Finland: UMK 2021 submission window to open on September 1
The Finnish broadcaster,YLE, has announced that the submission period for next year’s national final, UMK 2021, will open on September 1 with the national final to be held in February 2021.
YLE, has revealed some details on the next edition of UMK, the national selection format Finland will be using to select it Eurovision 2021 hopeful. With the submission window set to open on September 1 , all interest acts to participate in the next selection must send in their entries until September 7, 2020.
Additionally, YLE, revealed that the UMK 2021 finalists will go public in January 2021 while the national final will take place in February 2021. Meanwhile the Finnish broadcaster has released the rules for next year’s selection which one can find in three languages, in Finnish, Swedish and English. The pre-qualifying songs of the national final will be conducted again by a panel of experts from UMK, chaired by Tapio Hakanen, Music Manager at YleX .
The Eurovision Story so far
Finland made its debut in the contest back in 1961 and has once the contest, in 2006 , when the country was represented by Lordi and their entry Hard Rock Hallelujah. The country’s best result before then was achieved by Marion Rung with the song “Tom Tom Tom” in 1973, which placed sixth.
Finland has finished last in the contest ten times, receiving “nul points” in 1963, 1965 and 1982. Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Finland has failed to reach the final seven times. In 2014, the country had its best result in eight years when Softengine finished 11th. In 2015, Finland finished last in the first semi-final with the shortest-ever Eurovision entry, “Aina mun pitää” performed by Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät.
In 2018 Saara Aalto represented the country with her entry Monsters but she finished second last in the Grand final. In 2019 Darude & Sebastian Rejman represented the Scandinavic country in Tel Aviv with the song “Look Away”, but failed to reach the final as they finished 17th in the semi final.
This year, Akesl won the UMK 2020 final with his song “Looking Back” but never made it to Rotterdam as the contest was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Aksel has confirmed that he will give it a shot again in next year’s selection performing a new song .
