Finland's The Rasmus is out of the shadows: To Eurovision 2022 with "Jezebel"

Up until yesterday, Finland's Eurovision 2022 participation was uncertain as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) initially refused to remove Russia from this year's competition.

The Finnish broadcaster YLE quickly announced they'd withdraw from Eurovision 2022 if the scenario wasn't changed. It was and tonight Finland held their national selection where they decided that The Rasmus will be flying the Finnish flag in Turin with the song "Jezebel".

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2022, simply known as UMK, happened in Turku and was hosted by Finnish singer Paula Vesala and YouTuber Miisa Rotola Pukkila. During the event, last year's Finland representatives – Blind Channel – took the stage to perform "Dark Side".

The seven competing songs were all performed and, at the end, the televote as well as the international jury vote decided that The Rasmus should go to Eurovision with the song "Jezebel".

Jezebel is written by Desmond Child and Lauri Ylönen.

The televote accounted for 75% of the decision whereas the international jury accounted for the remaining 25%.

The Rasmus

– Do you have time? We have to make the world’s best song and win Eurovision.

So wrote The Rasmus frontman Lauri Ylönen in a message to world renowned producer-musician Desmond Child. Child has worked with, among others, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper and Kiss. He also produced The Rasmus’ 2008 Black Roses album. The Eurovision entry contestant Jezebel was written in just a few hours based on Ylönen’s demo, after which he told his bandmates about his plan to submit the song in the Contest for New Music UMK.

Together for nearly 30 years now, The Rasmus is one of Finland’s most internationally successful groups. Its biggest hit In the Shadows broke the 100 million stream mark on Spotify and 91 million views on YouTube. Upon the song’s release in 2003, it was one of the top-selling hits in the world. The Rasmus has released several albums, won numerous music industry awards, and played gigs all over the world.

Entering the Eurovision ring was part of the band’s second coming, as it had just taken on a new guitarist, Emppu Suhonen, who launched her own career in Finnish girl band TikTak.:

– I was pretty shocked when the guys asked me to join the band. And then, a week later, I heard about UMK. Anything else?, Emppu says.

According to the band, Jezebel is a song for strong, independent women, who blaze their own trail:

– Jezebel was a biblical troublemaker, who did things her own way and really shook things up. We wanted to introduce her to the modern-day world. The song is also a bit tongue-in-cheek, which is pretty unusual for The Rasmus, says Ylönen.

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 6th place in 2021.

Since the introductions of semi-finals in 2004, Finland has qualified for the Grand Final 9 out of 17 times.