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MTV Europe Music Awards 2023: Which Eurostars are nominated for the awards?

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The nominations have beeen announced for the MTV’s Europe Music Awards, which is the European version for MTV’s American Music Awards. Taylor Swift tops the list with the most nominations (seven), followed by Olivia Rodrigo and SZA with six nominations. Next on the list to claim the most awards are Måneskin (winners of Eurovision 2021) with four nominations.

Apart from Måneskin, there are more Eurostars being nominated than any other year, proving that the Eurovision Song Contest is strongest and the most artistically influential contest in the world.

The candidates are:

  • Måneskin (Italy 2021) as Best Group, Best Rock, Best Live, Best Italian Act
  • Sam Ryder (United Kingdom 2022) as Best Push Artist
  • S10 (Netherlands 2022) as Best Dutch Act
  • Noa Kirel (Israel 2023) as Best Israeli Act
  • Alessandra (Norway 2023) as Best Scandinavian Act
  • Käärijä (Finland 2023) as Best Scandinavian Act
  • Loreen (Sweden 2012,2023) as Best Scandinavian Act
  • Gjon’s Tears (Switzerland 2020,2021) as Best Swiss Act

It’s worth noting that for the first year, a Eurostar managed to be nominated in four categories, just as for the first time three Eurostars are nominated in the same category to claim the Best Scandinavian Act Award.

Apart from Eurostars, some artists who previously participated in the National Final to represent their country in the contest also have their honor. More specifically, in the category of Best Italian Act together with Måneskin, the candidates are: Annalisa (Sanremo 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021), Elodie (Sanremo 2017, 2020, 2023) and Lazza (Sanremo 2023).

The MTV EMA’s 2023 will be held on Novenber 5th at Nord Villepinte in Paris, France. The award ceremony will be broacast live on MTV.

You can cast unlimited votes for your favorite artists at the MTV EMA’s 2023 by clicking here, voting will last until October 31st at 11:59pm CET.

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for more news on your favorite Eurostar!

Finland: Tampere will host UMK 2024!

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Tampere will be the host city for Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2024.  Finnish national final for Eurovision will go bigger.  Next year the city of Tampere will host the show on Saturday 10 February, 2024 at Nokia Arena where we will get to know who will be Käärijä’s successor.   So far Yle has received a total of 419 song submissions for the final but only seven entries will make the cut.

The Contest for New Music UMK has become a real music institution, which absolutely deserves a much bigger venue. Turku has been such an amazing UMK city for so many years – we’re very grateful for that. This year, the UMK train is heading north, and I think that Tampere and Nokia Arena are the perfect venue for a major Eurovision event. Now’s the time for a really big show and a Eurovision atmosphere that will blow the roof off! Villé Villen, Yle creative director

UMK24

UMK 2024 Grand final will take place in Tampere with the tickets going on sale on Thursday 5 October, 2023 at 8 am CET.  The announcement of the seven finalists will start on Wednesday January 10, 2024 and their songs will be released one at a time starting the next day.

According to Yle’s team for UMK this year selection was much harder since “the standards are historically high” making it more difficult to decide which acts will participate:

“It’s amazing to see how Finnish artists and songwriters, from newcomers to national favourites, are all jumping into the UMK fray. This year, we’re seeing what has to be the all-time best group of entries, which will end up being a truly sensational final seven. Among the finalists we have a talented artist’s first 90s-style dance song, a power song by a true vocal talent, perhaps the best song of an indie favourite’s career, two big name performers doing a surprising duo with a serious refrain, a thunderous rock anthem by a world-touring band, a seriously intense song from one of the most listened-to artists in Finland, and a hard-hitting club banger by a well-known artists making a comeback. This year, viewers will be getting an extremely high-energy UMK in an even bigger arena!” Tapio Hakanen, Chair of UMK jury

UMK Schedule

6:00pm UMK kickoff party

Nokia Arena doors and services open

Eurovision Disco (1st and 3rd floor)

YleX Street (5th floor)

8:30pm Audience must be seated in the arena

8:30pm-9:00pm UMK24 Preshow

9:00pm-11:00pm UMK24 Show

11:00pm-3:00am UMK after party

Eurovision Disco (1st and 3rd floor)

YleX Street (5th floor)

 

Käärijä finished in second place at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 winning the televote.  This makes him the most successful Finnish representative since Lordi’s victory.

Source: Yle

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Finland: Käärijä releases “It’s Crazy It’s Party”

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Today Käärijä has released the music video for his latest single “It’s Crazy, It’s Party”, a song inspired by his iconic catchphrase that he used to describe his Eurovision Song Cha Cha Cha.

Käärijä is collaborating with Estonian rapper Tommy Cash.  Not only that, the Eurovision 2023 runner-up is currently working a new music album planned to be released next year.

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for more news about Käärijä and the Eurovision Song Contest 2024!

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Finland: UMK 2024 kicks in!

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The search for Käärijä’s successor has begun!

Today the Finnish national final for Eurovision 2024, Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) started.  Finnish  broadcaster Yle, has opened their call for artists to submit their entries for the 2024 national final.  Interested artists can apply for a spot at the UMK Final from August 21 at 8:00 EET to 24 August 2024 at 23:59 EET

The application form is available in the following link in English, Swedish and Finnish together with the rules of the contest.

UMK 2024

A panel of music professionals headed by Tapio Hakanen, Head of Music at YleX will review the submitted entries and filter them down to make the final list of competing candidates.

“UMK’s status proves that a large percentage of the biggest Finnish music phenomena and hits have come from none other than this open call for song entries. UMK is not just the preserve of big-name artists or recording companies – every year, we also see many incredible indie artists and artists from small recording companies. We’ll soon see who will be Finland’s next Erika Vikman, Blind Channel, BESS, KUUMAA or Käärijä. It’s all about the song – so now’s the time to apply!”

The Finnish national final UMK 2024 will take place in February 2024.  The dates, host city as well as the competing candidates will be revealed in the next couple of months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rS8Dv5g-8&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

Source: Yle

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Eurovision Cruise 2023: the biggest Eurovision cruise party returns!

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The Eurovision Cruise returns one more time after 2020.  The biggest post-eurovision party organized by OGAE Finland will last from Thursday August 24th until August 26th, 2023.

For many years fans all over Europe have enjoyed their favorite Eurovision artists while onboard of a cruise.  Unfortunately, the Eurovision cruise was cancelled in the past two years: in 2021 because of the Covid pandemic restrictions and in 2022 because the original cruise was destined to provide temporary accommodation in the Netherlands from 20 August 2022 for a period of seven months.

The 2023 will welcome fans in their journey from Helsinki to Stockholm and back.  During the journey fans will party with some of their favorite Eurovision acts.

The Artists

Thursday August 24th, 2023

  • Hanna Pakarinen

Hanna Pakkarinen represented Finland at the Eurovision 2007 held in Helsinki after Lordi’s victory with her song Leave Me Alone

  • Lindsay Dracass

Lindsay Dracass represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with her song No Dream Impossible.

  • Käärijä

Käärijä, probably the artist most of the fans are waiting for to perform during the Cruise does not require further introduction.  He represented Finland in Liverpool this year giving the Nordic country their second best result at the contest.

Friday August 25th, 2023

  • Robin Bengtsson

Swedish representative Robin Bengtsson took part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with his song I Can’t Go On

  • Slavko

Slavko represented Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with his song Space.  Although he did not make it to the final that year his song has become an all time favorite for Eurovision fans.

  • Gustaph

This year’s Belgium representative is bringing the vogue moves and the disco with his song Because Of You to the cruise.

Saturday August 26th, 2023

  • Uku  Suviste

Uku Suviste represented Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with his song The Lucky One.

Moreover, the Eurovision Cruise will have other side events including a Karaoke, a Drag Show and live music hosted by DJ  WERNERI, DJ FirstRANK and DJ QX-RONNY!

Here is the whole programme for the Cruise:

Source: OGAE Finland

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun to follow our coverage of the Eurvision Cruise 2023!

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Käärijä selects winner for tribute mural competition!

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Finnish Eurovision 2023 representative Käärijä has selected the artwork for a mural celebrating his music achievement in Liverpool.  The mural will get finished by the end of September in the city of Vantaa, Käärijä’s hometown.

The city of Vantaa commissioned a mural to honor Käärijä (real name Jere Pöyhönen) to honour the singer’s performance in Eurovision.  Käärijä won the televote and finished in second place at the Eurovision 2023, Finland’s second best result in the pan-European music festival.

Mural selection

Vantaa received several proposals for a mural which were later filtered to four candidates.  A public poll took place receiving more than 23,500.  Following this vote the best two proposals made it to the last stage of the process. Käärijä decided the winner from these two last proposals.  Artists Viivi Vierinen, Juha Lahtinen and Joonas Koponen designed the winning mural.

The painting of the mural will starton August 18, 2023.  The whole project costed around 20000 euros.

Source: Yle

Stay tuned at EurovisionFun for all the latest news about Käärijä and Finland’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024!

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Loreen wins two ESC Radio Awards 2023

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The ESC Radio Awards 2023 has taken place.  From June 12-18, 2023 viewers, fans and followers had the opportunity to vote in the four different categories.

Loreen came out as the biggest winner of the awards, winning the “Best Song Award”, the most important category of the awards.  Käärijä from Finland and Marco Mengoni from Italy finished in second and third place respectively.  This increases the number of times Sweden has won this category to four.

These are the results of the ESC Radio Awards:

Best Song

Best Female Artist

 

Best Male Artist

Best Group

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2Fj0W4jP4&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

Source: ESC Radio

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Käärijä performed at the Flex Fest live from Tallinn!

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Käärijä performed live at the Flex Fest.  The summer festival takes place in Tallinn, Estonia.

The singer who finished in second place for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was celebrated by his fans and the attendants of the Flex Fest during his energetic performance.

 

The Flex Fest 2023 took place in Tallinn from June 16 to June 17, 2023.  20 artists performed during these two days.  The full list of performing artists included U.K. rapper Central Cee, Grammy winner Mura Masa and Swedish cult artist Bladee. Mikael Gabriel and Isac Elliot from Finland and Lithuania’s DJ Nevykele were also present.

Source: ERR

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Fans shipping for Käärijä/Bojan continues as the BFFs visit Finland!

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Käärijä and Bojan became friends during their Eurovision journeys.  The couple fans like to “ship” the most during Eurovision 2023 keep giving fanservice to the avid viewers.  And the fans are enjoying the content.  Based on the figures, social media has exploded during Bojan’s visit to Helsinki where he shared the stage with Käärijä and he even joined him during the “piggy train” dance

Böörijä

Fans have enjoyed so far the “shipping” between Käärijä and Bojan from Joker Out.  In fans circle shipping means pairing together two characters from reality or fiction and speculating about the possibility of them being a real couple.  The fans have coined the term “Böörijä” to refer to the friendship between Käärijä and Bojan Cvjetićan.

Both Käärijä and Bojan have contributed to the shipping publishing videos on Tiktok and Instagram of them teasing the fans.  In a recent Tiktok video we can see Käärijä and Bojan pumping a flamingo in a suggestive manner.  On an instagram story Käärijä and Bojan are watching Twilight together.

“This is you and me” Käärijä comparing himself and Bojan with Bella and Edward from the Twilight saga

The reaction from the fans has been positive.  Fans have liked this type of fanservice so far and have contributed creating their own video compilation of the fictional couple and even making fanfics.  According to Archive of Our Own, fans have created more than 190 Käärijä/Bojan fanfic stories.

It is important to point out however, that shipping between celebrities is a common practice that helps get engagement from the fans as a publicity stunt.  For instance, manager Gregor Zalokar shared a lot of the content created between Käärijä and Bojan.

 

Whether the Käärijä/Bojan bromance is a publicity stunt or not, the shipping helps the career of the lead singer from Joker Out and the Finnish rapper.  Just to cite an example, Joker Out has its most listeners in Helsinki according to Spotify stats.  Therefore, we can expect that the couple will continue giving their fans more fanservice.

Joker Out will announce their tour dates soon.  One can only speculate if Käärijä will have a special appearance during the Slovenian band tour!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LXlPviGiWc&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

Source: Yle

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Finland: City of Vantaa awards Käärijä with one year rent-free apartment

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Finland continues showing appreciation to their 2023 Eurovision representative.  Käärijä has become a music heroe after his Eurovision participation in Liverpool where he won the televote and overall finished in second place, Finland’s best result in the contest since 2006.

The city of Vantaa announced that it will award Käärijä with a rent-free apartment for one year.  The singer whose real name is Jere Pöyhönen, said previously that he would like to move back to Vantaa where he spent most of his childhood.

The city of Vantaa will give Käärijä a one year rent-free apartment as a recognition for Käärijä’s outstanding services to the City of Vantaa”.  Käärijä received the keys of his new apartment from the Deputy Mayor of the city’s urban environment unity in a special ceremony.

“Home in Vantaa always feels so much more like home” Käärijä

But the celebrations did not end there.  The city has commissioned the painting of a mural that will honor the Finnish representative for Eurovision 2023.  Käärijä was also awarded with “The Vantaa medal” for his achievements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6rS8Dv5g-8&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest

Source: Yle

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