Finland’s Eurovision diva Erika Vikman made a stop in Stockholm as part of her first European dates. She brought her campy pop and unbridled live energy to Debaser Strand and we were there.
Erika Vikman had her first breakthrough in Finland when she was crowned Tango Queen in a popular singing competition back in 2016. She wanted to, however break away from that good-girl image and take on a more raunchy pop persona, which she did indeed at UMK (Finland’s Eurovision qualifications) in 2020 with her Cicciolina.
She ended up in second place as the juries were not ready for her, but she had won the hearts of the Finnish public and caught the attention of international Eurovision fans. Anyways, that year’s Eurovision ended up being cancelled due to the pandemic.
For this year’s UMK Erika came out with a total banger she had made together with super producers Christel and Jori Roosberg. Her Ich Komme was daring, sensual and unapologetic in lyrics, sounds and visuals. The song and the performance of course took her to Eurovision, where she made it to 11th place and gained an even stronger following among ardent Eurovision fans.
She has toured Finland during the summer, making appearances at many of the biggest festivals. And now in October she took her show to Europe for the first time, making stops in London, Amsterdam and Stockholm.
Erika has promised to follow her Erikavision EP with more new music, some of which is going to be in English, so she is really aiming to use this momentum and has her aim set on international audiences.
The show in Stockholm did include some songs in English already, including My pylly, which she had written about how Eurovision has suddenly turned very conservative and wanted to cover her up. She also teased a collaboration with another Eurovision artist in English.
Most songs were still in Finnish of course, including her big hits like Syntisten pöytä, which opened the show, and the Käärijä collab Ruoska, which saw her waving that whip around.
She also sang her song Elizabeth Taylor, noting that she wrote about the icon long before Taylor Swift. And she had what she called her karaoke moment when she sang Madonna‘s Like a Prayer.
The show came to its inevitable climax with Ich Komme, which had the audience singing along, jumping up and down, and waving their hands in the air. Erika and her band made sure everybody had a satisfied grin on their face when dispersing into the night.
All photos © Nina Uddin
