Mikko Silvennoinen will return to the commentary booth for YLE, as he commentates on his third Eurovision Song Contest for Finland.
Television presenter, journalist and producer Mikko Silvennoinen will be back in the commentary booth in Lisbon for Finland. Mikko who took over the role as Finnish commentator in 2016, will be reporting on his third Eurovision Song Contest for the Finnish national broadcaster. Mikko will not be joined in the commentary booth by a co-commentator as was seen at YLE between 2001 and 2015.
This years contest will be entirely broadcast on YLE TV2. Radio listeners will be able to tune in to the contest via Yle Radio Suomessa and Yle X3M.
In previous years the contest was also broadcast by YLE Teema Fem, with Swedish language commentary. Between 2006 and 2017, the Swedish language channel broadcast the competition with its own commentary team, however Swedish commentary will now just be provided on YLE TV2.Viewers wishing to watch the contest with Finnish commentary will be able to watch the contest via TV Finland in Sweden.
Finland decided that Saara Aalto will take the song “Monsters” to the Eurovision stage in Lisbon this May. The 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 Aalto’s song for Lisbon, following an internal artist selection by the broadcaster, YLE.
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.
Source: YLE
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”.
