Back to normal was the Finnish media�s approach to the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 after last year�s overexposure. The TV audience figures stayed high and Finns had a chance to build up their hopes again when Teräsbetoni qualified for the final. Jaana Pelkonen, last year�s host in Helsinki 2007 also got a lot of attention. In general the Finnish media praised the organisation and the staging in Belgrade, with some comments about the stage looking quite familiar�

Finland was living a real Eurovision mania last year but this year things have calmed down back to normal. Some hype was created after Tuesday’s semi final where Finland surprisingly qualified for the final. By Saturday the media was speculating the rumours Finland had won the first semi final just like Lordi. This was stated even in the YLE TV-news just before the final. An internet poll stated nearly 70% of Finns were still satisfied with the result.

The first semi final was watched by 800.000 people that is a very good figure. The figures for the final should be published tomorrow but one can guess they are around 1 million viewers, a little down from last year’s when the contest was in Finland.

Teräsbetoni’s goal was to make the final and they did. Between the semi final and the final while the betting odds were going up and the rumours spread maybe their hopes went up, too. Right after the final they were disappointed but once back in Finland they really understood what they had done: taken Finland to the final with a rock song in Finnish reaching their initial goal so everybody was happy and stating what a wonderful experience it was.

Jaana Pelkonen, last year’s host in Finland got a fair share of media attention, too, both in the Finnish papers and was constantly friendly teased by the TV co-commentator Peltsi Peltola for her fan superstar status in Belgrade with thousends of international fans.

The host city Belgrade also got a lot of publicity. Many papers and magazines presented Belgrade as a holiday destination with tips of things to do and places to visit so Eurovision also helped the touristic promotion of Serbia and Belgrade.

As usual a fight between Finland and Sweden was created when Sweden's Charlotte commented the Finnish song stating she can't understand how such a song makes the final, and Teräsbetoni answered her song is so clichée anyone could write it on his lunchbreak. Later on they apparently made up but Finns of course hoped to beat Sweden again for the third year in a row but thanks to Malta, we didn't!