Finland: ‘Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2021 (UMK21)’ Preview

Finland will select their 2021 Eurovision entry this weekend, with the 10th edition of ‘Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK)’.

UMK is held as a single two hour show, where seven artists will perform their entries and be selected by a mixed vote from an international jury and the Finnish public. As we have become used to this season, there will be no live audience.

In what should generate a lot of excitement in the fandom, the show will start with an opening show featuring last year's fan favourite, Erika Vikman. Erika came second place with her song ‘Cicciolina’.

This year Antti Tuisku will make his debut as the UMK host. Antti is a big name in Finnish pop music, and he will also give two performances throughout the show.

In a boon for international audiences, Finland’s broadcaster Yle will not only broadcast the show live to all on Yle Areena (the broadcaster’s streaming service), but they will also provide commentary in four different languages – Finnish, Swedish, English and Russian.

The English commentary will be provided by Katri Norrlin and Jani Kareinen, who are radio hosts that have been part of the UMK jury in past years.

There are a few big names to keep an eye out for in the show:

Aksel will return to perform ‘Hurt’, after winning UMK in 2020, but missing his chance to hit the Eurovision stage when it was cancelled.

Laura Põldvere is an Estonian singer who has competed twice at Eurovision. In 2005 she represented Estonia as part of the group Suntribe, performing ‘Let’s Get Loud’. In 2017 she competed for Estonia again alongside Koit Toome with ‘Verona’.

Also in the line-up is the successful hip hop group Teflon Brothers, who are joined by Swedish singer Pandora for a retro Euro dance bop ‘I Love You’.