SunriseAve ITALY

"Hamburg radio promotion and Stars For Free in Berlin" from Sunrise Avenue Diary

Hamburg radio promotion and Stars For Free in Berlin

I'm sitting in my hotel room in Park Hyatt Hamburg and I just came from the gym. The day was pretty easy and relaxed. We just drove around Hamburg and Kiel with our local Radio promoter Toby and visited all the radio stations around here. A short stepper session and a long swim in the nice pool downstairs was the perfect thing for the evening before we have dinner with the German EMI folks. I heard that the Swedish pop miracle Darin might also join us. He sings so well. I'll sleep like a baby as soon as I get my stomach full.

I arrived already yesterday and I had the evening free. As I was having dinner alone in the hotel restaurant, my friend sent me a text message saying "Greetings from Hamburg…" I had no choice but to invite him and his two colleagues to have a glass of wine with me. I thought my friend still works for one of the biggest TV and radio networks in Scandinavia and I thanked them all for supporting our songs. The fact was he had changed his job in JANUARY and the gang was pretty surprised for me being grateful for the airplay support. They work with customer relations, nothing to do with pop music. Time flies, doesn't it. Wines on me anyhow.

It's Thursday now and the rest of the guys will come to Germany on Saturday. We perform in Berlin at this Stars for free event. The only one who arrived already today from his Swedish trip is Riku, the guy who will play the guitar on stage with us for the rest of the year. Riku is a nice guy and actually he was the first guy in Sami's and my mind after the change in the band. I met him for the first time in Helsinki after the New Year as I was having dinner with Jukka and his producer partner Aku. Riku joined us then telling that Hanna, the Finnish Eurovision winner 2007 had just kicked him out off the band. He had stolen the show from her, she had said.

The last weeks have been pretty hard for us all and there is still a lot of work to do and wounds to heal. Still I must say I am happy how the fans, media and everybody around us have taken the challenge the band had to face. It's not easy at all, sure for nobody involved, but life will go on. For everybody.

I downloaded three albums from iTunes during the gym session to entertain me tonight. Three musts: Iron Maiden's Fear of the dark (yes!), Metallica's And Justice for all and Sheryl Crow's The best of. I will listen to "If it makes you happy" before ordering a bottle of red wine tonight…

SAMU