The Finnish broadcaster YLE will reveal the participating entries of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2017 on 23 November. The winner of the final, that will be held in February, will represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.

UMK has been introduced as the Finnish national selection (replacing Eurovision Laulukilpailu) in 2012. Since then, the format has been slightly changed from year to year, but since 2015 there are 18 acts participating in three semifinals, while the top three from each semifinal qualifies to the final.

So far, it was only confirmed that a final will be held in February and the winner will be chosen by a mixture of televoting and jury votes. This mechanism showed a big contrast during the last two years as in 2015 the juries picked the favourites Satin Circus as winners but the televoting made Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät go to Vienna, and in 2016 it was the televoters who chose Saara Aalto but the juries pushed her into the second place, sending Sandhja to Stockholm.

The revelation of the UMK entries is one and a half months earlier than usual as the entries are usually revealed in the second week of January, two weeks before the first semifinal kicks off. A reason for that is probably to let the local audience more time to get familiar with the participating entries. As usual, music videos will be produced to all entries, but prior to the revelation it is highly possible that we will get to see teasers of the chosen entries online.

15/18 Uusi vuosi, uudet kujeet UMK:ssa! Onko tässä Uuden Musiikin Kilpailun voittaja? #UMK16-kilpailijat paljastetaan tiistaina 12.1. klo 12 alkaen. Katso tilaisuus silloin suorana osoitteessa yle.fi/umk! #yle #euroviisut #grooveon #tanssijalkaavipattaa

Ett filmklipp publicerat av #UMK17 (@uudenmusiikinkilpailu) Dec 31, 2015 kl. 11:47 PST

The teaser revealing Sandhja’s Sing it away that was released prior to revealing the UMK 2016 entries

Finland has failed to qualify to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015  and 2016. Hopefully, this edition of UMK will bring some winds of change to the nordic country.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for more news regarding UMK and Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017!