Erika Vikman and KAJ: The Nordic Power Duo Turning Eurovision Glory Into Hard Cash

Eurovision isn’t supposed to create financial powerhouses. It’s meant to give us glitter, drama, a few chaotic key changes and the occasional diplomatic crisis disguised as a voting sequence. Yet somehow, Erika Vikman and the Finnish-Swedish trio KAJ walked out of Basel 2025 not just with chart hits but with bank accounts that would make half the Nordic startup scene blush.

Erika Vikman: The Pop Diva Who Turned Camp Into Capital

Finland has produced many things: world-class metal bands, world-class depression memes and world-class education. What it didn’t have for years was a pop diva whose cultural impact matched her commercial value.
Enter Erika Vikman.

Her 2024 numbers are the kind of figures most artists pretend not to see so they can sleep at night:
€155,621 in earned income,
€6,187 in capital,
plus a company (Erika Vikman Oy) that generated €361,500 in net profit over three years.

All of this without selling perfume, tequila, haircare lines or NFTs. Just music, presence and unapologetic glitter.

Culturally, she’s become Finland’s first true camp icon of the streaming era.
Where Lordi once gave Finland monster-metal pride, Erika has given it sparkly, self-aware pop theatricality that actually sells. She’s the rare Eurovision act who becomes a meme, a national symbol and a business case at the same time.

KAJ: From Local Sauna Comedy to Nordic Cultural Royalty

Then you have KAJ – three guys who walked into Melodifestivalen looking like they accidentally wandered in from a sauna advert, and walked out as one of the year’s breakout Eurovision acts. Their fourth-place finish didn’t just charm viewers; it opened financial floodgates.

Their 2024 incomes:
Kevin Holmström – €46,199
Axel Åhman – €47,614
Jakob Norrgård – €40,554

Respectable enough, but the real headline is their company Pjas Productions Ab, with €577,300 in revenue and €70,400 in profit over the past three years.
Not bad for a trio whose entire aesthetic screams “regional folk comedy with a side of bilingual confusion”.

Culturally, KAJ have done the impossible: they made the Sweden–Finland relationship wholesome.
They’ve brought the Swedish-speaking Finnish minority into the mainstream in a way no academic conference or political debate ever managed to do.
Their Melodifestivalen track Bara Bada Bastu wasn’t just a hit – it became Nordic cultural diplomacy by accident.

Why Their Success Matters

What Erika and KAJ represent is bigger than Eurovision success.
They’re proof that the contest can still create long-term cultural impact and serious financial value, even in the streaming era.

Two completely different acts.
Two completely different aesthetics.
One shared reality:
Eurovision 2025 turned them into economic and cultural forces across the Nordic region.

Europe watched them as performers.
The Nordics embraced them as icons with receipts.

Source: Iltahleti.fi