Eurovision kicks off with Ukraine favourites, and Finland sending The Rasmus

Vocalist Lauri Ylönen stated the band he fronts, The Rasmus, have a superb likelihood of bringing Finland to the Eurovision Song Contest finals, including that he would vote for Ukraine’s entry to “show that we stand together.”

Finland’s Eurovision hopes this 12 months relaxation on The Rasmus, one of many nation’s most internationally profitable bands which have offered some 5 million data over almost three many years, however their lead singer says that he personally would vote for Ukraine.

Ylönen stated assist for Ukraine would present “that we stand together.”

In the nationwide heats again in February, referred to as the New Music Contest (Finnish acronym UMK), they have been the favourites from the beginning.

That’s not shocking: The band’s Facebook web page has virtually a million followers and their greatest hit single, ‘In the Shadows,’ launched in 2003, lately breached 100 million performs on Spotify.

Ylönen instructed Yle News that they determined to compete at Eurovision as a result of followers stored asking them to.

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“That planted the seed in our minds. Ten years ago I thought there was no way we’d ever compete with our music and our art, you know? But this has been fantastic,” he stated, including that the character of the competition has modified for the higher.

“It’s become a bit more serious of a platform. Also, in Finland it’s huge,” he stated.

In scripture, Jezebel is portrayed as a assassin and prostitute, amongst different issues, and sometimes called the Bible’s “bad girl.”

“She’s kind of this vicious woman, a very bad person but at the same time attractive, beautiful and dangerous, so that was the inspiration,” Ylönen defined.

“But we only stole her name, and sort of brought it into the modern world and it’s more about an independent person. In the song, she’s a woman but I find myself to be a Jezebel as well.”

“For us, it’s the concept of a person who makes decisions in life that might not be the safest ones — just trying to be an artist in this world is hard, you have to try really hard and it still might not work,” he stated.

There is a few heavyweight expertise behind the band on this, with Ylönen’s pal and former Rasmus collaborator, US songwriter and producer Desmond Child, serving to out.

Since 1979, Child has produced, written and co-written pop and rock tracks with teams and artists together with Kiss, Aerosmith, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez and Bon Jovi.

The veteran producer labored with The Rasmus on their 2008 launch, Black Roses, an album that reached the highest of Finnish charts, and peaked at quantity 13 on the UK rock album chart.

“Desmond is the man behind the hits, especially in the 80s and 90s. He’s one of my idols in music,” Ylönen stated.

After struggling with a year-and-a-half of pandemic-related isolation and restrictions, Ylönen stated he was very glad with the ability to get out to work once more.

“After Covid, I was so glad to have dates marked on my calendar. Since last summer, I have had a goal, I’ve had focus. We’re going somewhere.”

“When Covid hit, I was lost, I really felt sick, mentally and physically, you know? But then there were other negative things like when our guitarist Pauli quit the band and everything went really down the tubes for a while,” he revealed, referring to the resignation of founding member Pauli Rantasalmi, who had performed with the band since they have been children.

The band introduced Rantasalmi’s departure at the start of this 12 months, saying that he had been changed by Emilia ‘Emppu’ Suhonen, a guitarist who began her music profession as a member of 90s teenage lady group, Tiktak.

After deciding to strive for Eurovision, writing ‘Jezebel’, and then getting Suhonen into the combo, Ylönen stated the whole lot modified for the higher.

“You know, the song was actually written before she joined, and it’s about this rebellious woman and then suddenly, Emppu became our guitarist — and she’s very Jezebel-like herself,” he stated. “Now that she’s in the band, it feels like she’s always been in it.”

In the run-up earlier than the semifinals, Ylönen recalled a particular second throughout a Eurovision pre-party occasion (siirryt toiseen palveluun) in Madrid, which was going down amid the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We were one of 30 acts from 30 different European countries in the same room, and it was so emotional because of the situation in Ukraine,” he defined, saying that he had blended emotions as they have been partying and enjoying whereas Ukraine was within the midst of conflict.

“It felt so sad, but kind of good at the same time — this is how it’s supposed to be, [we in Europe] have to support each other,” he stated, including that it felt just like the unity Eurovision has offered Europeans with over time felt much more vital now.

“Everybody will want to vote for Ukraine and they might win, and that’s fine. That’s something that I would do myself, that would feel good. I could show my love for them and show that we stand together,” he stated.

When knowledgeable that it appears that evidently Ukraine is certainly the favorite to win this 12 months, at the least in accordance with bookmakers, Ylönen didn’t appear terribly stunned.

“I haven’t checked the odds yet, you don’t recommend it?” he laughed sheepishly. “Well, they do know a thing or two.”

Even so, Ylönen stated he thinks his group has a superb likelihood of creating it to Saturday’s last.

“I would be really happy to get to the final,” he stated.

Following up on their Eurovision publicity, the band have been engaged on a brand new guide out this autumn.

“It was fun to write it, we would book a sauna and talk for three hours, going through the history, chronologically. It’s been very therapeutic and it gave me a lot of strength. One of the reasons I thought we should do the book was when Covid started and I thought ‘I need a therapist, I need an author that I can talk to.’ Going through my life and our adventures really made it feel like ‘wow, this [band] has to go on, this can’t be the end,” he stated.

“We’ve had a great, wonderful life and the book will have an interesting ending with the Eurovision [story] and Emppu as the new guitarist. It sort of feels like a new beginning for us in many ways. We feel stronger than in decades,” he stated.

The group can also be planning to launch a brand new album quickly and they’ve an intensive tour scheduled this summer time throughout Finland and then Europe and the UK within the autumn, one thing which Ylönen stated he’s eagerly wanting ahead to, as nicely.

The Rasmus is scheduled to carry out within the Eurovision Song Contest’s semi-final on Thursday.

Apart from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, all nations must qualify within the semi-finals’ top-10 to qualify for the ultimate.

All of the reveals, which will probably be broadcast dwell on Yle TV1 and Areena, start at 10pm, Finnish time.