Back in January, Finnish broadcaster YLE announced that the iconic DJ and producer Darude would represent Finland at Eurovision 2019. Tonight the Finnish public and an international jury decided that Darude and vocalist Sebastian Rejman would perform “Look Away” in Tel Aviv.
Over the past month, the artists released their three collaborations, each potential entries for Finland at Eurovision 2019. The songs were performed live for the first time tonight.
“Release Me” is a strong, danceable EDM banger, “Superman” has a heartfelt message, while “Look Away” offered commentary on the troubled world we live in. And in the end, it was “Look Away ” that won.
The song was performed with Darude at a keyboard inside a giant three-side cube. The cube rotated and had LED panels on its exterior that showed visuals that alluded to the song lyrics, particularly with regard to climate change. An interpretive dancer performed on top of the cube, while Sebastian Rejman moved around the stage as he sang.
The results
The winning song was decided by a 50/50 televote and international jury vote. The jury was made up of Norway’s 2017 Eurovision hitmaker JOWST, Spanish Head of Delegation Ana Maria Bordas Julve, Czech Republic Head of Delegation Jan Bors, Swedish Eurovision songwriter Gabriel Alares, Irish Head of Delegation Michael Kealy, Danish Eurovision winner Emmelie de Forest, Eurovision 2019 head of events Tali Eshkoli, and representing the UK, wiwibloggs’ own editor-in-chief William Lee Adams.
It was a clean sweep for “Look Away”, with all the judges giving it their 12 points:
When the televote results came in, the public agreed. “Release Me” earned 19 points, “Superman” was on 73 points, while “Look Away” had a top score of 148 points.
“Look Away” was also a favourite with wiwibloggs readers. In a recent Wiwi Poll, 46.83% of readers selected “Look Away” as their favourite. The Wiwi Jury agreed, giving “Look Away” the highest score in the Wiwi Jury.
The show
Show co-host Krista Siegfrids opened the evening singing about cats while standing in front of a massive golden cat, taking inspiration from Netta’s staging in Lisbon. Then a children’s flute choir came on and played “Toy” as well as Darude’s 1999 international hit “Sandstorm”. Krista also performed a Finnish version of “Toy”. And that’s how you get a show started!
Emmelie de Forest also provided the interval act. She performed her Eurovision winning song “Only Teardrops”, with a slightly different arrangement to her 2013 winning act.
Darude’s two-decade career
Darude is best known for his 1999 instrumental trance single “Sandstorm”. The track was an international hit and charted around the world, including the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK singles chart.
In recent years, “Sandstorm” has found new life as an internet meme. Thanks to its popularity in gaming videos, this led to the development of a meme where any request for a song title gets the response Darude – “Sandstorm”. It looks like that wish has partly come true.
But there’s more than just that one single in Darude’s repertoire. The accomplished international DJ and producer has released four albums and numerous singles. With a career spanning over two decades, Darude remains a respected musical artist.
Sebastian Rejman
Sebastian is the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of the Finnish rock band The Giant Leap. The group were most active in the 2000s and the group released two albums. Rejmann also plays with his own band, Sebastian & The 4th Line Band.
What do you think? Is “Look Away” a good choice for Finland to take to Eurovision 2019? Can Darude take Finland to the grand final?
just another typical eurovision song
Song is ok but singer is wrong. This is still million times better than some mikael saari or some other awful artists would be. I believe Darude will qualify because he is Darude. Also you dont need to make anything special to do well in eurovision. Many here complains because of music genre what Darude represent. If Finland does not qualify with Darude then its difficult to see any point to participate.
‘This is still million times better than some mikael saari’ , WTH*LL????!!! Do you have hearing problem or just lack of musical ear! M. Saari has one of the best voices in Finland and The Song ‘We should be through’ (2013) was selected for Suomi Love-songs favourite!! Only hope you are from Finland, then I’ll forgive you, because Finns have no taste! 🙂
i want to like it but i can’t even get all the way through…
look away sounds a little dated, middleaged even…
all the best though!!! i hope finland qualifies for the final 🙂
I also like this much more than last year.
I volunteer as a substitute for Sebastian in Tel Aviv. His voice was either too weak or the sound was awful. The song itself has a lot of power, but it must be sung by a better singer.
Obviously the best choice! I hope Finland qualifies with this because you never know. I like the song generally.
Attention. Croatia without wings and not english version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6pkEgrX3C4 I like it. ?
The song title is “Look Away” and the video is just bunch of people looking away. I love it.
Fact is that Finland can´t produce anything else than boring shit. Year after year these same flavorless futiles. Go for example to listen some pop artists who are favourite in Finland like Sanni, Elli-Noora or Paula Vesala. Those music are except total futile shit, they are really awkward singers. Everybody sings with plastic voice straight to nose. Makes me really think who in Finland make music and what are level of record companies there. Seems to be that except they are totally tasteless, they also don´t have ears. No miracle that this land is always last in Eurovision. They had… Read more »
Jurgen, in Finland there are not only good singers, but even good songs from Jenni Vartiainen, Chisu incl. Paula Vesala, Sanni (execpt some Elli-Noora). All have at least one good Song and hit, Jenni have several (Duran Duran, Eden just name a few). These just never goes to Eurovision. So juts cut this bull of yours just because for Eurovision have been selected practically all the bad ones!!!
All 3 Saara Aalto’s last year UMK songs were much better. So pity for UMK!
Decent, one of the better ones this year (not because it is outstanding but because of the lack of overall quality)
Stage could easily lift this up to the final as it is amazing, and I hope that its true with the Sound Problems (didnt watch the show) because in the NF performance video, Sebastian’s voice is too weak
Best staging for sure, but there was never really a song to choose from. Also not impressed by Sebastian’s voice or stage presence. This might make it through but it’s definitely not a certain qualifier in my books.
I think the problem was the sound. Saara was vocally awful st last year’s UMK but perfect at Eurovision. YLE has always problems with that, so I’m confident that it’ll be better in Israel.
Fair enough. It’s unfortunate that the song itself would still be weak even with perfect vocals. But maybe the staging will manage to lift it in Tel Aviv.
Bad news for Finland this year
Yes! My favorite won (even though, I all of them are my favorite).
Good luck to Darude, Sebastian Rejman, and Finland!
Disappointing. I think this song highlights Sebastian’s limitations as a vocalist while Superman is a better fit for this duo. Once more, Finland chooses what bores me. At lease ICE, NOR and POR did the right thing.
What a night!!! How many NF’s were there, like at least 5??
I just heard the Finnish song – it reminds me of sunshine over the polar sea (trying to be illustrative in giving a compliment). I actually really like it, maybe the singer’s voice should be a bit more amplified because it doesn’t seem to get through in its full capacity/power. Otherwise prety cool, regardless of whether it is or not a contender. Good job, Finland!!!
What was going on with Sebastian? When it became clear that “Look away” was leading, his face looked sad. He seemed not very happy and unmotivated.
The staging is cool, the song meh. It’s 3 minutes of nothing really. You forget it the moment it’s over.
probably qualify though because it’s Darude but won’t do much better than Saara last year,
Thought the staging was pretty cool the song was just a bit meh I’m afraid, shame he didn’t have a stronger voice, but yeah decent enought to qualify.
Poland 2018 calling 2.0
apart from the fact Darude is a much better DJ than Gromee, without any awkward snake arm movements
Sebastian has a good voice, i felt like look away was the best choice
There’s nothing in common except DJ and genre! Even staging is more interesting, if not the Song!
Didn’t see the show but was rooting for “Superman”! How did this song win!
Superman was horrible live, a mess
All of 3 songs were really weak and boring.. I’m sorry Finland but this is not your year. Goodluck anyway
None of the songs were good, the singer has weak vocals and Darude looks awkward and unnecessary on a stage.
Yes….Iceland final just finished…Hatari here we go.
EDM for streetwalkers under influence
Outdated song. Stuck bottom 3 in semi. I slept and wake after 3 min.
The best song won! Nice!
Upvote if you know what this song is really about 😉
The headline of this article….Yay! They won!
Honestly the 3 songs are so outdated, other fact it’s that the singer isn’t so good…
Finland it’s my 16th for the moment, I’ll wait for the other 4 entries
And yet another disappointment
It was their best option, since the song has a clear message (while “Release Me” was just a huge amount of nothing and “Superman” was cheesy) and they found a direct and clever way to stage it, even if the whole thing gets old pretty fast. I’m afraid Finland will rely too much on EDM fans, because it may be not entertaining enough to a general audience. And I must agree that Sebastian’s vocals are simply not working. I don’t know how much of it it’s a matter of sound mixing, but he doesn’t seem much charismatic either.
“Superman” might have been a cheesy concept, but at least it had a singable Chorus. Musically it was the best of the three songs. However, “Look Away” has better staging and a more resonant overall message to send to ESC, and to the host country (I assume). It certainly does chime in with the boycott movement anyhow. 😀
However, I agree on being disappointed by the singer. Sorry Sebastian – When you watch and listen to yourself back, you will hopefully see what we mean and improve for ESC.
For a moment, I thought “Superman” would win, because it brought the “party mood” and like you said, it’s an accessible track. But I guess there was a lot going on in the stage. And it also got boring pretty fast. So “Look Away” at least has something to say, some people may connect to the entry through the message if not through the music.
The best song won <3
This will be one of my favs <3
Oh and Sebastian is sooo handsome. Damn what a daddy 😛
Darude is the most famous artist in ESC, and all other countries are trash. 70% qualifer.
Staging was great, same for all songs!! Well done guys and Finnish broadcaster. Very impressive.
But the best song was Superman which was ruined by the IKEA lamps (Russia 2013?) and weak vocals by Sebastian. It’s a pity because the general public could relate to Superman and the beat was sick, similar to Sandstorm.
Look Away is not bad but it is repetitive and goes nowhere. I hope they combine the staging of Superman and Release Me in tel Aviv but to sum up i think Finland will quality to the final but flop like Saara and Cascada.
If this would be Sweden it would be in top 12
Yeah.. the 12th reject
Has this become the standard thing to say whenever a bad entry is released? It’s very tiring and i think every country would flop with this. The only cool side of this entry is the good staging plus darude’s meme effect.
I meant top 12 in the ESC final (if you didnt understand)
Okay, so all three songs were weak vocally, but there was also something terribly wrong with the sound system. AGAIN. You’d think they’d managed to fix it since last year but no!
BUT when they had to perform Look Away again after it won , I think it sounded much better so there is HOPE.
It’ll be good when we reach Tel Aviv and it’ll go to the final and Finns can be happy.
Starts promising but after 30 seconds I lose interest and it becomes very repetitive.
Ok, while the song I like the most is Superman – Look Away had the best staging tonight, not to mention that Sebastian’s vocals were least bad with this one, so no wonder it won. But tbh Sebastian’s vocals were pretty bad all evening – unless he improves it’ll be Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer 2.0
Poland had a boring staging,Darude has invested in the staging
What I meant by it was – they would get some points from televote, but not that much from juries.
Boring… so boring… average song…weak voice. The last favourite on my list.
Guys. UMK’s sound system has been terrible every year. Sebastian didn’t sing perfectly but you can blame the sound system too. It makes everything sound terrible, even Saara last year. Sebu will sound much better in Israel when he now gets to train his voice and the sound system is proper there.
Off post, but there’s clearly something about Switzerland. They are now Top 15 with the bookies, and they used to be placed in the bottom. Reminds me of Israel last year before Toy was released.
Switzerland is a big mystery this year, no rumors or anything. I think they will do the surprise!!! watch out
I hope the rumours about Luca Hänni are true because he will come with a banger and a dance performance!
Vocally, all three entries were extremely weak; I’d go as far as saying those were the weakest live vocals ever in a “one act” national final format. I don’t think it would have made much of a difference if they had chosen one of the other two songs. “Look Away” is a rather bland song with cringeworthy lyrics. The stage show was the most elaborate one of the night and yet it still felt quite random.
Cringeworthy? Repetitive yes, but cringy? It is about looking away from bad things we could solve (climate change for instance) and asking “Is it in my head?” Am I the only one seeing it? Why people don’t do anything? Then the staging with the cube and showing the ice melting – that fits very good imho 😀
In my opinion, it’s the least honest “save the world” anthem since Samantha Janus’s “A Message to Your Heart”.
Already a thousand times better than Saara Aalto!
The vocal technique of Sebastian Rejman is poorer than average central African countries. He MUST work on it for Eurovision, or Finland might as well struggle to qualify. the song is average, but the staging really gives it a fresh appearance and a completely different dimension. Good luck Finland.
Bad..very bad
You are just jealous because your country is the worst this year 😀
Totally not and my country even didn’t release the song yet….this song is just not good or interesting..I wish it was, I have nothing against Finland, the opposite
Indeed
The best song won. The live performance was really good, if Sebastian can sing a bit louder it would be perfect. SR is a good singer, don’t write hate comments.
Superman was very weak and Release me was ok..
I think Finland will qualify to final because this year is zhit lolol.
The song is bland, his voice is even blander. Staging was cool though, but I don’t think it will be enough.
Not enough to win ESC 2019. But to win is not most important 🙂
Actually, I meant not enough to qualify for the final 😉
Good luck Finland!
Expected
He needs to fix his vocals ASAP
darude look away from the sandstorm