Jan Wilde and Rose Avenue are one of the 12 participants that will battle to represent Finland on home ground at the Eurovision Song Contest in May. A week after they were announced as participants in the competition, their debut album hit the Finnish charts in the number three spot! esctoday.com spoke to Jan about competiting in the race for Eurovisoin and about the band.
How did you get involved with the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest selections?
“It's a very long story with lots of phone calls and making a case to the selectors about why we should be there in the selections. I think the most important thing was that we have the attitude, style and different ideas comparing to the other artist. There's no need to have another Lordi but something special and new of course”.
Have you thought about participating before?
“Definitely! When I was child I used to write songs and always imagined that they could fit in the Eurovision Song Contest! I have always thought it's a great show but in the late 90's I think it went in the wrong way…Now it's gone back to basics again with all different music styles and glamour like in the 70's and 80's!”.
What would it mean to you to be the first Finnish participants to sing prepresent the country on home ground?
“I have always thought it's a song contest, not a national song contest or something like that. We just played 16 gigs in Germany, Switzerland and Austria supporting finnish glam rockers Negative and when you plug in your guitar it doesn't matter where you play. Music is an universal thing without borders and nationalities! John Lennon is my hero when we are talking about the power of music!
You can enjoy it and maybe singalong! Every good song is a song which the milkman can whistle! We just bang out the tune out of our guitars and that's it. No techinal stuff or any musician things”.
Which one do you think is most likely to win? And do you have one that you prefer over the other?
“All I hope is that the song that will go the final will be something special. I don't know a lot of the other artists or their songs but being revolutionary is the thing I wish! Lordi did it with their song. No boring love songs again, please!”
Are you fans of the competiton, and do you watch it every year?
“Yeah! I have watched it every year! It's always really a thrill to see what happens and what kind of tune will win! Sometimes I have hit my head on the wall because the wrong song had won! Horrible ABBA-clones with their too-short dresses singing terrible songs…Come on, that's something you don't see anywhere else!”
Do you have any favourite Eurovision songs?
In the seventies there were so many great songs! I use to listen my daddy's old cassettes. Brotherhood of Man – “Save your kisses from me”! And last year I love the song by Bosnia-Herzegovina!
