Teemu Keisteri (; born 22 August 1985) is a Finnish visual artist and DJ who is known for his stage persona Windows95man. As a visual artist, he gained recognition in Finland for his paintings and prints of the fictional character (), whom he created in 2008. As a DJ, his artistic style and appearance draw inspiration from the mid-1990s, during which the

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

operating system was released. He represented Finland in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2024 The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Tattoo (Loreen song), Tattoo" by Loreen. Organised by the European Br ...

with the song " No Rules!", alongside singer Henri Piispanen.

Early life

Keisteri has studied photography at the Institute of Design in

Lahti Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...

. He has said that he learned during his studies that he is more of a visual artist than a photographer. He is also known as a

video artist Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. ...

, dance performer and DJ. Keisteri has his own art gallery called (wordplay on the word for gallery "galleria") in

Kallio Kallio (; ; literally " the rock") is a district and a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, located on the eastern side of the Helsinki peninsula about one kilometre north from the city centre. It is one of the most densely pop ...

, Helsinki.

Career

Early career

He appeared in a music video by the rock band

Pariisin Kevät Pariisin Kevät (meaning Paris Spring in Finnish) is a Finnish indie-pop, indie-rock and electronic band from Helsinki, founded by Arto Tuunela in 2007. Pariisin Kevät began as a solo project and remained so for the first two studio albums. For ...

, directed as an old-school video.

Spread

Keisteri originally mastered Windows95man during the Flow Festival 2013, which caught the attention of many journalists and bloggers. He also caught the attention of electronic artist

Evian Christ Joshua Leary (born 11 June 1989), better known by the stage name Evian Christ, is an English electronic music producer, DJ, songwriter and performance artist from Ellesmere Port, UK. He is signed to Tri Angle Records, Warp and Kanye West’s ...

, from which who posted a picture of Keisteri over social media, making the character viral. Since then, his home videos circulated worldwide, he also got invited to multiple music festivals, even working as a DJ in

Finnair Finnair Plc (, ) is the flag carrier and largest full-service legacy airline of Finland, with headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its airline hub, hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international ...

flight. Several months later, he performed at

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

's new year festival for 2022, hosted at the

Helsinki City Hall Helsinki City Hall (, ) is a central administrative building of Helsinki, Finland. City Hall is located in the Kruununhaka district, overlooking Market Square, at address Pohjoisesplanadi 11–13. City Hall is the seat of the City Council of Hels ...

. Other than his character, Keisteri possesses another character named Ukkeli, based on masculinity and greek statues. Ukkeli has since became popular and had appeared on some t-shirts.

Musical projects

Another project Keisteri is part of is Peu, which is an 80's dance band which specialized in making dark pop music.

Eurovision

Keisteri participated as Windows95man with Henri Piispanen (vocals) in the 2024 edition of , with the song " No Rules!". Despite finishing last in the jury voting, he came first overall with 313 points thanks to the televote in Finland. He was thus selected to represent his country in the

. In the Grand Final on 11 May 2024, the song received 7 points from the national juries, and a further 31 points from the general public, giving a grand total of 38 points, putting him in 19th place out of 26.

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

Notes

References

External links

YouTube channel: Windows95man official
* Keisteri, Teemu
''History of Ukkeli''
Khaos Publishing 2016. ISBN 9789526847818. (in Finnish) * Beto Guzmán Abundes
Teemu Keisteri’s Art World
Nordic Style Magazine 30 May 2016. Archived. {{DEFAULTSORT:Keisteri, Teemu 1985 births Living people Musicians from Espoo Finnish video artists Finnish entertainers Finnish YouTubers Eurovision Song Contest entrants