The results are up! The finals of the song contest Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (”New Music Contest”) were held last Saturday, and Finnish people voted punk band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna in May. PKN received a landslide victory with 37,4% votes from the audience, leaving other fan favourite, pop group Satin Circus on the second place with 24,2%. There were 9 contestants in the finals in total.

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät will most likely be one of the most discussed bands at the Eurovision Song Contest this year. The band received a large amount of media attention already before the contest with articles by The Guardian, BBC, Independent, Consequence of Sound among others. The victory was met with mixed feelings in the Finnish audience, echoing the sentiments from 2006 when Lordi was chosen to represent Finland in the Eurovision.

The band’s contesting song ”Aina mun pitää” clocks in at 1 minute and 20 seconds, making it the shortest song in Eurovision ever. Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät is also the first band to play punk at the song contest and the first act to consist of disabled men. Regardless of the outcome at the finals the group has already made Eurovision history.

About Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät is a punk band consisting of four disabled musicians who met each other at a cultural workshop by Lyhty association in 2009. The band is named after the guitarist Pertti Kurikka, who writes the band’s music and works on the lyrics together with vocalist Kari Aalto. A documentary film about the band, The Punk Syndrome was released in 2012, which won awards at Prix Europa 2013 in Berlin and Visions Du Reel festival in Switzerland.

The group played their second UK tour at the end of December and they’ve also toured Canada and Germany and performed at SXSW and Eurosonic in 2013. Read a long feature on the band at FMQ site here.