I love a classic Eurovision song. It’s the type that gets played at every Eurovision disco, and is still popular when all those flash-in-the-pan MF songs have come and gone.
Whether you’re a fan who’s new to the Eurovision genre, or if you’ve been watching since 1834, it’s these classic songs that keep us all going.
I’m sure we all have our favourites. For me, there are two diamonds from the 1980s that were actually written by the same duo. One of these songs came from the best contest ever – 1985 – and this duo’s other song came two years later when the EBU was living it up in Dublin. These songs were written by the geniuses Petri Laaksonen and Veli-Pekka Lehto.
Today’s birthday girl Virve Hannele ‘Vicky’ Rosti sang the 1987 vintage, and was robbed. Robbed robbed robbed. It should have done much much better, and is now a classic. How many songs that finished higher than 15th in 1987 can you still sing along too?
Vicky is 58 today.
Hyvää syntymäpäivää, Vicky!
I’ve loved this song since the ’87 contest, and in part started my interest in Finnish Eurovision Songs, the Finnish language, and Finland generally. Plus, I love snow!
When we decided to organise our first skiing holiday for last winter, and having spoken to friends who went to Ruka, Finland and liked it, I managed to persuade the wife to go there. In February of this year we spent a week in “Lapponia” (cue another song!) and we had a great time.
On our last full day, we drove snowmobiles for 10km to a husky farm where we drove a husky sledge and trap through the snowy wilderness. It was an amazing experience. Could the day get any better? Well, on the short transfer ride back from the snowmobile place to our resort, guess what came on the minibus radio… yep, that’s right!
By the way, I didn’t embarrass my wife or kids by singing “Vaik sata salamaa iskee tulta ja koko elämä räjähtää” at the top of my voice, don’t worry!