Dance, neon colours, hot sun! That was the overall feeling of We Love Festival in Helsinki, Finland, this year. The festival took place during two hot days in the end of July. Arranged annually since 2014, the event celebrates eurodance and dance pop artists, most of who started their careers in the late 90’s. Because of several millennium artists performing, however, the festival accordingly changed its name from the previous We Love the 90’s Festival.
The festival has always seen many Eurovision stars and this year was no exception. Most of the artists participating have some connection to the ESC or national preselections.
Teeny-weeny string bikinis for Günther and massive pyros for DJ Bobo
Günther (real name: Mats Söderlund) is a Swedish artist, who not only participated in Melodifestivalen (“Fire like tonight” in 2006), but also in the Finnish preselection Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) in 2017! The moustache, which we could investigate in detail in Günther’s “Love yourself” video, were securely in place as he performed his biggest hits with two female singers. The songs “No pantalones” and “Teeny weeny string bikini” couldn’t have been more apt for the evening temperatures around 27 °C!
The Swiss legend DJ Bobo took his Mysterial tour to Helsinki. His performance had some really ambitions stage projections, and went through his whole career so far. In the beginning of the show, DJ Bobo had to apologize for wearing such ordinary clothes – the baggage had got lost during their flight. But the show went on and we also heard “Vampires are alive”, DJ Bobo’s Eurovision entry from 2007, which was accompanied by massive and very hot pyros.
Danish stars Daze and Me & My take the stage
The Danish group Daze took the charts by storm in the late 90’s. In the festival, they performed many of their biggest hits, such as “Superhero” and “Tamogotchi”. In 2013, Daze participated in Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with the fantastic entry “We own the universe”.
Me & My are a sweet sister duo, who appeared on the festival stage like two dolls dressed in blue girly dresses, looking like characters from a fairytale. One member of the duo has Eurovision experience: Susanne Georgi represented Andorra in 2009 with “La teva decisió (Get a Life)”, partly in Catalan language. As a duo, Me & My (Pernille & Susanne) started their careers as teenagers, and had an international hit in 1995 with “Dub-I-Dub”. In 2007, the duo participated in Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with the melodic entry “Two are stronger than one”. The song has recently gotten fabulous Stormby remixes.
More legends from Finland, Sweden and Germany
Even though the festival was a real gem for a 90’s eurodance lover, it was also a great experience for a Eurovision fan. Among the Eurovision-related acts participating were three Finnish pop groups. Movetron participated in the preselections in 2008 with “Cupido”. Nylon Beat was a very popular teenage girl duo in the late 90’s, making a short comeback this year. They participated in the Finnish preselections in 1998 (“Umm ma ma”) and 2000 (“Viha ja rakkaus” / “Love and hate”), respectively. The third Finnish act was Waldo’s People, who represented Finland in the ESC in 2009 with “Lose control”.
There are many artists who have become recurrent visitors to the festival, and every time the audience is going wild about them. This year there were several famous Swedish acts that have also participated in Melodifestivalen at some point in their career: Rednex, the Swedish folk-dance group, participated in Melodifestivalen in 2006 and 2008; Dr. Alban, who formed a duo with Jessica Folcker to Melodifestivalen 2014 and later on penned a MF song for Dinah Nah, and E-Type, who participated in Melodifestivalen in 2004 and 2008.
And let’s not forget about Germany, the home and origin of many eurodance acts. The artist list had two German groups as well with Eurovision connections. E-Rotic participated in the German preselections in 2000 with “Queen of light”. The Baseballs participated in the preselection in 2014, when the competition was aptly called Unser Song für Dänemark.
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