According to Linda Lampenius, all performers suffer from not being able to really play on the stage.
Linda Lampenius violin playing will not be heard in the New Music competition or in possible Eurovision performances. According to Lampenius, the situation is “absolutely crazy”.
The reason for the situation is the policies of UMK and Eurovision. With the exception of solo songs and some backing vocals, musical performances are played from background tapes.
Lampenius points out that this applies to other performers as well. He mentions an accordionist, for example Antti Paalanenwho plays accordion and throat singing on his UMK song Back hair. Only throat singing can be heard live from Paala during the performances.
– I’m not alone in this, unfortunately we all have to suffer because of this rule, says Lampenius.
Also the 2009 five-year winner Alexander Rybak in Lampenius’s opinion, he deserved to be able to play the violin for real. Rybak won the five with a song Fairy tale. On the other hand, Lampenius says that he understands that, for example, sound checks between each performance would be technically difficult to implement.
Linda Lampenius read Moomin in two different languages at Yle’s reading marathon. Atte Kajova
Lampenius and the singer Pete Parkkonen participate in the five-piece qualifying with their joint song Flamethrower. Lampenius compares the two making music together to having a conversation.
– I speak and sing through my instrument, you can even hear the words from there. Yes, you can hear it even in the beginning, when we talk to each other. Pete says something and I answer him. It’s not a joke, it comes from the soul and the heart.
An extraordinary show
Lampenius does not want to reveal very precisely what his and Parkkonen’s UMK show will look like. That’s what he says, that there will be an extraordinary show.
– There will be unexpected surprises, the violin virtuoso promises.
– One moment is one that I have never seen happen even in the Yankees.
Pete Parkkonen and Linda Lampenius perform a joint song at UMK. Elle Laitila
Flamethrower-music video broke the viewer record in UMK history after its release. It was listened to more than 400,000 times on YouTube in the first day. In addition, it reached the milestone of one million views as the first of this year’s UMK songs.
Lampenius does not predict the duo’s success at UMK. He states that the song is important to both of them, and it is not a “normal” UMK song.
– We are now just inside this song and number, and we will do it as perfectly as we can. We give everything from our hearts.
Lampenius posed with Moomin and a comet in his hands. Atte Kajova
Help from family
Iltalehti interviewed Lampenius Mightily The Moomins– in the reading marathon on Friday. Lampenius read at the beginning of the marathon The Moomins and the Great Flood -the original Swedish version of the book (Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen). After that, he read an excerpt from Moomin and the Starling.
Lampenius says that he got help with reading from the family circle. He flew from Stockholm to Finland on Friday morning, and went to read his fragments to his mother Ulla Eklund at a nursing home. Eklund is an actress known to Finns for, among other things, her role as Elina Koskela Edvin Laine in the movie Akseli and Elina.
Lampenius hopes that the reading marathon would encourage Finns to read, especially in families with children.
– How different the feeling is when you have someone who actually reads to you instead of having a phone and playing something with it, says Lampenius.
Correction on January 30, 2026 at 10:40 p.m.: Ulla Eklund starred in the movie Akseli and Elina, not in The Unknown Soldier, as the story originally said.
