Tapping into a community: Lordi gets 6.4 million votes in Eurovision Contest

As a Finn I had grown up with the total conviction our nation was eternally damned to be the perennial losers in the annual Eurovision song contest. That yearly feast of Europop that gave the world the prototypical Euroband, Abba, and out of Finland's neighbors, Sweden, Norway and Estonia had all managed to win the contest. Yet in 50 years Finland never made it better than 6th best. Many times Finland was dead-last in the voting, and even this year Finland had to go through the semi-finals just to be allowed to perform in the final.

So as the Eurovision song contest came on TV here in Britain, I only paid partial attention - Finland was doomed to fail, as it had every year in my lifetime. But this year Finland did do something bizarre. Where the format and conventional wisdom suggests that the winner has to be upbeat energetic europop, or a lyrical harmonic ballad - Finland sent in a heavy metal rock song. And not just any hard rock band, Finland's Lordi is theatrical head-banging stuff. A cross perhaps between Alice Cooper and Twisted Sister; or Kiss meets Frankenstein's Monster. Some accused the band of satan-worship and tried to get the band banned. Yes, this was rock-n-roll at its most fierce. The ultimate anti-Eurovision song.

Nonetheless, coming from Finland, I knew deep in my heart that Lordi's song, Hard Rock Hallelujah, didn't have a snowball's chance in hell, of winning the contest. Too many people would be aghast at this song, not to mention the hideous outfits of the band - the lead singer even grows huge bat-wings.

I should have known better. After all, Alan and I regularly preach of the power of digital communities. And of engagement.

This is what had happened behind the scenes. Very few Eurovision song entrants are able to activate any kind of youth-movement - simply because the songs are so horribly bland, sugar-coated and over-produced. Songs that the parents would like. Not for kids. To make sure the Eurovision song entrant has a chance of securing votes across Europe, conventional wisdom made sure no song ever had any edge. And the youth would not identify with such blatant rubbish.

Not this time. Not with Lordi. There is a strong heavy metal community all across Europe. Finnish bands had already had a rich history tapping into it, from The Rasmus to HIM and Nightwish (even Leningrad Cowboys ha-ha). So when various European rockers heard that the Finnish entry would be the first-ever heavy metal song in the Song of Europe contest, they orchestrated a vote-getting campaign. All throughout Europe young head-bangers were energized to come out and vote. First in the semi-finals on Saturday, to make sure all of Europe could get to see these monster-rockers in action in the main event on Sunday. And then of course on Sunday, to go on to win the contest.

So far so good. If we have a determined community and they are digitally connected, they can do this. Lordi did win the semi-finals and entered the final. But here is where then the particular logic of SMS voting comes in.

Most adults who might watch the Eurovision song contest, and be moved enough to bother to vote, would typically only vote once. And back several years ago, when only parents had phones, it would have been perhaps one or two votes per family. But today every teenager in Europe has their own mobile phone. They get to vote themselves.

And young people are NOT rational. Or more precisely, their sense of what is worthwhile is quite different from the value systems of adults. Young people not only voted for Lordi's song. They voted many times! I know several (Finnish) friends throughout Europe who admit to have voting massively in the 10 minute span that voting was allowed, to boost Lordi's chances in the countries they happen to be living in.

Not only did Lordi win, but they won with the greatest vote total ever in the 51 year history of the Eurovision song contest. Finland celebrated like there was no tomorrow (and considering Lordi hails from Rovaniemi [I have to send greetings to Ajit's son!] at the Arctic Circle - in the winter their night is so long there literally is no tomorrow). Lordi played all night. They were awarded a plot to build a house in their home town (like Finnish custom has for Olympic winners and Formula One world champions). There was a huge outdoor concert and parade in Helsinki. And perhaps the best celebration was the newspaper headline simply stating how Finland was able to win: Hell has frozen over.

In all over 38 countries that were eligible to vote, 6.4 million votes were cast, as just-released numbers from the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) reveal. That's 1.4 million more than last year. If the viewership was 100 million, you might say 6.4 million is not much, only 6.4%. But keep in mind, that they only had 10 minutes to vote (at two sessions, one 10 min session in the semifinal, another 10 minutes in the final). Averaging that works out to 320,000 simultaneous votes per minute, or 5,666 votes per second.

So what? First, my congratulations to Lordi. And no, while we both share the same first name Tomi, I have an alibi, it was not me inside that mask in Athens. Honestly! Besides even with those platform shoes I am not that tall. Secondly, if a rock band can so utterly shatter the norms as destroying the winning formula for the 50 year tradition of the Eurovision by using digital communities to create a revolution - then perhaps so can you as well, with your brand. (Time to read our book?) And finally, don't under-estimate the passion and "irrational" activism of the young empowered Generation-C of today. This is the consumer of tomorrow. They will not sit still and take whatever happened to be their parent's way of doing things. Just like forcing Lordi onto the European airwaves, these young people will force many more of their preferences upon us older geezers. We better get used to it.

Its been over a week and I still can feel the pride. Hard! Rock! Hallelujah!

Comments

[Estland]

When I saw them I thought - is it really Finland? I realized I may have wanted to voted for Finland all my life, but was never able to comprehend this wish because there was simly nothing to vote for.

I voted 4 times.