UMK19 Live: A first look at the show and review of Darude’s three songs

Tonight Finland will choose their song for Tel Aviv. Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) 2019 takes place in the event venue Logomo, Turku, Finland. The hosts of the show are Krista Siegfrids (ESC Finland 2013), Christoffer Strandberg and Mikko Silvennoinen.

The international superstar, DJ Darude alongside vocalist Sebastian Rejman will represent Finland with one of their three entries: Release me, Superman or Look away. 

UMK now follows the same format it had in 2018 when Yle directly asked Saara Aalto to represent Finland, and she performed the three competing songs in UMK18.

Just as many previous years, Yle invited media to see the dress rehearsal and the live broadcast of UMK19. Good Evening Europe is allowed to publish two photos of each performance in the dress rehearsal. Videos (max 30 seconds each) can be published after each performance has been sent live on tv. So stay tuned to our Youtube Channel.

Let the pussycat speak – The opening act of UMK 2019

The opening number of UMK follows a tradition Yle has started already a few years ago. The song is titled “Anna mirrin puhua” (“Let the pussycat speak”) and it’s performed by the UMK princess Krista Siegfrids. Krista had clearly taken influence of last year’s Eurovision winner Netta, as there was a giant Japanese traditional cat on stage. Krista and the dancers where dressed in colourful fake furs and neon colours. Yle has shared the song through Yle Arena.

Televote & international juries

The winner of UMK 2019 will be selected by the Finnish televoters and international juries (50/50%). The international jury members represent Denmark, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Czech Republic and this year’s host country Israel.

The viewers can vote for their one favourite song free with the Yle.fi app. One vote on the app equals ten televotes, which can be sent during the live broadcast.

Song 1: Release Me

The first song, “Release me”, featured some very geographical elements on stage, “sparkling squares” which turned horizontally towards the end of the song. While singing, Sebastian seemed to move on an assembly line. Visually the song is great, but vocally or melodically it’s lacking something. “Release me” is the least likely song to win the contest in my opinion.

Song 2: Superman

The song starts quiet and quite slow, but after a short intro it starts off. The chorus has a catchy melody and the huge heart in the background as well as the lasers are flashing. Definitely the most uplifting song of the three, easy to sing along and almost feel like a Superman yourself.

Song 3: Look away

There is a giant rotating light cube on stage, with Darude inside of it and a dancer above it. It has scenery projections: icebergs and a diving female figure. The cube reminds some past Eurovision stagings, and therefore easily gives some ‘Eurovision vibes’. As Darude had said, the song reflects the worrying state of the world, and even though the chorus is quite repetitive, the set in total is working.

Which song will represent Finland in Tel Aviv?

It’s hard to estimate how the juries and audience will behave and which song and staging will attract to them most. Both “Superman” and “Look away” sound like winning songs. However, knowing the Finnish melancholic mentality, I would predict that “Look away” could be slightly ahead of the others. It has been voted as a favourite in various polls as well. No matter which song is chosen, the staging and choreography seem to be working very well and this year there are not too many elements in them.

Interval act by Eurovision winner Emmelie de Forest & Krista Siegfrids

The interval act took us back to 2013, as that year’s Danish winner, Emmelie de Forest performed her winning song “Only teardrops”. Emmelie was faithful to her original performance, as she was barefoot this time as well, and so were the dancers.

Krista performed another, Israeli themed song as an interval act. The song, called ‘Love Parade’, appropriate is about Tel Aviv and the words “shalom alechem” are heard several times.

Follow Good Evening Europe live from UMK 2019. Subscribe to our Youtube-channel for videos from the rehearsals and press conferences with Darude and Emmelie de Forest.

According to the rules, videos from the rehearsals cannot be shared until the songs have been performed in the live show.

The final of UMK 2019 will take place tonight at 20:00 CET (21:00 local time) . Watch it here: areena.yle.fi