Finnish broadcaster YLE announced us the host towns where the four semi finals of the 2005 Finnish national Eurovision Song Contest selections will be held: Lahti, Jyväskylä, Turku and Imatra. The Finnish national final will be held in the Tampere Hall on 19th February 2005.

Lahti, Jyväskylä, Turku and Imatra will be the host towns of the Finnish semi finals in 2005, Finnish broadcaster YLE informed us. In 2005 the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest shall consist of four semi finals and a grand final. The semi finals will be held in four different towns around Finland. Here are the host towns, venues and dates:

· LAHTI, Sibelius Hall, January 14th
· JYVÄSKYLÄ, Paviljonki, January 21st
· TURKU, Caribia, February 4th
· IMATRA, Culture Centre, February 11th

Six songs will take part in each semi final. TV-viewers and radio listeners will vote 3 of them to the final by televoting and SMS voting. The Finnish Eurovision Final will take place in the Tampere Hall on 19th February 2005.

The 2002 Finnish representative Laura Voutilainen (Addicted to you) will be guest star in each of the semi finals as well as in the grand final. Also Frederik (Finnish national final 1981 with Titanic) and disco show group Boney N will appear every week.

YLE invited 8 composers for the 2005 Finnish national selections. The invited composers are:

· Marko �Maki� Kolehmainen
· Samuli Laiho
· Kristian Maukonen
· Petri Munck
· Esa Nieminen
· Simo �Sipe� Santapukki
· Mikko Tamminen & Arttu Peljo
· Mika Toivanen

Traditionally, YLE is also searching for songs for the Finnish selection through open competition. The deadline for submitting songs is 1st October at 16:00. Rules for the Finnish national selection procedure in English can be found on the YLE Eurovision website.

In addition to the 8 invited songs a jury assembled and appointed by YLE shall short-list a total of 16 songs (plus five in reserve) from entries submitted to the open competition in compliance with the rules. All 24 songs will be published on 1st November and their performers on 1st December 2004.