Finland’s Eurovision Entry Is A Bold Political Statement About Gay Marriage

So the Eurovision Song Contest is happening tomorrow. My family gets more excited about Eurovision than Christmas. Maybe it’s because we’re Finnish. IDK. Normally, we spend it together, filling out score sheets that we drew up in 1997. But shit happens. Life changes. People move on. This year I’m poor, so I’ll spend Saturday night behind a bar, serving people with high-street stubble bottles of obscure IPA . My sister’s at St Andrews so she’ll spend the evening getting fingered by a prince in a branch of Lola Lo. And my mum’s just moved house, so she probably will be watching, but sitting on a beanbag because her sofa hasn’t arrived yet. Point is: we won’t be together.

We’re sad about this, because Finland is going to absolutely smash it this year. Krista Siegfrids, the 27-year-old who’ll be representing the country that gave us the Moomins, Lordi and those Nordic walking poles you see overweight people carrying around, is going to snog one of her female backing dancers at the end of her performance. She’ll also be wearing a wedding dress that appears to have been made by blind drug dealers. Apparently she’s making a political statement about the Finnish parliament’s decision to vote down gay marriage legislation and definitely not just getting some girls to snog in a tawdry ruse to awaken the loins of the four or five straight men that watch Eurovision.

I spoke to Krista ahead of her big performance to find out if she was worried about getting in trouble.

Noisey: Hi Krista. I'm very excited about the Eurovision Song Contest this weekend. Are you?

Krista: Hell, yeah! I can’t wait to perform on that big stage.

It's being held in Sweden, which probably isn't that exciting for you because Sweden and Finland are pretty similar. If you could have chosen the host country, where would you have picked?

The good thing about Malmö is that it's so similar to places I’ve visited in Finland. I already speak Swedish, so competing in Sweden is really easy. The language barrier is one less thing to worry about. But I’d rather be enjoying a view of palm trees and the ocean from my bedroom window, sipping pina coladas between rehearsals and relaxing by a pool…

Lordi won Eurovision for Finland in 2006. Have those lovable rogues given you any tips?

Lordi just growled at me. I don't know what that meant.

Will your performance resemble theirs in any way?

Their demonic bat wings are now attached to my wedding dress. It’s good to be eco-friendly and recycle.

So everyone's talking about your plans to kiss a woman at the end of your performance. What’re you doing that for?

In Finland, gay marriage is not allowed, which I think is wrong. Love is beautiful in any form. It's 2013! It should be allowed. I don't understand what the government’s problem is.

Same-sex partnerships have been allowed in Finland since 2002. Why do you think they haven't legalised gay marriage yet?

I have no idea. That’s what I’m hoping to change.

How do you think your lesbian lip locking is going to make a difference?

I don't want the kiss shock people; I want to take the shock away. Homosexuality just shouldn’t be a big deal anymore.

t.A.T.u. were some lesbians who did Eurovision once, and everyone said their gay thing was a gimmick and actually undermined gay rights by using lesbianism as cheap titillation. But you’re not doing that, right?

Absolutely not. I bet some people won’t vote for us because of the kiss. Anyway, my song is about a wedding and you’ve got to kiss someone at a wedding. I can’t help it if there are only girls on stage with me…

Are you gay?

No, I wrote the song for my boyfriend.

Right. So you’re a friend of a friend of Dorothy. One of the Eurovision rules is that entrants aren’t allowed to project political messages. In 2009, Georgia's entry got blocked because of poorly veiled references to Vladmir Putin. Why haven't you been banned?

Because this isn’t a political message or a grand statement. It's just five girls and me having fun and singing about love.

Power to you! Aren’t you worried that the organisers will be mad?

Not really. I'm not doing anything they should be worried about and they've seen the kiss many times during the rehearsals.

I know that Armenia is delivering a power ballad penned by Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Greece is performing a sea shanty titled “Alcohol is Free” and France’s entry is being sung by a bunch of noir rocker S&M enthusiasts. But who are you watching out for this year?

I’ll be keeping my eye on all of them. All of the Nordic countries are really good.

Thanks, Krista. And best of luck!

Follow Tabatha on Twitter @TabathaLeggett