Lordi and Finnish Musical Madness

Lordi from Finland: this is what harsh weather conditions and light deprivation do to our complexion (the axe is reserved for such little late-night snacks as music critics).

I'm not a fan of Lordi's Kiss-inspired hardrock myself, but I think it was a great prank to send this pizza-faced heavy metal devil with his plastic armour and battleaxe and his similarly-attired cohorts to the Eurovision Song Contest, this traditionally sad campy Pan-European fest of plastic starlets and lame disco anthems. And lo and behold: the scam worked out even bigger than anyone could expect, Lordi winning with 292 points, the highest total in the whole Eurovision history.

This could only lead to the inevitable conclusion that maybe it's time people, record company executives and media, understood that international audiences find interest in Finnish music only with those local artists who are something else than mere copycats of current musical trends and fashions. Think for example about such people as Pan sonic, Jimi Tenor, Kemialliset Ystävät (and all that "New Weird of Finland" stuff, even though I just expressed being less than enamoured about all of it), Cleaning Women, Eläkeläiset or Mieskuoro Huutajat: whether you were into them or not, they are all personal and different acts with their own idiosyncratic styles positively representing that unique Finnish madness.

Of course Lordi's success is connected to that of Finnish metal in general (HIM, Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Stratovarius, Amorphis, etc.): that's not my cup of tea either, but maybe another indication of Finnish music being more on its own when we are not trying send abroad any lame Madonna/Britney/Shakira/Christina/R&B clones or bloodless Britpop copyist bands as it has happened in the past. Our neighbouring Swedes understand better than us the secrets on how to produce and internationally market slick and easily digested pop acts (such as Abba or Roxette), so I think music-wise we'd better concentrate on our unique world-champions-of-sitting-in-the-piss-ants'-nest madness instead.