Finland have decided that Saara Aalto will sing “Monsters” when she represents her country at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.
Tonight, following a national final of three songs, Finland have decided that Saara Aalto will take the song “Monsters” to the Eurovision stage in Lisbon this May. Tonight’s show was a special edition of ‘Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu’ (‘UMK’), which is used annually to choose Finland’s Eurovision entry; however, this year the show was used to select Saara Alto’s song for Lisbon, following an internal artist selection by the broadcaster, YLE.
The winning song was selected through a 50/50 split between an international jury and a televote.
The full results of tonight’s show was as follows:
- “Monsters” – 183 points (88 +95) – 1st
- “Domino” – 159 points (84 + 75) – 2nd
- “Queens” – 138 points (68 + 70) – 3rd
Saara will take to the Eurovision stage on 8th May for the first semi-final, where she will be performing in the second half of the show. Her participation follows two previously unsuccessful attempts to represent Finland at Eurovision. In 2011 she participated in Finland’s selection with Blessed with Love, and in 2016 she performed No Fear. Both songs finished in second place in their respective finals. In 2016, Saara also participated in the UK version of The X Factor, where she also finished in second place.
Tonight’s show was hosted by Mikko Silvennoinen and Krista Siegfrids, who represented Finland in 2013 with the song “Marry Me”, which finished in 24th place in the grand final with 13 points. Saara’s Creative Director for all three performances was American choreographer Brain Friedman, who has previously worked with artists such as Britney Spears, Mariah Carey and Cher.
Tonight’s national final marked the first time that ‘UMK’ has featured only one artist. Saara will now follow in the footsteps of last year’s Finnish entrant Norma John, who finished in 12th place in their semi-final in Kyiv with 92 points. Norma John’s non-qualification marked the third consecutive year that Finland had failed to qualify for the Eurovision final.
Source: YLE
