YLE will not pay for the songwriters behind “Monsters” to travel to Lisbon for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.
Aftonbladet reports that Linnea Deb and Joy Deb have been informed by the Finnish national broadcaster YLE, that they will not pay for the travel or accommodation of the songwriters to support Saara and their song in Lisbon.
The songwriters have stated that they do not feel like they have been valued by the Finnish broadcaster. With Linnea Deb commenting;
It was important to bring with us to Finland but now we were thrown out. I feel it’s so boring that authors have zero weight in a contest based on our work. It’s skewed.
Linnea who has previously written “Heroes” the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, added;
No, we’re not going to work with Yle again.
YLE has responded to the comments of the songwriters, explaining that they do not have a large enough budget for them to take every person as part of the delegation to Lisbon. In a statement Anssi Autio a Producer at YLE added;
I want to emphasize that we would very much like to have them. Songwriters should definitely be in place more than managers and promoters, as it is still so much. But this is also a collaboration with the record company Warner Music Finland and Saara’s team and we must take them into consideration when we decide who will be included in the delegation.
Saara will take to the Eurovision stage on 8th May for the first semi-final, where she will be performing in the second half of the show. Her participation follows two previously unsuccessful attempts to represent Finland at Eurovision. In 2011 she participated in Finland’s selection with Blessed with Love, and in 2016 she performed No Fear. Both songs finished in second place in their respective finals. In 2016, Saara also participated in the UK version of The X Factor, where she also finished in second place.
Source: Aftonbladet
Finland first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961, they debuted alongside Spain and Yugoslavia. Finland has finished last in the contest on 10 occasions and has received ‘nul points’ three times. It wasn’t until 2006 that Finland won the Eurovision Song Contest, Lordi represented the country in Athens with the song “Hard Rock Hallelujah” scoring 292 points a record total at the time. Finland last performed in the final in 2014 when Softengine finished 11th with the song “Something Better”.
