YLE has invited all the artists, conductors and producers who have previously represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest to the last dress rehearsal on Saturday 12 May. They will gather at YLE's studio complex next to the Hartwall Arena in Pasila for a festive lunch before the rehearsal, and they will meet the press after the show in the press center. This is YLE�s way to say “thank you” to all the former participants.

It took Finland over 40 years to win the Eurovision Song Contest, but YLE and the Finnish artists never gave up; they tried again year after year – defeat after defeat. The producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 Heikki Seppälä of YLE is the man behind this event, and he is hopeful everyone can come.

Finland first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1961, and the country soon become famous for its bottom rankings, for a flat zero in 1982, and for generally doing very poorly in the Contest. It seems like the Finns were always ahead of the times or behind the times with a ballad when an up-tempo song won and and up-tempo song when a ballad won. This all changed in 2006 when Lordi finally got it all right and gained the most monstruous victory in the Contest’s history in Athens last year.