This year, Finland chose The Rasmus and their song ‘Jezebel’ to represent them in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The vocalist Lauri Ylönen recently spoke about being selected for the contest and shared his opinions on Eurovision. He stated that Eurovision used to be a ‘joke,’ and now it’s more serious.
The Rasmus was formed in 1994 featuring Lauri Ylönen, Eero Heinonen, Pauli Rantasalmi, and Jarno Lahti. They went through a couple of lineup changes throughout the years, and their most recent change occurred when Pauli Rantasalmi quit the band with an emotional message. The Rasmus replaced him with Emilia ‘Emppu’ Shonen, who had been secretly working with them before the announcement.
Ylönen had stated that Emppu would greatly contribute to the band and carry it to higher places. The first success after Emppu joined the band came when The Rasmus were chosen to represent Finland in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest. They will perform ‘Jezebel,’ a rock song mixed with popular tunes to make it more neutral for the audience.
Finland had won the contest in 2006 with Lordi’s performance of ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’ with their hard rock/metal style and proved that the competition is not just about commercial music. Following their footsteps, The Rasmus are also joining with rock and roll, and they are looking forward to it.
Ylönen recently stated that the contest used to be a joke where people just watched and were entertained in their homes. He didn’t understand how the points were collected to announce the winners and didn’t take it seriously. However, he continued to say that he takes it more seriously right now, and the contest has gotten better throughout the years.
Here is what he said about Eurovision:
“I can’t say that I’ve been watching that too much. I was like, ‘How do you count the points?’ I didn’t know how to learn all this stuff. But, it’s obviously been a part of our lives. When I was a kid, it was always on, TV was on, everybody came to watch it, and I remember some of the songs from childhood. But it was more of a joke, if I may say so, back then. All the songs were somehow [dances funnily]. I think now there are more serious acts, and it has just gotten better.”
You can watch the interview and listen to ‘Jezebel’ below.
