovision song contest is one of those traditions that make everyone doubt whether Europe was really the birth place of civilization. Probably it is proof that it wasn't. Here is how it works: There are primaries in every country, leading up to the big contest, where every country presents one song. Then the countries vote and the winner is allowed to sing his/her/their song a second time.
Countries cannot vote for themselves, but Germans frequently drive to Holland to vote for the German entry, and the Turkish song traditionally is #1 in the German vote, due to the large Turkish immigrant population in Germany. Of course these tricks only work in countries where the system is popular vote by telephone, which isn't the case everywhere, there are "professional juries" in some countries.
In Germany the whole thing was basically in the hand of atrocious "songwriter" Ralph Siegel, until Stefan Raab and Guildo Horn, with the help of the biggest German tabloid "Bild", won the German primary in the 90s with a song which was just a stupid joke. This made Ralph Siegel very angry, and he was throwing public fits about the violation of the sanctity of the Grand Prix d'Eurovision and the decline of morals in general.
There is more to it, but watching this contest on TV every year was one of those enjoyable tacky traditions because it all was so bad, and the people involved were taking it very seriously, at least most of them.
Posted by: Lukas | April 25, 2006 at 08:54 AM
Suomi maailmaandominaatio!
Posted by: F.Baube | April 25, 2006 at 02:27 PM
and of course, strictly speaking... eurovision isn't just for europe. any country which is a member of the eurovision broadcasting union, or whatever it's called is eligable to send an entry. eurovision gets pretty global in it's own way, and i think it could only get better with wider ranging input. i distincly remember one year a columbian impersonating (australian) peter andre on behalf of norway. global f#$king village or what? i also think austria was robbed a few years ago. to wit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB5QGWsffSQ
Posted by: jpeatt | April 26, 2006 at 11:47 AM
In the early eighties there were quite a few heavy metal bands competing in the Eurovision song contest. I don't remember any of them doing particularly well, in fact Norway was notorious for entering unconventional heavy metal bands that scored nil point at Eurovision.
Posted by: Next | May 17, 2006 at 08:55 PM
Lordi will perform 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' in the next round of the Eurovision Grand Prix, so prepare to dial in your votes. The official single will be released on 19.05. And then, on 20.05 the final decision will come down in Athens. A grandiose pyro show is guaranteed, and for your viewing pleasure click on the link for a short but amusing film from Finland
http://files.ww.com/files/15151.html
Have you seen the trigger happy TV version of the Daz Doorstep challenge..... Genius!
There is NO working class anymore... Just Chavs and everyone else.
http://files.ww.com/download.html?id=14207 (Download Daz Sampson Teenage Life music)
Posted by: joe | May 19, 2006 at 04:33 PM
Lordi won!!
It's not a joke. They got 292 points, the highest ever scored in eurovision.
They also caused Finland to get it's first victory.
Posted by: Hd | May 21, 2006 at 12:32 AM
Lordi Hard Rock Hallelujah
Guitar Tabs:
http://www.guitarrig2.com/lordi/hard-rock-tabs.html
Posted by: Tadas | May 22, 2006 at 07:46 AM
And win they did! Congratulations Finland.
Posted by: thecleaningwoman | May 22, 2006 at 07:23 PM
I look forward to the negotiations toward the intergalactic conflict between them and GWAR.
Posted by: cgeye | May 25, 2006 at 11:51 AM
I love Lordi! Found them on DAZ.com today too -->
http://daz.com/artists/Lordi.html
Posted by: wisper | October 31, 2006 at 05:34 PM