Finland | UMK 2021 to take place in February

Finnish broadcaster YLE have confirmed that Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) will once again be used to chose the Finnish representative for Eurovision 2021. The participants will be revealed in January and the final will take place in February.

YLE have also published the rules for UMK 2021. The submissions window will be open from the 1st to the 7th of September 2020. Each singer can submit up to three songs whilst composers, lyricists and songwriters can submit an unlimited number of entries. At least one of the singers or songwriters must have either Finnish citizenship or permanent residency in Finland.

Once all submissions are in, an expert panel will decide which songs and singers will compete in the final of UMK 2021. In the final, the results will be determined by a mix of audience voting and jury voting.

Aksel Kankaanranta was the winner of UMK 2020 with his song "Looking Back", but due to the current situation and the cancellation of Eurovision 2020, he was unfortunatley unable to represent his country at Eurovision. However, that has not deterred him, and in the second episode of the Eurovision Home Concerts, Aksel said that he would like to return to UMK: “Even though I’m sad that Eurovision was cancelled, I am happy to announce that we are working on new music and we are going to audition at UMK. Let’s see where that goes.”

Check out Andy's reaction to Aksel's Eurovision 2020 song "Looking Back"