Cha-Cha-Cha-ing

post from May 31, 2024

We have a little tradition in my family. When the Eurovision Contest is about to end or has just ended, we organize some kind of a Movie night to watch performances and share our feelings about it (mostly about the level of weirdness of singers). Sometimes we just kidding about every single singer, and talk about sources of their inspiration (or duplication), but some of the performances might bring deep insights. A special thing about it is to listen to our teenage daughter and what she thinks is the best this year.

Since I’m writing posts about Finnish music now, and Eurovision has just ended about a month ago, I want to bring the Finnish guy here. But I want to talk about the one from 2023. It was something very unusual. Look before going on:

This song is quite energetic and has catchy beats. Interesting voice of Käärijä (singer’s name) and his manner reminds me a bit of Till from Rammstein. Seems like he even has a Rammstein tattoo on his chest. Of course, there is the influence of multiple music trends. But ok, it’s catchy and sounds good. It’s also written in Finnish. And if you dig out the translation, you will see it’s about the desire to drink and party hard on Friday night after work week. 

Most of the words in the song are about different alcoholic drinks. Funny enough, the biggest popularity it has gotten in… schools and kindergartens! That’s the fact! I talked a year ago to a teacher of my younger daughter while she was in preschool. The teacher told me, kids sing that song all the time. The teacher didn’t quite like it but considered it fine since the kids had fun. When we had a birthday party (or some other gathering of 7-year-old kids at home), we suggested having a karaoke. And Cha-Cha-Cha was a hit there! 

I cannot say for all songs, but there is definitely some phenomenon when a piece of art or music gains popularity without any obvious reason. I think it happens when that piece of art touches something from the collective unconsciousness of society. Kids represent this phenomenon quite well because kids (even without understanding) reveal what adults might feel, but not express. Cha-Cha-Cha took the second place in 2023. In fact,  I consider it very successful because it’s honest in a way. 

This year Finland was presented by a man, wearing underwear of naked body color. Someone from the back seat would think that the singer was naked under the tiny t-shirt. A song named "No Rules" reflects something you can feel for real being in a society with lots of written and non-written restrictions. It expresses a desire to break rules just because there are too many of them.

Probably I’ve gone a bit too far with this. Just enjoy the song. You might like or not like it - that’s fine. The only thing that’s matters - what it represents for you.