Lapponia (song)
 "Lapponia" | |
|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 1977 entry | |
| Country | |
| Artist(s) | |
| Language | |
| Composer(s) | |
| Lyricist(s) | |
| Conductor | |
| Finals performance | |
| Final result |
10th |
| Final points |
50 |
| Appearance chronology | |
| ◄ "Pump-Pump" (1976) | |
| "Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus" (1978) ► | |
"Lapponia" was the Finnish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, performed in Finnish by Monica Aspelund.
The song was performed sixteenth on the night, following Italy's Mia Martini with "Libera" and preceding Belgium's Dream Express with "A Million in One, Two, Three". At the close of voting, it had received 50 points, placing 10th in a field of 18. It became the first Finnish entry to be awarded with a maximum score (given by Ireland) since the start of the 12 point tradition in 1975. It would remain Finland's sole maximum score until 2006, when Denmark was first of eight to award 12 points to Finland's winning entry "Hard Rock Hallelujah".
Despite its moderate placing at the Eurovision final, "Lapponia" was given release in twenty European countries and also in Australia, Brazil, Israel and Turkey. Aspelund recorded "Lapponia" in six languages; Finnish, her mother tongue Swedish, English, German, French and Dutch. "Lapponia" afforded Aspelund a #5 hit in Finland and also reached #5 in Sweden.
The successive Finnish representative at the 1978 Contest by Seija Simola was "Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus". In 1983 Monica Aspelund's sister Ami entered the contest with the song "Fantasiaa".
"Lapponia" was included on the double-disc sets of "Winners and Classics" produced to commemorate the Congratulations special of late 2005. This is in spite of the song placing substantially lower than Marion Rung's "Tom Tom Tom" of 1973 - at the time the CDs were made, Finland's highest Contest finish. As the liner notes indicate that it is a "distinctly Finnish" song, the argument can be made that Rung's Anglophone song was not quite as Finnish.
The band Northern Kings covered this song.