Finland completes the line up for the first ever Eurovision Dance Contest. The couple Jussi Väänänen and Katja Koukkula won the Finnish final tonight with 27% of the SMS and televotes dancing to Apocalyptica playing Metallica all dressed in black in their free style number. Their second performance featured rumba.
Young sister and brother couple Mariia and Markus Hirvonen came second with 21% of votes. Mikko Kaasalainen with his Hungarian partner Adrienn Fitori dancing to Letkis were surpringly left third with 18%.The Finnish final was hosted by the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 hostess Jaana Pelkonen with comic Simo Frangen, who was involved in the Euroviisut 2007 with his "news"
Jussi Väänänen and Katja Koukkula have been dancing latin dances over 20 years and have also studied and practiced classical and jazz dance. They ended their competing career in 2005 and also teach besides performing as artists and collaborating with various productions both on theatre and TV. T
They have been the Finnish champions 11 times (1994-2004). Their best placement in European championships is 4th place and in the world championships 7th as amateurs, they won the British Open Rising Stars contest, British Open main category’s 10th place, Latin Dances world championships 10th place and in the European championships 7th place as professionals. They have reached the finals also in All England, Bangkok Open, Italian Open, Japan International, Imperial Championships, Universal Championships amongst others.
More on them here.
