Julkalendern (The Christmas RockCalendar) Dec 23

 Slot 23: Sankarit/J. Karjalainen

(The Heroes)

We all are heroes in life, in our own lives. Both the celebrated Megastars and the unsung heroes, everyday-women and -men. We all can make a difference. And that is a valuable point in J Karjalainen’s classic song.

For Finns, this song has also another, historical, significance. Sankarit is also closely connected to the first World Cup championship in icehockey for Finland, in 1995. 

Finland’s first gold medal ever in a team sport. 

It was a great booster for Finnish self esteem after the long and deep economic depression of the early 1990’s. And the gold was won against loved arch rivals Sweden, in Stockholm. The sweetest kind of victory.

No Finn will ever forget the first World Cup gold, 1995. The biggest day in Finnish sports history. 

Even a movie has been made about it, simply called 95. Everyone knows what that stands for.

I stood on Kauppatori (Market Square) in Helsinki with 100.000 other Finns in 1995, cheering for the Gold Medal Team. The Heroes (Sankarit). And we all sang, together with the national team, Den glider in (Sweden’s world cup song that Finland adopted) and Sankarit. And there was a small Swedish victory too, as the Finnish Head Coach was Swedish, Curre Lindström. He helped Finland win in a team sport and consequently became  a megastar in Finland.

Sakari Kuosmanen sang the World Cup-version of Sankarit, but it’s J’s song, and his original version is simply the best.

The video clip shows a flow of ”heroes”, in pics, international and national. How many did You recognize?

Still, the most significant, important heroes in our lives are the unsung, everyday, ones.