Scotty tops iTunes, "American Idol" ratings surge (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – New "American Idol" champion Scotty McCreery hit No.1 on the iTunes single charts on Thursday, as Fox television reported a 21 percent surge in viewers for the all country music finale of the long-running singing contest.

McCreery, 17, became the first country musician to win the "Idol" title and a recording contract since Carrie Underwood in 2005. The poised teen with the distinctive deep voice beat 16 year-old Lauren Alaina in the youngest Top 2 match-up in the show's 10 year history.

McCreery's newly-released single "I Love You This Big" went straight to the top of the iTunes singles charts, while Alaina's emotional ballad "Like My Mother Does" was at No.3 on on Thursday.

"This is pretty wild. It is a whole lot more than I bargained for coming into this," McCreery, a former grocery store clerk from North Carolina, told reporters on Thursday. "But I'm handling it well. This is my new life, so it's good."

Some 29.3 million Americans tuned in see McCreery crowned at the end of a star-studded finale on Wednesday that included performances from Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Bono and "Idol" judges Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler.

According to preliminary estimates from Fox, the audience in the 18-49 age group most coveted by advertisers rose 12 percent compared to last year.

That was the first time in five years that "American Idol" had grown its 18-49 year old audience for the finale.

The higher numbers reflected a push by "American Idol" producers to attract younger contestants, and the introduction of judges Lopez and Tyler to stem a four years ratings slide.

Last year, just 24.2 million overall viewers watched the finale of "American Idol", which has been a lucrative source of advertising revenue for Fox for more than seven years.

Recent "Idol" champions have seen dismal record sales. But with a new record label in the Universal Music Group, and Underwood's record as the top "Idol" earner, McCreery and his brand of country music could revive those fortunes.

"I am really looking forward to getting my music out there," McCreery said on Thursday, adding that he was hoping to perform at the Country Music Association Festival in Nashville next month.

"I think it's going to be a great album. I've got to pick some good songs. That's what it's all about after the show -- good songs. The fans have got me where I am right now, but now I have to get out the music they want to hear."

"Country music is me, it's what I grew up with, it's what I do," he added. "I have done all the work on 'Idol' and now it's time for the real job to start."

Fox is a unit of News Corp; Universal Music is a unit of Vivendi; iTunes is owned by Apple Inc..

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Christine Kearney)

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Gains of True Finn party point to 'Euroskeptic' surge in Finland (The Christian Science Monitor)

Helsinki, Finland – Some call it a political earthquake that, in a single election, reshaped the landscape of Finland and put the European Union on notice that its days may be numbered.

A country of 5.3 million people tucked into Europe's forested northeast corner, Finland has been thought of as a well-adjusted EU member. But leaders of the insurgent True Finn party, which rocketed out of obscurity to win third place in parliamentary polls last month, say 16 years of membership in the "United States of Europe" has allowed Brussels bureaucrats to usurp Finnish sovereignty.

"Finns have been tolerant for too long, and now they've had enough," says True Finn party secretary Ossi Sandvik. "Finns don't go into the streets; they express their frustrations at the ballot box. Now the people have spoken, and changes must follow."

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The True Finns blend nationalism and social conservatism with a left-wing populism that defies easy categorization. Tea party­ers might nod approvingly at some items in the True Finn charter, which identifies Christianity as a hallmark of Fin­nish­ness and rails against free immigration, easy abortion, same-sex marriage, and the "Islamization" of Europe.

One in 5 Finnish voters backed the True Finns and their charismatic leader, Timo Soini, reacting mainly against the rising cost of bailing out crisis-hit eurozone members like Greece and Portugal. But other resentments also emerged, including some Finns' anger over the influx of outsiders under the EU's open-border system and the consequent erosion of what True Finn leaders call "Finnish values." At the very least, the True Finns, which opted to go into opposition after other major parties backed the Portugal bailout, have brought "euroskepticism" roaring into the political mainstream.

Since Finland is the only EU country that requires parliamentary approval for participation in bailouts, and any such EU decision must be unanimous, the sudden surge of the True Finns is giving EU boosters a major headache and may have thrown Finland's support for future rescue packages into doubt.

"Greece and Port­ugal have been wasteful and dishonest, and Finns resent these demands to give them more money," says Simon Elo, head of the True Finns youth movement, which has been inundated with applications to join since the election success.

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He says the party, which made opposition to the Portugal bailout the centerpiece of its campaign, expects to be proved right in the long run. "We don't want people to say, 'Finland was to blame for bringing down the euro....' Anyway, we believe the [eurozone] system will collapse by itself, and our duty is to prepare Finland for life after the euro. Eventually, we want to take Finland out of the European Union."

Finland, once one of Europe's poorest countries, has fared well since the collapse of the USSR 20 years ago freed it from the tough strictures imposed on it by Moscow after World War II. After joining the EU in 1995, Finland's exports of electronics, forest products, and high tech took off. But the global economic crisis hit hard, punishing many small industrial towns and leaving lingering unemployment that's still more than 8 percent.

"The eurozone crisis came like a wake-up call for the populist movement," says Tapani Makinen, editor of the pro-European Helsinki newsweekly Nykypaiva. "We have an export-based economy, and the euro has provided stability. But our economy is small, and it's extremely vulnerable to shocks. Many structural changes are happening as a result of the crisis; people feel that normal life is threatened, that danger is just around the corner."

While US conservatives might find common cause with the True Finns, they would recoil at demands for a stronger social safety net and government regulation to equalize incomes of rich and poor.

"People have been divided into haves and have-nots, and we are the party of the have-nots," says Mr. Sandvik. "The right to a socially just life, determined by good values, belongs to every Finn."

The recipe combining left and right agendas is shared by a few other Nordic populist movements, including the Danish People's Party, which won nearly 14 percent of the vote in 2007 elections by tapping into an anti-immigrant backlash while backing the country's generous welfare system.

But across most of the Continent, rising euroskeptic parties generally combine a xenophobic message with contempt for the welfare state. There's Geert Wilders's Party of Freedom in The Netherlands, France's surging National Front led by Marine Le Pen, and Italy's regionalist Northern League.

The True Finns say they have little interest in the wider picture, only in restoring Finland's independence. "After all, empires always end badly, as did Rome and the USSR," says Mr. Elo. "That will happen to the EU as well, because it's a misguided piece of history."

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