THUNDERSTONE

THUNDERSTONE In Contention To Represent Finland At 2007 Eurovision Song Contest

Finland's THUNDERSTONE have posted the following brief message:

"Thunderstone has been confirmed as one of the twelve artists competing for the Finnish slot at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest!

Stay tuned for more!"

A posting at the Eurovision site ( www.yle.fi ) reads:

YLE has invited 12 artists to compete for the honour of representing Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Helsinki in 2007.

The artists are BEATS AND STYLES, HANNA PAKARINEN, HUMANE, JANI & JETSETTERS, JANN WILDE & ROSE AVENUE, JOHANNA KURKELA, JUKKA KUOPPAMAKI, KATRA, KENTALA, LAURA, LOVEX and THUNDERSTONE.
The artists were chosen after consultation with record companies and artists in autumn 2006. The songs for Finland's national selection will be chosen by the record companies and their artists. The names of the songs and their creators will be announced in the first week of January 2007 at the latest.

Finland’s representative in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest will be selected according to the procedure already familiar. There will first be four preliminary rounds broadcast live on TV and radio from the Tohloppi studio in Tampere at weekly intervals beginning on Saturday January 20.

Each preliminary round will feature three invited artists, each of which will sing two songs. Viewers will then televote for which of the two songs goes through to the final. In other words, the competition in the preliminary rounds is between songs, not artists.

Finland's national selection will culminate in the final to be held at the Caribia Spa Hotel in Turku on Saturday February 17. There will then be 12 invited artists singing 12 songs, and the winner – to represent Finland in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest – will be decided in a two-stage televote.

The preliminary rounds will all be broadcast live on TV and the presenters will be Heikki Paasonen and Jaana Pelkonen. The newsroom anchor will be Simo Frangén.

YLE will be hosting the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, the semi-final on May 10 and the final on May 12, 2007.