Today, the sad news came to us that Finnish singer Laila Halme passed away. Laila Halme, born Laila Soppi in the Finnish town of Jääski, was a Finnish singer and actress. She began her career in the 1950, singing in several orchestras. Her first single “Kaunis rakkaus” was released in 1959. In 1960, she released several singles and EP’s at the Philips label. In 1961 she debuted as an actress in two films: “Penkki” and “Tähtisumua”.
In 1963, she participated in Euroviisut, the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song “Olen mikä olen”. She became 3rd, while the song “Muistojeni laulu” won and Irmeli Mäkelä was chosen to sing it in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, Finnish broadcaster YLE decided to let Laila Halme sing it in the international final. She did not receive any point at all. A year later, Laila Halme represented Finland in the festival of Sopot in Poland. She released a couple of singles but left showbusiness in 1967. We only saw her back in 1987, when she hosted Euroviisut. Her son Jussi Halme is also a singer, he took part in Euroviisut in 1990.
Laila Halme was 87 years old.
Dutch broadcaster delays decision on participation
The Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS has been allowed to delay their decision about participating in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes Eurovision, has given them until at least November 1 to decide. AVROTROS explained that a meeting with the EBU’s leadership has started a positive conversation. To give this conversation a chance, they asked for more time to decide if they will participate. The EBU agreed to this delay, and AVROTROS is thankful for it. The broadcaster started questioning their participation after the EBU disqualified Dutch artist Joost Klein from this year’s Eurovision final in Malmö, Sweden. Klein had an argument with a camerawoman, which led to his disqualification. AVROTROS disagreed with the EBU’s decision. Recently, Swedish authorities closed the case, saying there wasn’t enough evidence. Next year’s Eurovision will take place in May in Basel, Switzerland. The EBU hopes that the Netherlands will take part and plans to announce the list of participating countries by the end of the year. Share
