Culinary delights, Eurovision fever and four-star travel

A fan of jazz? Finnish Music Quarterly takes a deep dive into the We Jazz festival in Helsinki. Since its launch in 2013, the event has “broken the mould of a traditional festival by spreading into unexpected venues while expanding to become a record company, shop and magazine,” the website writes.

Finnish user-generated content entertainment startup YAHAHA has reached a new milestone. Its platform now offers over one million 3D assets for its users, allowing anyone to become a 3D content or game creator. Beyond Games has the news.

Ville Valo has published his first solo album, Neon Noir. NME met with the former HIM frontman to talk about the creation of his record, his new lyrical direction and “the sage advice that Ozzy Osbourne once gave him”.

Eurovision Song Contest fever is rising with the release of Finland’s seven Eurovision hopefuls. Who gets to represent the country in Liverpool in May will be decided in a live broadcast on 25 February. YLE has the details about all the contestants.

Helsinki, home to several Michelin-starred restaurants, wants to become the next big Nordic foodie destination. The Finnish capital city showcased its culinary delights at the Matka Nordic Travel Fair and launched its food culture strategy project, according to Scandinavian MIND. Moreover, Helsinki-based restaurant Finnjävel will run a ten-day pop-up restaurant in London to attract international interest to Finnish food culture.

Speaking of culinary delights, Finnish foraging expert Sami Tallberg has opened a new restaurant in Turku. It’s located in a logistics centre in the middle of a forest, but don’t let the surroundings fool you. Travel Daily Media calls the restaurant a “hidden gem”. Read also Good News from Finland’s interview with Tallberg.

Screen Daily has picked 67 European titles set to tempt film festival directors in 2023. Among them are two Finnish films: Aki Kaurismäki’s 20th feature, Dead Leaves, and Katja Gauriloff’s Je’Vida, the first-ever film made in the Skolt Sámi language.

Now you can find out everything you ever wanted about Amorphis. The heavy metal band has published an English translation of its biography, Amorphis: The Official Story of Finland’s Greatest Metal Band. The book is available in a limited print run of 1 000, writes Metal Sucks.

Returnal’s PC version gets a release date. The action video game, created by Finnish studio Housemarque, will land on Steam and Epic Games Store on 15 February, following its success on PlayStation 5. Read more on Engadget.

Finnair’s new business class seats get a four-star review from MailOnline. The tabloid tested the seat on an overnight flight from Helsinki to Singapore and concluded: “comfortable, flexible and dripping in streamlined style, it’s bound to change how we fly business.”