Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

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Eurovision Song Contest 2020
CountryFlag of Finland.svg  Finland
National selection
Selection processUuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020
Selection date(s)7 March 2020
Selected entrant Aksel Kankaanranta
Selected song"Looking Back"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Final resultContest cancelled
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2019 •2020• 2021►

Finland originally planned to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song "Looking Back" written by Joonas Angeria, Whitney Phillips, Connor McDonough, Riley McDonough and Toby McDonough. The song was performed by Aksel Kankaanranta. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2020 contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Six entries were selected to compete in the national final on 7 March 2020 where the 50/50 combination of votes from eight international jury groups and votes from the public selected "Looking Back" performed by Aksel Kankaanranta as the winner.

Contents

Finland was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2020. However, the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background

Prior to the 2020 Contest, Finland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-three times since its first entry in 1961. [1] Finland has won the contest once in 2006 with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" performed by Lordi. In the 2019 contest, "Look Away" performed by Darude featuring Sebastian Rejman failed to qualify Finland to the final, placing seventeenth (last) in the semi-final.

The Finnish national broadcaster, Yleisradio (Yle), broadcasts the event within Finland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Yle confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest on 3 June 2019. [2] Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest have been selected through national final competitions that have varied in format over the years. Between 1961 and 2011, a selection show that was often titled Euroviisukarsinta highlighted that the purpose of the program was to select a song for Eurovision. However, since 2012, the broadcaster has organised the selection show Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), which focuses on showcasing new music with the winning song being selected as the Finnish contest entry for that year. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster also announced that the Finnish entry for the 2020 contest would be selected through Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020, reverting to an open selection with multiple artists and songs; Yle opted to internally select the artist with the song selected through Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu in 2018 and 2019. [2]

Before Eurovision

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020 was the ninth edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the music competition that selects Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of a final on 7 March 2020, held at the Mediapolis in Tampere and hosted by 2013 Finnish Eurovision entrant Krista Siegfrids with YleX hosts Viki and Köpi hosting from the green room. The show was broadcast on Yle TV1 with a second audio program providing commentary in Swedish by Eva Frantz and Johan Lindroos as well as online at Yle Areena. The competition was also broadcast via radio on Yle Radio Suomi and with commentary in Swedish on Yle X3M . [3] [4] The competition was watched by 885,000 viewers in Finland. [5]

Competing entries

A submission period was opened by Yle which lasted between 1 November 2019 and 8 November 2019. At least one of the writers and the lead singer(s) had to hold Finnish citizenship or live in Finland permanently in order for the entry to qualify to compete. [6] A panel of ten experts appointed by Yle selected six entries for the competition from the 426 received submissions. The experts were Tapio Hakanen (Head of Music at YleX), Anssi Autio (UMK producer), Juha-Matti Valtonen (television director), Reija Wäre (choreographer), Samuli Väänänen (Senior Editor at Spotify Finland), Perttu Mäkelä (A&R manager at Etenee Records), Ida Karimaa (music journalist at YleX), Katri Norrlin (music journalist at YleX), Johan Lindroos (Head of Music at Yle Radio Suomi) and Amie Borgar (Head of Music at Yle X3M). [3] The competing entries were presented during a live streamed press conference on 21 January 2020, hosted by Krista Siegfrids and Mikko Silvennoinen, while their lyric videos were released between 24 and 31 January 2020. [7]

Final

The final took place on 7 March 2020 where six entries competed. "Looking Back" performed by Aksel Kankaanranta was selected as the winner by a 50/50 combination of public votes and eight international jury groups from Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Russia and the United Kingdom. [8] The viewers and the juries each had a total of 320 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through the following voting methods: telephone, SMS and app voting. For example, if a song gained 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 320 points rounded to the nearest integer: 32 points. A total of 114,664 votes were cast during the show. [9] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act featured Behm performing her song "Hei rakas" and Mikael Gabriel performing his single "Löytäjä saa pitää". [10] [11]

Detailed International Jury Votes
DrawSongFlag of the United Kingdom.svgFlag of Estonia.svgFlag of Germany.svgFlag of Bulgaria.svgFlag of Spain.svgFlag of Russia.svgFlag of Sweden.svgFlag of the Netherlands.svgTotal
1"Eternity"6101066442
2"Cicciolina"1248412441058
3"Looking Back"101212124128676
4"Bananas"88488812864
5"Lover View"41010630
6"I Let My Heart Break"66610101250
International Jury Spokespersons

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2020, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Finland was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show. [13] However, due to the 2019-20 Covid pandemic, the contest was cancelled.

During the Eurovision Song Celebration YouTube broadcast in place of the semi-finals, it was revealed that Finland was set to perform in position 13, following the entry from Albania and before the entry from Armenia. [14]

Related Research Articles

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "När jag blundar" written by Jonas Karlsson. The song was performed by Pernilla Karlsson. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2012 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. 13 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of four performance shows and a final, taking place in January and February 2012. Six entries ultimately competed in the final on 25 February where votes from the public selected "När jag blundar" performed by Pernilla Karlsson as the winner.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "Marry Me" written by Krista Siegfrids, Erik Nyholm, Kristofer Karlsson and Jessika Lundström. The song was performed by Krista Siegfrids. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2013 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2013 contest in Malmö, Sweden. 12 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of two heats, a semi-final and a final, taking place in January and February 2013. Eight entries ultimately competed in the final on 9 February where the 50/50 combination of votes from a four-member judging panel and votes from the public selected "Marry Me" performed by Krista Siegfrids as the winner.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Something Better" written by Topi Latukka and Henri Oskár. The song was performed by the band Softengine. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2014 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2014 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark. 12 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of two heats, a semi-final and a final, taking place in January and February 2014. Eight entries ultimately competed in the final on 1 February where the 50/50 combination of votes from a four-member judging panel and votes from the public selected "Something Better" performed by Softengine as the winner.

<i>Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu</i> Finnish TV music contest

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu is an annual music contest organised by the Finnish public broadcaster Yle. It made its debut in 2012 as the Finnish selection format for the Eurovision Song Contest, replacing the previous Finnish Eurovision selection Suomen euroviisukarsinta which had been held since 1961.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Aina mun pitää" written and performed by the band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2015 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. 18 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of three semi-finals and a final, taking place in February 2015. Six entries competed in each semi-final and the top three from each semi-final, as selected solely by a public vote, advanced to the final. Nine entries competed in the final on 28 February where the combination of votes from eight jury groups representing different factions of Finnish society and votes from the public selected "Aina mun pitää" performed by Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät as the winner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aina mun pitää</span> 2015 single by Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät

"Aina mun pitää" is a song by Finnish punk rock band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät. The song won Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) 2015 and represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Sing It Away" written by Sandhja Kuivalainen, Milos Rosas, Heikki Korhonen, Petri Matara and Markus Savijoki. The song was performed by Sandhja. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2016 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2016 contest in Stockholm, Sweden. 18 entries were selected to compete in the national final, which consisted of three semi-finals and a final, taking place in February 2016. Six entries competed in each semi-final and the top three from each semi-final, as selected solely by a public vote, advanced to the final. Nine entries competed in the final on 27 February where the 50/50 combination of votes from ten jury groups representing different factions of Finnish society and votes from the public selected "Sing It Away" performed by Sandhja as the winner.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Blackbird" and performed by Lasse Piirainen and Leena Tirronen under the name Norma John. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2017 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. Ten entries were selected to compete in the national final on 28 January 2017 where the 50/50 combination of votes from ten international jury groups and votes from the public selected "Blackbird" performed by Norma John as the winner.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Monsters" written by Saara Aalto, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb and Ki Fitzgerald. The song was performed by Saara Aalto, who was internally selected by the Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) in November 2017 to represent the nation at the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal. The national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2018 was organised in order to select the song that Aalto would perform. Three songs were selected to compete in the national final on 3 March 2018 where the 50/50 combination of votes from eight international jury groups and votes from the public selected "Monsters" as the winning song.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Look Away" written and performed by Ville Virtanen under the stage name Darude and Sebastian Rejman. Darude and Sebastian Rejman were internally selected by the Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) in January 2019 to represent the nation at the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel. The national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu2019 was organised in order to select the song that Darude and Rejman would perform. Three songs were selected to compete in the national final on 2 March 2019 where the 50/50 combination of votes from eight international jury groups and votes from the public selected "Look Away" as the winning song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Look Away (Darude song)</span> 2019 single by Darude and Sebastian Rejman

"Look Away" is a 2019 single by Darude and Sebastian Rejman. The song represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel after winning Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2019, Finland's national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. The song did not progress to the final, only earning 23 points in the first semi-final.

Aksel Kankaanranta is a Finnish singer. He was due to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam with the song "Looking Back", before the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017, he finished second in The Voice of Finland. He was born in Turku.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Looking Back (Aksel Kankaanranta song)</span> 2020 song by Aksel Kankaanranta

"Looking Back" is a song by Aksel Kankaanranta that would have represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Dark Side" written by Aleksi Kaunisvesi, Joonas Porko, Joel Hokka, Niko Moilanen and Olli Matela. The song was performed by the band Blind Channel. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2021 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2021 contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Seven entries were selected to compete in the national final on 20 February 2021 where the combination of votes from seven international jury groups and votes from the public selected "Dark Side" performed by Blind Channel as the winner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cicciolina (song)</span> 2020 single by Erika Vikman

"Cicciolina" is a song recorded by Finnish singer Erika Vikman, and written by Vikman, Janne Rintala, Mika Laakkonen, and Saskia Vanhalakka, with production handled by Laakkonen. The song was released through Warner Music Finland and Mökkitie Records on 27 January 2020, as the lead single from Vikman's self-titled debut album, after having been announced as one of the competing entries in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020, the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. Vikman performed the song during the final of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu on 7 March 2020, where it finished as the runner-up.

<i>Erika Vikman</i> (album) 2021 studio album by Erika Vikman

Erika Vikman is the debut studio album by Finnish singer Erika Vikman. The album was released on 20 August 2021 through Warner Music Finland and Mökkitie Records, and peaked at number one on the Finnish albums chart. Production on the album was handled by Mika Laakkonen and Timo Ruokola.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, with the song "Jezebel" written by Lauri Ylönen and Desmond Child, and performed by The Rasmus. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu2022 in order to select the Finnish entry for the contest. Seven entries were selected to compete in the national final on 26 February 2022, where the combination of votes from seven international jury groups and votes from the public selected the winner.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with the song "Cha Cha Cha" performed by Käärijä. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu2023 in order to select the Finnish entry for the contest. Seven entries were selected to compete in the national final on 25 February 2023, where the combination of votes from seven international jury groups and votes from the public selected the winner.

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö, Sweden, with "No Rules!" performed by Windows95man, featuring uncredited live vocals from Henri Piispanen. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu2024 in order to select the Finnish entry for the contest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">No Rules!</span> 2024 song by Windows95man

"No Rules!" is a song by Finnish visual artist Teemu Keisteri, known professionally by his stage name persona, Windows95man. It was written and composed by Henri Piispanen, Jussi Roine, and Keisteri, and released on 16 January 2024 through All Day Entertainment Oy. The song represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, where it placed 19th with 38 points at the grand final.

References

  1. ↑ "Finland Country Profile". EBU . Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 Jiandani, Sanjay (3 June 2019). "Finland: YLE confirms participation in Eurovision 2020". esctoday.
  3. 1 2 "Here are the UMK finalists – Who will represent Finland at the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest?". Yle. 21 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  4. ↑ Gullichsen, Anni (6 March 2020). "Näin seuraat UMK-finaalia – Katso myös tärpit tulevasta show'sta". yle.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  5. ↑ "Finnpanel - TV-mittaritutkimus: Yle TV1 10/2020". Finnpanel (in Finnish). 10 March 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  6. ↑ Luukela, Sami (1 November 2019). "🇫🇮 Finland: UMK 2020 dates announced, search for songs opens". escxtra.
  7. ↑ Gallagher, Robyn (28 November 2019). "Finland: YLE confirms six finalists have been selected from 426 entries for UMK 2020". Wiwibloggs.
  8. ↑ Luukela, Sami (3 March 2020). "🇫🇮 Countries voting at UMK20 final revealed". escxtra.
  9. ↑ "Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu kiinnosti suomalaisia – finaalilla 1,5 miljoonaa katsojaa". yle.fi (in Finnish). 9 March 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  10. ↑ "Behmin Hei rakas saa arvoisensa tv-ensiesityksen UMK:n lavalla – katso koskettava esitys!". yle.fi (in Finnish). 7 March 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  11. ↑ "Katso, kun Mikael Gabriel esittää ensimmäistä kertaa paluusinkkunsa Löytäjä saa pitää UMK-lavalla!". yle.fi (in Finnish). 7 March 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  12. ↑ "UMK:n kansainvälinen raati esittäytyy". 6 March 2020.
  13. ↑ Groot, Evert (28 January 2020). "Which country performs in which Eurovision 2020 Semi-Final". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  14. ↑ Eurovision Song Contest (14 May 2020). "Part two of Eurovision Song Celebration" . Retrieved 3 June 2020.
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