Two years far away from the final have made the Finnish broadcaster Yle to make some changes to the format of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu, the local national selection that was launched in 2012. This year’s ten participating acts will be revealed today at 12:00 CET.

The major change to UMK is dropping the semifinals or any qualification rounds and having just a final with ten participants that will be held on 28 January, instead of the previous system that included three semifinals and a final in late February. The show will take place in the Espoo Metro Areena, which brings back the contest to a big venue instead of Yle’s TV studios. The show will be hosted by Krista Siegfrieds who represented Finland in 2013 and the winner will be chosen by a mixture of jury votes and televoting (50/50).

The ten participating entries will be revealed at 12:00 CET during a press conference held by Yle. The press conference will last for one hour and will include an actual presentation of the Finnish hopefuls for the Eurovision Song Contest

HOW TO WATCH? The press conference will be transmitted live on Yle Areena. Live broadcasts are expected to be present also on UMK’s YouTube channel and Facebook page (No direct links available yet).

Krista Siegfrieds had the opportunity to listen to the participating entries and her reactions and comments regarding them can be seen in the following video (in Finnish):

“We’ve got excellent songs👌💯😃  Stay tuned for the live stream tomorrow!” tweeted Yle on UMK’s official twitter.

The outcome of the press conference will be updated here on ESCToday as well, so be sure to stay tuned for the latest updates!