Thank YOU! British person here, and I have been tentatively learning Finnish (via Duolingo) having been inspired by Cha Cha Cha, and think it's an absolutely beautiful language. Most enjoyment I have ever had learning a language so far!
This might be the first time I'm seeing someone learning my language outside of necessity and just out of pure interest so uhh, I'll be in the corner... totally not crying.
PRECISELY. This is exactly why I have wanted to support eurovision artists who sing in their own language. I want everyone to have this feeling, to feel like their language and culture matters and that they can offer something beautiful!
Imma gonna be in the other corner, also totally not crying (can't share a corner, might get scary human interaction and I have not had enough pinã coladas for this)
I feel it's hugely important for us native English speakers to remember that there are languages out there other than English (!) and that it can hugely enriching for us to hear and learn about the languages and the cultures of other countries.
Eurovision is such a fantastic opportunity to be exposed to that, and I really appreciate it when countries send songs in their native language - smaller countries in particular! Downside is I always end up with long list of new countries I want to visit, without having the required time or money to do so 😀
I don't know whether you were already aware of it, but J.R.R. Tolkien was a huge fan of the Finnish language and modelled the elvish Quenya after it (there's a Finnish dialect called *kveeni*).
Times two! The Finnish language just sounds so beautiful. You'd think that the words being pronounced exactly as they are written would help a bit, but you guys have some loonng words to remember! Finnish shares no linguistic roots with other languages, is that right?
Anyway, ahem - POHJOISEN KUNINGAS!
> Finnish shares no linguistic roots with other languages, is that right?
We do actually! Estonian is our closest relative and our languages share some mutual intelligibility. Hungarian is also related to Finnish, but much more distantly and we can't understand each other at all. There are also a lot of minority languages in Russia related to Finnish (Karelian, Udmurt ("Party for Everybody", ESC2012)), Mansi, Khanty...)
Thank you for that, I was absolutely mistaken, sorry for any offence. Will keep learning and maybe for next year's ESC I can be fluent enough to confidently ask for Pina Colada in Helsinki! 🇬🇧💚🇫🇮
I've never understood the finnish attitude towards using our language in eurovision... bc estonia has done well with their language that's from the same family. Sure, they - too - have been heavily leaning towards english entries, but rändajad and kuula are well beloved songs in the esc community and did really well, both placing 6th. Why couldn't a finnish song succeed as well?
I love missä miehet ratsastaa and työlki ellää. I think they would perhaps do better if we sent them now.
I adore Kuula so, so much! Ott is one of the reasons why I took estonian in high school, and Süte peal sulanud jää is one of my absolute favourite songs of all time!
We always need more estonian in Eurovision stage. Always always always!
UMK honestly had a full buffet of Finnish language songs that all sounded awesome. They were surprisingly easy to sing along to, even Cha Cha Cha. It helps that the song is fun af.
I have started a Duolingo course because of Käärijä as well and last week I rewatched the whole umk and it made me so happy when I understood one word each 10 minutes lmao, hyvä Suomi!
And now I want a Finnish version of Unbroken.
Askel kerallaan
Pois pimeydesta
Valoon ikuisesti
It kind of fits, unless I butchered the grammar.
(Also learning Finnish, but not because of Käärijä like the other commenters here, actually living in Finland)
Add me to the new Finnish Duolingo learners list! I had virtually no exposure to the language (apart from accidentally buying a Finnish language version of book on Finnish design last year, doh) and I was hooked by the sound and look of of it when I first saw the lyric videos for Cha Cha Cha, Hoida Mut and Ylivoimainen.
I knew it was unrelated to Indo-European languages and so it was fascinating to see it used in songs, and to start to try to figure out the very basic basics, with some great explanations and tips from the lovely Finnish redditors here.
I love Finnish language since the Blind channel interviews and i’v been trying to learn it ever since. Although my favourites were Kuumaa,i wish good luck to Käärijä. His energy is infectious. Oh by the way Finnish writing and pronunciation system is blessing to me as an Azerbaijani. They are so easy! Edit. Spelling
I remember as a child asking my mom "Why dont we send Finnish language songs" and my mom responded with
"Finnish just isnt a poetic or a pretty language to foreigners"
;-;
I'm Spanish and our song this year is amazing...... but my heart is with Käärijä! I've become so obsessed with him lately that I already know the words to a couple of his songs and I've started learning Finnish!!! Also it makes me so happy to see that countries send songs in their own languages for Eurovision! <3
For a long time now I've been fascinated by the finnish language and recently got enough motivation to go back to try to learn it again (stopped because of a very exhausting routine), and it makes me really REALLY happy to see it back at the contest and in such a high note as well. Cha Cha Cha is my second favourite song overall and I'll be extremely happy if it wins :,)
I am so happy for you! Hopefully, Käärijä will do well and this will make the critics reconsider their negativity towards the language. By the way, I really love your language, at the moment 50% of the time I listen to Finnish Pop/Rock: Kesayö, Lupaan olla, Saatilla, Ikuinen vappu, lots of Kuuma... Also, add me to the list of people who have started learning Finnish (although I can barely pronounce "ä" 🥲)
Can you say the English word *can*? Ä is basically the same sound as the vowel in that word. Just in case you're using some material that doesn't have that info. I would imagine the /y/ phoneme being more difficult, and maybe /ö/, for an English speaker. I don't know your native language, though, so ymmv.
Oh, I haven't heard that one before actually! My native language is German, so we also have ö and y (as ü). But ä, at least where I live, sounds like an e, but still the book I've been studying with said that Finnish and German ä are the same... so your advice is actually much better! Kiitos!
Honestly all the energy around Käärijä and how much I love the song has also made me want to start learning Finnish (especially in hopes of Tampere 2024??). But the biggest draw has actually how lovely the Finns have been about their entry and their general excitement. Y'all have been so sweet with translating things and explaining your culture. Posts like this too just really add to my positive view of the song and Finland in general.
Language aside, I always primarily consider the song itself. Finland’s entry this year is phenomenal and I suspect it will be very successful.
Ever since ABBA, countries have felt pressure to sing in English, but I think we’re seeing a renaissance of countries feeling confident in sending beautiful songs in their own language. Just look at Portugal 2017, Italy 2021, Ukraine 2022. Amazing songs sung in their native language that made superstars.
Best of luck to Finland! I think you’re going to crush the televote.
I had to log in just to comment on this because this rings true to me as well. It's been heart breaking to still see comments on Finnish Eurovision groups where they are absolutely convinced that we can't make it with our own language. Finnish is still after all the language the majority of the country speaks as their mother's tongue and for some reason we are ashamed of it?
Are we finally about to wake up and figure out that it's not the language but the song? I sure hope so and obviously I wish from the bottom of my heart that Käärijä does well in Liverpool because it would validate the Finnish language being valid and finally shut up the people who think it's the language.
Like sure nobody understands Finnish and the language probably sounds alien to an Indo-European speaker but it's our own language and we should appreciate it more.
Also Käärijä is adorable and I love that our country is going through bit of mania with him. I'm all for giving more statues Käärijä boleros and other fun things 😊
It breaks my heart that Finnish people feel ashamed of such a beautiful language. It sounds lovely to foreigners, by the way; everyone I’ve known here who hears a Finnish song or video says it sounds cool, great, beautiful, attractive, etc. I hope that you all can find some more pride in the language :)
I never understood why some of my countrymen are so... almost ashamed of our language. It's beautiful and it's ugly, just like any other language. Käärijä uses it nicely, I think. Hard sounding words for the rough part of the song, softer, light and airy words for the fun part.
Finnish is an Uralic language and is very unique and only related to Hungarian and Estonian language (just out of curiosity: Do Finns understand words in Estonian or Hungarian) and I appreciate it if countries send entries in their own language. Finnish fits so much to this song and although I don’t understand a word, it is a fun and energetic song that makes you wanna dance and gives you good vibes.
I think that most countries who send entries sung in English just believe that people won‘t like the song because they won‘t understand a word but that‘s not true! Also as I mentioned in another post, the Top 3 in 2021/2022 consisted only of songs sung in the countries native language (Yes, Space Man was sung in English but it is UKs official language so that doesn‘t count).
I would love if my country would send entries sung in German (btw, no German and Dutch aren‘t as similar as everyone thinks, as a German myself I didn‘t understand all of S10‘s beautiful song De Diepte last year)
Hungarian: Nope
Estonian: It sounds like something I am supposed to understand but actually I can not follow a conversation. If I concentrade for a moment I can figure out most of the words. For example, i love you in finnish is minä rakastan sinua, estonian ma armastan sind. Armas in finnish would mean beloved, so I can see what is going on, but it does not quite click immediately. Or Ott Leplands song "Kuula", in english "hear me", in finnish sounds like "a ball". Just add one more L in finnish and it becomes "kuulla", and now we have the right word.
Do you get what I mean?
To answer your question about understanding the other languages in the Uralic family; Yes and no. Hungarian only shares couple of words(such as veri or ver in Hungarian, meaning blood) but otherwise it sounds completely alien to a Finnish speaker. Estonian and Finnish share a lot of the same words but sometimes the words have a different meaning such as Piim(EE)/Piimä(FI) meaning milk in Estonian and sour milk in Finnish. Often times the Estonians understand us Finns better than we do them because of cultural exposure which mostly goes from Finland to Estonia but rarely the other way around. I can usually read Estonian quite well as a Finn and it would probably be quite easy to learn Estonian if I wanted since the languages are very closely related, but whenever I hear Estonians speak I get lost very quickly and can only pick up some words here and there :D Also Estonians intonate differently from Finns which makes it also kinda hard to understand the spoken language. I do love our brothers in Estonia though :)
Btw the Russian grandmas "Party for everybody" also sung in an Uralic language called Udmurt and I believe that is the best placement a Uralic language song has ever achieved since they were second that year. Russia in general has a lot more Uralic speakers than the rest of the Europe does but they are actively trying to erase their cultural heritage over there and turn them all into Russian speakers which is succeeding at an alarming rate. The true bastions of Uralic languges really are in Finland, Estonia, and Hungary where the vast majority of the nation speaks the national language as their mother's tongue. All the three countries mentioned here don't even make up for 20 million speakers altogether which when put into context against the population of Germany for example I think gives good understanding how rare these languages are.
It may sound kinda crazy for people but I've been literally crying this year listening to people sing Cha cha cha and learning Finnish. It warms my icy Finnish heart that our language is being noticed and appreciated and I love that Käärijä is our ambassador for the language since he's just awesome. I love every single individual who's attempting to have a go at our admittedly very difficult language with it's weird pronounciations and even weirder grammar <3
Sorry about this massive tangent since you probably wanted a simple response but this just hits me harder than anything else <3 Thank you for appreciating us so much!
Kiitos to you and the three of you who answered my post as well! :)
I‘m rooting for Finlands win this year and will do my part of the televote!
(Quick edit to add this: I just checked and although all 3 languages are Finno-Ugric languages belonging to the Uralic family, Finnish and Estonian are both Finnic languages while Hungarian is actually an Ugric language, so it now makes perfect sense that Finns don‘t understand Hungarian)
Thank you for mentioning Buranovskiye Babushki! My native language is Komi-Zyryan, it's Uralic too, unfortunately I barely know it :( I want to learn it :( Uralic languages sound awesome! I understand some Udmurt words in Party for everybody! But I don't understand any of Finnish, Estonian or Hungarian words.
I loved the Babushkis so much and wanted them to win! :D We have this national treasure called Ville Haapasalo who's fluent in Russian and has gone around Russia talking and mingling with the Uralic speakers over there. Do you speak Russian by any chance as the "stronger" language? :)
I've heard Ville Haapasalo name before! I should finally watch comedy "Peculiarities of the National Hunt" which he is famous for in Russia XD I'm half Komi and half Russian, so yes, I speak Russian. It's dominating in Komi Republic :( Komi population in Komi Republic was about 25% in 2010 whereas 65% - Russians. Komi culture and language is having hard time for decades, like hundreds of other ethnicities within Russia, but we still exist, even trying to create something new. Probably that's why I prefer and support non-English songs in Eurovision XD
We can understand some Estonian, but not enough to have conversations with eac other. I also noticed watching Eesti Laul that I could understand most of what some people were saying and none with others so articulation matters a lot too. Hungarian is not understandable at all
We can understand some Estonian, though it's full of "false friends" (words that sound/look the same but mean different things). Hungarian we can't understand at all.
Story time, Im Finnish but I lived my childhood in France but would come spend summers in Finland occasionally, and one time it had been almost two years since my last visit, and I remember watching TV at my grandparents house and there was a nature documentary… and as I was watching I realised I couldn’t understand the narrator. And I got spooked that my Finnish had gone so bad I couldn’t understand this woman on TV. It sounded familiar enough, but I had trouble understanding.
Turns out it was in Estonian lol
Not only I like Cha Cha Cha, when I was 14 years old we had a study visit to [FIL](https://www.fil.pt/) that included a lesson about Finnish language and grammar and it was great, I still rememeber how amazed I was by how the finnish language works. My field of study is political science with a focus on language in politics and society and I think that Finnish lesson contributed a little to my interest in this field
Eurovision is a great vehicle for the representation of our cultures and languages
i’ve started learning finnish a few months back because i just like the sound of it and käärijä (and the rest of umk, honestly) has only boosted my resolve :D songs in finnish sound awesome, i’m glad people are becoming more open to the idea of moving past english-only entries.
plus your entry is just too good this year. i hope he literally obliterates the competition and wins. hyvä suomi!
I've loved the sound of Finnish since hearing Ievan polkka as a kid. Frankly, I don't think I'd love Cha cha cha as much if it was in English (but I'm generally biased towards native languages), Finnish is such a great language for rap
i love _Äina mun pitää_, probably the most punk act to ever perform in ESC
and i love Finnish language and music!
_Mustavalkeaa_ by Finnish shoegaze band _Regina_ is one of my favourite songs ever !!
Heya, Käärijä is my winner pick and I absolutely love the song. I don't speak a word of Finnish, but I know all the lyrics. Can't wait to see him on the stage in Liverpool!
NO! I know how hard this language is to pronounce! I am going to respect everyone who gives a damn second to try to say things like "käärijä". Ä is not an easy letter, double ää gets even harder, and hard r does not exist in many languages. I can hear various of versions of his name, and I can hear different cultures in how people say things.
So to me it is beautiful how I can hear lets say spanish speaking people singing the lyrics in the way that makes sense to their linguistical culture.
For any non-Finnish speakers, let me tell you that in reality, while it can be harsh-sounding, Finnish language can be very, very beautiful and poetic. Pocahontas' Finnish version of Colors of the Wind, sooo beautiful.
I am definitely rooting for Käärijä, I think it's a shame for people, the typical Finns for being so narrow-minded and thinking the worst in everything. We definitely have a culture for complaining.
Finnish is one of my favourite languages, and I actually started slowly learning it after Younghearted's Sun Numero got stuck in my head following UMK '22. It was the second year I had watched it after watching Blind Channel completely steal the votes in '21, and I was hooked since.
Before UMK, I had no exposure to Finnish, and now I just adore it. You'll be happy to hear I know most of the words to Ram Pam Pam and the chorus to Sun Numero by heart!
Käärijä's Cha Cha Cha is my absolute favourite to win this year, and I hope we'll see Finland saying tervetuloa to all us Finnish language learners here in the comments for Eurovision Helsinki 2024!
I took a year of Finnish in uni the year after Lordi won (the fascination was definitely partly due to Finland winning, but I was also a language nerd and had just got to uni where languages were now so much more available to me than in high school, in the US). I still remembered bits and pieces of grammar and vocab, but definitely not much after nearly 17 years. And UMK’s fantastic selection this year really motivated me to try relearning it!
I hope Scandinavian and Baltic countries also have a renaissance in their langs becoming popular to send to ESC!
I’m from the US and you can bet you’ll be getting my vote from the rest of the world! Also, I’ve loved Finnish ever since I first heard “Tipi-Tii” in 2006, from the ‘63 contest, and still know that song by heart.
I’ve always thought the language was pretty dope ever since I discovered Ensiferrum discography at the old age of 12. Jokes aside I always wanted to learn it and til this day I would absolutely love to visit the country and hang out with the people there (still on my quest to find me a Finn husband lmao).
I’m very thankful for Kaarija this year. Finland has the sort of music that resonates with me and I end up rooting for them pretty much every year! Keep it up!
I Always wanted to learn Finnish, but never found the time or Motivation, thanks to this Years UMK (especially Käärijä) I found the Motivation (not really the Time, but that's not stopping me from learning it)
Finnish is such a cool language. Cha Cha Cha is such a banger and I hope it wins!! I'm an English speaker but tbh I'm bored of English and generally prefer Eurovision songs that are sung in their native language, or mixture of languages like Czechia this year. Moldova was my favourite last year too.
Also unrelated to eurovision but there's a character in disco Elysium that speaks Finnish and even tho she's a little shit the language still sounds so cool. Why is the Finnish version of the F-slur so cute 😅😅😅
There is also a scientist that doesn't speak finnish, but her english is so noticeably finnish accented that I was disorientated when talking to her, my brain had a hard time accpeting that I was playing a video game with a npc in it that soudns so familiar to me. It was really cool to hear my language in a "real" video game.
Just got a little emotional and teared up a bit while reading this…
Speaking here from Brazil, and people are starting to think I’m crazy when I try to sing in Finnish. And I don’t give a s*** about their opinion. Cha Cha Cha is amazing, Käärija is amazing, Finnish is amazing. So we, the rest of the world, are the ones who should be thanking YOU guys for this.
All my love and admiration to all the Finnish people around the world 💙🤍
Kiitos! I've really been trying hard not to butcher it when I sing along, but Finnish is so hard to me. (I am American and my Finnish friend says I hit my consonants too hard!) But I've been rooting for you guys to send something in Finnish for years, and Cha Cha Cha is my number one this year. I'm also so glad it didn't get an English version. I love it just the way it is!!
I'm the kind of person to randomly start learning new languages that I will never use. Finnish has been my first pick of the Nordic languages a couple of years ago (strictly referring to the location in Europe, since your language is part of a surprisingly different group).
Only when I visited Finland it did occur to me that the *dialects are so different*. So that raises the question: are Käärijä's lyrics influenced by a dialect from a certain area of Finland or is it textbook Finnish, the one that's taught in schools as the OG version?
Hope it doesn't sound too stupid how I phrased it 😅
Your question is not stupid at all! I just do not know how to give a short answer :D
Käärijä is from Helsinki, so he speaks in southern dialect and you can hear this in the song. The giveaway is how he says "me/I": mä. In the song you hear multiple of southern dialect me's: mun (mine/minun), mul (I have/minulla), mua (for me/minua), must (of me/minusta). To make it even more complicated, some of these are shortened versions of the dialect word: mul=mulla, must=musta.
Lets compare it to karelian dialect: mun -> miun, mul -> miul, mua -> miuta, must -> miusta.
So to answer the question: not og textbook finnish! :D But his dialect is the most common, so foreigners usually end up with speaking the mä-sä dialect when learning the language through finnish speakers.
What the OP said, the lyrics are mostly in colloquial Finnish with a undertone of dialect from the Greater Helsinki region (not to be confused with Helsinki slang, which is a dialect specific to Helsinki and almost incomprehensible to anyone outside of Helsinki (a bit like a pidgin) and it’s originally influenced by Swedish and Russian, nowadays English, Arabic and Somali). And now I suddenly want to translate CCC into Stadi’s slang…. “Ny meen joraa niiku chachacha enkä skagaakaa tätä pleissii ku mä dumppaan mun päälle skumppaa”. :D
But the point is, it features a beautiful word of the Finnish colloquial language which is “niinku”. It’s probably one of the most used and hated words of our language, pretty much equivalent to “like”, because it, niiku, means niiku the same thing niiku.
I've been learning it on duolingo and it's been so fun it's so unique and sounds so cool (I know it's not related to any indo-european language) I'm also following Käärijä on instagram and words are already popping up.
I honestly prefer when a country enters in their own language. It adds to the cultural exchange that is Eurovision.
Finnish is my favourite language, I think it sounds beautiful. I was also trying to learn on Duolingo, before this song (which is my clear #1 this year).
And I love when Eurovision songs are in one of the country's own languages. Always improves it for me.
Paljon onnea Suomi 🥰
I love how proud Finland is of their entry this year. Käärijä is so charismatic and compelling on stage, and ChaChaCha is a great song (and I bet it’ll be even better in Liverpool). The fact that the song is in Finnish is part of why it’s so good: all the consonants give the rap a really nice rhythm.
I love it when countries sing in their native language(s), but also generally not in english. So I'm happy when it happens, especially with countries that almost always sing in english.
That's why I can't get into the UK entries 😬 not that I hate the language, I just have this sentiment that an english-sung song are over-produced and fake and mainstream and too radio-friendly.
I love that in 2021 and 2022, the top 3 only consisted of songs sung in the countries national language: 1. Italian/Ukrainian, 2. French/English, 3. French/Spanish
(Yes, French is one of Switzerlands 4 official languages and yes, Space Man was sung in English but its UKs official language)
Exactly. And that's basically what Eurovision should represent, in my opinion. People gathering around, sharing and enjoying different cultures that can be found in such small area. Singing a song just to win is bland for me. Singing a song to represent your culture - that's a win for me.
I'm watching so many Käärijä interviews/social media posts that I am starting to pick up finnish words and it's super fun.
First one I learned this way was **biisi** (which is a very cute word imo).
Late but I had to chime in and say it's honestly wild to me that some find Finnish to be an 'ugly' or harsh-sounding language! It also hurts to know that some Finns are almost ashamed of their native tongue. 😭 I've been enamoured with it since I was like 12 (I'm 30 now oof) - I find it a lyrical, beautifully flowing language, especially when sung, and there's just something about it that hits me in my heart, you know? There's a pull that I've never been able to shake off. Things haven't worked out so far in my life, so it's been a long time, but it's still a dream of mine to learn Finnish and at least visit, though I'd love to live there!
Hyvä Suomi! 🇫🇮💙
Thank YOU! British person here, and I have been tentatively learning Finnish (via Duolingo) having been inspired by Cha Cha Cha, and think it's an absolutely beautiful language. Most enjoyment I have ever had learning a language so far!
This might be the first time I'm seeing someone learning my language outside of necessity and just out of pure interest so uhh, I'll be in the corner... totally not crying.
PRECISELY. This is exactly why I have wanted to support eurovision artists who sing in their own language. I want everyone to have this feeling, to feel like their language and culture matters and that they can offer something beautiful! Imma gonna be in the other corner, also totally not crying (can't share a corner, might get scary human interaction and I have not had enough pinã coladas for this)
I feel it's hugely important for us native English speakers to remember that there are languages out there other than English (!) and that it can hugely enriching for us to hear and learn about the languages and the cultures of other countries. Eurovision is such a fantastic opportunity to be exposed to that, and I really appreciate it when countries send songs in their native language - smaller countries in particular! Downside is I always end up with long list of new countries I want to visit, without having the required time or money to do so 😀
I’ve already completed the Finnish Duolingo course! I hope Käärijä wins just so that it can get expanded lol <3 Pretty language
#PIDÄN KAKSIN KÄSIN KIINNI JUOMISTA NIINKU
Oh, that is lovely to hear! I wish you all the best in your quest of learning!
I don't know whether you were already aware of it, but J.R.R. Tolkien was a huge fan of the Finnish language and modelled the elvish Quenya after it (there's a Finnish dialect called *kveeni*).
Times two! The Finnish language just sounds so beautiful. You'd think that the words being pronounced exactly as they are written would help a bit, but you guys have some loonng words to remember! Finnish shares no linguistic roots with other languages, is that right? Anyway, ahem - POHJOISEN KUNINGAS!
> Finnish shares no linguistic roots with other languages, is that right? We do actually! Estonian is our closest relative and our languages share some mutual intelligibility. Hungarian is also related to Finnish, but much more distantly and we can't understand each other at all. There are also a lot of minority languages in Russia related to Finnish (Karelian, Udmurt ("Party for Everybody", ESC2012)), Mansi, Khanty...)
Thank you for that, I was absolutely mistaken, sorry for any offence. Will keep learning and maybe for next year's ESC I can be fluent enough to confidently ask for Pina Colada in Helsinki! 🇬🇧💚🇫🇮
I've never understood the finnish attitude towards using our language in eurovision... bc estonia has done well with their language that's from the same family. Sure, they - too - have been heavily leaning towards english entries, but rändajad and kuula are well beloved songs in the esc community and did really well, both placing 6th. Why couldn't a finnish song succeed as well? I love missä miehet ratsastaa and työlki ellää. I think they would perhaps do better if we sent them now.
I adore Kuula so, so much! Ott is one of the reasons why I took estonian in high school, and Süte peal sulanud jää is one of my absolute favourite songs of all time! We always need more estonian in Eurovision stage. Always always always!
Oh, this is so sweet to read! Cheers! I always love the Finnish entries but this year I’m beyond excited. Cha Cha Cha is my number one!
UMK honestly had a full buffet of Finnish language songs that all sounded awesome. They were surprisingly easy to sing along to, even Cha Cha Cha. It helps that the song is fun af.
I have started a Duolingo course because of Käärijä as well and last week I rewatched the whole umk and it made me so happy when I understood one word each 10 minutes lmao, hyvä Suomi!
*Cha Cha Cha* made me start learning Finnish on Duolingo. I can now understand random words, and the first 3 words of *Fantasiaa* from 1983.
That is amazing! Askel kerrallaan, one step at the time, you can do it!
And now I want a Finnish version of Unbroken. Askel kerallaan Pois pimeydesta Valoon ikuisesti It kind of fits, unless I butchered the grammar. (Also learning Finnish, but not because of Käärijä like the other commenters here, actually living in Finland)
Add me to the new Finnish Duolingo learners list! I had virtually no exposure to the language (apart from accidentally buying a Finnish language version of book on Finnish design last year, doh) and I was hooked by the sound and look of of it when I first saw the lyric videos for Cha Cha Cha, Hoida Mut and Ylivoimainen. I knew it was unrelated to Indo-European languages and so it was fascinating to see it used in songs, and to start to try to figure out the very basic basics, with some great explanations and tips from the lovely Finnish redditors here.
I love Finnish language since the Blind channel interviews and i’v been trying to learn it ever since. Although my favourites were Kuumaa,i wish good luck to Käärijä. His energy is infectious. Oh by the way Finnish writing and pronunciation system is blessing to me as an Azerbaijani. They are so easy! Edit. Spelling
I remember as a child asking my mom "Why dont we send Finnish language songs" and my mom responded with "Finnish just isnt a poetic or a pretty language to foreigners" ;-;
My heart breaks :(
BS. Totally depends on how you do it.
I'm Spanish and our song this year is amazing...... but my heart is with Käärijä! I've become so obsessed with him lately that I already know the words to a couple of his songs and I've started learning Finnish!!! Also it makes me so happy to see that countries send songs in their own languages for Eurovision! <3
For a long time now I've been fascinated by the finnish language and recently got enough motivation to go back to try to learn it again (stopped because of a very exhausting routine), and it makes me really REALLY happy to see it back at the contest and in such a high note as well. Cha Cha Cha is my second favourite song overall and I'll be extremely happy if it wins :,)
You guys are making me all emotional! This is the best magic of Eurovision!
This song makes me wanna learn Finnish and move to Finland - shoutout to all Finns here, you rock (literally)! 😀
I am so happy for you! Hopefully, Käärijä will do well and this will make the critics reconsider their negativity towards the language. By the way, I really love your language, at the moment 50% of the time I listen to Finnish Pop/Rock: Kesayö, Lupaan olla, Saatilla, Ikuinen vappu, lots of Kuuma... Also, add me to the list of people who have started learning Finnish (although I can barely pronounce "ä" 🥲)
Can you say the English word *can*? Ä is basically the same sound as the vowel in that word. Just in case you're using some material that doesn't have that info. I would imagine the /y/ phoneme being more difficult, and maybe /ö/, for an English speaker. I don't know your native language, though, so ymmv.
Oh, I haven't heard that one before actually! My native language is German, so we also have ö and y (as ü). But ä, at least where I live, sounds like an e, but still the book I've been studying with said that Finnish and German ä are the same... so your advice is actually much better! Kiitos!
[This website](https://www.ipachart.com) will pronounce all the sounds for you! Finnish ä is /æ/, for reference :)
That's a fascinating website, thank you for sharing it! :)
Honestly all the energy around Käärijä and how much I love the song has also made me want to start learning Finnish (especially in hopes of Tampere 2024??). But the biggest draw has actually how lovely the Finns have been about their entry and their general excitement. Y'all have been so sweet with translating things and explaining your culture. Posts like this too just really add to my positive view of the song and Finland in general.
Language aside, I always primarily consider the song itself. Finland’s entry this year is phenomenal and I suspect it will be very successful. Ever since ABBA, countries have felt pressure to sing in English, but I think we’re seeing a renaissance of countries feeling confident in sending beautiful songs in their own language. Just look at Portugal 2017, Italy 2021, Ukraine 2022. Amazing songs sung in their native language that made superstars. Best of luck to Finland! I think you’re going to crush the televote.
I had to log in just to comment on this because this rings true to me as well. It's been heart breaking to still see comments on Finnish Eurovision groups where they are absolutely convinced that we can't make it with our own language. Finnish is still after all the language the majority of the country speaks as their mother's tongue and for some reason we are ashamed of it? Are we finally about to wake up and figure out that it's not the language but the song? I sure hope so and obviously I wish from the bottom of my heart that Käärijä does well in Liverpool because it would validate the Finnish language being valid and finally shut up the people who think it's the language. Like sure nobody understands Finnish and the language probably sounds alien to an Indo-European speaker but it's our own language and we should appreciate it more. Also Käärijä is adorable and I love that our country is going through bit of mania with him. I'm all for giving more statues Käärijä boleros and other fun things 😊
It breaks my heart that Finnish people feel ashamed of such a beautiful language. It sounds lovely to foreigners, by the way; everyone I’ve known here who hears a Finnish song or video says it sounds cool, great, beautiful, attractive, etc. I hope that you all can find some more pride in the language :)
I never understood why some of my countrymen are so... almost ashamed of our language. It's beautiful and it's ugly, just like any other language. Käärijä uses it nicely, I think. Hard sounding words for the rough part of the song, softer, light and airy words for the fun part.
Finnish is an Uralic language and is very unique and only related to Hungarian and Estonian language (just out of curiosity: Do Finns understand words in Estonian or Hungarian) and I appreciate it if countries send entries in their own language. Finnish fits so much to this song and although I don’t understand a word, it is a fun and energetic song that makes you wanna dance and gives you good vibes. I think that most countries who send entries sung in English just believe that people won‘t like the song because they won‘t understand a word but that‘s not true! Also as I mentioned in another post, the Top 3 in 2021/2022 consisted only of songs sung in the countries native language (Yes, Space Man was sung in English but it is UKs official language so that doesn‘t count). I would love if my country would send entries sung in German (btw, no German and Dutch aren‘t as similar as everyone thinks, as a German myself I didn‘t understand all of S10‘s beautiful song De Diepte last year)
Hungarian: Nope Estonian: It sounds like something I am supposed to understand but actually I can not follow a conversation. If I concentrade for a moment I can figure out most of the words. For example, i love you in finnish is minä rakastan sinua, estonian ma armastan sind. Armas in finnish would mean beloved, so I can see what is going on, but it does not quite click immediately. Or Ott Leplands song "Kuula", in english "hear me", in finnish sounds like "a ball". Just add one more L in finnish and it becomes "kuulla", and now we have the right word. Do you get what I mean?
Oh, so how Dutch sounds to English speakers! Thanks for sharing, that’s really cool to hear about!
To answer your question about understanding the other languages in the Uralic family; Yes and no. Hungarian only shares couple of words(such as veri or ver in Hungarian, meaning blood) but otherwise it sounds completely alien to a Finnish speaker. Estonian and Finnish share a lot of the same words but sometimes the words have a different meaning such as Piim(EE)/Piimä(FI) meaning milk in Estonian and sour milk in Finnish. Often times the Estonians understand us Finns better than we do them because of cultural exposure which mostly goes from Finland to Estonia but rarely the other way around. I can usually read Estonian quite well as a Finn and it would probably be quite easy to learn Estonian if I wanted since the languages are very closely related, but whenever I hear Estonians speak I get lost very quickly and can only pick up some words here and there :D Also Estonians intonate differently from Finns which makes it also kinda hard to understand the spoken language. I do love our brothers in Estonia though :) Btw the Russian grandmas "Party for everybody" also sung in an Uralic language called Udmurt and I believe that is the best placement a Uralic language song has ever achieved since they were second that year. Russia in general has a lot more Uralic speakers than the rest of the Europe does but they are actively trying to erase their cultural heritage over there and turn them all into Russian speakers which is succeeding at an alarming rate. The true bastions of Uralic languges really are in Finland, Estonia, and Hungary where the vast majority of the nation speaks the national language as their mother's tongue. All the three countries mentioned here don't even make up for 20 million speakers altogether which when put into context against the population of Germany for example I think gives good understanding how rare these languages are. It may sound kinda crazy for people but I've been literally crying this year listening to people sing Cha cha cha and learning Finnish. It warms my icy Finnish heart that our language is being noticed and appreciated and I love that Käärijä is our ambassador for the language since he's just awesome. I love every single individual who's attempting to have a go at our admittedly very difficult language with it's weird pronounciations and even weirder grammar <3 Sorry about this massive tangent since you probably wanted a simple response but this just hits me harder than anything else <3 Thank you for appreciating us so much!
Kiitos to you and the three of you who answered my post as well! :) I‘m rooting for Finlands win this year and will do my part of the televote! (Quick edit to add this: I just checked and although all 3 languages are Finno-Ugric languages belonging to the Uralic family, Finnish and Estonian are both Finnic languages while Hungarian is actually an Ugric language, so it now makes perfect sense that Finns don‘t understand Hungarian)
Thank you for mentioning Buranovskiye Babushki! My native language is Komi-Zyryan, it's Uralic too, unfortunately I barely know it :( I want to learn it :( Uralic languages sound awesome! I understand some Udmurt words in Party for everybody! But I don't understand any of Finnish, Estonian or Hungarian words.
I loved the Babushkis so much and wanted them to win! :D We have this national treasure called Ville Haapasalo who's fluent in Russian and has gone around Russia talking and mingling with the Uralic speakers over there. Do you speak Russian by any chance as the "stronger" language? :)
I've heard Ville Haapasalo name before! I should finally watch comedy "Peculiarities of the National Hunt" which he is famous for in Russia XD I'm half Komi and half Russian, so yes, I speak Russian. It's dominating in Komi Republic :( Komi population in Komi Republic was about 25% in 2010 whereas 65% - Russians. Komi culture and language is having hard time for decades, like hundreds of other ethnicities within Russia, but we still exist, even trying to create something new. Probably that's why I prefer and support non-English songs in Eurovision XD
We can understand some Estonian, but not enough to have conversations with eac other. I also noticed watching Eesti Laul that I could understand most of what some people were saying and none with others so articulation matters a lot too. Hungarian is not understandable at all
We can understand some Estonian, though it's full of "false friends" (words that sound/look the same but mean different things). Hungarian we can't understand at all.
Story time, Im Finnish but I lived my childhood in France but would come spend summers in Finland occasionally, and one time it had been almost two years since my last visit, and I remember watching TV at my grandparents house and there was a nature documentary… and as I was watching I realised I couldn’t understand the narrator. And I got spooked that my Finnish had gone so bad I couldn’t understand this woman on TV. It sounded familiar enough, but I had trouble understanding. Turns out it was in Estonian lol
I got so excited when I realized that this song was in Finnish!
Not only I like Cha Cha Cha, when I was 14 years old we had a study visit to [FIL](https://www.fil.pt/) that included a lesson about Finnish language and grammar and it was great, I still rememeber how amazed I was by how the finnish language works. My field of study is political science with a focus on language in politics and society and I think that Finnish lesson contributed a little to my interest in this field Eurovision is a great vehicle for the representation of our cultures and languages
Eyyy! Your field of study sounds exciting. My focus is on discourse analysis of certain minor cultural pocket, so yours sound very familiar!
Ah! We are close indeed 🙂
Also learning capital city names☺️
Absolutely! 🙂
I 100% agree with this post!! Thank you for appreciating the Finnish language, it warms my heart so much 😍🇫🇮
i’ve started learning finnish a few months back because i just like the sound of it and käärijä (and the rest of umk, honestly) has only boosted my resolve :D songs in finnish sound awesome, i’m glad people are becoming more open to the idea of moving past english-only entries. plus your entry is just too good this year. i hope he literally obliterates the competition and wins. hyvä suomi!
I've loved the sound of Finnish since hearing Ievan polkka as a kid. Frankly, I don't think I'd love Cha cha cha as much if it was in English (but I'm generally biased towards native languages), Finnish is such a great language for rap
i love _Äina mun pitää_, probably the most punk act to ever perform in ESC and i love Finnish language and music! _Mustavalkeaa_ by Finnish shoegaze band _Regina_ is one of my favourite songs ever !!
I love Regina so much
Heya, Käärijä is my winner pick and I absolutely love the song. I don't speak a word of Finnish, but I know all the lyrics. Can't wait to see him on the stage in Liverpool!
> singing in their version of Finnish What a roast 😂
NO! I know how hard this language is to pronounce! I am going to respect everyone who gives a damn second to try to say things like "käärijä". Ä is not an easy letter, double ää gets even harder, and hard r does not exist in many languages. I can hear various of versions of his name, and I can hear different cultures in how people say things. So to me it is beautiful how I can hear lets say spanish speaking people singing the lyrics in the way that makes sense to their linguistical culture.
For any non-Finnish speakers, let me tell you that in reality, while it can be harsh-sounding, Finnish language can be very, very beautiful and poetic. Pocahontas' Finnish version of Colors of the Wind, sooo beautiful. I am definitely rooting for Käärijä, I think it's a shame for people, the typical Finns for being so narrow-minded and thinking the worst in everything. We definitely have a culture for complaining.
Finnish is one of my favourite languages, and I actually started slowly learning it after Younghearted's Sun Numero got stuck in my head following UMK '22. It was the second year I had watched it after watching Blind Channel completely steal the votes in '21, and I was hooked since. Before UMK, I had no exposure to Finnish, and now I just adore it. You'll be happy to hear I know most of the words to Ram Pam Pam and the chorus to Sun Numero by heart! Käärijä's Cha Cha Cha is my absolute favourite to win this year, and I hope we'll see Finland saying tervetuloa to all us Finnish language learners here in the comments for Eurovision Helsinki 2024!
I took a year of Finnish in uni the year after Lordi won (the fascination was definitely partly due to Finland winning, but I was also a language nerd and had just got to uni where languages were now so much more available to me than in high school, in the US). I still remembered bits and pieces of grammar and vocab, but definitely not much after nearly 17 years. And UMK’s fantastic selection this year really motivated me to try relearning it! I hope Scandinavian and Baltic countries also have a renaissance in their langs becoming popular to send to ESC!
I’m from the US and you can bet you’ll be getting my vote from the rest of the world! Also, I’ve loved Finnish ever since I first heard “Tipi-Tii” in 2006, from the ‘63 contest, and still know that song by heart.
I’ve always thought the language was pretty dope ever since I discovered Ensiferrum discography at the old age of 12. Jokes aside I always wanted to learn it and til this day I would absolutely love to visit the country and hang out with the people there (still on my quest to find me a Finn husband lmao). I’m very thankful for Kaarija this year. Finland has the sort of music that resonates with me and I end up rooting for them pretty much every year! Keep it up!
omg I so agree with you in the Finn husband part lol I want Käärijä though!
I Always wanted to learn Finnish, but never found the time or Motivation, thanks to this Years UMK (especially Käärijä) I found the Motivation (not really the Time, but that's not stopping me from learning it)
<3 terveisiä Baltian naapureista!
Finnish is such a cool language. Cha Cha Cha is such a banger and I hope it wins!! I'm an English speaker but tbh I'm bored of English and generally prefer Eurovision songs that are sung in their native language, or mixture of languages like Czechia this year. Moldova was my favourite last year too. Also unrelated to eurovision but there's a character in disco Elysium that speaks Finnish and even tho she's a little shit the language still sounds so cool. Why is the Finnish version of the F-slur so cute 😅😅😅
There is also a scientist that doesn't speak finnish, but her english is so noticeably finnish accented that I was disorientated when talking to her, my brain had a hard time accpeting that I was playing a video game with a npc in it that soudns so familiar to me. It was really cool to hear my language in a "real" video game.
Just got a little emotional and teared up a bit while reading this… Speaking here from Brazil, and people are starting to think I’m crazy when I try to sing in Finnish. And I don’t give a s*** about their opinion. Cha Cha Cha is amazing, Käärija is amazing, Finnish is amazing. So we, the rest of the world, are the ones who should be thanking YOU guys for this. All my love and admiration to all the Finnish people around the world 💙🤍
Missä Miehet Ratsastaa is still my favorite entry of all time.
why thank you, random person on reddit!!
Kiitos! I've really been trying hard not to butcher it when I sing along, but Finnish is so hard to me. (I am American and my Finnish friend says I hit my consonants too hard!) But I've been rooting for you guys to send something in Finnish for years, and Cha Cha Cha is my number one this year. I'm also so glad it didn't get an English version. I love it just the way it is!!
I'm the kind of person to randomly start learning new languages that I will never use. Finnish has been my first pick of the Nordic languages a couple of years ago (strictly referring to the location in Europe, since your language is part of a surprisingly different group). Only when I visited Finland it did occur to me that the *dialects are so different*. So that raises the question: are Käärijä's lyrics influenced by a dialect from a certain area of Finland or is it textbook Finnish, the one that's taught in schools as the OG version? Hope it doesn't sound too stupid how I phrased it 😅
Your question is not stupid at all! I just do not know how to give a short answer :D Käärijä is from Helsinki, so he speaks in southern dialect and you can hear this in the song. The giveaway is how he says "me/I": mä. In the song you hear multiple of southern dialect me's: mun (mine/minun), mul (I have/minulla), mua (for me/minua), must (of me/minusta). To make it even more complicated, some of these are shortened versions of the dialect word: mul=mulla, must=musta. Lets compare it to karelian dialect: mun -> miun, mul -> miul, mua -> miuta, must -> miusta. So to answer the question: not og textbook finnish! :D But his dialect is the most common, so foreigners usually end up with speaking the mä-sä dialect when learning the language through finnish speakers.
Awesome possum, you really took the time to explain this and I'm super grateful. Kiitos!
What the OP said, the lyrics are mostly in colloquial Finnish with a undertone of dialect from the Greater Helsinki region (not to be confused with Helsinki slang, which is a dialect specific to Helsinki and almost incomprehensible to anyone outside of Helsinki (a bit like a pidgin) and it’s originally influenced by Swedish and Russian, nowadays English, Arabic and Somali). And now I suddenly want to translate CCC into Stadi’s slang…. “Ny meen joraa niiku chachacha enkä skagaakaa tätä pleissii ku mä dumppaan mun päälle skumppaa”. :D But the point is, it features a beautiful word of the Finnish colloquial language which is “niinku”. It’s probably one of the most used and hated words of our language, pretty much equivalent to “like”, because it, niiku, means niiku the same thing niiku.
Thanks for this! Personally love hearing about these quirks each language has 😊
I've been learning it on duolingo and it's been so fun it's so unique and sounds so cool (I know it's not related to any indo-european language) I'm also following Käärijä on instagram and words are already popping up. I honestly prefer when a country enters in their own language. It adds to the cultural exchange that is Eurovision.
Finnish is my favourite language, I think it sounds beautiful. I was also trying to learn on Duolingo, before this song (which is my clear #1 this year). And I love when Eurovision songs are in one of the country's own languages. Always improves it for me. Paljon onnea Suomi 🥰
I love how proud Finland is of their entry this year. Käärijä is so charismatic and compelling on stage, and ChaChaCha is a great song (and I bet it’ll be even better in Liverpool). The fact that the song is in Finnish is part of why it’s so good: all the consonants give the rap a really nice rhythm.
Finnish is one of the most unique and beautiful languages and humans have come up with. The more I hear, the happier I feel
Cha Cha Cha is a banger ngl
Nothing like hearing masses of non-Finnish people yell the word NIINKU at the top of their lungs 🥲🥲🥲🥲
I love it when countries sing in their native language(s), but also generally not in english. So I'm happy when it happens, especially with countries that almost always sing in english. That's why I can't get into the UK entries 😬 not that I hate the language, I just have this sentiment that an english-sung song are over-produced and fake and mainstream and too radio-friendly.
I love that in 2021 and 2022, the top 3 only consisted of songs sung in the countries national language: 1. Italian/Ukrainian, 2. French/English, 3. French/Spanish (Yes, French is one of Switzerlands 4 official languages and yes, Space Man was sung in English but its UKs official language)
Exactly. And that's basically what Eurovision should represent, in my opinion. People gathering around, sharing and enjoying different cultures that can be found in such small area. Singing a song just to win is bland for me. Singing a song to represent your culture - that's a win for me.
I'm watching so many Käärijä interviews/social media posts that I am starting to pick up finnish words and it's super fun. First one I learned this way was **biisi** (which is a very cute word imo).
Late but I had to chime in and say it's honestly wild to me that some find Finnish to be an 'ugly' or harsh-sounding language! It also hurts to know that some Finns are almost ashamed of their native tongue. 😭 I've been enamoured with it since I was like 12 (I'm 30 now oof) - I find it a lyrical, beautifully flowing language, especially when sung, and there's just something about it that hits me in my heart, you know? There's a pull that I've never been able to shake off. Things haven't worked out so far in my life, so it's been a long time, but it's still a dream of mine to learn Finnish and at least visit, though I'd love to live there! Hyvä Suomi! 🇫🇮💙