An internal jury at the Finnish broadcaster YLE has decided which 20 songs will compete in the Finnish national selection for the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest. 351 entries were submitted to YLE by the deadline.

The jury consisted of 10 people, most of whom were music journalists and directors from different tv- and radio channels of YLE. The chairman of the jury was Kjell Ekholm (member of the Eurovision Song Contest reference group). The other members of the jury were Nina Andrén, Maria Guzenina, Jorma Hietamäki, Heikki Hilamaa, Jani Juntunen, Thomas Lundin, Iris Mattila, Asko Murtomäki and Tarja Närhi.

The competition was open to all song writers in Finland and in abroad, too! YLE received a number of entries from many different countries. However, of the selected songs 2/3 are of Finnish origin. 1/3 of the songs are written by Swedish composers. 19 of the songs will be sung in English, one in Finnish.

The names of the songs, composers and lyricists were made public today. Negotiations with the possible performers of the songs are currently going on. The performers of the songs will be published officially at the beginning of December.

The 20 songs published today will compete in two semi-finals (10 songs each) to be held on January 16th and 17th. Tv-viewers will decide by televoting which 6 songs from each semi-final will go through to the final, which will take place in Tampere-talo on 24th of January. Which song will represent Finland in Istanbul will be decided by regional juries and televoting. The presenters will be Maria Guzenina, Bettina Sågbom and Antero Mertaranta.

Till the end of time
comp. & lyr. Henrik Sethsson, Thomas G:son

Dance my heart away
comp. & lyr. Toni Nygård

Mouse in the misery
comp. Mika Koski
lyr. Mika Koski, Tuulikki Kuittinen

I can�t stop loving you
comp. & lyr. Thomas G:son

You don�t need to go
comp. & lyr. Christian Antblad, Tommy Denander

Rain on water
comp. Nalle Ahlstedt
lyr. Nalle Ahlstedt, M. O. Charles

Can�t stop loving you
comp. & lyr. Patrick Linman, Mats Persson

Eleventh hour
comp. Tommy Lydell
lyr. Lotta Ahlin

One year of love
comp. & lyr. Space Child

I don�t need to say
comp. Jimmy Westerlund
lyr. Jimmy Westerlund, Fredrik Furu, Geir Rönning

Should I hide, should I run
comp. & lyr. Peter Svanström, Tage Borgmästars

Seven times seven
comp. & lyr. Jukka Karppinen

Reason
comp. & lyr. J-P. Järvinen

A little crazy
comp. Janne Hyöty
lyr. Sofie Björkgren-Näse

Higher ground
comp. & lyr. Nalle Ahlstedt

What if
comp. & lyr. Henrik Sethsson, Magnus Funemyr

Like believers do
comp. & lyr. Jade Ell, Mats Tärnfors, Janne Hyöty

My everlasting
comp. & lyr. Janne Hyöty, Mirella Pendolin

Takes two to tango
comp. Mika Toivanen
lyr. Jari Sillanpää

Toarie
comp. Ville Laaksonen
lyr. Riikka Timonen