Eurovision 2015: a punk band with Down syndrome and autism represent … – FranceTV info

The group PKN (Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät roughly “the feast of Pertti Kurikka”) has four members forties, Pertti Kurikka (guitar), Kari Aalto (vocals), Sami Helle (bass) and Toni Välitalo (drums), who are known in 2009 at a workshop for people with intellectual disabilities. The group they formed was an immediate success, with the key European tour and a documentary of their adventure, entitled “The Punk Syndrome” in 2012.

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät “Aina pitää mun “(” Always … “, a song about the incessant drudgery and stress of daily life – 2015)

In the British newspaper” The Guardian “, PKN says, by the voice of Sami Helle, that the group “is in rebellion against society, but it does not make policy.” The musician took the opportunity to make a request: “We do not want people to vote for us please, we’re not that different from others – just normal guy with a mental handicap.”

Nine years after the triumph of Lordi

This is not the first time that Finland stands out with a leaving group of the standard and rather kitsch “variétoche “Effective at Eurovision. In 2006, tired of never having won the competition, Helsinki sent jointly with a heavy metal band, Lordi , whose members wore outfits and macabre masks … and it worked. The song “Hard Rock Hallelujah” had won

Lordi. “Hard Rock Hallelujah” (Eurovision 2006)