Blind Channel wins UMK 2021 – will represent Finland at Eurovision 2021 with "Dark Side"

Finland has officially chosen the artist and song they want to see and listen to in Eurovision Song Contest 2021. It all took place tonight in the national selection Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2021, or just UMK 2021.

The band Blind Channel won UMK 2021 with a landslide. Both the public and the international jury had "Dark Side" as their favorite song for Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam. They received 47% of the total points.

"Dark Side" is written by Aleksi Kaunisvesi, Joonas Porko, Joel Hokka, Niko Moilanen and Olli Matela.

The winner was selected by a combination of the public vote (75%) and eight international juries (25%).

Blind Channel

Blind Channel is a six-member rock band from Oulu, Finland:

• Joel Hokka;
• Niko Vilhelm;
• Joonas Porko;
• Olli Matela;
• Tommi Lalli;
• Aleksi Kaunisvesi.

The band was created back in 2013 and define their music as "violent pop".

Blind Channel have released three studio albums so far and have won prestigious awards in their countries.

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2021

Held at the Mediapolis TV studio in Tampere, this year's Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) celebrated its tenth edition.

The show was hosted by Antti Tuisku, a Finnish singer, who opened the show with a performance with Erika Vikman (UMK 2020).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no audience was allowed in the show that consisted of seven finalists out of 278 submissions received. The winner was decided by an international jury and the Finnish public.

Finland in Eurovision Song Contest

Finland debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 and has participated ever since, except for six years, mostly because of previous years' bad position.

The country has won the competition once, in 2006 with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah", performed by Lordi.

Since then Finland's best result is 11th place in 2014.

Since the introductions of semi-finals in 2004, Finland has qualified for the Grand Final half of the 16 times.