The young team of stage designers promise Finns don�t have to worry about Moomins or Santa Claus, or the typical Finnish touristic images of lakes, snow and sauna, like many Finns seem to be very worried about. Let�s meet the team in an interview they gave to V-magazine and get an idea what�s in store for the 2007 stage.
Finns, true to themselves, are rather worried in message boards and chat rooms how YLE will manage Eurovision Song Contest 2007 what comes to the stage design and graphics, and the general view of Finland and the Finns that will be transmitted come May. YLE promises to show the Finnish oddities in postcards but one insert could also be made of one of Finnish obsessions: What do they think about us? We have seen the first image of the graphics for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in the ticket holders by dog design team.
Another young team will take care of the stage. Four students from the Helsinki University of Art and Design won the open competition and will have now maybe the biggest work in their career ever ahead of them.“This is an incredible challenge “ the Fab Four says:
“High fiving was our first reaction. We had a good idea, democratic team spirit and a lot of patience. We visited Hartwall Areena before we started working and researched past competitions. And we sure saw it all in them, there’s so much of everything in the past Eurovision stages. Colours and lights, more the better, belong there. It is also very challenging to create over 40 different stages, one for each country. We can’t really do much on that before March. Only after all the songs have been chosen and the delegations make their requests we can start working on them. If someone wants for example a sea background for a ballad, that’s what we will try to create for them. The stage must be designed in a way that anything is possible, to make it suit every mood and atmosphere. It also must be very quick” says Kristian who has experience on staging various festivals.“When in festivals you have about 15 minutes to change between artists here you have only 40 seconds. That grand piano or drum set must be on stage in less than 40 seconds!”
At the moment Kristian & co are working up to 18 hours a day toying with miniature models and 3D animations in their work room in Helsinki. Less than 4 months to go and so much to do! When their work is done it will be judged by more than 100 million Europeans watching the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 live. They still claim they are not too nervous.“The panic will maybe come when all is done” says Samuli. “Propably the worst that could happen is something falling down and hurting someone. And no, we won’t reveal anything about the design or theme yet. You will see it on May 10 but we can promise there won’t be any wooden floors or walls or gigantic Moomin trolls wandering around!”
The Finnish media has speculated earlier that the stage is inspired by Finnish mythology and nature.And where were the future stage designers when Lordi won? Kalle Ahonen (born 1981) was at home watching the voting. Samuli Laine (born 1983) was in Tampere, in a bar where people went wild and SMS’ were sent in hundreds. Kristian Schmidt (born 1978) was at a friend’s home party where they didn’t have a TV. They rushed to the neighbour’s when the voting started and points started arriving. Jenni Viitanen (born 1981) was watching the show at home while writing an essay.
