Finland: Benjamin releases his UMK 2023 song “Hoida mut”

Friday, 13 January 2023

Benjamin has released his entry for the Finnish national final, UMK 2023, titled 'Hoida mut' (Take care of me).

Following the release of the seven UMK 2023 contestants, the entries of the candidates are been progressively released throughout the week.

The second out of seven competing entries for this year's UMK 2023 has been released as Benjamin has released her song 'Hoida mut' (Take care of me) for the Finnish national Final.

Hoida mut' (Take care of me) is an uptempo song with an electro-pop sound conveying 80's vibes. The song has been penned by Atso Soivio, Benjamin Peltonen, Iivari Suosalo while Atso Soivio is behind the production also.

A few words for Benjamin

Born on 15 April 1997 Niclas Benjamin Peltonen is a Finnish singer and songwriter who originally became known from his Instagram activity, which he opened in 2012 reaching almost 300,000 followers.

In May 2014, Benjamin signed a record deal with Warner Music Finland.He released his first single "Underdogs" on September 8, 2014. Peltonen's first EP, Square One, was released in May 2015. Peltonen released his debut album Fingerprints on April 15, 2016. The album reached number 17 on the Official Finnish Albums Chart in Finland. On the Spanish Albums Chart, it reached number three.

In August 2018, he released his first Finnish-language single “Naarmuja (Scratches). The song also features rapper Ibe."Scratches" and the subsequent "I'll drink you off" single streamed platinum. In the summer of 2022, the song "Gay" went viral on TikTok and was chosen as the official anthem of Helsinki Pride 2022.

Song Releases

The UMK entries will be released on the official UMK Youtube channel every weekday from January 12 onwards. The songs will be released in the following order:
- January 12 – Keira
- January 13 – Benjamin
- January 16 – Robin Packalen
- January 17 – Lxandra
- January 18 – Käärijä
- January 19 – KUUMAA
- January 20 – Portion Boys
UMK 2023

Uuden Musikiin Kilpailu 2023 is set to take place on February 25, 2023 at the Logomo in Turku for a second consecutive year. Out of 363 entries , 7 artists have been selected to compete in next year's national final. The outcome of the final and next Eurovision hopeful will be determined by international juries (25%) and public voting (75%).

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. Last 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.

Last year The Rasmus won the UMK national final and went on represeting the nation with their song "Jezebel" which after advancing to the final finished 21st with 38 points in the overall score.

News Source/image: YLE

Finland: Benjamin releases his UMK 2023 song “Hoida mut”

AUTHORS

Angelos D.