Finnish broadcaster YLE has apologised to the songwriters of Saara Aalto’s Eurovision entry, “Monsters” and confirmed that they will travel to Lisbon with the Finnish delegation.
Yesterday, the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet reported that the songwriting team behind the Finnish song for Eurovision 2018 would not be joining the Finnish delegation in Lisbon. The situation has now been clarified and the team will be present to support Saara Aalto from the green room.
YLE’s Eurovision producer Anssi Autio provided the following statement:
“It’s great that the confusion has now been agreed. I am personally and on behalf of Yle really sorry about this unnecessary conflict. The international Eurovision organization imposes certain constraints on the size of the delegations, which is why Finland has generally not included the songwriters. However, I am glad that we have this issue resolved … The most important thing is that all the right people are on the move to encourage Finland to succeed
The songwriters of Monsters are the Swedish husband and wife pair Joy and Linnea Deb (also behind the Eurovision 2015 winner, Heroes) and the English musician Ki Fitzgerald.
Linnea Deb confirmed the agreement with YLE via Twitter:
Getting closer to an agreement with YLE. The Deba will be in Lisbon, don’t worry, it’s alright. We’re not busy, busy, busy doin’ nothin’ at all. You are our heroes. ????????❤️
— Linnea Deb (@linneadeb) April 16, 2018
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: YLE
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
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”.
