Champions of the Day to hit Helsinki

UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ will get a taste of Eurovision thanks to the efforts of veteran singer-songwriter Geir Rönning and local songstress Karoliina Kallio.

Opening ceremony
The pair, who have both represented Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest, have recorded the official song of the UEFA European Women's Championship – entitled Champions of the Day. They will perform the anthem live for the first time on Sunday, as part of the tournament's opening ceremony in Helsinki's Olympic Stadium. The event will raise the curtain on the host country's first game of the finals against Group A rivals Denmark.

Duet
"All the work with the official UEFA song, Champions of the Day, starts to pay off and we are finally there with a smile on our face," said Rönning. The 46-year-old not only composed the tune together with co-writers André Noël Chaker and Jukka Karjalainen; he sings it with Kallio, who is famous in Finland as the lead female vocalist of the group Waldo's People. Now a fully fledged pop star, Kallio's music career dates back two decades to her appearance as a ten-year-old on a television talent show.

Eurovision experience
Norwegian-born Rönning was the Finnish representative at Eurovision in 2005. The same year he sang the official song of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, which took place in Helsinki. Kallio, 29, flew the flag for the Nordic nation at Eurovision in Moscow earlier this year. Champions of the Day will also be performed in Finnish (as Pallo pyörimään) and in Swedish (Varje steg för varann). UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ runs from 23 August to 10 September, with the Finnish cities of Helsinki, Lahti, Tampere and Turku staging a total of 25 matches.

Click below to listen to Champions of the Day.