Lordi, Lordi
So, Brian Kennedy, Ireland's angelically voiced Eurovision entry, was defeated last night by , a coven of Finnish Freddie Krugger look-alikes with allegedly Satanic lyrics who never remove their monster masks and hoods -- not even while relaxing at their hotel pool.
Greece, the host country, awarded Finland the full 12 points, which may be their way of making up for a Stop Lordi campaign organised the president of a Greek restaurant and bar owners' union (yeah, I wondered about that myself). 'Mr Lordi', the group's lead singer, denies those rumours of shadowcraft by pointing out how unlikely it would be for a Satanic group to bring out a song titled 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', their Eurovision-winning entry -- or, for that matter, another titled 'The Devil is a Loser'. He could have a point there. In fact, take this stanza from 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' (if, indeed, heavy metal songs have stanzas):
The true believers Thou shall be saved; brothers and sisters keep strong in the faith: on the day of Rockoning, it's who dares, wins. You will see the jokers soon'll be the new kings
Doesn't sound that Satanic to me. Click on the link below for the full lyrics. Haven't the protestors heard of irony or pastiche?
Lordi didn't get my vote on the night, but then I'd personally negotiated 100-1 odds on Brian Kennedy on-air from , so I felt obliged to throw the full weight of a text message behind the Irish entry. Brian performed well (apart from a strange moment when he decided to kneel and transmit a smoldering glance at the 600 million potential voters), but the song seemed a little dated on the night. The less said about Daz Sampson's performance of the better.
It was an evening of curious cultural cross-dressing: Israel entered a black Gospel act, and Germany had a country and western fivesome, Texas Lightning, which I loved. There's a reason why the word is German.
Some things never change, though: with political block voting, you still need your friends to win in Eurovision; and it's still impossible to imagine the competition without Terry's drippingly sarcastic commentary.
HARD ROCK HALLELUJAH by Lordi
Eurovision Song Contest Winner 2006 (Finland)
from their album The Arockalypse
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
The saints are crippled
On this sinners' night
Lost are the lambs with no guiding light
The walls come down like thunder
The rocks about to roll
It's The Arockalypse
Now bare your soul
All we need is lightning
With power and might
Striking down the prophets of false
As the moon is rising
Give us the sign
Now let us rise up in awe
Rock 'n roll angels bring that Hard Rock Hallelujah
Demons and angels all in one have arrived
Rock 'n roll angels bring that Hard Rock Hallelujah
In God's creation supernatural high
The true believers
Thou shall be saved
Brothers and sisters keep strong in the faith
On the day of Rockoning
It's who dares, wins
You will see the jokers soon'll be the new kings
All we need is lightning
With power and might
Striking down the prophets of false
As the moon is rising
Give us the sign
Now let us rise up in awe
Rock 'n roll angels bring that Hard Rock Hallelujah
Demons and angels all in one have arrived
Rock 'n roll angels bring that Hard Rock Hallelujah
In God's creation supernatural high
Wings on my back
I got horns on my head
My fangs are sharp
And my eyes are red
Not quite an angel
The one that fell
Now choose to join us or go straight to Hell
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Rock 'n roll angels bring that Hard Rock Hallelujah
Demons and angels all in one have arrived
Rock 'n roll angels bring that Hard Rock Hallelujah
In God's creation supernatural high
Hard Rock Hallelujah!
Comments
Now, you've made two mistakes here and I feel it's my duty to point them out to you:
1) You watched the Eurovision Song Contest.
2) You told people about it.
HTH, KTHANX.
I did not watch Eurovision [it does not exist in America] but I heard it on the Internet. I liked Texas Lightning. Lordi [my impression] is that it was pure entertainment. In fact, while in Basque Country in Spain
[in 1987] there was a rock group from GGermay with almost the same gimmicks. That group was also great. Lordi reminded me of that group.
Personally, I think Lordi were fantastic! They got my vote! Normally the only reason to watch Eurovision is to listen to Terry Wogan's comments!
Eurovision should be about different music genres and it's been a long time coming that some good Rock music made it in!
Well done Lordi! I hope to hear some more from you in England soon!
I hope Lordi could do concerts in America.
And what was that band's name? The one from Germany?
Other than that, Lordi rules.