Jodi Marie Benson is an American actress and singer. She is best known for providing the voice of Ariel in Disney's 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid and throughout other films, including its sequel, prequel, and television series spin-off, as well as many other Disney works going up to the present day of the 2020s. Benson also filled in for Paige O'Hara as the voice of Belle in House of Mouse and voiced the character Barbie in the second and third films of the Toy Story franchise (1999–2010), and in the Toy Story Toons short Hawaiian Vacation (2011). For her contributions to Disney, Benson was named a Disney Legend in 2011.
Anneli Magnusson, known by her stage names Pandora and United DJs vs. Pandora, is a Swedish Eurodance singer. She was most popular during the mid-1990s in the Nordic countries and in Asia and Australia in the end of 1990s to mid-2000s.
Adiemus is a series of new-age music albums by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. It is also the title of the opening track on the first album of the series, Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary, recorded in 1994 and released the next year.
Hanna Helena Pakarinen is a Finnish pop and pop-rock singer who rose to fame as the winner of the first series of the Finnish singing competition Idols in 2004. Since then she has represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007 on homeland, and has sold over 91,000 certified records in Finland, which places her among the top 50 best-selling female soloists in her home country.
Idols is a Finnish reality-television singing competition that airs on Nelonen. It debuted in the summer of 2003, and went on to become one of the most popular shows on Finnish television. Part of the Idol franchise, it originated from the reality program Pop Idol created by British entertainment executive Simon Fuller, which was first aired in 2001 in the United Kingdom.
Geir Rönning is a Norwegian-Finnish professional singer-songwriter from Ålesund. He later moved to the capital Oslo in the 1980s, and later on to Stockholm, Sweden, where he found opportunity to start a musical career. He later moved to Finland, which he represented in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005. He returned to Norway in 2006 to try unsuccessfully to represent Norway in Eurovision through a joint song with Jorun Erdal. In 2010, he had a comeback trying to represent this time Finland in Eurovision. The same year he also took part in the Swedish Idol 2010, coming seventh. Rönning has also performed multiple times together with well-known Swedish pianist Robert Wells and his international Rhapsody in Rock concept. Rönnings lives in Kauniainen, Finland.
Jorun Irene Erdal is a Norwegian singer and musical theatre artist. Her parents are from Oppstryn in Stryn, in Sogn og Fjordane county, and she has also lived there since age 12. She was raised on Snarøya in Bærum, a suburb of the city of Oslo.
Finland participated in and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" written by Mr Lordi. The song was performed by the band Lordi. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Euroviisut 2006 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2006 contest in Athens, Greece. 12 artists with two songs each were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of four semi-finals and a final, taking place in February and March 2006. Twelve entries ultimately competed in the final on 10 March where votes from the public selected "Hard Rock Hallelujah" performed by Lordi as the winner.
"Addicted to You" was the Finnish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, performed in English by Laura Voutilainen as "Laura".
Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Why?" written by Mika Toivanen and Steven Stewart. The song was performed by Geir Rönning. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Euroviisut 2005 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2005 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. 24 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of four semi-finals and a final, taking place in January and February 2005. Six entries competed in each semi-final and the top three from each semi-final, as selected solely by a public vote, advanced to the final. Twelve entries competed in the final on 19 February where votes from six regional juries first selected the top six to advance to a second round. In the second round, votes from the public selected "Why?" performed by Geir Rönning as the winner with 30,648 votes.
Guri Annika Schanke is a Norwegian actress and singer. She is known in Norway for her acting career, and was part of the 2005 round of the Norwegian version of Dancing with the Stars, where she came in second.
Kiri Sings Karl: Songs of Mystery & Enchantment is a 2006 classical album by New Zealand opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Karl Jenkins. The pieces were composed by Karl Jenkins, or arranged by him, based on compositions of other composers, like the Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino.
Matti Kalevi Siitonen, known professionally as Fredi, was a Finnish comedic actor, musician, singer/songwriter and television presenter. Domestically he was best known as a founding member of the comedic variety ensemble Kivikasvot. Siitonen chose his stage name, Fredi, after the cartoon character, Fred Flintstone.
Beata Jankowska-Tzimas is a Polish singer and actress. In 2013, she became a contestant on The Voice of Poland.
Norway was represented by Tor Endresen, with the song "San Francisco", at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 3 May in Dublin. "San Francisco" was chosen as the Norwegian entry at the Melodi Grand Prix on 8 March, and is mainly remembered for bringing Norway's recent run of Eurovision success – they had finished 5th, 6th, 1st and 2nd in the previous four contests – to a spectacular end.
Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 with the song "A Little Bit" written by Luca Genta and Gerrit aan't Goor. The song was performed by Nina Åström. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a one-year absence following their relegation from 1999 as one of the six countries with the least average points over the preceding five contests. Yle organised the national final Euroviisut 2000 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2000 contest in Stockholm, Sweden. 12 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of a semi-final and a final, taking place in January and February 2000. The top six from the semi-final, as selected solely by a public vote, advanced to the final. Six entries competed in the final on 12 January where the 50/50 combination of votes from a ten-member expert jury and votes from the public selected "A Little Bit" performed by Nina Åström as the winner.
Saara Sofia Aalto is a Finnish singer, songwriter and voice actress. In 2012, she came second in the first season of The Voice of Finland.
Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Aina mun pitää" written and performed by the band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2015 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. 18 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of three semi-finals and a final, taking place in February 2015. Six entries competed in each semi-final and the top three from each semi-final, as selected solely by a public vote, advanced to the final. Nine entries competed in the final on 28 February where the combination of votes from eight jury groups representing different factions of Finnish society and votes from the public selected "Aina mun pitää" performed by Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät as the winner.
Jacqueline Zebisch, known professionally as Ella Endlich, is a German singer who also performed as Junia as a teenager. Best known for her song "Küss mich, halt mich, lieb mich", which is based on the title song of the film Tři oříšky pro Popelku, she participated in the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
