Hello Finland! Things are moving fast in the north of Scandinavia. The submission window for UMK20, the Finnish national selection for Eurovision 2020 in Rotterdam has just started. But don’t look away! You only have seven days to take your chance.
Things are truly underway in the big white north. Finnish national broadcaster, YLE, has published yesterday the rules to apply for UMK2020. Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020 is looking for contestants. Who’s gonna represent Finland next year in Rotterdam? You have until next Sunday 8 November at 22:59 CET, 23:59 local time, to submit your proposal.
Don’t… look away.
Don’t do a Darude, don’t look away. This 7-day submission period is your only chance to be in Tampere on Saturday 7 March 2020, when the final of UMK 2020 will take place. The Finnish national final will be broadcast live on YLE.
According to YLE’s rules, the selected participants will be informed on 30 November 2019, whilst the competing candidates will be revealed on 21 January 2020. A group of expert will choose the lucky acts.
Go public, go lucky?
As a reminder, Finland will go back to a public procedure after two years of internal selections. In 2018 talent-show superstar Saara Aalto conquered the Grand Final in Lisbon after three straight non-qualifiers. Nevertheless, she landed second-to-last with 46 points after an energetic performance. In 2019 Darude and Sebastian Rejman failed to qualify in Tel Aviv, finishing dead last of their semi final with 23 points. Will an open selection improve the Finnish record next year in Rotterdam? Time will tell.
Let’s rewatch the Finnish performance on stage in Israel last May with Look away:
