YLE has confirmed that the twelve songs that will compete to represent Finland at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest will be presented online on Wedensday 3rd December. A compliation CD will be available to purchase in January.
The artists competing to represent Finland had until this weekend to submit their songs to the competition. Terhi Norvasto of YLE has reported that they are very happy with the quality of the songs, saying "There is a great variety of different music styles and a good mix of ballads, up-tempo and show numbers in the Finnish selection this year".
YLE has also commented on ticket sales for the national final, which they say are going very well. Finland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest final in each of the last three years, winning the competition with Lordi in 2006, the first and only time a heavy metal song has won the Eurovision Song Contest. For the first time in recent years, it seems Finland (seen as the European home of metal music) will not have a heavy metal song competing to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest.
