Finland sends dark and haunting ballad by Norma John
Finland haven’t managed to reach the top 10 of the Eurovision Final again after their win with Lordi’s ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’. In this year’s national final they selected the duo Norma John to change this. They will represent their country with the ballad ‘Blackbird’. Although there is quite a few ballads in this year’s contest, This one definitely stands out, but will that be enough to get the Nordic country back into the top 10?
Norma John’s ‘Blackbird’ certainly is one of the more quiet and subtle ballads in this year’s contest. The track is mainly based on piano with a few strings and singer Leena Tirronen has perfect control over her vocals, conveying heaps of emotion without oversinging at all. Lasse Piirainen’s piano solo in the middle eight is beautiful and might help to captivate the attention of the viewers. I am quite certain the juries around Europe will vote for ‘Blackbird’, but the question is if the people at home feel like voting for this quite dark, mysterious and haunting performance. A spot in the final should be within reach, but if they will make it to the top 10 of the final as well… We will have to wait and see what the mood of voting Europe will be like!
UPDATE – Review on semi final performance:
With Finland not qualifying, whe see the only real shocker in the results of the night. This dark and fragile ballad simply deserved a spot in the final. Ok, I admit, the song is not one of my personal favourites, but it is a well written composition and vocalist Leena gave a faultless performance. Even the bookmakers had no doubt about the Finnish entry reaching the final. Finland might have suffered from the fact that there were quite a few ballads in this semi final, but still this one was executed better than most. Was it too dark for Europe? Maybe a little too depressing? We might never know, but I am sure Norma John will be missed on stage on Saturday!
UPDATE – semi final result:
As it turns out, Finland was close to qualifying during the first semi final, but it was the juries, who kicked Norma John out. According to televoting, they finished in 10th position, but the juries put them in 12th position, giving them the 12th position all together.
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