Okay oooone more Cha Cha Cha post. 'Cause have we talked about stuff about that song that I recognize that could never come through to an international audience?
He's from Vantaa. I grew up there in a different time, it's a working class area.
Finnish ballroom culture leans heavily on Latin American dances, and cha cha is one especially associated with fun and parties in a kind of an uncool way, like a conga line, which the act also references.
Finnish drinking culture is drinking too much. Finnish party culture is also drinking too much. You wanna have fun, get prepared for alcohol poisoning.
Finnish songs tend to be sad or angry. Ballroom songs are sometimes the exception, though they can be melancholy too. Finns are kind of stiff and keep their problems to themselves, and Finnish masculinity means showing anger and competitiveness and being funny and clever, but hiding gentleness or vulnerability or need or anything too queer. It's the opposite of Latin heat, it's Nordic chill.
The way to break this is through getting shitfaced. That's what the song is about. You have locked yourself up inside yourself, all your rage and your gentleness have been held in check, you can't take another minute of it, but you know now you can drink. And you drink until finally the rigidity releases its hold. You are free. You are gentle. You are happy. You're not afraid of this world anymore.
The ugliness of the costume, the kind of a comedic reference to Latin culture is not, like, a pisstake on Latin music, but a reference to the bland imitation of it in Finnish ballroom culture. He is mocking himself and his own awkwardness and the specific culture he comes from (I could even say specifically Vantaa), while addressing this experience of being locked inside yourself, needing to drink so it will be socially acceptable or possible for you to defy that which is expected of a Finnish man.
It's not cringe if you were plastered. And when you're plastered, you're brave enough to be cringe.
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