“Look Away” has been chosen as the Finnish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv.
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2019 was held tonight in Turku and was hosted by Krista Sigfrieds (Finnish representative in 2013), Christoffer Strandberg and Mikko Silvennoinen (Finnish Eurovision commentator since 2016). This was the eighth time that UMK had been used to select the Finnish entry for Eurovision and the second to involve a single artist. Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman were internally selected by YLE to represent Finland in Tel Aviv. They performed three songs in tonight’s show. During the interval, Emmelie de Forest, performed her winning entry from Eurovision 2013, “Only Teardrops”.
The results were decided by 50% international jury voting and 50% public voting. Viewers could vote by phone or via the yle.fi app. All money raised from the voting went to the Finnish Red Nose Day Organisation. The international jury consisted of members from:
- United Kingdom
- Norway
- Spain
- Czech Republic
- Sweden
- Ireland
- Denmark
- Israel
The results were as follows (jury + public voting):
- “Release Me” – 89 points (70 + 19) 3rd
- “Superman” – 147 points (74 + 73) 2nd
- “Look Away” – 244 points (96 +148) 1st
Darude feat. Sebastien Rejman will perform in the first half of the first semi-final on May 14.
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.
