Yle, the Finnish national broadcaster, has opened the submission window for Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020.
Anyone wishing to submit songs to UMK 2020 have from today until November 8 to do so. Artists can send in up to three songs to the competition, but only one of them can be selected for the final. Songwriters and producers can send in as many songs as they want.. At least one of the songwriters and lead vocalist(s) must have Finnish citizenship or be a permanent resident in Finland. The chosen artists will be contacted on November 30.
UMK 2020 will be held on March 7 at the Mediapolis Studio in Tampere. Between four to ten songs will compete in the final. The selected songs, as well the the jury members who chose them, will be revealed live on January 21. Due to limited capacity in the venue, tickets to the final will not be sold but it will be possible to register to be in the audience. The registration will open in early 2020 on the official UMK website. Preview shows may also be broadcast in the lead up to the final.
This is the first time since the 2017 contest that Finland has opened UMK back up to any interested singers and songwriters. Yle had opted to internally select their singer for Eurovision, and then use UMK as a song selection show.
Finland was represented by Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman with the song “Look Away” in Tel Aviv. Finland finished last in their semi-final scoring just 23 points. Finland received 14 points from the televote and 9 points from the juries.
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.
