More news from Finland today! Five 'highly skilled and professional artists' will accompany Geir Rönning on the Eurovision Song Contest stage in Kyiv. Two of them have experience with performing at the contest.

The brand new backing vocals performed Why yesterday at Geir Rönnings album presentation in Helsinki's Grand Casino. Also read our article about the presentation.

The Finnish backing singers are Tomas Höglund, Charles Salter, Hanna-Riikka Siitonen, Nina Tapio and Mika Turunen. Whereas Tomas, Nina and Mika are all for the first time on Eurovision Song Contest, Charles and Hanna-Riikka have represented Finland before. Charles backed the Finnish entrant in 1994 and Hanna-Riikka in 1996, as well as last year in Istanbul.

Both Hanna-Riikka Siitonen and Nina Tapio are 'second generation' Eurovision Song Contest representatives. Hanna-Riikka�s father Matti Siitonen, better known as Fredi, represented Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest twice as a vocalist (1967, 1976) and twice as a composer (1976, 1979). Nina�s mother Irma Tapio sang for Finland as a backing singer in 1976 and 1978.

Nina and Hanna-Riikka are enthusiast about the contest, as they both also took part in this year�s Finnish national Eurovision Song Contest selection as vocalists. Although they were not lucky enough to win, they can go to Kyiv anyway supporting Geir Rönning.

Gallery

Click here for some photos made at yesterday's album presentation.