Finland FINLAND 2021 - Blind Channel - Dark Side

[escYOUnited]

Put your middle fingers up
Take a shot, throw it up and don't stop
I'm, I'm, I'm living that life on the dark side

Every psycho in the scene
Hands up and follow me saying (hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo)
Empire of the freaks, all drinks on me

Just another night in my pitch black paradise
Don't wanna cry, so I gotta get paralyzed
My body is my weapon, so I keep it loaded
'Til I'm all over the place like my head exploded
Don't waste your prayers, they can't save us
Lifestyles of the sick and dangerous

Put your middle fingers up
Take a shot, throw it up and don't stop
I'm, I'm, I'm living that life on the dark side
Likе the 27 Club, headshot
We don't wanna grow up
I'm, I'm, I'm living that lifе on the dark side
Life on the dark side

Every psycho in the scene
Hands up and follow me saying (hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo)
Empire of the freaks, all drinks on me

I'm in a cave of man-made misery
Digging a grave for myself and my enemies
Of all the dark things that keep me wasted
You're the sweetest I've ever tasted

Put your middle fingers up
Take a shot, throw it up and don't stop
I'm, I'm, I'm living that life on the dark side
Like the 27 Club, headshot
We don't wanna grow up
I'm, I'm, I'm living that life on the dark side
Life on the dark side

Just another night in my pitch black paradise
Don't wanna cry so I gotta get paralyzed
Don't waste your prayers, they can't save us
Lifestyles of the sick and dangerous

Put your middle fingers up
Take a shot, throw it up and don't stop
I'm, I'm, I'm living that life on the dark side
Like the 27 Club, headshot
We don't wanna grow up
I'm, I'm, I'm living that life on the dark side
Life on the dark side

Every psycho in the scene
Hands up and follow me saying (hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo)
Empire of the freaks, all drinks on me​

 

[Trece]

Yas congrats, thats the Finland we really needed after years of meh since Blackbird

 

[Leydan]

You know what I enjoyed this winner, after the disaster thats just occurred in Norway this is very much a good outcome. It gives Finland 2014 vibes but much heavier. Gonna give it an 8.


edit: ALSO. PLEASE. STOP. PUTTING. FAN. BLOGG. WRITERS. ON. YOUR. JURY.

 

[NemesisNick]

UMK Final 2021 is now over. The winner was Blind Channel – "Dark Side" with a landslide victory; it won the jury vote with 72 points and the public vote with 479 points, giving it an overall total of 551 points. Although this hard rock / heavy metal song is not my taste in music, I guessed this would win. Congratulations to Blind Channel for winning; they will now represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in May. Finland will perform in the second half of the ESC Second Semi-Final on 20 May 2021. The United Kingdom votes in that semi-final. The only question is, how well (or badly) will "Dark Side" score at Eurovision? Finland has had both success and failure with this style of song; Lordi won the ESC 2006 with "Hard Rock Hallelujah", but PKN finished last in the ESC 2015 First Semi-Final with "Aina mun pitää". Will Blind Channel follow in the footsteps of Lordi or PKN? Time will tell. #UMK21

 

[Mainshow]

Our German entrant was told by our broadcaster that middle fingers are not allowed on stage - I'm curious whether Blind Channel are allowed to show their middle fingers into the camera or not.

 

[Gera11]

Aksel actually lost??? Couldn't he do that last year as well? Lmao.

This was my favourite before seeing the live performance and it stayed that way, it basically slayed the whole NF. I think I will give it for now, thus becoming my current 2021 favourite (what a day), but ever since Rainy posted about the meaning behind the lyrics I can't shake this edgy feeling I have regarding them. Not that I care strongly about lyrics in general, but still...

It's a new dawn for

 

[Sammy]

UMK Final 2021 is now over. The winner was Blind Channel – "Dark Side" with a landslide victory; it won the jury vote with 72 points and the public vote with 479 points, giving it an overall total of 551 points. Although this hard rock / heavy metal song is not my taste in music, I guessed this would win. Congratulations to Blind Channel for winning; they will now represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in May. Finland will perform in the second half of the ESC Second Semi-Final on 20 May 2021. The United Kingdom votes in that semi-final. The only question is, how well (or badly) will "Dark Side" score at Eurovision? Finland has had both success and failure with this style of song; Lordi won the ESC 2006 with "Hard Rock Hallelujah", but PKN finished last in the ESC 2015 First Semi-Final with "Aina mun pitää". Will Blind Channel follow in the footsteps of Lordi or PKN? Time will tell. #UMK21

PLEASE! You're not really putting PKN in the same box with Blind Channel?!
PKN was much more punk and had VERY little of metal.

 

[Mainshow]

pts from me - it has heavily grown on me - the staging/the performance was a and it totally slaps - that said, I'm still a little bit lost in terms of the song's lyrics. They are rather off-putting and wannabe-ish. However, I love it that will probably be back in the final again!

 

[JChan]

I really like this and I think Finland made the correct choice here.

 

[ZoboCamel]

At least there's one result I can be happy about tonight! I went into the show with Ilta and Blind Channel being tied as my favourite, and ended up with one of those two, so it beats out what happened in Norway.

To be honest, though, as far as the live performances go I thought my two favourites were just okay. I actually ended up sending in my vote for Danny, who I feel was really underrated here - that staging gimmick at the end, with the piano playing itself and Danny disappearing onto the backdrop, was perhaps my favourite bit of staging I've seen in Eurovision or an NF for the last year or two. I wasn't expecting it at all and yet it worked perfectly. #JusticeForDanny

As for my score - I guess I'll go with a 10 for now, which makes Finland my new favourite of the season! It's not perfect (the live performance was just okay and I'm not entirely on board with the lyrics) but musically it's more up my alley than anything else picked so far, so I'll see whether they improve the performance aspect by May.

 

[BorisBubbles]

For me it's a so far. Certainly not on the same level as a 'Viszlat nyar', but servicable enough for this contest's token rock/metal entry.

 

[jatojo]

Come on, Finland, how can you give Ilta such a poor Britney Spears microphone? They found a solution in Norway!

 

[GianlucaTomoe]

I obviously don't care about the outcome of this NF, but finally we got rid of Aksel once and for all.

 

[Mainshow]

Come on, Finland, how can you give Ilta such a poor Britney Spears microphone? They found a solution in Norway!

#FREEBRITNEY

 

[cegs5]

I actually ended up sending in my vote for Danny, who I feel was really underrated here - that staging gimmick at the end, with the piano playing itself and Danny disappearing onto the backdrop, was perhaps my favourite bit of staging I've seen in Eurovision or an NF for the last year or two. I wasn't expecting it at all and yet it worked perfectly. #JusticeForDanny

100% this

 

[kayak]

Congratulations Finland! Excellent choice. Cannot wait to see them live on the Eurovision stage!

 

[Pål Nordahl]

I think it's safe to say that Finland will be back in the final this year! I love competitions where the best song wins

Dark Side isn't normally the genre of music I listen to, but it's worthy of points.

 

[marty]

100% in the final. I give 10 points.

 

[SwedishFailurez]

A well-deserved landslide victory. Even if Dark Side isn't that unique among Nu-metal tracks or the mixture of pop genres this song used, but the live performance is well done here (even there's more room for improvement and polishing of course) and the color palettes really do fit with the aggressive tone of the show (especially during the bridge and the last chorus in 01:55-02:54).

Metal is Finland's bread and butter and more decent metal entries in Eurovision are always appreciated. Actually surprising that rock/metal entries are not used more often in Eurovision when Europe usually is the biggest market for that kind of music even if past Eurovision scoreboards don't always reflect that. 8 points.

 

[RainyWoods]

This was strategically speaking the right choice for Finland. Also, as the overwhelming public favourite it sits very well that the right decision was made tonight.

However, as I've already said before (excuse me as I say it again one last time before letting you all have your fun), I don't like this song. Rock is an umbrella term but I live for rock music more or less. Blind Channel have at least been clever enough to describe their music as being violent pop, and that makes sense, as it's all extremely light, watered down stuff. Then we've got the lyrical content of the song. The line "Like the 27 club, headshot, we don't wanna grow up" is the worst example here and just makes my eyes roll. I lean towards dark music generally speaking but this lil' nugget of ill-thought-out nonsense is just juvenile. Using deaths, specifically suicide here as a metaphor for living life to the full, or rather carelessly in their party pop song... cringe. They're merely playing with darkness here. It's all posturing and almost as whiny as this post I'm having to write.

Having said that, the performance is... eh.. good? Verging on strong. I'm not into their stage presence but it's going to be more than enough for their potential audience of Nickelback and Imagine Dragon fans, plus anyone else who's like "hey, I think I actually like this rock track.. what?", and there's going to be a lot of those people as the song is incredibly accessible. Dark Side is catchy as well. That's all that's going to matter to the vast majority of those at home watching. Not everyone will have a stick up their arse like me. My stick is long and painful. Someone help me to pull it out please.


An extremely kind points. You won't need my good luck wishes as Blind Channel are going to do very well at the contest.

 

[Il conte di Montecristo]

Here is the opponent of France. The song is the perfect fusion of American hardcore rock. I seemed to hear different components in the music that reminded me of other songs, but nothing was copied. There is a saying "Imitate, don't copy" and I think Blind Channel have succeeded. The Viking scream then ... is "the icing on the cake". I felt stunned ... I glimpsed Yggradsil and the cruel Norns with the threads of fate in their hooked hands ... As I have already expressed, my vote does not reflect the ranking but the value of the song for me. My vote is 12.