The Finnish broadcaster YLE has released more information about their national selection Euroviisut 2004. During the Eurovision week in May YLE already released the date of the 2004 national final: 24th January in Tampere.
Songs can be submitted to the public broadcaster until 17th October. The performers should be Finnish or at least be resident in Finland. On 23rd November the twenty best songs will be announced, as well as five backup songs. In each of the all in all two semifinals ten songs will be presented. The voting procedure will be the same as in 2002; in every semifinal regional juries select the best six songs, which will go to the final.
In the final all in all twelve songs will thus appear. The regional juries select the best six songs and at that moment, televoting and SMS voting is possible to give the audience the chance to select the winning song out of the best six songs. The winners get the ticket to Istanbul, as well as EUR 4,500.
The semifinals and the final are to be hosted by Maria Guzenina, Bettina Sågbom and Antero Mertaranta, three well-known YLE hosts.
