The 2015 Finnish entry, “Aina mun pitää” by punk band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, has divided Eurovision fans. Some aren’t feeling the band’s punk rock style, but it does have plenty of admirers (and not just the bookies). Many musicians have been inspired to record their own versions of the song. And if you think “Aina mun pitää” is weird, just wait till you hear the covers…
1. The acoustic version
Let’s ease into this and start with something pleasant. The video looks like someone dropped their phone on the floor, but it’s captured a gentle, folky version of “Aina mun pitää” by Finnish musician Tapani Kangas.
2. The lounge bar version
Twangy guitar and bursts of organ give this version by LautaJaska a laidback feeling, the sort of thing you’d expect to hear an ageing Elvis impersonator singing in a smoky lounge bar.
3. The American version
Detroit rock band The Seatbelts take inspiration from their Finnish brethren and perform a spirited cover of the song in English.
4. The electro twist version
This version by Neurobashing is has driving, industrial beats, taking “Aina mun pitää” into dark, spooky places.
5. The ukulele version
Finnish ukulele band UkEt made this version that mixes dinky ukuleles with the same growly PKN vocal attitude. They even manage to make their version shorter than the original, shaving four seconds off PKN’s 1:24.
6. The badly translated French version
Les Grands Buveurs Au Tonnelet claim to have created their French lyrics by putting PKN’s own English version into Google Translate. The result is the perfect soundtrack for a drunken afternoon in a French cafe.
7. The synth pop version
The Berlin-based electro maestro Surf Dancer turns “Aina mun pitää” into a highly danceable ’80s style synthpop track clocking in at an epic 3:23.
8. The busker version
Legendary British busker Danny McEvoy has been recording covers of this year’s entries and he gives an enthusiastic rendition of “Aina mun pitää”, even singing the Finnish lyrics.
9. The black metal version
Of course a song from Finland is going to spawn a black metal cover. Here’s Lucifer Valonkantajan Tuomiopäivä rocking out in a cosy suburban living room. The video features a cute cat.
What do you think of these covers? Would any of them do a better job for Finland in Vienna? Or does it make you appreciate PKN’s original version more?
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I love The Seatbelts version so I really recommended this… I appreciate that other covers and original (except The Seatbelts) are turned to be the worst covers as well original (which I’m disappointed this Finnish band that really felt blind) so The Seatbelts really too much Detroit sound in this cover of “Aina mun pitää” and I love it.
If Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät will lose in first semi-finals, then it will turn to be one of the worst Eurovision songs ever!
I like the Ukulele version & love the Electro Twist version.
The song will remain bad… in every launguage, every music style and every artist. Fuck you Finland :/ I could live with the other 17 acts of the UMK, except this one… 0/10.
Sensational work, Robyn! My fave is the Berlin Synth version. I’m re-posting this to our Aussie ESC Fan Club page!
BTW … forgot to mention … Thanks for this article Robyn! Shared on Facebook.
LMAO “Je suis le faire” YESSSSSSSSS
The accoustic version is great!! SEND THAT VERSION NOWWWW
At least the song is now memorable among Finnish people. Look at the impact just by discovering how many covers it currently had.
The “time signature” thing in the chorus is just a reversion to the tonic (I) chord on the off-beat, earlier than one would ordinarily expect – a very in-your-face (dare I even say “punk”) flourish in an otherwise pretty straight-ahead rock number. Easily done once one figures it out and rehearses it a bit. I suspect our cover artists here just chose not to do it. (The black metal band doesn’t do it either.) That aside, the chord structure of AMP, while fairly typical punk, still happens to be one of the most complex in the entire Contest this year.… Read more »
Ok, wut, if I may adjust my statement: I doubt that any other ESC 2015 entry has 9 covers — in such a wide variety styles — so far, indicating something about AMP has captured some people’s (not everyone’s) imagination. No criticism of ‘Heroes’ was intended: it’s a worthy frontrunner, and it’ll be very interesting to see how things pan out.
horrible horrible song
why do you have to compare everything to Heroes? It has plenty of covers on YT and soundcloud, it’s trending on iTunes and spotify so that argument of your is invalid. The fact that people like to cover Aina Mun Pitaa is because there’s no way they could be worse than original.
Ok, I didn’t quite get the 12 points. But I heard enough of each to notice that none of them (except maybe the last one?) had attempted to replicate the very tricky time signature of the original AMP-‘chorus’, which is one of the things that intrigues me each time I hear the PKN version. It indicates to me that the song is no push-over, from a technical musical perspective. And I doubt there are 9 covers of ‘Heroes’ out there yet …