Tonight, Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu took place. After an exciting final Blind Channel won UMK and will represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam. Seven acts competed in the night of the final. UMK 2021 saw the return of Aksel, who won UMK 2020, as well as Estonian representative Laura.
Tonight Finland held UMK, its traditional national final for Eurovision. Seven acts, including Aksel, who was due to represent Finland in Rotterdam before Eurovision was cancelled, competed. Laura who represented Estonia in 2005 and 2017 was also in the running to wave the Finnish flag this time.
Once Yle announced all seven candidates all eyes were on Aksel, the winner of the previous UMK. However, nu metal band Blind Channel and hip hop group Teflon Brothers x Pandora quickly became two of the earliest fan favourites. Another interesting feature from the 2021 UMK was the change in the voting process. In contrast with the previous voting format, the televote had a higher value in this year’s UMK. The final result was determined by a 75% televote, and 25% from an international jury vote.
In case you don’t know all the competing seven acts that well, we’ve published a Get to know- article for you to get more familiar with them.
The result of UMK 2021
Seven acts competed in the final of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2021. After all the acts performed, the audience vote for their favourite songs. An international jury from eight countries announced their votes. The international jury votes came from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States, Poland, Iceland, Spain and the Netherlands. Right after the vote of the jurors, the result of the televote was revealed:
| Position | Artist | Song Title | Jury | Televote | Total |
| 1 | Blind Channel | Dark Side | 72 | 479 | 551 |
| 2 | Teflon Brothers x Pandora | I Love You | 30 | 150 | 180 |
| 3 | Ilta | Kelle Mä Soitan | 48 | 141 | 149 |
| 4 | Oskr | Lie | 62 | 53 | 115 |
| 5 | Aksel | Hurt | 56 | 52 | 108 |
| 6 | Danny | Sinä Päivänä Kun Kaikki Rakastaa Mua | 22 | 38 | 60 |
| 7 | Laura | Play | 4 | 9 | 13 |
The show
UMK 2021 took place in Tampere, Finland. The Finnish national final was held in the Mediapolis TV studio. Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions no audience was present.
At 21:00 EET the show kicked off. Finnish pop singer Antti Tuisko hosted the show. The show opened with an amazing performance from Antti Tuisko and Erika Vikman. They performed Erika’s singles Syntisten Pöytä and Cicciolina. Vikman’s return to the Finnish national final as an interval act was a surprise for many fans. Erika Vikman came in second place last year in the Finnish selection with her song Cicciolina. She also won the televote.
Erika Vikman’s grizzly bears from her Cicciolina performance made a comedy interval talking about their life after last year’s UMK and how they felt bitter that they did not get invited for this year’s competition in spite of having stolen the show. In the second sketch of this interval the bears said they had “no hard feelings” towards Erika though they blamed her for being sent in the zoo while and not having a career. They also tried to contact all the acts this year to perform again and that they plan to send their own song next year.
After all the acts performed their songs, Antti Tuisku took the stage to sing his song Master Workout and his latest single Treenaa. Krista Siegfrids who represented Finland in 2013 and has hosted UMK several times had a cameo with her baby girl showing us how she is already preparing her daughter to be a Eurovision diva. After the votes of the international juries were announced Haloo Helsinki, one of the biggest rock bands from Finland performed Piilotan Mun Kyyneleet.
Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest
Finland has had a shaky history at Eurovision. They came in last 10 times and have only won the contest once. In 2006 Lordi brought their Hard Rock Hallelujah to Athens and earned 292 points, being the first rock music song to win the competition. Since their victory, Finland have failed to enter the top 10 of the final altogether, and have failed to qualify for the grand final 6 times.
Last year Finland selected Aksel to go to Rotterdam with the song Looking Back. However, due to the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest he could not represent the country in 2020.
You can watch Aksel’s performing his 2020 winning song in the 2020 UMK in the embedded video below:
