2000 Stockholm - Number 7 - Anna Eriksson - "Oot voimani mun"
Yes, another song from Euroviisut and this is the one that finished as runner up, only four points behind the winner. It's pure iskelmä; disco-schlager-pop in its purest form. Not only did it finish second, beating Nightwish, it went on to win the OGAE second chance contest for the year - although it is tailor-made for OGAE's tastes.
Anna Eriksson at this point had released three albums and was awarded the Finnish music industry's EMMA award for best newcomer in 1995. She's had several hit songs from these albums. She is by no means unknown, though perhaps slightly overshadowed by some of her competition at Euroviisut.
That however means nothing when you consider the strength of the song she's singing, and just how good she is at singing it. Oot voimani mun (You Are My Strength) is ageless. It would have been big in the 1970s and it would still do well at Eurovision today. It starts off with a bang and never lets up. Anna tells us just how strong she is and how that strength comes from her love. She has so much strength, this sounds like a superhero-origin schlager.
Given what song won Euroviisut and where Finland finished in the Eurovision final, what an absolute missed opportunity this song is. YLE organised one of the best national finals in Finland's history only to fall victim of the classic 50/50 jury/televote problem of something mediocre being selected when the jury and televote strongly disagree about what's good. Anna, you should have been on that stage.
Instead she only got better and went on to have even bigger iskelmä hits in Finland, with platinum selling albums and hits. In 2010, she took an abrupt perpendicular turn into singing her own more experimental non-schlager songs and then continued to receive critical acclaim and awards across the Nordic world. She's now making avant-garde, independent films by herself and, yes, still winning awards including best film at the Prague Independent Film Festival and Venice Independent Film Festival.
