Meet Saara Aalto from Finland!
This year 43 countries will be present at this years Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Lisbon in May. With around two weeks to go until all of Europe descends on Portugal's capital, Eurovoxx will introduce you to each country that will be participating.
Who is she?
Saara Aalto is a singer, songwriter and a voiceover actress. Born and raised in Oulunsalo, Northern Finland she always wanted to make it into the music industry. She has been quite a known face in Finland for a while, since she has competed in various singing competitions. Finland's Got Talent in 2007, Suomen Euroviisukarsinnat in 2011, The Voice of Finland in and the UMK in 2016, coming second every time. But one could say her career took a big step forward when she competed in the X-Factor UK in 2016, again coming second. Still it was by far her biggest achievement yet as she gained a lot of international publicity AND the Finnish viewers admired her determination more than ever. The Final was broadcasted live on the SUB-channel, with 1 036 000 Finns watching. That number is the largest for the tv channel ever, and has not been challenged since.
After the X-Factor UK, Saara Aalto was received the Suomi-award from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture for her positive input and recognition due her participation and success in the X-Factor UK.
Watch the official music video here:
How was she chosen?
In November 2017 YLE announced, that UMK is going to have a major change : one artist - three songs. Not only with UMK in mind (which started in 2012), but in the selection of artists and songs for Eurovision has a long tradition. But having in mind the lack of success for Finland in the contest, YLE decided it was time for some changes to be made.
Saara's songs came out one by one; Monsters, Domino and Queens. It was quite clear from the start that Monsters gained a big popularity. The results of the UMK final doesn't show a huge victory for Monsters, but it won both the international jury vote and the televote.
So, Saara is a choice we do very well understand. She loves Eurovision, she is ambitious and she is very intrerested in gaining more international publicity.
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
Finland made its debut in the contest in 1961, and has participated 51 times since. The most remarkable facts about Finnish history in the contest are the large number of last positions (9 times, of which receiving zero points 3 times). Only Norway have a worse record coming last on ten occasions.
The Nordica nation have only won the competition once, with the rock band Lordi who sang Hard Rock Hallelujah, they won with the biggest amount of points that was ever given to an entry at that time.
Don't forget to check out Eurovoxx reaction video here:
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