It has been confirmed today by Finnish representative Saara Aalto that the 3 songs written for UMK 2018 have been selected. One of these three songs will be Finland’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon.
Saara Aalto who was selected as Finland’s artist this year internally by Finnish broadcaster Yle confirmed the news on her official Twitter account.
Saara tweeted:
Choosing my 3 Eurovision options in the next 5 minutes. EXCITING! #esc @Eurovision
No further detail about these three entries has been made public as of yet, although it was earlier reported that Saara has been collaborating with Swedish singer, songwriter and producer Linnea Deb. All three songs will be performed by Saara Aalto on the national selection Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu. The selection is scheduled to take place on Saturday the 3rd of March 2018. This will be the first time the UMK will feature just one competing artist, having previously used a format where several artists send one entry each.
Saara Aalto is no stranger to the Finnish selection at the Eurovision Song Contest as well as other singing competitions.
Following her appearance at Talent Suomi in 2007, Saara entered Euroviisut 2011 which at the time was the show used to select Finland’s entry at Eurovision. Her entry ‘Blessed with Love’ came in second place to Paradise Oskar who eventually brought Finland to 21st Place in the 2011 Contest in Düsseldorf.
After competing in The Voice of Finland in 2012 and finishing in second, Saara once again tried to represent Finland at Eurovision in 2016. Her entry ‘No Fear’ finished in second place in UMK 2016. Losing to Sandhja with her song ‘Sing It Away’ that failed to get Finland past the semi finals in 2016 in Stockholm. Later that year Saara Aalto entered The X Factor UK and finished in second place.
Finland will find out which semi final they will be competing in on 29th January 2018. Finland have not made it to the final since 2014 in Copenhagen, having failed to qualify for the last three years.
Source: Saara Aalto
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
Finland first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961, they debuted alongside Spain and Yugoslavia. Finland has finished last in the contest on 10 occasions and has received ‘nul points’ three times. It wasn’t until 2006 that Finland won the Eurovision Song Contest, Lordi represented the country in Athens with the song “Hard Rock Hallelujah” scoring 292 points a record total at the time. Finland last performed in the final in 2014 when Softengine finished 11th with the song “Something Better”.
