Finland: Submission period for UMK 2023 commences

Finland: Submission period for UMK 2023 commences
Thursday, 01 September 2022

  • Finland's national broadcaster, YLE, has commenced the process for Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023 (UMK 2023), the show that determines the country's Eurovision representatives. 

    YLE will be using for a 12th year the UMK format to select their Eurovision 2023 hopeful. The broadcaster has published the terms and rules of the national selection and has opened the submission window for interested acts to apply for until September 5,2022. 

    An panel of professionals will shortlist the UMK 2023 acts and entries, with the chosen candidates having time until November 3 to send in the final version of their song.

    While the national final is expected to take place sometime in February, the outcome of the national final will be influenced by a combination of public and jury voting. YLE will reveal more details regarding the date, the venue and the hosts in due course. 

     

    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. 

    This 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

     

AUTHORS

  • Angelos D.

    Angelos D.

    Loyal follower of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1987, I've made the competition one of the stories of my life. After attending as accredited press the event for 13 consecutive years along with the 2017-2024 JESC editions, I also enjoy the last three years sharing more Eurovision music through the Eurofans radio's project.

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