As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, Yle organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Yle had been selecting its entries for the contest through national final competitions that had varied in format over the years. Between 1961 and 2011, a selection show that was often titled Suomen euroviisukarsinta highlighted that the purpose of the program was to select a song for Eurovision. However, since 2012, the broadcaster had organised the selection show Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), which focuses on showcasing new music with the winning song being selected as the Finnish Eurovision entry for that year. Yle confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2026 contest on 10 December 2025, announcing that its entry would again be selected through Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu.
Before Eurovision
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu2026
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu2026 will be the fourteenth edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the music competition organised by Yle to select its entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition will consist of a final on 28 February 2026, to be held at the Nokia Arena in Tampere. It is unknown who will be the host(s) of the contest.
Competing entries
A submission period was opened by Yle which lasted between 18 August 2025 and 24 August 2025.[2] 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. A panel of nine experts appointed by Yle alongside five audience juries selected seven entries for the competition from 491 received submissions, a new record during the current format of the competition.[3] The experts were Tapio Hakanen (Head of Music at YleX), Johan Lindroos[sv] (Head of Music at Yle Radio Suomi), Amie Borgar (Head of Music at Yle Svenska ), Katri Norrlin[fi] (music editor at YleX), Samuli Väänänen (music professional), Pietu Sepponen (promoter at Sunborn Live), Jussi Mäntysaari (Head of Music at Nelonen Media), Stella Kylä-Liuhala (project director of Ohlogy) and Aija Puurtinen[fi] (lecturer at Sibelius Academy and UMK vocal coach).[4] The competing entries were announced in a televised programme on 14 January 2026, hosted by Mikko Silvennoinen, Eva Frantz, Bess, Samuli Väänänen and Tapio Hakanen,[5] while the music videos for participating artists will be released between 14 and 22 January 2026.[6]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Finland