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Finland’s Norma John releases Blackbird on stage

30 April 2017 at 16:32 CEST
Finland rehearsals Andres Putting
It has been two months since Norma John from Finland won the national final UMK — a wait that has felt like eternity: "Finally we are here and we are super eager to get up on stage," Lasse Piirainen, one of the group's members, said before the rehearsal.

Finland brings an emotional break-up song performed by Norma John to the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. The duo consists of pianist Lasse Piirainen and vocalist Leena Tirronen, who also wrote and composed the song.

"Let's get this performance rolling"


From the moment Norma John entered the venue on Sunday afternoon, they were  eager to take  the stage. "We want to go up on stage, get the sound right and get the performance rolling," Lasse Piirainen said to Eurovision.tv. 

Speaking of which — staging reminds a lot like the Finnish national selection. But for the Eurovision Song Contest they wanted to scale up, to make it even more touching and catch viewers' attention.

Both Lasse and Leena have a special relation to the piano solo: "I love the piano solo. It kinda makes the song,"  Leena said.

"It went very smoothly"

The two singers felt good after their first rehearsal: "It went very smoothly and our wish to scale up the performance is going in the right direction," said Lasse.

The group considers the Eurovision Song Contest more than just a competition. They believe music unites people and that this is one of the key values of the competition: "The slogan Celebrate Diversity is a beautiful thing. Because everybody should be able to be themselves and have the courage to do what they want in life," Lasse said..

From snow to the sun

Finland has a clear goal for this year: To reach the Grand Final. "We weren’t in the Grand Final the previous two years, so now we really want to be there," Leena said. 

Meanwhile, the duo hopes to get to see more of Kyiv. "It’s such a beautiful city. When we left Finland it was snowing, so coming here to the sun is wonderful."

Finland will rehearse again on Thursday, 4th of May, and will perform in the first Semi-Final on Tuesday, 9th of May.