ABREU will be announcing the results of the Finnish jury vote during the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.
ABREU (Anna Abreu) is a Finnish singer who first rose to fame as the runner-up of the third series of Idols in 2007. She has since become one of the most successful Idols contestants and one of the highest female singers in Finland, with 190,000 record sales.
When interviewed by YLE about the task ahead, ABREU that she was delighted to be asked:
“It’s a great honor. It feels good that I was asked to do it.”
ABREU is half-Portuguese, so this year felt right for her to do it. She did joke that:
“It also adds a little extra stress, when you may have to speak a little Portuguese.”
While Anna has not attempted to participate at Eurovision, she was the interval act for the first edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu in 2012. She also have fond memories of watching the contest as a child. She also remembers Lordi’s victory in 2006:
“It was wonderful to see how people enjoyed it so much. And that was such a big deal for Finland. I was also involved in a party in my city.”
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 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”.
