#esc 2007

On December 12th, 2024 the fourth edition of the Het Grote Songfestivalfeest (The Big Eurovision Party, a concert featuring past Eurovision contestants) was held.

During the event, 2007 contestants Marija Šerifović (winner, Serbia) and Verka Serduchka (2nd place, Ukraine) met again for the first time in 17 years.

Verka Serduchka posted about the encounter on Instagram saying:

"My dear Marija! We haven’t seen each other for 17 years! And you were the one I’ve been looking to meet in Amsterdam! We invite you to celebrate 20th anniversary! Everything’s on us!"

[Sources]

YLE went for a mix of ice and fire for this year's extra performances. The semi-final was given over to dance troupe Tsuumi together with the Finnish Vocal Ensemble and operatic soloist Johanna Rusanen.

The opening played into this year's slogan with a mix of fantastical characters entertaining a little girl. This included a variety of circus tricks, stunts and accordions plus a lot of tango - Finland is very big on tango.

The dancers and musicians came back for the interval act, this time for a longer piece portraying the courtship and marriage of a dancer and a guitarist accompanied by opera and a choir.

To break-up the running order and to give some space for ads where relevant, there were some, now traditional, Eurovision short pieces showing the arrival of the performers and delegations at the airport, as well as several backstage shots from rehearsals. It gave time for the hosts to engage in a little bit of flirty back and forth including introducing our backstage host, Krisse Salminen who was initially credited as Eurovision fan who happened to have front-row seats.

For the final only Lordi would do - and they opened the show with more pyro than could ever comfortably fit in the arena. It was an explosive rendition of Hard Rock Hallelujah north of the Arctic Circle, pursued by demons over glaciers and through frozen woods in the depths of a Finnish winter.

Cut to the area, and there they are on stage performing the last chorus to the audience again with as much pyro as they could get past the health & safety teams. Lordi's reception by the crowd demonstrated not only how popular they had become in Finland, but also how popular their win had been among the wider Eurovision community. There was a palpable sense of excitement and enthusiasm as the final chords played.

For the interval, YLE continued with the big names. They had Apocalyptica (great name), a cello quartet who got their start with neo-classical cover versions of Metallica hits. They'd been touring Europe since the start of the decade only becoming more popular with their huge shows filled with drama to big audiences.

They were also popular in Germany as evidenced by them taking part in the 2005 Bundesvision Song Contest representing Baden-Württemberg and finishing fifth.

Among them were a number of circus artists including trapeze artists, acro-balance, tumblers, bike stunts and a man in a big rubber ball. Apocalyptica played a medley of three of their own hits albeit without singing.

During the main-show there were the usual cuts away, with more green room chats plus roving reporter Krisse went outdoors to see the crowds absolutely filling Helsinki's Senate Square in front of the Cathedral - it was rammed full, with tens of thousands of Finns having the nights of their lives.

Finland were truly loving hosting Eurovision and their moment in the spotlight. Scenes like this would only help the EBU smile and build Eurovision's size and importance in year's to come. 2007 is the year the growth of the good vibes and scale of Eurovision took on entirely new proportions. It felt good.

The year after Finland won Ukraine came 2nd despite being the publics favourite

Now the year after Ukraine won Finland came 2nd despite being the publics favourite

To dance or not to dance