The Perfect Pitch

The annual Parliament Karaoke Championships were held last Wednesday at Karaoke Bar Satumaa just next to the Parliament building in Helsinki. The contest was organized by a Finnish radio station, Järviradio and hosted by the Parliament’s Karaoke Club that has been active since 2003!

The competition was open for members of the parliament and the staff of the parliament. The event was broadcasted live through Radio Järviradio and the listeners had the chance to vote for the best singer. The victory was a tie between Johanna Hellgren and Sanna-Helena Rantala.

A small re-cap of the days before KWC 2009 actually started, in pictures:

The first ones to arrive to Finland were Michael Bates, male champion from 2008 and Loveless Johnson III, the producer of the live broadcast from this year’s event.

After that we headed towards Helsinki to Sonic Pump Studios, where Erkka Korhonen (the producer of the album) and some of the guys from band were recording instrumentals for Michael’s upcoming album:

The party officially started when KWC Ireland arrived with the rest of the Irish supporters. Along with the Irish, everyone from the international KWC family headed towards Heinola (the town where the first Karaoke World Championships took place back in 2003) to Cronin’s Cafe & Guesthouse for some karaoke!:

Karaoke World Championships 2009 was scheduled to start on Friday in Lahti Hall, but the launch party was held in Hotel Alex Park on Thursday. Earlier on Thursday the whole KWC family was invited to Lahti Town Hall for a greet & meet cocktail event. The night continued at the hotel:

As some of you have noticed, the live broadcast from Lahti Hall is DOWN at the moment. This is due to an equipment malfunction and the new equipment is being installed just this minute. So people, do not worry, the live feed is back up any minute now!

Stay tuned.