Helsinki Airport was flooded with Käärijä fans on Sunday evening, as Finland's Eurovision contestant arrived home to a hero's welcome after finishing in second place in the song competition's final, newspaper Aamulehti reports.
Despite getting narrowly beaten overall by Sweden's entry, Loreen's Tattoo, Käärijä's Cha Cha Cha won the hearts of the public, the Tampere-based paper writes. The Finnish entry received 376 points from the audience vote, 133 more than Sweden.
"Winner, winner, winner," the crowd chanted at the airport as the rapper appeared in the arrivals hall, Aamulehti writes.
Among the neon-green-studded crowd — which consisted primarily of teenagers — was 94-year-old Heljä Hakosalo from Vantaa, who had joined her daughter in welcoming the Finnish rapper home.
As he moved through the crowds, Käärijä approached Hakosalo and gave him a hug.
"I didn't expect that. And I didn't expect that everyone would be so terribly friendly," the 94-year-old said of the experience.
Purchasing power hit 60-year low last year
Consumers' purchasing power in Finland dropped to its lowest level since the 1950s last year, according to the largest-circulating daily, Helsingin Sanomat (HS).
HS writes that as Finland had just begun to recover from the economic effects of the Covid pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent the global economy into turmoil once again. The result was a spike in energy and food prices as well as rapidly rising inflation and interest rates.
Citing number-crunching agency Statistics Finland, HS reports that real income fell by 4.4 percent in 2022, the sharpest drop recorded in more than 60 years. The last time a plunge as big was recorded was in 1957 when earnings fell by 5.7 percent.
High employment levels however provided the silver lining to a difficult economic period, noted University of Helsinki professor Niku Määttänen, who said that the shock effect of last year's geopolitical events should be temporary.
"It was a one-off drop in purchasing power. From now on, one would expect a more positive development," Määttänen told the paper.
Goodbye summer (for now)
"Enjoy the warmth while you still can," tabloid Iltalehti writes on Monday morning.
The sunny and warm weather of the past few days is about to turn wetter and cooler, according to the paper, as a low-pressure front moves across Finland.
While Monday could see the mercury reach up to 24 degrees Celsius, Tuesday is set to see a dramatic drop, between 13 and 17 degrees, and will decrease further over the following days.
The weather u-turn will also bring rain showers, which could even fall as sleet in northern areas of the country.
Meteorologists however expect this change to be temporary, as the outlook suggests drier and warmer weather will appear again by Thursday, IL reports.
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