Finnish entrant Krista Siegfrids might not have set the scoreboard alight, but her stage show was certainly one of the more memorable ones at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. YLE are eager to rack up yet another final placing and have opened for submissions for the 2014 pre selection UMK, Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu.
This year’s Finnish final line up featured plenty of strong vying for the honour to represent Finland in Malmö. It’s been quite some time since a Finnish final featured so many quality and varied acts and so YLE have opted to follow the UMK format for a third successive year.
In an announcement just made on their site, the national broadcaster is calling for submissions to be made, all music genres will be considered. A submissions deadline has been set for 16:00 hours on the 9th of September, after which all entries will be reviewed by a panel. As in the past two years, twelve acts will be shortlisted, presumably to perform in two heats, a semi final and a final containing an eight strong line up, although this has yet to be confirmed by YLE.
In order to be eligible for participation in UMK 2014, all acts have to fulfill the following criteria:
- Any submitted entry must be previously unpublished
- All participants must have turned sixteen by the 17th of May, 2014.
- The performer or composer must be a Finnish national or hold residency in Finland.
- Only one submission per artist/composer is permitted.
- All entries must be submitted in a digital format.
- When taking part in UMK 2014, all entries must comply with EBU regulations, ie. must be no longer than three minutes and all acts must not consist of more than six members.
Rules and regulations concerning participation in next year’s Finnish selection are given in more depth on the YLE website (in Finnish only).
Krista Siegfrids was the surprise winner of UMK 2013 with her punchy pop number Marry Me, beating hot favourite Mikael Saari into second place with his haunting ballad We Should Be Through. She came ninth in her respective semi and managed a 24th placing for Finland with a disappointing thirteen points. Marry Me also made the lower reaches of numerous charts around Europe following her performance in Malmö.
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