BLIND CHANNEL Trivia — 16 Entries
16 sourced facts about BLIND CHANNEL.
Trivia
Their Japanese debut album came out with part of its title removed. Sony Music Japan International released it on 21 December 2022 as SICP-6498 under the name Sick & Dangerous — the original is Lifestyles of the Sick & Dangerous. A twelfth track, "Alive or Only Burning" featuring Zero 9:36, was added for that edition alone.
"Dark Side" was the most-streamed song in Finland on Spotify across the whole of 2021. Måneskin, who won that year's Eurovision, took second, fifth and sixth on the same list. The winners placed three songs; the act that finished sixth took the top spot with one.
The first time Blind Channel played outside Finland was at Wacken Open Air in Germany. In 2014, about a year after forming, they won the Finnish heat of the Wacken Metal Battle, and the festival slot came with it. Their own profile puts the crowd at more than six thousand.
The title of the fourth album, Lifestyles of the Sick & Dangerous, is built on Good Charlotte's "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous". The band's own Bandcamp calls it a winking homage, and Sony Music Japan International says the same thing in its official profile.
When Chester Bennington of Linkin Park died in July 2017, Blind Channel recorded a cover of "Numb" and posted it to their own channel on 1 August. Their Japanese label sets the tribute beside two other things: that Blind Channel had the same shape as Linkin Park — six members, two vocalists and a DJ — and that Linkin Park's Meteora is how the band's two singers found each other in the first place.
All three albums Blind Channel released before Eurovision reached their highest position on the official Finnish album chart in a week that falls after the contest. Blood Brothers, from 2018, peaks at number 30 in week 33 of 2021; Revolutions, from 2016, at number 26 in week 4 of 2022; Violent Pop, from 2020, at number 31 in week 9 of 2022. The final was held in May 2021.
The Japanese edition of EXIT EMOTIONS — SICP-6570, released on 1 March 2024, the same day as everywhere else — carries two extra tracks that exist nowhere else: live recordings of "Alive or Only Burning" and "We Are No Saints", both taken from the band's concert at the Helsinki Ice Hall.
Blind Channel played Japan for the first time on 3 June 2024, one night only, at duo MUSIC EXCHANGE in Shibuya. Sony Music Japan International announced it explicitly as their first Japanese concert, at ¥8,000 all standing. The two shows in November 2026 are the first Japanese tour they have ever played.
At the Emma Gaala, the Finnish music industry's awards, held at the Helsinki Ice Hall on 6 May 2022, Blind Channel won six trophies in one night — among them band of the year, song of the year for "Dark Side", rock of the year and the export award. Ellinoora took four that evening, which made Blind Channel the night's biggest winner outright.
The Emma Gaala winners' list records EXIT EMOTIONS as Vuoden Rock 2024, the rock award for that year. It is credited there to BloodBros / Century Media Records — BloodBros being the band's own imprint, and also the name of the company registered to them in Helsinki.
Before their debut album existed, Blind Channel won the national band competition run by YleX, Finland's biggest radio station, and went from there to the Sziget Festival in Budapest.
Ranka Kustannus, the Finnish independent label that put out their debut, was owned by Riku Pääkkönen — the man who founded Spinefarm Records and had worked with Nightwish, Children of Bodom and Sonata Arctica.
The six-piece that went to Eurovision was less than a year old. Aleksi Kaunisvesi, the sixth member, joined in the autumn of 2020 — a DJ and producer who had already been working on the band's material from outside. Their Japanese label's profile says he produced "Time Bomb" and then came in as their DJ; the song appears on 2020's Violent Pop as "Timebomb", with his solo name, Alex Mattson, credited as the featured artist.
The Finnish national final that sent Blind Channel to Eurovision in 2021 was decided 75 per cent by the public and 25 per cent by international juries. Seven countries provided those juries — the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Poland, Iceland, Spain and the Netherlands. Not one Finnish juror took part.
The Blind Channel song that lasted longest on a Finnish chart is not the one everybody knows. "Dark Side" reached number one on the official singles chart in week 8 of 2021 and stayed on it for thirty weeks; "Balboa" only got to number 21 on the radio chart, but it stayed there for forty-six.
EXIT EMOTIONS, released on 1 March 2024, went to number one in week 10 of that year on both the official Finnish album chart and the separate physical album chart. Their Japanese label points out what it beat: a solo album by Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, released the same day.