Finland: UMK 2021 will select the Eurovision 2021 representative

The producer of UMK, Anssi Autio, has confirmed that Finland will use UMK as an open song selection contest with the same format used to determine the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 representative. This means that Aksel Kankaanranta who was due to represent the nation in Rotterdam with the song Looking Back will not be automatically chosen as many national broadcasters are opting to do.

In light to the Aksel's situation the producer states the following:

– Aksel may choose to participate in the new song next year, but the jury of professionals will select the contestants and ultimately the voters will make the selection.

The song search will start 1 September. The final attracted the largest UMK audience for years, with a record number of young people in particular. Similarly, the public vote was the biggest since 2015. The interest and positive reception in this year's competition, moreover, reinforced the Finnish view that pushed for an open competition once again. The national broadcaster also received positive feedback from the finalists after the competition. Next year is the 10th edition of UMK.

The rules for the UMK21 will be published in June in Finnish, Swedish and English. The pre-qualifying of the songs announced for the competition will be conducted again by a panel of experts from UMK, chaired by Tapio Hakanen, Music Manager at YleX .

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.