Hard Rock Hallelujah

Infobox Single
Name = Hard Rock Hallelujah
Artist = Lordi


from Album = The Arockalypse
Released = May 19 2006
Format =
[ Recorded = ]
Genre = Heavy metal
Length = 4:07
Label = Drakkar Records
Writer = Mr. Lordi
Producer = Jyrki Tuovinen
[ Certification = ]
Chart position =
Last single = "Blood Red Sandman" 2004
This single = "Hard Rock Hallelujah" 2006
Next single = "Who's Your Daddy?" (2006)
Misc = Infobox ESC entry
song = flagicon|Finland "Hard Rock Hallelujah"


caption =
year = 2006
country = Finland
artist = Lordi
as =
with =
language = English
languages =
composer = Mr. Lordi
lyricist = Mr. Lordi
conductor =
place = 1st
points = 292
place_semi = 1st
points_semi = 292
lyrics = [http://www.diggiloo.net/?2006fi Lyrics]
clip =
prev = "Why?"
prev_link = Why? (Eurovision song)
next = "Leave Me Alone"
next_link = Leave Me Alone (Hanna Pakarinen song)

"Hard Rock Hallelujah" is a song by the Finnish heavy metal band Lordi, which won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest with 292 points, a record in the history of Eurovision. It was also Finland's first placement in the top five. It was voted as the most popular Finnish Eurovision entry in the forty years the country has participated. [http://www.eurovision.tv/english/2525.htm] "Hard Rock Hallelujah" was also released as a single in 2006. [ [http://top40-charts.com/song.php?sid=17012&sort=chartid] Top40_chart.com] The song preaches of the impending 'arockalypse', and that we should be ready for the day of 'rockoning'.

Track listings

Finnish edition:
# Hard Rock Hallelujah (Euroviscous radio edit)
# Hard Rock Hallelujah (Album version)
# Mr. Killjoy (Previously unreleased track)

GSA edition:
# Hard Rock Hallelujah (Euroviscous radio edit)
# Supermonstars (Anthem of the Phantoms)

GSA Special limited DualDisc edition:
# Hard Rock Hallelujah (Euroviscous radio edit)
# Hard Rock Hallelujah (Album version)
# Mr. Killjoy (Previously unreleased track)
# Hard Rock Hallelujah (music video)
# Blood Red Sandman (music video)
# Devil Is A Loser (music video)

Videos

The video starts with a shy female hard rock fan walking through the corridors of a school, singing softly along to the song playing on her headset. She reaches an entrance to the gym, where she stands watching the cheerleaders practice. Suddenly, the lights flicker and go out, and a wind starts to blow. As the chorus starts to play, the doors to the gym are blown off of their hinges by Mr. Lordi, who enters and kills the now-screaming cheerleaders with a wave of his hands. There is a fiery flash, and the entire band appears in the centre of the gym, playing the song.

The fan is terrified, but approaches Mr. Lordi as he points to her, singing " [...] you will see the jokers soon'll be the new kings". He raises the dead cheerleaders as zombies, and they stand around the fan pumping their fists in the air along with the music. The end of the video shows the fan, now confident and unafraid, leading the zombies through the school halls as students run away. She stops and punches the air with her fist as the zombies rush around her towards a group of students who are trapped by the closed main doors.

The video was directed by Pete Riski. The fan is played by Leina Ogihara.

Another version was filmed specially for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 opening, directed by Antti J. Jokinen. Video starts with titles: "Arctic Circle, Finland, Rovaniemi". A troll crawls through the snow mountains and frozen lakes, when the ice cracks up with the fountain of cold water. Mr. Lordi and the band play in a hut at the deep dark forest, and then they set the woods on fire with pyrotechnics. Lines of flame draw Lordi's symbol - the monster mask.

At Eurovision

As Finland had not qualified for the final in their previous attempts, the song was performed in the semi-final. Here, it was performed sixteenth, following Ukraine's Tina Karol with Show Me Your Love and preceding the Netherlands' Treble with Amambanda. At the close of voting, it had received 292 points, placing first in the 23-strong field and qualifying for the final.
In the final, it was performed seventeenth, following Greece's Anna Vissi with Everything and preceding the Ukrainian entry. Having led the voting for most of the telecast, it ultimately received 292 points again, winning the competition, breaking the previous record (held by Ruslana with Wild Dances) for the highest points tally in Contest history as well as achieving the unusual feat of emulating its semi-final performance exactly.

Commentators were generally positive about the band and the song, with even the notoriously acerbic Terry Wogan seeing it as something of a good thing for the Contest.Fact|date=May 2008

It is the second Eurovision song with the word hallelujah in its title. The first one is Israel's Hallelujah, which got first place at the 1979 Eurovision Contest

Performance

The semifinal and final performances of "Hard Rock Hallelujah" at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest were similar; the lead singer, Mr. Lordi, stated before the final that the only planned changes were that "We'll scream louder. And turn the amps up." The performance took place on a fairly bare Eurovision stage, with banks of video monitors in the back displaying abstract images of fire, and the band in their usual monster costumes.

Mr. Lordi, the lead singer, performed the first verse while wearing a top hat with the flag of Finland on it; he also wielded a microphone, the handle of which was attached to the handle of a two-headed battle axe. During the final verse, while he was singing the lyric "Wings on my back / Got horns on my head", a set of large, bat-like wings unfolded from Mr. Lordi's back. During the whole performance, the band members remained relatively stationary, with the exception of guitarist Amen, who hopped back and forth energetically. Drummer Kita and keyboard player Awa generally remained behind their instruments, bassist OX stayed by his microphone, and Mr. Lordi wore very large platform shoes.

The song had frequent use of pyrotechnics, starting with flames bursting from the stage during the song's introduction, and bursts of sparks, particularly during the chorus. The final chorus of the song had an extended pyrotechnic display, with the whole stage covered in sparks, including jets shooting from the ends of the guitar and the bass as they were being played, and from the two-headed axe (now detached) that Mr. Lordi held up above his head.

The encore performance after they were announced the winners was much simpler, as the pyrotechnics were obviously not available and Mr. Lordi's wings did not unfurl.

On May 26th, 2006 the Guinness World Record of karaoke singing was broken when approximately 80,000 people gathered to sing "Hard Rock Hallelujah" in Helsinki, Finland to celebrate victory in Eurovision. [http://newsroom.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=12721&group=General]

Release as single

The song was released as a physical single with the week starting June 5, 2006, in the United Kingdom, on the BMG label. Download sales for the previous week were therefore eligible to be counted for the June 4, Official UK Singles Chart, which led to the single to chart at #59. It reached #25 in the June 11, 2006 chart. The single also starts off-beat.

References