Finland: YLE confirms participation in Eurovision 2020

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 1,948 views

YLE,  the Finnish national broadcaster, has confirmed that Finland will participate at the forthcoming 2020 Eurovision Song Contest in the Netherlands next year.

Thus Finland joins Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, San Marino, Germany, Australia, Czech Republic and host country the Netherlands in the list of countries who so far have confirmed their participation at the 2020 Eurovision edition.

The Finns will be reverting back to an open selection in order to determine their Eurovision entry and song for Eurovision 2020. The Nordic nation opted for an internal selection in order to select their hopeful in 2018 and 2019 when Saara Aalto and Darude were chosen to defend the Finnish colours in our beloved contest.

UMK Producer Asi Autio says:

We’ve had two good years with professional artists. We are now returning to the original model, where everyone has the opportunity to participate. For the next few years, we will create a competition that will unite the entire music industry.

More details on UMK 2020 are expected to be released in due course.

Finland in Eurovision

Finland debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 and has won the competition once, namely in 2006 when  Lordi brought the coveted trophy to home soil for the very first time with Hard Rock Hallelujah. The Nordic country has competed 53 times in Europe’s favourite television show.

In 2019 the Finns opted for Darude & Sebastian Rejman to fly the Finnish flag at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. Hence the broadcaster selected the Finnish hopefuls internally and held a national final with a total of three songs. Darude & Sebastian’s Rejman’s Eurovision entry  Look Away was selected via a 50/50 jury deliberation.

Despite an extraordinary performance Finland failed to qualify to the Grand Final in Tel Aviv.