Nothin but a Good Time (Poison)

One cultural oddity that we haven’t yet touched upon is the apparent phenomenon of (American) 80s music sweeping across the Finnish countryside. Clubs, stores, and even restaurants are being invaded by the likes of U2, Billy Joel, and the Beastie Boys.

We first heard of this peculiarity from Laura, Finnish-tutor-by-day,-Finnish-goddess-by-night, but we were a little skeptical. For a country that celebrates heavy metal (according to Wikipedia, in all forms including “black metal, folk metal, power metal, cello metal (?) and symphonic metal”), American 80s just didn’t quite seem to fit in.

Laura, as usual, was dead on. Towards the end of our first week here, we entered a pizza buffet to the strains of Bon Jovi’s “Livin on a Prayer,” followed by a little Rihanna (“Disturbia,” to be specific), then “Forever Young.” Another morning, in the supermarket, Jaime shopped to the tune of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

Now, we can understand playing it in restaurants and shops; admittedly we love the 80s too and may or may not know all the words to those songs. But when Elizabeth walked into the club on Saturday night, she never expected to be greeted by Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” blaring from the speakers.

Fitting, nevertheless.