The Finnish comedy group KAJ, which won the contest to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest a week earlier, performed a homecoming show at their small hometown in western Finland on Saturday afternoon. Vörå is a mostly Swedish-speaking town of just over 6,000 people in Ostrobothnia, some 30km from Vaasa.
Thousands packed a sports field in Vörå as the municipality welcomed the trio home after their surprise win at Eurovision qualification final in Stockholm. Eurovision is serious business in Sweden, which has won the contest seven times.
The trio of Kevin Holmström, Axel Åhman and Jakob Norrgård performed their winning sauna anthem "Bara bada bastu" for the first time in Finland – this time without backup dancers – along with four other songs.
In between, they cracked jokes about the rural town and its inhabitants in Swedish, Finnish and English. Approximately 30 media outlets from Finland and Sweden covered the event. Yle live-streamed it in a bilingual broadcast, which can be viewed on Areena.
The 5,000 free tickets to the event, also featuring two other local acts, were snapped up in 15 minutes after being released on Wednesday. The crowd thronged the sports field despite a cold wind and light snowfall.
Mayor Jan Finne presented the trio with Vörå jackets and various local handicraft items. He said that KAJ’s victory in Sweden had brought "absolutely enormous attention" to the quiet municipality and its local dialect, which is featured in the sauna song.
Since their win, there has been an international buzz around the band, with the song topping Spotify's global viral chart.
At a press conference before the show, the three performers said they have received a lot of support from Vörå, where the group started 15 years ago, releasing seven albums since. From Vörå, KAJ headed south to Närpes for a sold-out concert on Saturday evening.
In May, Finland will be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland by Erika Vikman.