Will Windows95man sing at Eurovision 2024? Yes.
Finland’s broadcaster Yle confirmed the news on Tuesday, two weeks after the viral artist won Finland’s national selection Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu earlier this month.
Previously Windows95man — real name Teemu Keisteri — and his singing collaborator Henri Piispanen had said they would need to think about whether they would go.
Finland’s Windows95man confirms Eurovision participation
Back in January more than 1,400 songwriters, producers and artists in Finland’s music industry signed a petition calling on the EBU to ban Israel from Eurovision over alleged war crimes in Gaza. They added that if Israel participates, they wanted Finland’s broadcaster Yle to withdraw.
Yle has now confirmed it won’t be withdrawing.
Ville Vilén, Yle’s Director of Creative Content and Media and Editor-in-Chief, says: “Yle has decided to respect the European Broadcasting Union EBU’s judgment on the TV companies participating in the contest. We understand that there are various justified perspectives related to this issue. Yle has informed the EBU about the discussion in Finland and the Finnish representative’s view on the situation. We hope that the situation in the Middle East will resolve as soon as possible.”
Teemu Keisteri and Henri Piispanen say: “We think that the only correct decision for the EBU would be to exclude Israel from the competition. However, we do not feel that withdrawing ourselves would make an impact. Instead, we have started discussions with other representatives on how to explore strategies for leveraging our collective influence and use our position to apply pressure on the decision-makers at EBU. The decision was difficult, but now it has been made. We thank everyone for the support we have received. From now on, we will focus on the music and building the show.”
Cowards. Lol.
First saying you will not come to the party if israel is allowed. Then when israel is allowed, changing your minds and coming anyhow.
Babies.
“From now on, we will focus on the music and building the show.”
Which is what you should’ve been doing in the first place.
The list of countries to exclude could be longer should we decide to be objective… I can’t name the country because there will be hatred all over the place. Feel free to guess.
UK. France. Azerbaijan. Amazon tax haven Luxembourg. Or anyone really, no country is perfect.
That sentence ‘how to explore strategies for leveraging our collective influence’ made me hoot! They should add it to their song.
LOL What a joke….
Withdraw or just shut up.
It’s ridiculous that this debate even exists. There is no reason to exclude a country from the competition because someone else attacked them. Give me a break with this nonsense.
Israel is committing a genoc!de. They should be banned!
According to the official definition of gen0cide, you’re wrong.
It’s just another war, which is ugly and cruel. Stop calling all wars “gen0cide” nowadays…
And I guess no innocent people on the other side who had no connection to the attack were hurt….
All those drama (queens).
No i wouldnt have missed them.
Its so not nice thats its ……………………at my bottom place.
Sorry Finland, next year better!!
Kudos to them for not giving in to the pressure. The current situation isn’t their fault and – while I don’t like their entry, they won fair and square.
Also, they shouldn’t be shamed about taking part of the contest nor get death threats for that, calm down!
Off topic, but this comment section shouldn’t be so negative:
I feel like this could be some sort of a dark horse in Malmö, as the song itself is good, performance is a bit comical but it’s what average viewers enjoy, and it has a good message. Fans are sometimes so out of touch with the fact that kitch, camp and humour can get you in a good spot in the end.
Have we had many 90s style songs recently, Gustaph kinda had last year something into that direction?
I don’t find the Windows95 shtick funny at all, but the singer is quite decent. It’s not as bad as people want it to be. I’m certain it’ll qualify and it’s certainly better than Belgium 2023.
I personally don’t find the act fun either, but for an average viewer that sees Eurovision as “one week” -event this has the It -factor.
For me a simple thing, such as the Windows Blue Screen of Death at the end of the performance would be enough and subtle to work. We’ll see what’s to come, Käärijä got pretty much a different stage show for Eurovision, which had enough of the elements he used in UMK last year.
Belgium is Topnotch class act, much better than Blanche for example. Or this years Finland.
They are trying too much being a crazy novelty fun act that all what they try to archieve is dripping of them imo.
What is the good message?
I’d say it’s about that you should be yourself, there’s no rules for how you should look or be etc. That’s how I understand the lyrics at least. For example
“Is there something wrong with the way I look? Is there something wrong with who I am?”
“Call me what you may, see if I care”
“I don’t even care what’s wrong or right, it’s how I live my life, no rules”
I like the first two, but not the last one.
Well I’m assuming that when they say I don’t care what’s wrong or right, they don’t mean according to the law, but according to society/people 🙂
I suppose, but imagine children in a classroom singing along to this. Or children crossing the road. Or putting on a seatbelt. Etc. Rules are important!
No one thinks like this when they consider lyrics to a fun song Jonas :’D
There are others like me out there somewhere… right?
I belive the kids in the classroom are taught the difference between rule and law? It is very important to teach the kids that they are allowed to be who they are and look how they wish.
Cila actually worded what I was going for with my comment, so yes it’s about accepting yourself and others, where you don’t care about society’s rules. For example men are usually seen masculine, but you don’t have to be, as there’s no rules that bound you.
Also: anyone who lays a guilt trip or worse on artists who worked very hard to win their ticket to Eurovision which is held in Sweden, a country not at war with anybody, is the despicable one. It was fine for artists to travel to Moscow, Baku, Tel Aviv. It’s damn well their right to travel to Malmö.
If you feel massive urge to send them death threats and hoping their families to be killed, you’re not an activist with a good cause. They’ve stated many times that they don’t want Israel to participate, but only Finland withdrawing won’t make any difference.
I’m sure they’ll state these type of comments in Malmö, although it provokes some people, but talking about the situation in Palestine in a press conference will be bigger impact than withdrawing.
Exactly! I’m sure Hatari (Iceland 2019) made a bigger impact when showing the Palestinian flag during live TV than they would have made by withdrawing. Withdrawing would mostly just hurt the artist’s career.
lol yea…they made huge impcat.. lol good one
This whole “support” for Palestine is an empty trend. People who ride on it clearly have 0 knowledge and understanding of the situation and they just do it for hype. This is a good example of that.
So again…. why did they publicly announce that they were thinking about withdrawing? Ah right… go figure, we paid attention to them for a little while longer.
Exactly. So silly.
Totally the right choice and the best possible answer. The some activist-spammers should go spam their political demands to EBU, UN or Israel officials instead of harassing artists! It would have totally zero effect on the situation in Israel/Palestine if some countries start boycotting Eurovision. Don’t vote for Israel in semi-finals if you don’t want to see them in Grand Final, instead of spamming artists personal channels full of demands and even threats like some have done…
About not making an impact: it is true that an artist threatening to withdraw makes no impact. The broadcaster can always find another representative. However, broadcasters threatening to withdraw makes an impact. Yle proved that when they were among those who threatened to withdraw if Russia stayed. If any broadcaster felt so strongly about Israel as they felt about Russia, they had every opportunity to take action. Strangely, nobody ever feels strongly about Azerbaijan, either.
Loreen felt strongly about Azerbaijan, so did Anke Engelke!
Broadcasters didn’t and don’t.
A sad fact, illustrating the power of propaganda.
Also the regional bias of western journalism, there are some places in world that they just don’t care about and have no inclination to learn of. Aliyev is not a big celeb like Trump or Boris.
Thoughts and prayers, a lot of thoughts and prayers statements will be coming in. I’ll say this: nobody who confirmed their participation should withdraw. They made a commitment and now they gotta fulfill it. Simple. Not to mention that I don’t think anyone of the broadcasters actually wants to withdraw.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA #GoIsrael!! 🙂
#GoHome
This whole “support” for Palestine is an empty trend. People who ride on it clearly have 0 knowledge and understanding of the situation and they just do it for hype. This is a good example of that.
Exactly..
I wish israel a lot of strenght and hopefully see you next year.
Love to Israel.
I’m, for one, shocked and disappointed. *Eye roll* The definition of virtue signalling.
They are allowed to change their minds, but they were very firm at the beginning… “we will withdraw if Israel participates”. Then they softened and said that they might, but the decision was not made. Here we already knew they were not serious.
So are you ideologues or not?
If they have already participated and do not withdraw, then let them not harm the Israeli representative. This is not the purpose of this stage and it is not collegial.
Those people only care about their own journey to Eurovision, not their ideology.
They’re so vocal about Israel just because everyone else is. They want attention.
It’s wonderful that musicians have something meaningful to say, and their efforts can have a significant impact. But if they choose to participate they need to stick to Eurovision rules and maintain collegiality with other contestants and musicians…
You are mistaken, Windows95man never said they will withdraw if Israel will be there. Jesse Markin is the only UMK24 artist who said it in the beginning. Windows95man and the singer started to question their participation after the sh*tstorm they got after they won UMK.
Weak
So here we have another act trying to show themselves as activists but that’s it.
They got the attention they wanted and from now on, it’s done.
Olly alexander is certainly open to a joint disruptive action.
So they had a hissy fit for the sake of it?
I always find it amusing how people in these rich, problem-free, and most of all progressive countries like making others’ problems theirs, coincidentally siding with the more backward, integralist option at that!
Maybe we care about human lives,
maybe you feel comfortable seeing this gen.ocide happen, doesn’t mean everyone are this heartless.
Just cause people can have different views thatn perhaps Palestinians about LGBT, doesn’t mean we wish them any harm, etc.
If you think Israelis are enjoying right now seeing the deaths, you’re part of the problem.
You guys won’t even realise you’re being attacked even if a war starts with your entire country being bombed, you’ll just look for a reason why it’s justified to attack you.
We’ve seen the footage of Israeli’s cheering as bombs are rained down on children, maybe you personally don’t take enjoyment in it, but to suggest that there aren’t many in your country who do is disingenuous.
No one is happy bombing children, besides H@mas of course who aim their missiles at civilians all the time.
The soldiers are celebrating because these bombs destroy H@mas facilities, tunnels, whatever.
We’ve been fighting them for years without trying to eliminate them completely and this time, we’ve just had enough.
That’s why people are happy. No one is happy to see civilians get hurt in the process.
We don’t feel comfortable seeing this gen.ocide happen, which is why we support Israel in fighting the terrorists who want to remove them from the face of the earth.
Yeah, nobody should withdraw.
A backdrop of black, white, green and red during their Eurovision performance would be a subtle nod I think.
Did anyone truly believe Finland were going to withdraw from ESC? Dissapointing but there you go. Now we wait for Iceland.
The act can withdraw, but not the country…
A plan B was planned in case of no show. As a public broadcaster they can’t boycott
Of course public broadcasters can boycott. They’d face a financial penalty for “withdrawing” after the participation deadline but they can still do so – as has been the case in the past, most famously a slew of withdrawals in 1970.
Windows95Man is from Finland! we always say “Torilla tavataan” which means “Lets meet at marketplace” when pipol tolk about Finland.
We also have sauna! Did you try it? 😀
This lame novelty act from 2008 will never see the final anyway.
It’s everything else but lame!
in your face, jesse markin!
You’re so juvenile.
Racist
You better not with THAT fun performance!