The concert by Kaija Koo, Vesala, Jenni Vartainen and Ellinoora was a pleasant but unsurprising evening, writes Yle music journalist Ville Vedenpää.
When the Champions concert tour was announced in the spring, it caused a minor stir.
The seven-show arena tour of the Champions kicked off on Friday in Espoo, Finland. It was known beforehand that the artists would perform their best-known hits together and separately.
But the most important question was why such a joint concert was being organised at all.
None of the artists need a career boost. Kaija Koo is already an institution, everything Vesala does turns to gold, Ellinoora forges radio hits and fans have been waiting for Jenni Vartiainen’s return for a long time.
Before the gig, I asked people what their expectations are from the gig. From the taxi driver, everyone seemed to have the same answer: an entertaining evening.
So what did the concert offer?
Have an entertaining evening. The production of the concert was a carefully thought-out and visually impressive entity down to the last drawing. The artists performed their best-known hits and sometimes lightened the mood by chatting with each other. The four seemed to be genuinely having fun with each other.
Only life program has dominated the Finnish music scene for ten years already. According to Helsingin Sanomat, the program is already in its prime in the 13th production season. However, the concept has not been successfully expanded into the lucrative live business, except for a few arena concerts. In that sense, the Masters tour hits the right spot. Many well-known artists perform together and it draws a crowd.
Even though the Mestarit concert was not intended to hear other people’s versions of songs in the style of Only Life, the program would have needed more surprises and joint performances. Now it was too safe when everyone took turns to perform their well-known song.
The freshest surprise was when Kaija Koo’s *Nää yöt ei anna armoo* was combined with the metallic sound of Vesala’s *Pulkka* song. More similar combinations would have been needed.
The Mestarit concert offered a nice moment of singing together on the eve of eternal November. At the same time, you could reminisce about the festival summer of all time. These were the slightly better little Christmases.
*Correction 22 October 2022 at 15:27: There are seven Mestarit concerts and not 12, as mentioned earlier in the story.*