Finland: YLE opens submission window for UMK 2021; National final on February 20

Finland: YLE opens submission window for UMK 2021; National final on February 20
Tuesday, 01 September 2020

  • The Finnish national broadcaster, YLE, has opened the the submission window for the next edition of the competition Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) that will determine the Eurovision 2021 act and entry. 

    As announced earlier in June YLE opened the submission window for UMK 2021 that will select 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 musical proposals for Eurovision 2021 from September 1 until September 7, 2020. 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 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.

     

    Finland in Eurovision

    Finland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 53 times since its debut in 1961. Finland won the contest for the first time in 2006 with Lordi's "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 eleven 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 eight 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.

    This year Aksel won the national final with the song “Looking Back”.  As the competition was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic, Aksel has confirmed that he will be back at next year's UMK edition with a new song. 

     

    News Source: YLE