Windows95man has been chosen to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Malmö, Sweden, in May.
The song “No Rules” won the popular vote by a large margin in an event broadcast from Tampere on Saturday night. Yle hosts the national final, known as the Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (New Music Contest, UMK). The broadcast was watched by an average of 1.2 million viewers during the course of the evening.
Windows95man is an alter ego of Helsinki multi-media artist Teemu Keister, a tongue-in-cheek character wearing cutoff jeans shorts and a T-shirt with a retro Microsoft logo. He was selected as the Finnish entry as a duo with Henri Piispanen, who handles most of the vocals in a style reminiscent of last year’s Finnish entrant, Käärijä, who placed second in the 2023 ESC.
Pro-Palestinian protest outside
Outside the venue, some 300 pro-Palestinian protesters demanded that Israel be banned from the ESC this year.
Since the start of the Gaza war, people across Europe have demanded that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises the contests, exclude Israel from the competition.
Last month, over 1,400 Finnish artists signed a petition calling for Israel to be banned from this year's ESC.
Police said that the demonstration passed off peacefully and that they were notified of it in advance. The protest took place in cold, clear conditions at Sori Square near the Tampere Arena, where the UMK final was held. The police presence included officers on horseback, a rare sight in Tampere.
Immediately after their selection, Yle asked the ESC qualifier winners about their views on the hot-button issue.
“We hope that Israel will not participate. This is a bad situation. There is still time until spring. We hope that the EBU will make the right decisions,” Keisteri replied.
He was also asked about the issue of his stage name and T-shirt, as ESC rules forbid the use of product names.
“Well, now we’ll have to start thinking about a name. But the character is here, no matter what it says on the shirt,” Keisteri said, thumping his chest with the UMK trophy.
The UMK final was held in front of an audience of 1,000 at the Tampere arena, with fans voting online from around the country – a process that was hampered by technical glitches.
The winner was chosen by public votes and an international jury. The public votes had a weight of 75 percent while the jury's was 25 percent.
Windows95man placed last in the international jury’s vote but then won with an overwhelming public vote.
“This is utopian. We were last and then suddenly we were first,” gushed Keisteri after the win.
Keisteri, 38, originally came up the campy Windows95man persona for Helsinki’s Flow Festival in 2013 after attending the LAB Institute of Design and Fine Arts in Lahti. He also began using the "No Rules" slogan around then.
He gained popularity as far afield as Japan with his cartoonish drawings for T-shirts and canvas bags featuring a character called Ukkeli (Old Man), and appeared on the Finnomani comedy series on Swedish TV.
In 2016 he published an Ukkeli book with an accompanying soundtrack record featuring him improvising over retro synth sounds, and performed Italo disco-style music with a group called PEU.
Piispanen, born in 1994, is a singer with the group Pasa, an actor who has appeared in several films and TV series, and a former co-host of an Yle youth programme.
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