Finland: UMK 2026 Artists Revealed

Finnish broadcaster YLE has revealed the seven artists who will be competing in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the national selection competition to find its Eurovision representative for 2026.

The lineup was revealed during a live broadcast in Finland overnight, with viewers getting a brief introduction to each act ahead of their songs being revealed in the coming week. All seven entrants in this year's UMK are new faces to the competition and haven't competed before.

To allow each artist to get their moment in the spotlight, YLE will release one song with a video clip every weekday over the next seven days.

The seven artists will battle it out to be this year's UMK champion at the live show at Nokia Arena in Tampere on Saturday 28 February (early on Sunday 1 March AEST). You'll be able to stream the contest through YLE's website, and they'll also have dedicated English commentary.

The artists, songs and their release dates are:

• Etta – Million Dollar Smile (15 January)

• Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen – Liekinheitin (16 January)

• Komiat – Lululai (19 January)

• Sinikka Monte – Ready to Leave (20 January)

• Antti Paalanen – Takatukka (21 January)

• CHACHI – Cherry Cake (22 January)

• KIKI – Rakkaudenkipee (23 January)

Aussievision will add each clip and more information on each artist to this article as it is released, so keep this page handy!

Artist songs and bios

Etta - Million Dollar Smile

Etta (full name Emmalotta Kanth) is a singer, rapper, and a self-proclaimed outspoken processor of emotions, who grew up in the suburbs of Vantaa. She first burst onto the Finnish music scene in 2018 with her debut single Ballerina, and has since gone on to release three albums and become one of the country's most streamed pop artists. She made history in 2022 when her second album Tykkäät Kummiski became the first album by a female rap artist to top the local charts.

Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen – Liekinheitin

Pop star Pete Parkkonen and internationally acclaimed voilinist Linda Lampenius have teamed up for this striking collaboration after both establishing very different career paths.

Parkkonen first burst onto the scene in 2008, coming third in Finland's version of Idol. He's since released several albums and established himself as a leading Finnish pop and soul artist. In 2014, he won Dancing with the Stars with partner Katri Mäkinen.

Lampenius is known worldwide for her violin work and is the best-selling Finnish classical artist of her time. She joined the Helsinki Junior Strings Orchestra at only 8 years old and was invited personally by Andrew Lloyd Webber to perform his work in England. Last year, she performed the memorable Shanghain valot interval number at UMK 2025.

Komiat – Lululai

Komiat consists of vocalist Aleksi Yli-Sissala, guitarist-vocalist Samuel Järvinen, accordionist Antero Linden, drummer Eero Nummela, and bassist Juho Eskola.

They formed in the mid-2010s with the idea of ​​creating an accordion-led dance band that would play traditional Schlager music without unnecessary gimmicks. They played their first show in 2017 and have played to a huge range of crowds ever since. They released their latest album Kaihosielu last year.

No doubt this will draw some comparisons to fellow Finns (and Sweden's representive from last year) KAJ - who were a big crowd favourite with their sauna anthem Bada Bada Bastu.

Sinikka Monte – Ready To Leave

The first entry to be sung in English this year, Monte a 23-year-old artist was born in Scotland, grew up in Austria, and is half Finnish and half South African. Ready To Leave is a dark, cinematic ballad focusing on a relationship which has gone on too long.

With the exception of her debut single It Ain't You in 2019, and a long-term collaboration with trusted producer Florian “Flo” Spies, she is relatively unknown on the Finnish music scene. She describes her style as "crying in the club" and said she makes music "for people who are sad and need a hug."

Antti Paalanen – Takatukka

It's definitely the accordian's time to shine in this year's UMK - along with the Komiat lads, Antti Paalanen is putting the instrument front and centre in his track.

He's played the accordian since he was eight, studyied folk music and throat singing, and has an international profile for his work with the instrument, with an album released in 2019 and performances across Europe, the USA and Japan.

Paalanen has produced what looks to be the 'novelty' track in this year's lineup - Takatukka means 'Back Hair' in English and is a massive ode to rocking a mullet hairdo.

CHACHI – Cherry Cake 

The second novelty track to feature in this year's lineup is from CHACCI - a Mexican-American singer and dancer who used to star in reality TV shows in her homeland. She met her husband, Jukka Hildén from Finnish pranksters The Dudesons, while filming the show 'Ulitmate Expedition' in Peru in 2017, and has since moved to Finland and started a family.

She previously competed in The Masked Singer Finland in 2020 and then landed a record deal in 2023. Cherry Cake has been described as a 'dancefloor banger' by the UMK jury - and she literally spells out the recipe during the song along with catchy lines like "Let out the butter and a lil' bit of vanilla, No milk inside cos I'm still a born killa."

KIKI – Rakkaudenkipee 

Rounding out the lineup for UMK 2026 is KIKI, real name is Petra Gavalas. She had been manifesting for a year that she would make it into this year's competition, and drawing on the influences of her parents, her music is a combination of "Finnish melancholy and Greek darkness".

She first made waves on the Finnish music scene with her single 666 in 2022, which earned her the title of YLEx's Breakthrough Artist Of The Year. She describes herself as an artist in three words: authentic, emotional, and dramatic. Rakkaudenkipee translates to 'Lovesick' and captures the overwhelming feeling of being so crazy in love that it hurts.

About UMK 2026

A total of 491 songs were submitted in the application process last year, and the final seven were picked by a professional jury and five audience juries.

"This UMK season is set to be unique in many ways," UMK Jury Chair Tapio Hakanen said. "We handpicked the contestants from a record number of applicants, and the entries range from pop to folk music, dance, and light dance music.

"I am really excited that UMK 2026 will feature new artists who are not familiar to most Finns, and that the selection of instruments is so varied, including a violin, accordion, whistling, delicate singing, club bass drum and rapping.”

Last year the contest was won by Erika Vikman and her song Ich Komme, which placed 11th for Finland at Eurovision 2025. Past winners of UMK in recent years have included Windows95Man (2024), Kaarija (2023), The Rasmus (2022) and Blind Channel (2021).

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