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 at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2008 The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Belgrade, Serbia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović. Organised by the European Broadcas ...

with the song "Missä miehet ratsastaa" written by

Jarkko Ahola Jarkko Kalevi Ahola (born 24 August 1977, in Toijala) is a performing artist, a composer and a singer. He is the vocalist and bass player and one of the three songwriters of the band Teräsbetoni. He is also a member of a Finnish symphonic met ...

. The song was performed by the band

Teräsbetoni Teräsbetoni is a Finnish Heavy metal music, heavy/power metal band. Their first album, ''Metallitotuus'', was released in 2005 and has so far sold more than 32,000 copies. Teräsbetoni has been strongly influenced by bands such as Manowar. The d ...

. 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) organised the national final ''Euroviisut 2008'' in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2008 contest in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, Serbia. 12 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of three semi-finals, a Second Chance round and a final, taking place in February and March 2008. Eight entries ultimately competed in the final on 1 March where votes from the public selected "Missä miehet ratsastaa" performed by Teräsbetoni as the winner. Finland was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 20 May 2008. Performing during the show in position 16, "Missä miehet ratsastaa" was announced among the 10 qualifying entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 24 May. It was later revealed that Finland placed eighth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 79 points. In the final, Finland performed in position 8 and placed twenty-second out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 35 points.

Background

Prior to the 2008 contest, Finland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-one times since its first entry in 1961. Finland has won the contest once in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

with the song "

Hard Rock Hallelujah "Hard Rock Hallelujah" is a song by Finnish hard rock band Lordi. It was released as a single in 2006, reaching the 1 spot in Finland and reaching the top 10 in eight other European countries. In the United Kingdom, the song peaked at No. 25. L ...

" performed by

Lordi Lordi () is a Finnish hard rock/ heavy metal band, formed in 1992 by the band's lead singer, songwriter and costume maker, Mr Lordi (Tomi Petteri Putaansuu). In addition to their melodic metal music, Lordi are also known for wearing monster ma ...

. In the 2007 contest, Finland automatically qualified to the final as the host nation where "Leave Me Alone" performed by

Hanna Pakarinen Hanna Helena Pakarinen (born 17 April 1981) is a Finnish pop and pop-rock singer who rose to fame as the winner of the first series of the Finnish singing competition '' Idols'' in 2004. Since then she has represented Finland in the Eurovision S ...

placed seventeenth. 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 2008 Eurovision Song Contest on 2 July 2007. 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 also announced that the Finnish entry for the 2008 contest would be selected through the ''Euroviisut'' selection show.

Before Eurovision

Euroviisut 2008

''Euroviisut 2008'' was the national final that selected Finland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. The competition consisted of three stages that commenced with the first of three semi-finals on 8 February 2008, followed by a Second Chance round on 1 March 2008 and concluded with a final also on 1 March 2008. The three stages were hosted by

Eurovision Song Contest 2007 The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Helsinki, Finland, following the country's victory at the with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Lordi. Organised by the European Broadcasti ...

host

Jaana Pelkonen Jaana Pelkonen (born 27 January 1977) is a Finnish member of parliament and television presenter. Career Pelkonen's media career started as a radio presenter for ''Radio 99'' in Lahti in 1995–1997. She became famous in Finland as the host of ...

and

YleX YleX (formerly known as YLEX) is one of the major radio stations of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) featuring pop music and cultural programming. The station started as Radiomafia, and name changed to YleX in 2003. Programming targets the yo ...

DJ Mikko Peltola. 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 ...

, via radio on

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 ...

and online at ''yle.fi''.

Format

The format of the competition consisted of three stages: three semi-finals, a Second Chance round and a final. Four songs competed in each semi-final and the top two entries from each semi-final directly qualified to the final. The remaining two entries of each semi-final competed in the Second Chance round where an additional two entries qualified to complete the eight-song lineup in the final. The results for all three stages were determined exclusively by a public vote. Public voting included the options of telephone and SMS voting.

Competing entries

Twelve artists were directly invited by Yle to compete in the national final following consultation with record companies and presented on 15 November 2007. The entries competing in each semi-final were presented in preview programmes on Yle Radio Suomi on 4, 11 and 18 February 2008, respectively.

Shows

Semi-finals

The three semi-final shows took place on 8, 15 and 22 February 2008 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 ...

. The top two from the four competing entries in each semi-final qualified directly to the final based on the results from the public vote, while the remaining two entries advanced to the Second Chance round.

Second Chance

The Second Chance round took place before the final on 1 March 2008 at the

Kulttuuritalo Kulttuuritalo ( fi, Kulttuuritalo, sv, Kulturhuset) is a building in Alppila, Helsinki, Finland. The building was designed by Alvar Aalto, and is considered to be one of his main works. The building The building combines a concert hall, a ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

where the entries placed third and fourth in the preceding three semi-finals competed. The top two from the six competing entries qualified to the final based on the results of a public vote.

Final

The final took place on 1 March 2008 at the

where the eight entries that qualified from the preceding three semi-finals and the Second Chance round competed. The winner was selected over two rounds of public televoting. In the first round, the top three from the eight competing entries qualified to the second round, the superfinal. In the superfinal, "Missä miehet ratsastaa" performed by

was selected as the winner. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act featured

Aikakone Aikakone (Finnish for time machine) is a Finnish pop music group active from 1995 to 1998 and shortly in 2001 and 2003 as ''Aika''. In 2003, they changed their name back to Aikakone and have since been active on and off. Their debut album ''Täh ...

and 2007 Finnish Eurovision entrant

At Eurovision

It was announced in September 2007 that the competition's format would be expanded to two semi-finals in 2008. According to the rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the " Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top nine songs from each semi-final as determined by televoting progress to the final, and a tenth was determined by back-up juries. The

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2008, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals. Finland was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 20 May 2008. The running order for the semi-finals was decided through another draw on 17 March 2008 and Finland was set to perform in position 16, following the entry from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and before the entry from

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. The two semi-finals 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 ...

, Mikko Peltola and Asko Murtomäki. The three shows were also broadcast on

Yle FST5 Yle Fem (''Yle Five'') was Yle's Finland-Swedish national television channel, providing television programmes in the Swedish language in Finland. It was a public-service channel principally intended for Finland's Swedish-speaking minority. Crea ...

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

Mikko Leppilampi Mikko Johannes Leppilampi (born 22 September 1978 in Pälkäne, Finland) is a Finnish actor, musician, and TV host. He is the son of Jukka Leppilampi (born 1954), a Finnish gospel musician. Leppilampi is considered to be one of the most promisin ...

Semi-final

Teräsbetoni took part in technical rehearsals on 12 and 16 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 19 and 20 May. The Finnish performance featured the members of Teräsbetoni wearing various leather outfits and performing in a band set-up. The LED screens and stage lighting displayed white and red colours and the performance also featured several effects including smoke, fire and pyrotechnics. Two backing performers also joined Teräsbetoni on stage: Antto Tuomainen and Osku Ketola. At the end of the show, Finland was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Finland placed eighth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 79 points.

Final

Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine the running order for the final. This draw was done in the order the countries were announced during the semi-final. Finland was drawn to perform in position 8, following the entry from

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and before the entry from

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. Teräsbetoni once again took part in dress rehearsals on 23 and 24 May before the final. The band performed a repeat of their semi-final performance during the final on 24 May. At the conclusion of the voting, Finland finished in twenty-second place with 35 points.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Finland and awarded by Finland in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Norway in the semi-final and to Estonia 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 2008

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

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 ...