Linda Lampenius gets to play live, and it’s completely unique in modern Eurovision history

Apart about how Linda to Lampenius and To Pete Parkkosen It’s going to Eurovision, they’ve already made competition history before the competition week.

On Wednesday was toldthat Lampenius is allowed to play his violin for real, even though the rules have in recent decades prohibited the use of real instruments in competition performances other than as props. The actual instrumental parts must have come from the backing tape and only the vocal soloist’s parts have been presented organically. This type of performance is often referred to as singback.

This is meant that the bands have performed in Eurovision with prop instruments. Finnish groups such as Lordi, Softengine, Pertti Kurika’s name days and Blind Channel have done this, as well as the Italian Måneskin, who won the 2021 competition.

The reason for the musical instrument ban has been the extremely efficient production of the Eurovision final, where there is only a few minutes’ break between the performances of the contestants from different countries. For the same reason, the number of performers on stage is also limited to six.

Real instruments have been banned practically since the large orchestra that accompanied all competitors was abandoned after 1998. Until then, the orchestra had been a part of Eurovision from the very beginning, i.e. since 1956.

A rule change since then, artists have sometimes wanted to play real instruments on stage, but the requests have been rejected so far.

For example, in 2009 the representative of Norway Alexander Rybak would have liked to play the violin live, but it wasn’t possible. Only the vocals ended up being live, and Rybak’s playing was pre-recorded.

In 2014 Slovenia Tinker Kovač wanted to play the flute in his performance, but the request was denied. In 2018, Israel Netta Barzilai on the other hand, would have liked to use a looper in his performance, which was however interpreted as a musical instrument and its use was not allowed.

Instead, in last year’s competition, Italy Lucio Corsi played harmonica in his performance, which was allowed on the basis that he also used his vocal microphone while playing the harmonica, and therefore did not need separate sound amplification for the instrument, on the Euromix website let’s tell.

This year However, the European Broadcasting Union EBU exceptionally gave Linda Lampenius the opportunity to play her violin for real in the Finnish competition song.

“Linda Lampenius is the second soloist in this song through her violin. She has previously asked for permission to play certain parts of the song live. We were given the opportunity and it was studied carefully during rehearsals,” says the media representative of the Finnish Eurovision delegation Juhani Lassila.

“We decided that the mixing of the TV broadcast sound corresponds to the critical quality that we wanted. That’s when we decided that certain parts of the song will be performed live.”

EBU: n In a statement sent to Helsingin Sanomat, it is said that the EBU, together with the Austrian broadcasting company ORF, accepted Yleisradio’s request to perform the violin solos of the Finnish song for real. The request was submitted to the EBU from Finland a couple of months ago.

According to the EBU, the decision given now is in accordance with this year’s rules of the Eurovision Song Contest. According to the rules, playing instruments can be exceptionally allowed if it is artistically justified.

According to the EBU, the final decision to allow live playing was made on Wednesday after Pete Parkkonen and Linda Lampenius’ second rehearsals. The production managers wanted to be convinced that the show would work.