All hail Lordi, the winners of yesterday’s 2006 Eurovision Song Contest! Capturing the protest vote in the 51st europop kitschfest, the creatures from the vast Finnish forests rocked to sensational victory with their performance of the Alice Cooper-inspired “Hard Rock Hallelujah.” Their all-time record score ended a national trauma for Finland, whose strongest showing in the dreaded competition was heretofore a sixth spot in 1973.

Lordi — the burly lead vocalist whom the press has dubbed “the Bat out of Helsinki” — welcomes the uplifting lack of prejudice against those with fangs, horns, red eyes, and retractable wings. The other band members are Amen the Unstoppable Mummy, Enary the Manipulative Valkyrie, Kalma the Biker Zombie from Hell, and Kita the Alien Manbeast with the Combined Strengths of All the Beasts Known to Man.

Asked by a reporter if the band will ever take off the masks, Lordi replied: “What masks?”

Here is the music video for the winning entry, featuring a commendable turning of cheerleaders into zombies: Hard Rock Hallelujah.

Hyva Suomi — and long live the will to be different!

PS. Equally, if less deliberately, monstrous and entertaining is this Finnish 1980s music video with a dance routine suggesting the Heaven’s Gate sect doing aeorobics on LSD. A must-see!