All songs for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 have been selected. During the weeks between the national final season and the actual Eurovision Song Contest, we will introduce all 43 entries in random order. Part six of the series is dedicated to the Finnish entry.

Basic information

The song

Da da dam is a guitar pop ballad. The lyrics tell about a little boy called Peter who tries to save the world once he is being told that it is in a bad way:

Everybody's busy living and dying
Not thinking about what they're doing

But look at the boy who
Went out in the world
To save our planet
And he ain't coming back
Until she's saved

The performer and songwriter

Paradise Oskar, whose real name is Axel Ehnström, is a newcomer to the music business, although he has been singing and playing the guitar for years. His artist name is derived from the Astrid Lindgren novel Rasmus på luffen.

In 2011, he competed in the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest with his own composition Da da dam. He won the national final with 46.7% of the votes therefore also winning the ticket to Düsseldorf. Following his victory, he signed a contract with Warner Music. His debut album, which only contains songs written by himself, is expected to be released in May.

The national selection

Three semi finals were held in Finland. Ten songs made it to the final, where the winner was chosen in two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top three were chosen and in the second round the eventual representative for Düsseldorf was determined.

Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Finlandentered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 andhas been a frequent competitior since despitenever finishing in the top five for a very long time.This suddenly changed in 2006, when Lordi won the contest for Finland in Athens.The last four participations ended outside the top ten again (and at the very bottom of the scoreboard in the final last year), but stillthe country did not miss a final between 2006 and 2009.

Statistics

This will be Finland's 45th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. It will be the eleventh time and the first time since 2005 that the country is being represented by a male solo performer. Furthermore, it will be the eighth in ten times since the abolishment of the language rule that the Finnish entry will be performed in English. Previously, Finland also always chose the English language in the four years between 1973 and 1976, when it was allowed to freely chose the language a song is performed. It will also be the fifth time that the Finnish entry has a "nonsense" title.

Da da dam will be the tenth song to be performed in the first semi final, after the pop rock song from Georgia and before the dance pop song from Malta. Therefore, Paradise Oskar might take advantage from the fact that his slow song is performed in the middle of two more energetic ones. Statistics indicate that slower guitar pop songs have a disadvantage when being performed at an eraly stage of the show. A drastic example is the Dutch entry in 2004, which finished sixth in the semi final (when drawn last) and 20th in the final (when darawn in seventh spot). However, last year, the Belgian entry finished in sixth place in the final after being performed seventh.

Toivotamme Suomelle ja Paradise Oskarlle onnea ja menestystä Düsseldorfissa!
Vi önskar Finland och Paradise Oskar lycka till och ett bra resultat i Düsseldorf!

Videos

Live performance in the national final:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmEa6rkItGY

The preview video:

Sunday everyday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmNcOkvkGH4

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Swiss entry.

Previous parts of the series:

1. Estonia
2. Italy
3. Croatia
4. Slovakia
5. Lithuania