Eurovision’s Greatest Hits takes place in London on 31 March. The one-off concert will see a host of past Eurovision stars take to the stage to mark 60 years of the contest. While the show itself will be purely celebratory, we’ve decided to add a little competition to proceedings by ranking and reviewing all 19 Eurovision entries sung by the 15 confirmed acts. Today the Wiwi Jury— our in-house panel of musical unprofessionals — are transported back to Athens 2006 to witness the Arockalypse – that’s right, Finland’s first ever victory with Lordi and “Hard Rock Hallelujah”. Are we still digging the monsters nine years later? Read on to find out…

Anthony: Heavy metal wasn’t something you’d normally associate with Finland, but that all changed with Lordi. Their monster costumes looked so impressive, they’re complete shoo-ins for for best Halloween costumes. Considering Eurovision is normally made up of pop songs and ballads, the group really stood out.

Score: 8.5/10

Angus: You can’t dislike Lordi can you? “Hard Rock Hallelujah” was the paradigm shift that shook the contest loose of its cheesy Europop and monotonous power ballad image. It is still instantly recognisable and in a league of its own amongst the Eurovision winners. Lordi succeed in bringing out the rock groupies in us all!

Score: 9/10

Judit: The Eurovision Song Contest is a very special competition. In 1956 nobody thought that one day a group of monsters would win with a hard rock anthem. They’re weird and scary but I love them and the song. I’m not a rock girl but this is on my playlist. They deserved the victory and it was proof that ESC is not just about euro-pop.

Score: 9/10

Chris: Lordi should not have won Eurovision under any normal circumstance. They were a rock band singing a song called “Hard Rock Hallelujah”, accused in the media of satinism, dressed entirely in monster prosthetics. Yet they’re probably one of the best winners ever. Everything was just right in this performance. They embraced Eurovision and the fans embraced them: Conchita may have taught us to ignore the differences between us in 2014, but Lordi set the precedent in 2006. Who cares if they weren’t your typical Eurovision winner? They came and they conquered with what may go down as one of the best performances in ESC history.

Score: 10/10

Mikhail: I might not like metal, but I can’t deny that this song is something unique. The whole performance was well constructed, right down to every tiny detail. Lordi had everything in their song: melody, energy, and a great climax. All this, combined with the special effects and costumes, made for something unforgettable. It’s no surprise that they won.

Score: 8/10

Liam: Can’t say I like metal, but this is a whole different story. It was something unique, different, memorable. An amazing accomplishment considering that this is Finland we’re talking about!

Score: 10/10

Lordi Eurovision Scare Force One New Single Album 2014

Ramadan: Such an overrated winner. I remember watching them on SBS and they were just scary creatures giving me a headache. Didn’t deserve to win.

Score: 1/10

Patrick: Lordi – a name we all know. They were amazing, their staging, their song and their look. I’m not a fan of the genre but this all worked really well. And people didn’t just vote for the weird look, the song itself is brilliant. A great, memorable chorus and a stunning show. Finland’s first victory was much deserved!

Score: 8/10

Padraig: In a televote age dominated by throwaway pop and scantily clad girls and boys, Lordi broke the mould in more ways than one. They smashed all the perceived Eurovision formulas, they demolished the myth that the contest was lost to the East, and most importantly, they annihilated their competition. And beneath all this destruction and monster garb, they actually had a decent song. Change the lyrics slightly, sing in a less gruff tone, remove the masks and you have a great pop anthem. Don’t let the costumes fool you, this deserved to win.

Score: 8.5/10

Sami: Musically, it’s not the best Eurovision winner. But it’s by far the coolest one. Who would’ve thought in the ’90s that a monster rock band would win the whole contest? The song is catchy and the show is amazing, unique and memorable. I’m very proud that this came from my home country.

Score: 8/10

Lordi

 

All 17 members of our jury rate each song. However, we only have room to share 10 written reviews. Here are the remaining seven scores.

Denise: 4/10

James: 9/10

Josh: 8/10

Kristín: 9/10

Robyn: 9/10

Sopon: 10/10

William: 8/10

The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 1 and a high of 10.

THE WIWI JURY VERDICT: 8.4/10

SEE THE LATEST EUROVISION’S GREATEST HITS REVIEWS AND RANKINGS

YOU CAN READ ALL OF OUR 60TH ANNIVERSARY NEWS HERE.

 

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Alex
Alex
9 years ago

@Stu: Lmao. Yes, Lithuania were the winners. And a lot of people decided to VOTE (VOTE) VOTE (VOTE) VOTE FOR THE WINNERS!

I really like the studio recording of this song, and the composition is really well written. The live performance is totally acceptable in my book given the genre too – it’s supposed to sound that rough. It was a deserving winner.

Other great entries that year: Russia, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Croatia, and two epic joke entries in Lithuania and Iceland. If I recall correctly Bosnia & Herzegovina and Andorra were good too.

Anthony
Anthony
9 years ago

Yes WTF, Zlatan included for Sweden.

MF
MF
9 years ago

8.4/10 for this is a bit of an insult for other songs you’ve “judged”…

WTF
WTF
9 years ago

@Anthony: What about ZLATAN?

Anthony
Anthony
9 years ago

Elainovision & Britney,
When I written down the line “Heavy metal wasn’t something you’d normally associate with Finland”, I was referring to a possible general response from someone outside Finland when it comes to the country, which is more likely to be the likes of The Moomins, Lapland and Santa Claus rather than heavy metal. A bit like Sweden usually being associated with IKEA and Sven-Göran Eriksson aside from that classic group ABBA.

Tom
Tom
9 years ago

I love this song, but it’s not something one could call “hard rock”, let alone “metal”. Actually, I see it as something in-between ordinary rock and hard. Great winner anyway. They did a great job by taking Eurovision out of its comfortable ordinary plastic pop sphere.

Britney
Britney
9 years ago

Whaaaat? What are you thinking of Wiwibloggs? Finland wasnt’s something that you associate with heavy metal/hard rock? I’ve always considered Finland as the biggest hard rock fans in Europe.

brunowskii
brunowskii
9 years ago

Worst winner ever…. it’s not only the worst entry because Pertti Kurikan came this year to overcome them. Pure crap from Finland….

Mario
Mario
9 years ago

I really enjoyed this song….I might be not fan or hard rock music but i found this really cool…The video clip must have helped for sure.. Finland deserved to finish on high spot place in the Vision of 2006 but did not deserve to win though… It was a stollen victory from Carola and her gay anthem *Invincible*.. <3 The monsters won only because of their masks suits or else they would not had won without them… We had 100% televoting back then…If we had 50 / 50 the monsters would not had won either on this scenario as the… Read more »

Ian
Ian
9 years ago

If it weren’t for Lordi winning the contest, I might have never learned about Eurovision.
I remember reading about them winning the contest in RollingStone magazine and it peaked my interest enough to look it up and I was instantly hooked.

It’s just a shame that every single rock act that has followed has to be compared to Lordi.

Mark
Mark
9 years ago

I hate this song! Nothing more to say…

Mar
Mar
9 years ago

Heavy metal isn’t something you would normally asociate with Finland? Sure, maybe if you live under a rock and are completely ignorante of the european music scene.
Also, HRA is not a heavy metal song, it’s hard rock at most.

Elainovision
Elainovision
9 years ago

“Heavy metal wasn’t something you’d normally associate with Finland”

…which Finland are you thinking of? http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/17/finlands-heavy-metal-worship/?page=all

WTF
WTF
9 years ago

As a Romanian I have to say they definitely deserved to win, even though Tornero still is our best entry ever. Finland should send more stuff like Lordi and Terasbetoni.

PP
PP
9 years ago

My favorite before contest was Tornero from Romania. But stage presentatino ruin their chance to won that year.
For me better song than Finlad in final had Norway, Russia,Romania, Bosnia, Ukraine, Sweden,Turkey, Armenia, Greece
Deserved to go to final Belgium,Poland, Iceland, Estonia, Andorra who ruined their chance because of stage presentation.

PP
PP
9 years ago

They won only because we had 100 % televote .

brandus
brandus
9 years ago

My favourite song this year was Romania and Tornero. I also loved Everything and Never let you go.. I didnt like the song but the performance was great. I was also happy that Finland won for the very first time after 44 years…. receiving 12 points from countries such us UK, Poland and Greece also for first time.

Tom
Tom
9 years ago

It’s one of the worst hard rock songs ever.

Stu
Stu
9 years ago

I thought Lithuania were the winners that year?

Lars Olsen
Lars Olsen
9 years ago

Respect them, but they did NOT deserve to win! Norway should have won in 2006!!!!

Michael
Michael
9 years ago

They were different but good different