Finland convinces with folk power

The Finnish duo Kuunkuiskaajat are supported on stage by two male dancers who are also backing singers and one violinist. Susan is playing the accordion while having an illuminated stone in front of her. The two girls decided not to wear their final clothes for the big evening but the Finnish commentators hinted to Eurovision.tv that they will wear approximately the same colours as the clothing they had on today. The Finnish team created an infectious dance routine for their catchy song and they are using a large area of the Oslo stage. The whole performance is held in the Finnish colours blue and white and a wind machine with smoke effects is present in big parts of the song as well. Towards the end of the song, some shots from above the stage give the performance a dynamic touch.

Susan Aho and  Johanna Virtanen are the co-founders and members of the duo Kuunkuiskaajat.  Susan (36) started playing accordion at the age of 13. She has obtained a Master  of Music degree at the Sibelius Academy in the Folk Music Department. Susan is  not only a professional musician, but also a puppeteer. Currently she works at  the internationally renowned puppet theatre Sampo.  Johanna (33) started  her musical studies at the Central Ostrobothnian Conservatory in Kokkola. She  continued studying folk music and singing at the Sibelius Academy and her plan  is to obtain a Master of Music degree in the near future. Johanna is also a  professional vocal teacher. In addition, she plays harmonium, kantele and 2-row  accordion  Their Finnish entry is titled Työlki Ellää and is written and  composed by Timo Kiiskinen. It is influenced both by old Finnish poetic runo  songs and gypsy music. Part of the song is performed in the Karelian dialect,  which is spoken in Eastern Finland. The tongue-in-cheek title translates as “You  can also make a living by working (but it's business that makes you rich)."

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In their press conference, Kuunkuiskaajat made clear that everything in their performance went really well and that they were happy about what they saw in the viewing room. Their worst nightmare is to become really sick before the first Semi-Final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Susan and Johanna also revealed that they were very surprised about their victory in the Finnish national final. Työlki Ellää, they said, is a very folkish song in a very Finnish tradition. Asked about their personal favourite in the competition this year, the girls mentioned Serbia and added that their violin-player Maria is actually half-Serbian. Kuunkuiskaajat also found that their song this year has some similarities to the winner of last year's Song Contest, Fairytale by Alexander Rybak.

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