Euroviisut 2011: Milana wants to express a Mediterranean feeling in her song

I met Milana after her rehearsal and she told about her feelings being a singer and the daughter of the legendary Eurovision-artist Laila Kinnunen. 

Are you satisfied with the rehearsal?
Yes I am. Small technical problems but it will be fixed before the final. Luckily I’m used to situations where the techniques might cause troubles.

Media in Finland are very interested in you because of your mother Laila Kinnunen. How do you handle this?
My mother Laila Kinnunen was the first contestant to represent Finland in Eurovision Song Contest in 1961. She was and is a legend and this has also been a problem for me as an artist. I started my career when I was 20. I sent a song to a record label just using my name Milana because I didn’t want them to know that I was Laila Kinnunen’s daughter. But they found out and the following years were really difficult because people in Finland expected me to sing her songs. So I stopped singing for a few year, educated myself to an optician. After the studies I recorded my third album and since that I have been an artist singing pop, rock and entertainment music.

Your mother passed away 10 year ago but are people still comparing you with her?
It depends on the age of the person. Many people say that I look like her.  But people who have met my father say I look like him. My conclusion is that people see what they want to see.
Time also makes a difference and people have started to respect me for my own personality.
I also needed time accept that legacy of my mother. It took seven years after my mother’s death before I was ready to record her songs.

Did Laila ever talk to you about her participation in Eurovision?
One thing she told me was about the language. She wished that it would have been possible to sing in other languages that Finnish. Even if I sing in Finnish we have already recorded an English version.  But this is NOT because I think I will win. It’s because people from different countries have contacted me and asked what my song is about.  

Your father is a musician originating from Croatia – has it influenced your music?
Yes he has and he is a very important person in my life and he will be here during the final. He is partly living in Finland and partly in Sweden. I’m somewhere in between two cultures and in my song I want to bring the nationalities together.

What’s your relation to ESC?
There was a time when I didn’t follow it because Finland didn’t do well. It was the period when we had to sing in Finnish. The language is so difficult even if some people say that it is exotic. But exotic is not always related to positive things.

Any Eurovision favorites over the year?
I have many songs so I can’t nominate only one. I like the old songs from former Yugoslavia and I like many of the Greek songs as well.


Will there be any changes in the final compared to the semifinal?
Yes – I have a new dress because I was not satisfied with the one I had. My new one is a bit less shiny. And we want the performance to look a bit Mediterranean.

Your future plans except for Euroviisut?
My new album came out in September 2010 and I continue with my gigs around Finland. And I hope to have some holiday as well. I only had one week in June.

Any message you want to forward to our readers?
I am happy that the Eurovision interest has increased in Finland because of Lordi and I hope it will continue. And also hope the international readers keep in mind that we are living in a cold country in the north and sometimes we are not looking as glamorous as many European artists. But we are trying and improving little by little

Paljon onnea to Milana in the Euroviisut final.