Finland: Aksel Kankaanranta will not compete in the 2021 Eurovision national final

Aksel Kankaanranta, the Finnish Eurovision 2020 representative will not take part in UMK 2021, next year’s national final for Eurovision 2021.

Beacuse of the covid-19 outbreak, the Eurovision Song Contest experienced its first ever cancellation leaving all competing entries selected for this year not eligible to compete again in ESC 2021. Aksel had won UMK 2020 with his song ‘Looking Back’ and earned the right to represent the country in Rotterdam.

After the unprecedent cancellation of the competition, the countries had to whether they will stick with their Eurovision 2020 hopefuls or hold a new national selection for ESC 2021. YLE decided to hold a new national final, but did not offer a direct spot in the final for Aksel. In the interviews, Aksel himself indicated that he was going to apply for the next UMK. Now the act says in an interview with Voice.fi that he did not end up in the competition .

Aksel states on the matter:

I was about to apply, but then I did not apply. Now let’s take a little look at when someday you could apply again. I’m not really saying I would ever want to participate again, but let’s see sometime then. Maybe in a way it was whether Eurovision will come next year at all, when the terrible situations are still on.

While some countries selected internally their ESC 2020 hopefuls for next year’s contest, other opted for a new selection but giving to the previous ESC representatives a direct spot in the finals of next year’s national selection. However, Aksel has mixed feeligs and shares his thoughts on that saying:

Maybe in that case I would have participated if I had automatically got a seat. On the other hand, it is fair that the place in the competition is not given directly. I don’t want any special treatment.

Lets remember the entry ‘Looking Back’ that won the UMK 2020 national final :