One of the surprises of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, even for Finns, was seeing Krisse Salminen participate in the final. First she was offered a job to warm up the audience in the Arena before the show, but she ended up being the green room commentator and appeared live in the Senate�s square as well. In the end she nearly stole the show.
Krisse Salminen, a self proclaimed Princess of the Republic, is a well know comic actress in Finland. Her creation of a pink simple girl living in a pink bubble – where only she matters – has made Finns laugh for years; her own TV series "The Krisse Show" will begin its third season this fall.
“I am sure some people sighed in despair when I appeared on TV screens Saturday night,” she said afterwards, “I understand not every one likes me or understand me. That’s why we decided to keep it a secret, to save us from the negative pre-contest publicity. There are always people who think I would put Finland in shame, that I would ruin the show and people abroad would not understand me, but then the same people were anti-Lordi last year!”
It was a risk indeed. The writers of the show questioned if jokes about a blond bimbo girl would be understood in eastern or southern Europe; did they have this blond jokes "genre" at all? In the Eurovision Song Contest the humour has usually been limited to funny hats and men dressed as women. But everything went fine. Krisse was a big success, as one reads in comments from abroad.
During the official Song Contest "After Party", Krisse was surrounded by the foreign media; they all wanted her interview and photos. “I was so relieved,” she says now. “We were worried whether my character would be understood but apparently it was, they all wanted me to play the role, and I did. Now I am very happy I accepted the job even if I had doubts beforehand."
"Many foreign agents approached me in the 'After Party', but I don’t take it so seriously," Krisse continues. "I went home, brushed my teeth and went to bed. I have to get back to daily life and performances in the Da Lintsi koodi show in the Linnanmäki amusement park. America can wait. It was one of the best days in my life!”
Ad-libbing
Krisse also had a second of panic during the live show as she forgot Verka and her team from Ukraine don’t speak English. She had to improvise something on the spot when the director told her through her earpiece that she had to fill in a couple of minutes. “I was there and somehow I came up with the dance, phew! The funny thing is it is the same choreography I used years ago when I was a teenager and I made my friends laugh at the discos!”
The coffee makers
By a funny coincidence Song Contest hostess Jaana Pelkonen and Krisse Salminen went to the same school in Lahti. They also worked together in the same local radio station – mainly doing odd jobs like compiling listener stats and making coffee. They had a good laugh at the "After Party" over how the coffee makers of Radio 99 ended up in a good gig!
