Finland to reveal UMK 2021 artists on 13 January

During recent weeks, the Finnish national broadcaster, YLE, had announced that the Finnish representative and song will be chosen on 20 February 2021. In previous months, it had already been announced that Aksel Kankaanranta (Finland 2020) is not getting any advantage as he has to go through the entire selection process again if he's still interested in taking part in the show.

YLE keeps giving us more updates as it was announced that the 7 candidates who will compete at Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2021 (UMK) have been selected and will be revealed 13 January 2021.

According to the Finnish broadcaster's announcement, the level of songs and artists this time is insanely strong and UMK 2021 will be the toughest of all time. Similar to UMK 2020, the entries will be released one at a time on consecutive days.

The songs were selected by a jury of industry professionals, led by radio YleX’s music manager Tapio Hakanen.

It is noted that amongst the applicants were several Eurovision representatives from previous years, award-winning end stars at the Emma Gala, Finland's most potential music export hopes at the moment, artists seen in Life Only, energetic rock bands and hot names of Alternative Music praised by critics.

Aksel Kankaanranta was due to represent Finland in 2020 with the song Looking Back.

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.