The first press conference of the day was a very good humoured affair with Jari Sillanpaa looking very relaxed after his second rehearsal. Even the moderator of the press conference got involved with the proceedings, when Jari mentioned he would like to buy a house by the sea in Turkey, and she informed him that she had a house for sale!

When asked if he planned to release a Finnish language version of his song Takes two to tango he casually remarked that there “is no Finnish version of the song….as of yet!”, when pressed further on the matter, he said he had actually seen some Finnish lyrics on the internet, which he “liked very much”.

As has become the normal for press conferences, there was the inevitable requests for songs to be sung, and Jari treated the audience to his 1998 song from the Finnish final Valkeaa Unelmaa, which he jokingly suggested was “much better than Aava!” He also said that Tom,Tom,Tom the entry from 1973 was his favourite Finnish Eurovision entry, and that this was when his childhood dream began, to one day sing in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Another previous Eurovision Song Contest song also received a rendition from Jari, when asked if his silver boots he is wearing on stage was his tribute to the golden boots of Herreys? He then gave us his own version of Diggi Loo, Diggi Ley complete with the choreography!

On the subject of choreography, during his first few runs through of the song, he included a few spins on stage, but dropped then on later rehearsals. He admitted he had been practising, but had to be careful, and is not 100% certain that he will include it in his finished performance.

This second rehearsal had been done in full costume, and as was hinted at on the first press conference on Wednesday, the outfits are red, black and white. It was amusingly pointed out that Jari and the male dancer were dressed in white, as angels suggested the journalist, but that the women were dressed in black as demons!. Jari replied,of course! implying that there was nothing wrong with that. The laughter increased when Jari realised that the female moderator of the press conference was also dressed in black! She tried then amusingly to take her revenge by saying that the next question should come from a female journalist!

His backing dancers, who perform a Tango on stage behind Jari, are actually competitive Tango dancers who came 5th in a contest. The male dancer, Anton, is also a world champion in showdance.

Jari was asked if there were any singers in the contest he would like to direct? He thought that this year there are a lot of good singers

Finland particpates in the qualifying round on 12th May.

:: Check out the gallery of the rehearsal!