Petri Laaksonen part II

This is the second part of the interview with Petri Laaksonen, in which our hero finally learns that you don't always win every time you take part. After winning on his first two attempts, Petri continued to submit songs to the Finnish pre-selection, so many that he claims that he is the composer with the most songs in the contest throughout history.

Now with experience and a network of contacts, he co-operated with artists such as Arja Saijonmaa (who finally sung the wrong song), Ami Aspelund (who perhaps wasn't perfectly suited for the erotic lyrics), Jari Sillanpää (who later got a smash hit with a rejected song about Jean Sibelius), Anneli Saaristo (who won with another song), Anna Eriksson (whose song became a huge fan favourite) and Tommi Soidinmäki, although his interest to sing the songs himself grew and grew.

However, it became tougher and tougher to get his songs accepted, not least when the legendary Ossi Runne left the conductor's pulpet to Olli Ahvenlahti, who stopped inviting Petri. (But he did invite himself!)

We get to hear all the details; who was a sore loser, which song was inspired by ABBA and which was inspired by Pet Shop Boys and which artist wanted YLE to postpone the contest two weeks in order to better suit her schedule, and we also get to listen to lots of exclusive demos and early drafts, most of which have been painstakingly excavated by Petri himself and have never been heard before.

Legend: Petri Laaksonen

Songs: Amor Amor (Ami Aspelund, 1988), Oi äiti maa (Anneli Saaristo, 1989), Gabriela (Arja Saijonmaa, 1990), Oot voimani mun (Anna Eriksson, 2000), Kirkas kipinä (Jari Sillanpää, 2009), Seis (Tommi Soidinmäki, 2011) & several other Euroviisut rejects.

Host: Emil Löfström

Contact: emil@schlagervannerna.se

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