MR. LORDI Reflects On People's 'Misconceptions' About LORDI Following EUROVISION Win

Mr. Lordi of Finnish metallers LORDI, who won the Eurovision Song Contest more than a decade and a half ago, has once again reflected on the band's involvement with the world's longest-running annual international TV song competition.

LORDI caused a sensation by winning the 2006 Eurovision with "Hard Rock Hallelujah", which in turn made the band's third release, "The Arockalypse", a hit throughout Europe. On the back of their Eurovision win, they scored a lucrative series of promotions including LORDI-branded cola, boiled sweets and credit cards; and played live at the MTV European Music Awards. A square was renamed in LORDI's honor in the Lapland city of Rovaniemi; a LORDI-themed postage stamp was issued in Finland and the group starred in its first film, called "Dark Floors".

With their monster-movie stage persona, LORDI seemed a most unlikely choice to represent their country in the Eurovision Song Contest. So you can imagine how many people were shocked when the group not only claimed top honors, but also earned the most points in the venerable event's history.

Asked in a new interview with Mulatschag TV if it was strange for him to see elderly people and 10-year-old kids in the front row at LORDI concerts following the band's appearance at Eurovision, Mr. Lordi said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was not that weird. Even before that, we were already a band that was touring and we had two albums out before that. And we've always been a band like, let's say KISS or Alice Cooper, for example, that we don't only gather certain age groups. Of course the diehards of any bands are in their 20s, but we've always been a band that we've always had little kids and even older people digging us. So in that sense it was no different. But since Eurovision, of course, the amount of those people, and when you see that these people have only seen that one fucking three-minute TV [performance] and that's all they know about the band, that was weird."

He continued: "I especially remember one moment in the summer of 2006, after a festival, I come down the stairs and I walk by the fence — like this barbed wire fence or something that is blocking the backstage area — and there are people waiting for autographs. And the weirdest thing is that you see these old grandmothers with their granddaughters and grandsons. And I'm dripping fucking blood — fake blood, but still I'm dripping blood — I have horns on my head, I have fucking red eyes and shit, and they're, like, 'Yeah', like they were fucking seeing Elvis or Jesus or something. And in that moment I realized that they don't see what this band is about. So that was weird. And eventually, a year or two years after that, when people only… They had some sort of a false image in their head what we were about… Of course it is the stupidity of themselves because they didn't bother to check it out. So when they came to our shows only because of that one song, so it was a long fucking 90 minutes before that song came out, when there's a lot of blood and guts and songs about anal fucking and all this shit. And they were, like, 'Why is LORDI changing all of a sudden? They should be family friendly.' Fuck that shit. We were never family friendly."

Mr. Lordi added: "When it comes to misconceptions… It's not about nationality and it's not about religion or it's not about age or sex or anything. It is like a default setting, like a false setting of a human that once you get some thought in your head, it is really difficult for you to let go of that. And when that false conception is shattered, your mind doesn't kind of understand it —'Why? What the fuck?' Because God forbid you cannot admit that you were wrong. That's how it goes."

Back in 2017, Mr. Lordi admitted to MariskalRock that he was initially comfortable about LORDI's connection to Eurovision. "There was a time a couple of years ago — well, more than a couple — when I really, really, really hated that everybody's always asking about the goddamn Eurovision; there was a time," he said. "Nowadays I have come to terms with it. It's, like, okay, I'm actually proud that we are part of Eurovision history and I am proud that Eurovision is part of this band's history. I mean, it is a big part of our awareness. Because the awareness of the band would be so different, it would be so much smaller, without that one TV show ten years ago."

He continued: "I absolutely don't regret that — absolutely not. Because I have nothing bad to say about Eurovision itself, but the problem that we have had in the years is the people who actually don't know anything else except for the fact that we were on Eurovision. And that is a big stamp to get out of — it's like a fucking tattoo, you have a fucking tattoo on your forehead that says 'Eurovision.' And that is something that really, really, really drove me nuts some years ago; I was really struggling with that.

"I have come to terms with it — it's all right; I mean, it's cool," he said. "I am proud of it. And every May, when there's a new Eurovision, I know that my phone will start ringing and people will ask my opinions and then we get requests: 'Do you wanna come to this country's semifinals? Do you wanna come here?' And for years we said, 'No, we don't wanna. We don't want to.' But now, we're, like, 'Fuck it! Let's do it. What the hell?' I mean, c'mon, it's all fun, and it's part of our history, and the Eurovision, they really want us to come there, because, let's face it, we are one of those winners that people still remember."

LORDI released its eighteenth studio album, "Screem Writers Guild", on March 31 via Atomic Fire Records.