Finland’s Extreme Dudesons hit it big on MTV.

THE DUDESONS (Extreme Duudsonit), namely Jukka, Jarppi, Jarno and HP, are four guys who have gradually goofed their way to worldwide popularity from the lowlands of Southern Ostrobothnia. Once stunting in a small-time cable TV show, these contemporaries of Jackass & Co are now living the dream, filming their upcoming series in the US. SixDegrees reached front man Jukka Hilden from Florida along their tour across the country and talked to him about the past, present and future.

WEERUSKA is a cosy tavern located in Helsinki’s lively suburb of Alppiharju. A few steps from the entrance lies the Linnanmäki amusement park. Just around the corner are Alppipuisto and Lenininpuisto, two very popular outdoor areas for summer concerts and winter sledging. The restaurant is an established classic in the neighbourhood, with long traditions and a dedicated platoon of hardcore regulars. With scant regard to fads and bandwagons, Weeruska caters to folks who prefer unpretentious food and like to get more bang for their buck.

With the help of some influential music bloggers and fans among the Finnish radio and television profession, a virtually unknown Swedish singer and songwriter Ninos Dankha has within a few months become one of the year’s most talked-about new artists. Under the regal name Prince of Assyria, Dankha is stirring interest across Europe, but he seems particularly welcome in Finland.

So why is the Prince so phenomenally popular here?

”I have no idea, really. No-one has come and told me that,” says Dankha over the phone from Sweden. ”I hope it’s because of the melancholy connection, my music is...

Does a dancer have to give all he’s got on stage? Are dancers required to shave their pubic hair? Is the performer’s job to keep the audience from falling asleep?

These are only a few of the slightly improper questions asked of Delcado Fuchs, an extraordinary international modern dance group. The outrageously entertaining duo lands in Helsinki for the Side Step International Dance Festival at the beginning of February. Delcado Fuchs takes over the stage with absurd humour, a great sense of rhythm and bizarre costumes. As a feature of their performance, the audience can take part in a self-designed exercise programme which is a test of your laughing muscles if nothing else.

Tor-magnus lundeby is by his own admission introverted and somewhat anti-intellectual, but as he says, “that’s how I see the world, primarily through my eyes, not via precepts and theories.”

A graduate of the Bergen School of Fine Art in Norway, a one-time member of the experimental P.S.1 Studio programme in New York and a favoured artist in shows across the globe, Helsinki resident Lundeby was featured in the 2001 ARS 01 Kiasma programme, and again in 2007. But after ten years in the country, he has his first local solo show in the gallery at Korjaamo.