Finland again picks climate change song for Eurovision

Finland has again chosen a song with a powerful message about climate change to represent it at Eurovision. The song “Look Away” was selected by Finnish voters and a panel of international judges to be performed by EDM star Darude and Sebastian Rejman at the upcoming 64th Eurovision Song Contest first semifinal, to be held May 14 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The final is on May 18.

Singer Sebastian Rejman, who co-wrote the track, says he was compelled to write the song during an eye-opening trip to India a couple of years ago, where he saw “poverty, pollution and overcrowding,” according to the Wiwibloggs Eurovision fan site.

“I was in the hotel room looking over Delhi and it looked like a sky fight movie after the nuclear war. It was quite a shock to me as a western person to go in Delhi in the city at night when people were sleeping on the streets and living on the streets,” Rejman told Wiwibloggs.

“There’s something in the air at night, that feels so different…”

Rejman also explained how he wrote the song when he returned from India. “I came home and I sat on the piano the first time I had a chance. I wrote ‘Look Away’ in like 20 minutes. I just had to get it out,” Rejman said.

In the song, Rejman says that he “can’t sing a love song anymore” because “there’s something going on, and I can’t turn my back on it anymore.” Further in the song, he says that “there’s something in the air at night, that feels so different, and I don’t understand, I didn’t see this one coming.”

This is not the first time Finland has sent a song with a powerful message about climate change to the Eurovision Song Contest. Back in 2011 singer song-writer Paradise Oskar sang about a boy who wants to save “the dying planet” from environmental disaster. This track came in 21st out 25 entries in the Eurovision final, which took place in Düsseldorf, Germany.