Note: I wrote this post for another blog (that is now dead) sometime ago. Since the Eurovision Song Contest is being held today I thought I’d repost it here.
In 2006 Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest with Hard Rock Hallelujah. This year Finland brings heavy metal back with Teräsbetoni performing the song Missä miehet ratsastaa (Where the Men Ride). Therefore, the news that Teräsbetoni will be Finland’s entry this year is potentially fantastic but, at the same time, I don’t see them being able to do what Lordi did.
Why you ask? Because Lordi had the competition sewn up just by showing up. Lordi wasn’t competing against any other act. Lordi was a band that competed in hilarity with the Eurovision Song Contest itself. Heavy metal worked for Lordi in the Eurovision context because often times heavy metal in itself is ridiculous but is still performed with the kind of earnestness that the usual run-of-the-mill Eurovision fodder cannot reach. Lordi felt authentic and fun in the middle of the banality that is the Eurovision Song Contest. Yes, the Comedy Gods truly smiled on Finland that year.
Teräsbetoni does have the potential to duplicate what Lordi did but there are some serious problems. What they do have is the same heavy metal ridiculousness that Lordi had. Lyrics to Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah had terms like Rockoning and Arockalypse. Complete silliness. In the same vein Teräsbetoni’s song Missä miehet ratsastaa has lines like these (kindly translated by matahalt in the comments to the Youtube video you’ll find at the end of this post):
where the men are riding
there ain’t no place for sheep to dine-in
The lyrics + heavy metal + deadpan delivery = comic gold. That’s a winning formula. However, that’s not the formula Teräsbetoni is going to be following in the actual competition. They’ve made it clear that they will only be performing in Finnish and that, in my opinion, is going to hurt them. Europe will not be getting the full Teräsbetoni experience and therefore, I’m afraid, Europe will not be getting Teräsbetoni.
With Lordi the sense of fun was obvious; it was pure in-your-face silliness. With Teräsbetoni it’s harder to get in on the joke.
Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah (Oh, Youtube has done that “embedding disabled by request” thing. You’ll have to follow this link)
Teräsbetoni’s Missä miehet ratsastaa: