22February
Anyone can hit number one in Finland, where they seem to have a different chart-topper every week. Though it does help to be performing heavy metal, or ten million beat-per-minute dance. Last week's successor to the likes of Lordi, Iron Maiden, and Nightwish was -- er, a Polish actress with a song from a German musical.
Natalia Avelon is the lead performer in the German touring production of Das Wilde Leben
. The show is a summary of the life of Uschi Obermaier, feted as the first groupie in Germany during the 1960s. Inevitably, the show contains songs of the era, including a cover of the Nancy Sinatra number Summer wine
. For no adequately explored reason, it's been recorded with Ville Valo, the scarily-eyed lead singer with Finnish metallers HIM.
The songs has been released as a single in Germany, and was only held off the top spot by the powerhouses of Nelly Furtado and Tokio Hotel. Neither of these massive stars has a single out in Finland, so the coast was clear for Avelon and Valo to spend their seven days at the summit, before being swept aside by Ensiferum, a Viking / folk metal band.
