That doesn’t look like Erika Vikman. And alas, it’s not on of her dancing bears, either.
What happened? The favourite to win, ‘Cicciolina’, topped the public vote. But it only came third in the jury vote. The song that topped the jury vote, however, ‘Looking Back’ by Aksel Kankaanranta, did well enough in the public vote to overtake ‘Cicciolina’ and grab the win.
That’s gotta sting a little to the Finns. Perhaps, but those are the rules, and the way the contest works. And, lest we forget, a lot of people did get behind ‘Looking Back’, and understandably. Was it our winner on the night? No. Is it a deserving winner? Yes.
What was the performance like? Impressive, given how his live vocal sounded so close to how it does on record. And the performance does all that the song demands it to – which is simply to stand by a mic and sing it well.
How will it do at Eurovision? Well it has a lot of other male-fronted downbeat songs to compete with. But we do think that ‘Looking Back’ will stand out via its strong melody, and via a performance that we already know he’s got locked down.
Written by? Joonas Angeria and Connor McDonough.
You can find ‘Looking Back’ on our Best New Pop playlist.
