YLE, the Finish national broadcaster, has announced today that it will be unveiling the 2019 Finnish Eurovision hopeful during a special press conference on Tuesday 29 January.

The 2019 Finnish Eurovision representative will be officially announced on 29 January at 12:00 CET.

 

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Juhlahatut esiin, viisukuume alkaa ja pian PALJASTAMME KAIKEN 💥 – mutta emme aivan vielä! Maailma saa tietää Suomen euroviisuedustajan 29.1., mutta sitä ennen vilauttelemme teille täällä pienempiä paljastuksia. Ota siis UMK:n somekanavat seurantaan! #euroviisut #UMK19

A post shared by #UMK19 (@uudenmusiikinkilpailu) on Jan 8, 2019 at 12:14am PST

The 2019 Finnish national final is scheduled to be held on 2 March 2019. The yet to be determined 2019 Finnish Eurovision hopeful will sing a number of entries at UMK 2019. YLE will be unveiling the 2019 UMK host city and venue in due course.

Finland is set to follow the same mechanism as it did this year in 2019. YLE has once again invited artists, composers and record companies to submit their proposals for the forthcoming song competition. The new format has been quite successful for the country as Finland qualifed to the Grand Final for the first time in four years, having missed qualification 3 times in a row.

Finland in Eurovision

Finland debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 and has won the competition once, namely in 2006 when  Lordi brought the coveted trophy to home soil for the very first time with Hard Rock Hallelujah. The Nordic country has partaken in the competition 52 times.

In 2018 YLE changed the format of UMK and invited Saara Aalto to represent Finland at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon. Hence the broadcaster selected the artist internally and held a national final with a total of three songs. Saara’s Eurovision entry was selected via a 50/50 jury deliberation.

Saara Aalto flew to Lisbon with Monsters, achieving a 25th placing in the Grand Final.