Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2004 The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following the country's victory at the with the song "Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener. Organised by the European Broa ...

with the song "Takes 2 to Tango" written by Mika Toivanen and

Jari Sillanpää Jari Veikko Sillanpää (; born 16 August 1965) is a Finnish-Swedish singer. With over 820,000 records sold, he is the fifth-best-selling music artist and second-best-selling solo artist in Finland. Life and career Born into a Sweden-Finnish ...

. The song was performed by Jari Sillanpää. The Finnish broadcaster

Yleisradio Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...

(Yle) returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a one-year absence following their relegation from

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

as one of the bottom five countries in the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

contest. Yle organised the national final ''Euroviisut 2004'' in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2004 contest in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey. 20 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of two semi-finals and a final, taking place in January 2004. Ten entries competed in each semi-final and the top six from each semi-final, as selected solely by a public vote, advanced to the final. Twelve entries competed in the final on 24 January where votes from six regional juries first selected the top six to advance to a second round. In the second round, votes from the public selected "Takes 2 to Tango" performed by Jari Sillanpää as the winner with 98,987 votes. Finland competed in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2004. Performing as the opening entry for the show in position 1, "Takes 2 to Tango" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Finland placed fourteenth out of the 22 participating countries in the semi-final with 51 points.

Background

Prior to the 2004 contest, Finland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-seven times since its first entry in 1961. Finland's best result in the contest achieved in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

where the song "

Tom Tom Tom Finland was represented by Marion Rung, with the song "Tom Tom Tom", at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 7 April in Luxembourg. Before Eurovision National final The Finnish national final was held on February 3 at Finlandia H ...

" performed by

Marion Rung Marion Rung (born 7 December 1945 in Helsinki) is a Finland, Finnish pop singer. She is known for having represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1962 and 1973. Her 1962 Eurovision song placed 7th, and in 1973, she managed to bring F ...

placed sixth. The Finnish national broadcaster,

(Yle), broadcasts the event within Finland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Yle confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest on 28 April 2003. Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest have been selected through national final competitions that have varied in format over the years. Since 1961, a selection show that was often titled ''Euroviisukarsinta'' highlighted that the purpose of the program was to select a song for Eurovision. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster announced that the Finnish entry for the 2004 contest would be selected through the ''Euroviisut'' selection show.

Before Eurovision

Euroviisut 2004

''Euroviisut 2004'' was the national final that selected Finland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. The competition consisted of three shows that commenced with the first of two semi-finals on 16 January 2004 and concluded with a final on 24 January 2004. All shows were broadcast on

Yle TV2 Yle TV2 ( fi, Yle TV Kaksi; sv, Yle TV Två) is a Finnish television channel owned and operated by Yle. TV2 was launched in 1965 as the successor to the former television channels TES-TV (Tesvisio) and Tamvisio, and broadcasts public service p ...

and Yle FST.

Format

The format of the competition consisted of three shows: two semi-finals and a final. Ten songs competed in each semi-final and the top six entries from each semi-final qualified to complete the twelve-song lineup in the final. The results for the semi-finals were determined exclusively by a public vote, while the results in the final were determined by public voting and jury voting. Public voting included the options of telephone and SMS.

Competing entries

A submission period was opened by Yle which lasted between 30 July 2003 and 17 October 2003. All singer(s) had to hold Finnish citizenship or live in Finland permanently in order for the entry to qualify to compete. A panel of ten experts appointed by Yle selected twenty entries for the competition from the 325 received submissions. The experts were Kjell Ekholm (Director of Entertainment at Yle FST), Nina Andrén (blogger and Eurovision expert), Maria Guzenina (presenter and journalist at Radio Aino), Jorma Hietamäki (music director of

Yle Radio Suomi Yle Radio Suomi is a radio channel owned and operated by Finland's national public service broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle). The station's main focus is on music and sport, but it carries a variety of other programmes, including news and phone-ins, as ...

), Heikki Hilamaa (Head of Music at YLEXQ),

Jani Juntunen Jani Juntunen is a Finnish Radio host. He is known for his radio broadcasts on Radiomafia and Radio Rock Radio Rock is a Finnish rock music radio station owned by Nelonen Media, a part of the media group Sanoma. Radio Rock's broadcasting beg ...

(radio presenter), Thomas Lundin (editor at Yle FST), Iris Mattila (music journalist at Yle Radio Suomi), Asko Murtomäki (Eurovision expert) and Tarja Närhi (music journalist at Yle Radio Suomi). The competing entries were presented on 19 November 2003.

Shows

Semi-finals

The two semi-final shows took place on 16 and 17 January 2004 at the Tohloppi Studios in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

, hosted by Finnish journalists/presenters

Maria Guzenina Maria Edith Guzenina (née Stieren, previously Guzenina-Richardson and Lindell; born 12 January 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish politician who became a household name in Finland after working as the first Finnish VJ for MTV Europe from ...

and

Bettina Sågbom Bettina Maria Sågbom-Ek (born 1 September 1965 in Hanko) is a Swedish-speaking Finnish journalist. She is the host of the talk show Bettina S., which is aired on the Finnish national television network Yle Fem Yle Fem (''Yle Five'') was Yle's Fi ...

. The top six from the ten competing entries in each semi-final qualified to the final based on the results from the public vote. A total of 70,270 votes were cast over the two shows: 43,210 in the first semi-final and 27,060 in the second semi-final.

Final

The final took place on 24 January 2004 at the

Tampere Hall sv, Tammerforshuset , image = Tampere-talo panorama 2014.jpg , caption = Tampere Hall in June 2014 , former_names = , building_type = , architectural_style = Postmodernism , structural_system = , ...

, hosted by Finnish journalists/presenters

and

Antero Mertaranta Lauri Antero Johannes Mertaranta (born 17 January 1956 in Hyvinkää, Finland) is a prominent Finnish sportscaster and TV personality and former elementary school teacher. Antero Mertaranta is best known for his energetic announcing in IIHF World ...

. The twelve entries that qualified from the preceding two semi-finals competed and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top six from the twelve competing entries qualified to the second round based on the votes of six regional juries. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 points. In the second round, "Takes 2 to Tango" performed by

was selected as the winner based on the results from the public vote. 280,542 votes were cast in the superfinal. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act featured Christine Guldbrandsen.

At Eurovision

It was announced that the competition's format would be expanded to include a semi-final in 2004. According to the rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country, the " Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), and the ten highest placed finishers in the

contest are required to qualify from the semi-final on 12 May 2004 in order to compete for the final on 15 May 2004; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. On 23 March 2004, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order for the semi-final and Finland was set to open the show and perform in position 1, before the entry from

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. At the end of the semi-final, Finland was not announced among the top 10 entries in the semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Finland placed fourteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 51 points. The semi-final and the final were televised in Finland on

with commentary in

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

Markus Kajo Markus Aarni Erämies Kajo (born 7 December 1957 in Isojoki) is a Finland, Finnish reporter, screenwriter and TV show host. He has appeared on Yleisradio, YLE TV2 in shows such as ''Ihmisen käsikirja'', ''Markus Kajon ruudunsäästöohjelma'', ' ...

and Asko Murtomäki. The three shows were also broadcast on YLE FST with commentary in

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

by Thomas Lundin as well as via radio with Finnish commentary by Sanna Pirkkalainen and Jorma Hietamäki on

. The Finnish spokesperson, who announced the Finnish votes during the final, was Anna Stenlund.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Finland and awarded by Finland in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Estonia in the semi-final and to Sweden in the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Finland

Points awarded by Finland

References

External links

*
Full national final on Yle Elävä Arkisto
{{Eurovision Song Contest 2004

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...