The national broadcaster in Finland, Yle, has announced guidelines for the country’s national preselection UMK (Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu) for 2019.
The contest will continue the concept introduced in 2018, when Finland for the first time ever had an invitation-only artist selected to represent the country in the Eurovision Song Contest. Saara Aalto was the only competing artist in UMK18 with her three song candidates, of which “Monsters” was selected with the combined jury votes and televoting.
Yle has invited one artist to UMK19, but the name is not yet known. UMK19 will take place on Saturday 2nd March. The location of the competition as well as ticket sales information will be announced later during the autumn.
According to Yle, an invitation-only competition gives more potential to high-quality performances. This time, the rules of UMK have not been changed along the way. Now when Finland is going one-artist-only, fans and media are speculating with the potential names. One of them is the former Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen, who revealed being on a “secret” mission in Finland during the summer. Nightwish, described as a symphonic metal band, competed in the Finnish preselections in 2000. Other potential names are the groups The Rasmus (guest artist in UMK12) and Sunrise Avenue, as well as a few very popular Finnish singers who have also appeared as guest artists in UMK in recent years: Jenni Vartiainen (guest artist in UMK17), Chisu (UMK16) and Antti Tuisku (UMK15). There are also some interesting young artists that fans have judged as possible choices: Johanna Kurkela, Ellinoora, Olavi Uusivirta, Isac Elliot, Benjamin Peltonen, Tuure Boelius to name a few.
It does seem that Yle is up for a big name that already has some success elsewhere in Europe, although the existing success does not guarantee a success in the ESC. We will just need to wait and see. And what comes to the show itself… We would not be surprised to see the joyful Krista Siegfrids (ESC Finland 2013) as the host of UMK again!