Käärijä has won UMK 2023 this morning and will represent Finland at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool in May.
The slickly produced national competition - Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) - was held in Turku by broadcaster YLE and featured seven competitors.
They performed in the following order:
Robin Packalen – “Girls Like You“
KUUMMA – “Ylivoimainen”
Käärijä – “Cha Cha Cha“
Keira – “No Business on the Dancefloor“
Benjamin – “Hoida mut”
Lxandra – “Something to Lose“
Portion Boys – “Samaa Taivasta Katsotaan”
Following the performances, the Finnish public casted their votes and an international jury had their say.
The jury vote counted for 25 per cent of the overall results - and this is how it turned out:
Jude York represented Australia in the international jury - awarding our 12 points to the eventual winner Käärijä with 'Cha cha cha'.
The public votes then came in, and represented 75 per cent of the overall results:
These were the final combined results:
Käärijä's landslide victory was 387 points ahead of second placed Portion Boys.
He will be looking to become Finland's second Eurovision winner in Liverpool in May - following on from Lordi triumphing with 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' in 2006.
He was ranked second by the Aussievision team in our rankings article before today's contest, and will follow on from The Rasmus who represented Finland last year and finished 21st with their track 'Jezebel'
Finland will be competing in semi final one of Eurovision which will be held in Liverpool on May 9.
Check out Liv and Kiel's wrap of UMK 2023 in the video below:
For continued updates on all the Eurovision Song Contest news follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. All links at: https://linktr.ee/aussievisionnet