Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1981

Eurovision Song Contest 1981
Eurovision Song Contest 1981
Country	Finland
National selection
Selection process	National final
Selection date(s)	21 February 1981
Selected entrant	Riki Sorsa
Selected song	"Reggae OK"
Selected songwriter(s)	Jim Pembroke; Olli Ojala;
Finals performance
Final result	16th, 27 points
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Finland was represented by Riki Sorsa and the song "Reggae OK" at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 4 April in Dublin. Sorsa won the rights to represent Finland on the 21 February.

Before Eurovision

National final

The final was hosted by Finnish television producer and singer Erkki Pohjanheimo, at Yleisradio Studio 2 in Helsinki. Eight songs were selected from the semi-final which took place on January 28. The winning song was selected by a national jury, two of which included former Finnish Eurovision contestants Marion Rung and Lasse Mårtenson.

Final – 21 February 1981
Draw	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Tapani Kansa	Sunnuntailapsi	5	6th
2	Paula Koivuniemi	Ei tule toista kertaa	1	8th
3	Mikko Alatalo	Leuhkat eväät	30	2nd
4	Frederik	Titanic	3	7th
5	Taiska	Hiroshima	27	3rd
6	Markku Aro and Nisa Soraya	Mun suothan tulla vierees sun	13	5th
7	Riki Sorsa	Reggae OK	66	1st
8	Juice Leskinen	Ilomantsi	26	4th

Jury Votes
Song	Åke Granholm	Marion Rung	John Wikström	Arto Pajukallio	Upi Sorvali	Liisa Lääveri	Jarmo Porola	Kati Bergman	Lasse Mårtenson	Total
Sunnuntailapsi		2	1	1		1				5
Ei tule toista kertaa		1								1
Leuhkat eväät	3	3	5	3	3	3	3	2	5	30
Titanic					1		1		1	3
Hiroshima	2		3	2	2	2	5	8	3	27
Mun suothan tulla vierees sun	1	5					2	3	2	13
Reggae OK	8	8	8	5	8	8	8	5	8	66
Ilomantsi	5		2	8	5	5		1		26

At Eurovision

On the night Sorsa performed eighth (following Yugoslavia and preceding France). For the first time in 15 years regular Finnish conductor Ossi Runne did not conduct the Finnish entry (instead he was providing the YLE television commentary) and was instead conducted by Otto Donner. At the close of voting "Reggae OK" had picked up 27 points, placing Finland in 16th place out of 20.^[1] The Finnish jury awarded its 12 points to Switzerland.

Voting

Points awarded to Finland^[2]
Score	Country
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points	Sweden
5 points	Ireland Netherlands Switzerland
4 points
3 points
2 points	Israel Spain
1 point	France Portugal

Points awarded by Finland^[2]
Score	Country
12 points	Switzerland
10 points	France
8 points	Yugoslavia
7 points	Germany
6 points	Israel
5 points	Turkey
4 points	Luxembourg
3 points	United Kingdom
2 points	Belgium
1 point	Sweden

References

^ "Final of Dublin 1981". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b "Results of the Final of Dublin 1981". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.

External links

(in French) Finland's national final

[1] "Final of Dublin 1981". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.

[1981detailed-2] Jump up to: ^a ^b "Results of the Final of Dublin 1981". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.

[1]

[2]

v t e Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu
Participation	1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 ~~2020~~ 2021 2022 2023 2024
Artists	Saara Aalto ~~Aksel~~ Markku Aro Ami Aspelund Monica Aspelund Nina Åström Beat Blind Channel Boulevard Carita CatCat Darude Edea Kim Floor Fredi Laila Halme Kristina Hautala Jarkko and Laura Jasmine Käärijä Kaija Katri Helena Laila Kinnunen Kirka Viktor Klimenko Koivisto Sisters Kojo Kari Kuivalainen Kuunkuiskaajat Laura Vesa-Matti Loiri Lordi Sonja Lumme Lasse Mårtenson Norma John Ann-Christine Nyström Hanna Pakarinen Päivi Paunu Paradise Oskar Pave Pernilla Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät Pihasoittajat The Rasmus Sebastian Rejman Geir Rönning Vicky Rosti Marion Rung Anneli Saaristo Sandhja Krista Siegfrids Jari Sillanpää Seija Simola Softengine Riki Sorsa Teräsbetoni Waldo's People Windows95man
Songs	"Aava" "Addicted to You" "Aina mun pitää" "Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus" "Aurinko laskee länteen" "Blackbird" "Bye Bye Baby" "Cha Cha Cha" "Da Da Dam" "Dark Side" "La dolce vita" "Eläköön elämä" "Fantasiaa" "Fri?" "Hard Rock Hallelujah" "Hengaillaan" "Huilumies" "Hullu yö" "Jezebel" "Katson sineen taivaan" "Keep Me Warm" "Kuin silloin ennen" "Kun kello käy" "Laiskotellen" "Lapponia" "Leave Me Alone" "A Little Bit" "Look Away" ~~"Looking Back"~~ "Lose Control" "Marry Me" "Missä miehet ratsastaa" "Monsters" "Muistathan" "Muistojeni laulu" "När jag blundar" "Nauravat silmät muistetaan" "Never the End" "Niin kaunis on taivas" "No Rules!" "Nuku pommiin" "Old Man Fiddle" "Playboy" "Pump-Pump" "Reggae OK" "Sata salamaa" "Sing It Away" "Something Better" "Takes 2 to Tango" "Tie uuteen päivään" "Tipi-tii" "Tom Tom Tom" "Tule luo" "Työlki ellää" "Valoa ikkunassa" "Varjoon – suojaan" "Why?" "Yamma, yamma"
Note: Entries scored out signify where Finland did not compete

v t e Eurovision Song Contest 1981
Countries	Austria Belgium Cyprus Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Israel Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom Yugoslavia
Artists	Bacchelli Marty Brem Bucks Fizz Debbie Cameron and Tommy Seebach Yiannis Dimitras Jean Gabilou Habibi Island Finn Kalvik Seid Memić Vajta Modern Folk Trio and Ayşegül Carlos Paião Jean-Claude Pascal Peter, Sue and Marc Sheeba Björn Skifs Riki Sorsa Emly Starr Lena Valaitis Linda Williams
Songs	"Aldri i livet" "C'est peut-être pas l'Amérique" "Dönme Dolap" "Fångad i en dröm" "Feggari kalokerino" "Halayla" "Het is een wonder" "Horoscopes" "Humanahum" "Io senza te" "Johnny Blue" "Krøller eller ej" "Lejla" "Making Your Mind Up" "Monika" "Playback" "Reggae OK" "Samson" "Wenn du da bist" "Y sólo tú"