Arockalypse Now
Finland's Lordi with "Hard Rock Hallelujah" (2006)
Finland's favorite heavy-metal band takes eccentricity to freakish heights: in their 14 years together, the group has never performed without their foam-latex monster masks. In "Hard Rock Hallelujah," they elevated their art to a religion and preached the impending "arockalypse." According to the lyrics, the day of "rockening" will present listeners with quite a dilemma: "Wings on my back/ I got horns on my head/ My fangs are sharp/ And my eyes are red/ Not quite an angel/ Or the one that fell/ Now choose to join us or go straight to Hell." Combining elements of horror with pyrotechnics paid off. The group ran away with the title, receiving more points than any act in the history of Eurovision up until then. Their single topped the Finnish charts and cracked the Top 10 in eight other European countries.