Finland: YLE confirms the national final dates, venue and host city

• The Finnish national broadcaster, YLE, has confirmed the date, the location and the venue of the next edition of UMK the show that determined the nation's Eurovision hopeful. 

  YLE has shared the details of the national final for Eurovision 2023. Finland will be selecting their hopeful for Liverpool via their traditional format of UMK and have shed light on the next national selection process will unfold. 

  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.

  While the 7 contestants will be unveiled on January 11, 2023 during a special press conference their entries we be released progressively from the next day and up to January 20, 2023. 

  Tapio Hakanen, head of the UMK jury and YleX Head of Music compented on the selection process the following: 

  "Expectations for this season are extraordinarily high after last year’s stunning success.

  The seven finalists include familiar faces and new, up-and-coming talents. We have, among others, the best dance song in the UMK history sung by an unbelievably strong new singer, a song that just oozes sexuality by a well-known artist, a heartbreakingly beautiful ballad by one of Finland’s biggest export hopefuls, well-known and up-and-coming bands, and one of the hardest rap bangers in UMK history."

   

  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:  Yle

  Image:Corinne Cumming

   

   

   

   

AUTHORS

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.