It's Jari! Hallelujah!

The highlight of the Schlagerboys' weekend in Finland was taking a train to Lahti to see Jari Sillanpää's Al Ritmo Latino show in the Sibeliustalo, even if when we got there it was just us, 1,000 middle-aged Finnish housewives and one or two bored-looking husbands.

We were a trifle concerned when the show started with three women standing centre stage and wailing at us meaningfully. Oh No! However we were reassured when the wailing turned in to "Copa Cabana", and on ran Jari, jiggling his bits about. How fab!

There was lots of Spanish sounding stuff and we started to wonder if we were going to get "Takes two to tango" at all. Jari finally managed to get the audience up and dancing when he did a Ricky Martin medley right at the end. He did lots of pirouettes and camped it up for the Mums, who clearly loved him. He then went off and we were keeping our fingers crossed for an encore of the one song we had travelled for two hours to hear, but when he came back on stage it was another Spanish song... Ho hum. Clearly Jari has moved on since 2004...
After the show we were escorted backstage by a burly Finnish security guard looking for Jari, who had promised us (via his manager) all the gossip on his 2009 Eurovision song... We found him chuffing on a cigarette just outside the stage door.

Jari told us that he was very excited when YLE asked him to take part in next year's Eurovision selection and immediately telephoned all the songwriters that he has worked with. He said he had a whole albums' worth of songs to choose from and that the one he chose in the end is wonderful. We asked him to describe the song and he got all wistful and tearful as he explained that it was the most beautiful song.... yes but has it got a key change, we interrupted. Jari didn't confirm the key change, choosing instead to explain in detail for about an hour about this fab song and how it is sung with three other singers in a quite "Slavic" way so we are taking that to mean no, it hasn't got a key change, then.

The Schlagerboys didn't like to say that actually the song sounds dead boring. However we did get a bit excited when Jari told us one of the writers was the one who wrote "Eläköön elämä" and "Sata Salamaa"! Oh MY God! There is hope for Finland after all!

We finished our conversation by thanking Jari for saving Finland from another year of guitary rubbish at Eurovision. However waily his song is, it can't be as bad as their last few efforts! he told us he was aware that the demographic at the Finnish Eurovision selection has changed and it's the young people nowadays who vote, which is why the guitar songs get in. But he hopes this year they will vote for him....

Then a fan arrived brandishing carrots. There was much celebration; apparently this mad fan always comes along to Jari's concerts and brings him carrots from her farm..... ahem. So we asked for a couple of photos and left him to it.How fabulous! Douze points to Jari for keeping the schlager front going in Finland, even if he is about to turn angsty lesbian on us in 2009. Get those wings back on, Jari! Give us schlager! We love you! Hallelujah!!