eurovisionblog.com

After several weeks of speculation, it’s been announced that Eurovision 2007 will be held in the Finnish capital Helsinki. The Hartwall Areena, a major venue in the city which can seat up to 12,000 people, has been chosen to host the contest which next year will take place on May 10 (semi-final) and May 12 (final).

While we’re not in the least bit surprised that Helsinki has been chosen as the host city, it’s worth noting that Lordi’s victory was greeted with such huge enthusiasm back in Finland that cities were positively queueing up for the chance to host the contest. No less than seven put in a bid to stage Eurovision 2007, with other hopefuls including the southern towns of Tampere and Espoo, the city of Turku (regarded as the cultural capital of Finland) and Rovaniemi in Lapland (which also happens to be the birthplace of Mr Lordi himself).

Meanwhile, the dust has barely settled on the 2006 contest, the enthusiastic Scandinavian nations are already starting to think about their efforts for 2007! The Danish delegation has announced that their song for next year’s contest will be chosen on February 10 next year, while Sweden is already accepting submissions for Melodifestivalen 2007 – the national final at which the Swedish entry is chosen. Sweden’s broadcaster SVT has said that would-be entrants have until September 19 to submit songs – and you can find out more at their official website – that is, if you speak Swedish…..

We always knew that Lordi wouldn’t just disappear from memory after their Eurovision victory in Athens, and sure enough they’re now set to make their mark on these shores. The masked Finnish rockers will be touring the UK in October, with dates as follows:

October 26 – Nottingham Rock City
October 27 – Carling Academy Birmingham
October 29 – Manchester Academy 3
October 30 – The Garage, Glasgow
October 31 (Halloween!) – The Forum, London

Tickets are priced £10 except for the London date where they’re £11.50 and are on sale now from venues and most major ticket agencies.

Meanwhile, for those seeking a further fix of Lordi, their winning song Hard Rock Hallelujah is released on Tuesday – yes, that is 6/6/06. Having entered the charts this week at No 59 on download sales alone, the band stand a good chance of scoring a top 40 hit next week – and there’s every chance that they could become the first Eurovision winners to top the UK charts since Nicole did the honours in 1982. If they land themselves a chart-topper, we reckon they’ll become the first Finnish act to score a No 1 hit in the UK. That’s unless anyone can tell us otherwise…

In other Lordi news, we couldn’t help chuckling over the cover of Private Eye this week. Follow this link to see what we mean.