Amazing catchy song from my favourite Finnish contemporary rock/pop group. (I am not counting Värttinä as they are more of a roots/world/heritage group.) I have been playing this song all day. Scandinavian Music Group sings in Finnish, and are hugely popular in their home country, even having several of their albums hit #1. I keep in contact with the band’s guitarist Joel Melasniemi and drummer Antti Lehtinen and they told me their latest tour schedule.

I hope to catch part of Scandinavian Music Group’s Finnish tour this April. I last followed the band around in 2004 when I caught gigs in Helsinki, Rovaniemi and Jyväskylä. Coincidentally Värttinä has two gigs in Espoo during April so I plan to see them too, in between SMG gigs in Tampere, Oulu and Kuopio.

In the video for “Ei paniikkia”, at the beginning you can see an apartment building with blue windows behind the singers Terhi and Pauliina Kokkonen. I lived in this building during my summer in Helsinki in 2000.