"Lapponia" was the Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977

Eurovision Song Contest 1977

The Eurovision Song Contest 1977 was the 22nd edition series, and was held on 7 May 1977 in London. With Angela Rippon as the presenter, the contest was won by Marie Myriam who represented France, with her song "L'oiseau et l'enfant" . This was France's fifth victory, a record, which was equalled...

, performed in Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

 by Monica Aspelund

Monica Aspelund

-Life/ career:Born into a family of Swedish speaking Finlanders, Aspelund danced and sang in talent shows from an early age making her recording debut at age fourteen with "Katso, kenguru loikkaa" a children's song recorded in the autumn of 1960...

.

The song was performed sixteenth on the night, following Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

's Mia Martini

Mia Martini

Mia Martini was an Italian singer.-Early life:Born Domenica Bertè in 1947 in Bagnara Calabra , she moved to Rome with her sister and her friend Renato Zero.-Career:She recorded her first records as Mimì Berté, but she soon decided to change her name to Mia...

 with "Libera

Libera (song)

"Libera" was the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, performed in Italian by Mia Martini, at the time arguably Italy's most successful and celebrated female artist, having had a number of hits like "Padre davvero...", "Gesù è mio fratello" , "Credo", "Piccolo uomo", "Donna sola" ,...

" and preceding Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

's Dream Express with "A Million in One, Two, Three

A Million In One, Two, Three

"A Million in One, Two, Three" was the Belgian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, performed in English by Dream Express, a band consisting of Luc Smets and the three sisters Maessen; Bianca, Patricia and Stella...

". At the close of voting, it had received 50 points, placing 10th in a field of 18.

Despite its moderate placing at the Eurovision final, "Lapponia" was given release in twenty European countries and also in Australia, Brazil, Israel and Turkey. Aspelund recorded "Lapponia" in six languages; Finnish, her mother tongue Swedish, English, German, French and Dutch. "Lapponia" afforded Aspelund a #5 hit in Finland and also reached #5 in Sweden.

The successive Finnish representative

Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Finland first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961, and has participated a total of 45 times. Finland won the contest for the first time in 2006 with Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah"...

 at the 1978 Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1978

The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd of its kind, and was held on 22 April 1978 in Paris. With Denise Fabre and Léon Zitrone as the presenters - the first time more than one presenter hosted the contest - the contest was won by Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta who represented Israel, with their...

 by Seija Simola

Seija Simola

Seija Simola is a Finnish singer. She began her career musical in the mid 1960s in the band Eero Seija & Kristian Trio, and her debut solo album was released in 1970: Seija Simola 1 ....

 was "Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus

Anna Rakkaudelle Tilaisuus

"Anna rakkaudelle tilaisuus" was the Finnish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978, performed in Finnish by Seija Simola....

". In 1983 Monica Aspelund's sister Ami

Ami Aspelund

Ami Aspelund is a Finnish singer. She is the younger sister of singer Monica Aspelund.-Career:Ami Aspelund released her first single in 1973 called Apinamies....

 entered the contest with the song "Fantasiaa

Fantasiaa

"Fantasiaa" was the Finnish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, performed in Finnish by Ami Aspelund. In 1977, Aspelund's sister Monica had represented Finland in the Contest with the song "Lapponia"....

".

"Lapponia" was included on the double-disc sets of "Winners and Classics" produced to commemorate the Congratulations

Congratulations (Eurovision)

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest was a television programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union to commemorate the Eurovision Song Contest's fiftieth anniversary and to determine the Contest's most popular entrant of its fifty years. It took place at Forum,...

special of late 2005. This is in spite of the song placing substantially lower than Marion Rung

Marion Rung

Marion Rung is a Finnish pop singer. She is known to have represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1962 and 1973. Her 1962 Eurovision song placed 7th and in 1973, she managed to bring Finland's second best result ever in this contest, placing 6th...

's "Tom Tom Tom

Tom Tom Tom

"Tom Tom Tom" was the Finnish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, performed in English by Marion Rung...

" of 1973

Eurovision Song Contest 1973

The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the eighteenth Eurovision Song Contest and was held in Luxembourg. The language rule forcing countries to enter songs sung in any of their national languages was dropped, so performers from some countries sang in English....

 - at the time the CDs were made, Finland's highest Contest finish. As the liner notes indicate that it is a "distinctly Finnish" song, the argument can be made that Rung's Anglophone

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 song was not quite as Finnish.

The band Northern Kings

Northern Kings

Northern Kings is a Finnish symphonic metal cover supergroup, made up of four musicians who have already become well known in their existing bands: Jarkko Ahola from Teräsbetoni, ex-Dreamtale, Marco Hietala from Nightwish and Tarot, Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica and Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto from...

covered this song.