The Eurovision Broadcasting Union produces an annual competition called The Eurovision Song Contest, now in its 52nd year. Only active members in the Eurovision Broadcasting Union are eligible to participate, surely one of the primary reasons we don’t hear too much about it over here in the U.S.. To enter, a country submits, what is described in the official rules as, a “national song.” The final rounds of the contest are voted on by the citizens of the participating countries.

2006 marked the 40th time that Finland entered the Eurovision competition. According to a video on the contest’s homepage, the country’s songs never fared too well and “sounded like jibberish” because the songs were generally sung in Finnish. Well, in 2006 Finland’s luck changed. Through an approval system that I don’t dare speculate on, Finland’s entry for Eurovision 2006 was Lordi, a GWAR-like band, with the song Hard Rock Hallelujah.

And wouldn’t you know it, they won! Finns rejoiced in dark unison as Lordi was crowned the winner of the 2006 Eurovision Song Competition.

As rad as you’re most certainly thinking this is, the raddest part is their win is spawning copycat entries in the 2007 competition. For example, as noted in a recent post on Wired’s Table of Malcontent blog, Sweden’s 2007 submission is DJ Bobo’s Vampires Are Alive.

Wow, DJ Bobo. All this goth/house, good-in-bad-way, rock opera needs is Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan standing in the corner nodding their heads to one side in unison. I can’t help but wonder what Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth would say about all this. They’d probably punch DJ Bobo in the throat and eat him alive.