The winner of Finland’s Contest for New Music UMK this year is Windows95man with her song No Rules! The UMK24 winner was chosen by the votes from the Finnish people (75%) and points given by the international juries (25%). Windows95man scored 313 points, and was chosen to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö in May 2024.
It all began when Teemu Keisteri’s home videos on Youtube began to circulate all over the world. One of the videos even ended up in a commercial aired during an NHL game.
In 2013, a DJ gig at the Flow Festival brought the character known as Windows95man to life. His costume consists of a pair of very cut-off shorts made by Keisteri’s friend and a Windows95 t-shirt ordered online. Since then, Windows95man has performed at Helsinki’s New Year’s celebration in 2022, as an opening act for Käärijä at the Helsinki Ice Hall and at numerous smaller events. He's also performed many times in Japan and neighboring Sweden.
Many have also come across his character, who is known for his wild and crazy stage performances, in a Youtube video, where he gets an entire planeload of passengers to lose control to Darude’s Sandstorm.
The No Rules! song title refers to the artist’s motto, which appears in both his music and other artistic productions. In addition to his DJ gigs, Keisteri is a visual artist who is known for his artist persona, Ukkeli: a representation of cultural phenomena.
Henri Piispanen is the singer in No Rules. Keisteri explains that the chorus of the song was so challenging that he had trouble finding a singer with enough technical skill to pull it off. Piispanen was the only one whose voice could go high enough.
– In my opinion, all Finns are a bit looney-tunes deep inside, and I wanted to bring that out more. Now I can share my music with an even bigger audience as well as spread the joyous message of No Rules, says Keisteri.
Will the Eurovision Winner of 2024 be updated to Windows95man? We’ll find out in Malmö!
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