Hanna Pakarinen is the winner!

by Ilari Karhapää 185 views

After four semi final, several scandals and more ink on papers and media fuss than propably never before the Finnish selection is coming to an end tonight. The 12 chosen artists will perform again their selected song out of the two they presented in semi finals to fight over the honour of representing the host nation in May in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

Webstream provided here.

Finnish Euroviisut veteran Danny will be the guest star tonight as well as comedian Tom Lindholm. The hosts are as usual Jaana Pelkonen and Heikki Paasonen. Let’s see if they can get their act together again. The usual sparks were clearly missing between them in last week’s semi final, the first after the announcement that Jaana will be hosting the Eurovision song contest 2007 together with Mikko Leppilampi instead of Heikki.

Hanna Pakarinen: Leave me alone

Beats and Styles: See the signs

Jani & Jetsetters: Musta sulhanen

Lovex: Anyone anymore

Jukka Kuoppamäki: Levitä siivet

Jann Wilde & Rose Avenue: Rock’n roll dreams

Katra: Tietäjä

Laura: Take a chance

Humane: Plane away

Thunderstone: Face in the mirror

Johanna Kurkela: Olet uneni kaunein

Kentala: Left my heart behind

The final is on YLE TV2, YLE Radio Suomi and YLE Radio Vega at 18.00-19.50 CET. An internet webcast is here.
It will also be on cable and satellite on TV Finland at a later time of 21.10 CET

LIVE COVERAGE (Updated constantly)

Hanna Pakarinen: Leave me alone

Hanna was welcomed on stage with loud screams and is wearing a black and white dress with some silver. An impressive show with lots of smoke and a wind machine. Excellent strong performance. And there goes the dress!! From white to black..Windmachines and ultimate Eurovision wardrope trick helped Hanna to start the show with a bang!

Beats and Styles: See the signs

Beats and Styles feat Anorah now on stage. Band's name and lyrics from the song still displayed in the back groud screen like in the semi final. The act is much more together now compared to the semi final performance both visually and vocally.

Jani & Jetsetters: Musta sulhanen

Jani & Jetsetters on stage now welcomed by a very wild crowd in fully booked Caribia. The stage and presentation seems to be identical to the semi final one, with a lot of blue with a full moon back ground and all guys in black. And the black bride is there as well accompanying Jani who is vocally excellent again.

Simo Frangén interviews artists in green room now. Hanna comments on how the wind machine helped her dress to fly away! Also Beats and Styles are very happy with their performance and the singer was afraid his trousers would drop during the song…

Jaana and Heikki comment now on the roses viewers can send to the artists. Keep eye on those roses in greenroom.Next on stage is the superfavourite Lovex and the screams in the audience precede them.

Lovex: Anyone anymore

The band wears again their trademark black and red clothing. Great light show with bombs and fireworks on stage, but the singer once again struggles with his voice. This was certainly a bombastic three minutes rewarded by a standing ovation by the cheering crowd.

Jukka Kuoppamäki: Levitä siivet

Jukka Kuoppamäki, on stage now. At 64 he is the oldest ever Finnish Euroviisut artist. A lot of waving hands in the audience during this very traditional Finnish adult oriented pop. Jukka gives a good performance with a few missed notes but in all it's very relaxed and laid back.

Heikki and Jaana wonder if Jukka got his inspiration to this Spread your wings from Lordi's wings? Or the Olsen Brothers maybe?

Jann Wilde & Rose Avenue: Rock’n roll dreams

Jann is wearing his peacock feathers outfit and the background is rather psychedelic.His performance would make Marc Bolan, David Bowie and Joan Jett proud.

Simo back in greenroom interviews Jani of the Jetsetters. He dedicates the song to all stars who have left us too early, like Marilyn. Theon from Lovex says his hat was filled with ice to keep it cool. And he promises to eat the hat if they win.

Katra: Tietäjä

Katra on stage now with her female gymnastics video background. She has borrowed Hanna's wind machine and put a tiara in her head. Much improved visually and vocally from the semi final, Katra hits the last high note perfectly. Still the applause seems rather mild.

Laura – Take a chance

Laura on stage with her cabaret choreography and follow up to Addicted to you (Finland 2002). She proves once again she's maybe the best showgirl in Finland and vocally a top pofessional, even if missing a note here and there. We are not really sure whether this was an improvement over her performance in the semi…or wasn't it?

Humane: Plane away

When introducing the next act Heikki reminds Slovenia already has chosen Alenka Gotar, a classically trained singer. Will she get the Finnish tenor Tom Nyman to beat? An early fan favourite, Humane on stage now. New look to both Kim and Johanna and slighty different staging. People started applauding already in the middle of the song! Very un-Finnish! This is the lift-your-lighter-upin- the- air type ofsong. And that is exactly what the crowd is doing! It all works much better than in the semi final.

Simo back in greenroom teasing the singers with his weird humour and crazy questions and comments. Laura tells her head is empty.

Thunderstone-Face in the mirror

Thunderstone is welcomed to the stage with a loud applause, even more so when reminded the lead singer was with Lordi in Athens. A solid good heavy rock band presentation : hard guitars, hairy chests and long hair, all in black and real heavy metal vocals. Fire in the back screen and a lot of lights.They give their best to this song, but the better song, and their favourite, was left behind in the semi final.

Johanna Kurkela-Olet uneni kaunein

Johanna on stage now. She has been a surprise favourite by many and it will be very interesting to see how she will do tonight. Could she be the surprise tonight? The audience welcomes her warmly. The nightgown is here, the dream guy is here, the bed is here, the candles are here and the act is the same as in semi final. Johanna does a wonderful job again vocally and looks beautiful performing this dreamy ballad. She gets a standing ovation and huge applause in the end!

Kentala-Left my heart behind

Last on stage is Kentala. New look for him too, with a long green velvet jacket. He also suffers a bit from the fact he may have wanted the other song in the final. Vocally he is great as always but the act in all looks a bit lost on stage.

And that concludes the performances for tonight. Just before the recap, Heikki reminds us that the official CD will be out next week. One more look at the songs before we proceed with the voting.

The votes from the pre voting that started last Saturday together with tonight's votes will send the three first acts to the Super final. A second round of televoting will select the final winner.

Jaana has changed her dress! Like a true Eurovision hostess. And now it's time for the results:

Most televotes from tonight's voting:Lovex, Hanna, Laura
Most sms: Hanna, Lovex, Thunderstone
Combined:Hanna, Lovex and Jann wilde
Prevoting favorites : Hanna, Lovex and Jann wilde

And the finalists are: Hanna Pakarinen, Lovex and Thunderstone

Now it's Danny on stage, who has participated seven times in the past in Euroviisut. He predicts that whoever gets most SMS'swill win tonight like Lordi last year. He sings his old hit, and a song that didn't win Euroviisut, Seikkailija.

The second round of the voting has now started and the Finnish final sure rocks! Hanna goes first. She has a new fabulous black and red dress!More relaxed now she gives an outstanding performance flirting with the camera just the right way. She even takes a dance step or two!

Lovex on stage again.The song really rocks but unfortunately it seems that the singer's recent throat operation has taken its toll . Freddie Mercury-like poses on stage this time from Theon.

Last but not least Thunderstone on stage now.
They seem to be having a good time on stage giving it all now that they have surprisingly reached the superfinal. That concludes the second round of presentations and the televoting has started.

Simo Frangén presents his news now. He presents us short clips of Danish, Norwegian, Romanian and Dutch entries with his always sarcastic comments.

Next he interviews Mayor of Turku about the fact they lost the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 to Helsinki! Top-3 of the most memorable dresses as voted in the YLE site: 3. Catcat in 1994, 2. ABBA in 1974 and the winner is: Lordi in 2006!

And next he takes us to Greece to see how important the hosting was for Greeks. Our very own Stella Floras speaks out in YLE's interview before presenting clips of the 3 finalists in Greece.

And the winner is …… Hanna Pakarinen: Leave me alone !