Finland: YLE opens UMK 2021 submission window; National final to take place on February 20
The Finnish national broadcaster, YLE, has opened the submission period for the next edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) that will select the nation’s Eurovision 2021 act and entry.
As announced earlier in June YLE opened the submission window for UMK 2021 that will determie the country’s next Eurovision representative. Singers are allowed to send in up to three songs while composers/ songwirters and lyricists can submit an unlimited number of entries.
Interested acts/composers will be able to send in their potential entries for Eurovision 2021 from September 1 until September 7, 2020. The pre-qualifying songs of the national final will be assessed again by a panel of experts from UMK, chaired by Tapio Hakanen, Music Manager at YleX .
The national final will take place on February 20, 2021 and the final outcome will be determined by public and jury voting. The UMK21 competitors will be unveiled in January and the season will culminate in the final on February 20th. The final, which will be held at Tampere Mediapolis’ TV studios, will be shown live on Yle TV1 and Yle Areena.
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.
