On 6 May, we came together with over a dozen Eurovision acts and hundreds of fans for the first of our two Wiwi Jam nights at Euroclub in Kyiv. Meanwhile, more than a thousand kilometres north, Finland’s Softengine were bidding adieu to longtime member Henri Oskár.
The group broke the somewhat sad news over Facebook at peak Eurovision madness, so it’s only now that many fans are becoming aware of Oskár’s departure. But rest assured, the remaining lads — Topi Latukka, Ossi Mäkelä and Tuomo Alarinta — have vowed to continue on as a trio.
Here’s what they had to say.
Times change! Softengine is a trio from now on. Henri's vision of the coolest music drifted into a different direction…
Posted by Softengine on Saturday, May 6, 2017
Times change! Softengine is a trio from now on. Henri’s vision of the coolest music drifted into a different direction than ours, so together we decided to take different paths. We didn’t want to limit the growth of either musical vision. Henri will continue with his own projects that you’ll hear more in the future and we are making new music full time.
Henri shared similar sentiments when he posted to Instagram a day later, reassuring his followers that this wasn’t sad news.
If you missed the news, I’m no longer in Softengine. This isn’t sad news, but it’s going to be different. I’ll try to collect my thoughts on the subject to Snapchat today. If you’re interested, find me @henrioskr. Bottom line, I’ll never stop doing music!
Softengine first rose to fame when they won UMK 2014 with “Something Better”. And this is actually the second time a member has quit Finland’s most successful Eurovision act since Lordi.
Mere months after Copenhagen, Eero Keskinen packed in the rockstar life and sought pastures new as a sound technician. His leaving did little damage to the group’s success and they went on to release a slew of hit singles.
Speaking to Soundi late last year, the band shared some details about their as yet unnamed upcoming album. It will be their third collection of songs after the 2014 album We Created The World and 2015’s From Earth, From Ashes, From Dust EP.
Asked to describe it in just three words, Topi says “foggy, rock, brilliant”.
It’s currently unclear how the line-up change will impact on the record.
What do you think of the news? Are you sad to see Henri leave? And can Softengine continue to enjoy success as a trio? Let us know in the comments below.
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Crap. 🙁 I was looking forward to the possibility that they might attempt another shot at the ESC, with Finland now in a slump. But it doesn’t look promising at all, after having lost 2 members since 2014. They lose one more, it’s over, unless get get replacements.
With this new voting system, they would’ve been in the Top 10 in 2014.
Ruth Lorenzo would’ve flopped though.
I loved their music, they seem nice too. As long as Topi keep on singing it’s okey for me! ‘The Sirens’, ‘Something Better’ and ‘Free Rider’ are their coolest song, in case someone wants to take a listen…
I love this band (now trio) so much, they have such great music, Im even nkt a fan of rock , but their music is just great, we must see more of this kind of rock and not Ukraine 2017…