Monster Glamour in EuroVision

Finland takes yet another hop to have success in EuroVision song contest. Finland's history has been rather comical for decades in that contest and we have placed as last and the second last, being drop out of the contest here and there, but there we go again. This time, bad success (if it so comes) won't be due to impersonal show, at least. We are sendind a heavy rock band Lordi, with tons of pyrotech and makeup.

Let's see what comes. Cyprus Broacasting Company (the local public tv) first made a decision not the broadcast the bands preview video, because it appears as anti-Christian, satanistic, and unsuitable for kids. Now they apparently will broadcast it, but do discuss about making the video viewing a late night show.

This is not only in Cyprus, I received a concerned email here in Finland, urging to join in a prayer chain to block the band's participation in the contest... because some don't feel comfortable being represented as Finns by something like that. Well, I think they should rather pray that someone they'll like will be contesting on the national level next year, and especially that they'd remember to vote in the national contest. My guess is that none of the chain members were too active in votes this time.

Anyway, what it comes to the band itself, I'm not sure whether they are that anti-Christian afterall - at least when compared to all the rest of the performers. What worries me in these reactions is that nobody said anything last year when Jari Sillanpää, a famous pop singer, sang "It Takes Two to Tango" and performed the show dressed in angel wings and a halo. The lyrics can be read here, (below in English, first in Finnish) and they don't appear to me as very christian either.

To my personal opinion, the monter aesthetics are part of the heavy rock culture and not more than that. There are lots and lots of openly christian, proclaiming rock bands that are into that stuff too, simply becuse they feel it's an impressive and cool thing to do. (I'm not into it very much, but I do enjoy Lordi's pyrotech... hopefully that'll be in the contest show) What it comes to Lordi's lyrics, they appear to me as romanticized gloom, and sort of horror glamour, or perhaps even anti-satanic as The Devil Is a Loser.

I'm not a great fan of Lordi, one because I don't like that monster stuff, two because their music does not impress me when it's apart from the show, and third i don't think preaching gloom works really well to bring light into the dark lives of many. But, in all of these someone may disagree with me.

But, as for now, I'm really looking forward seeing where they'll place in the contest. They do have a good fan base around europe which is going to be very active in voting, so in fact Lordi is having the best changes ever to broke the Finnish records since the jolly "tipitii, tipitipitipitii" song 20 years ago.

But, besides appreciating the burning hearts of praying Christians, I do hope that the christians either engage into the culture actively in these occasion, representing themselves as they feel comfortable through the artists they like, or then forget about these completely. The contests like this are about sending a text messages to the given numbers, not about praying God to intervene into something that we did not feel like intervening.