Finland: Olivera releases her UMK 2022 entry “Thank God I’m an Atheist”

Finland: Olivera releases her UMK 2022 entry “Thank God I’m an Atheist”
Wednesday, 19 January 2022

  • Olivera has released her entry for the Finnish national final, UMK 2022, titled “Thank God I’m an Atheist”.

    Following the release of the seven UMK 2022 contestants, the candidates are progressively releasing throughout the week their entries.

    After the first four out of seven competing entries been released, Cyan Kicks with "Hurricane" , BESS with "Ram Pam Pam"   The Rasmus with "Jezebel", and Younghearted with "Sun Numero"  the fifth entry for UMK 2022 has been released, as Olivera premiered her song “Thank God I’m an Atheist”.

    After finishing a raw, first version, Olivera presented the song to her producer and spouse Lenno Linjama, and ultimately to musician-producer Alpo Nummelin from the band Ruusut. Nummelin’s contribution gave the song the edge it desired.

    Olivera, a.k.a. Katriina Ullakko, is still relatively unknown to the wider public, even though she has had millions of Spotify streams and impressive international releases. Olivera is an indie-pop artist with 4 of her own EPs. With over 10 million listens, No more is Olivera’s biggest song, but she also writes music for other artists. 

     

    Song Releases

    The UMK entries are released on the official UMK Youtube channel every weekday at midnight Finnish time from January 13 onwards. The songs are released in accordance with the following schedule: 

    • January 13 – Cyan Kicks
    • January 14 –  BESS
    • January 17 – The Rasmus
    • January 18 – Younghearted
    • January 19 – Olivera
    • Jaunary 20 – Tommi Läntinen
    • January 21 – Isaac Sene

    UMK returns to Logomo arena in Turku after a two year break, as the show was hosted in the Mediapolis Studios in Tampere the last two editions. The national final is set to take place on February 26, 2022. The outcome of the national final will be determined by a combination of public (75%) and jury voting (25%).

     

    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.

    In 2020 Aksel won the national final with the song “Looking Back”.  As the competition was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic he never reached the Eurovision stage in Rotterdam. 

    This year the rock band Blind Channel triumphed in UMK 2021 with their song 'Dark Side' and went off defending the Finnish colors in Rotterdam, where they achieved the country's second best result finishing 6th with 301 points in the overall score.

     

    News source/Image: YLE