The Finnish broadcaster YLE revealed the running order and the ten jury groups for the upcoming Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2016. Cristal Snow will open the Finnish national final, while the favourite to win Mikael Saari will close the contest. Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2016 will be held on 27th of February.
Finland’s national broadcaster YLE revealed the running order for their national final. Cristal Snow opens the show, while the hot favourite to win according to bets Mikael Saari closes the competing part of the night. Next to that, YLE also revealed the ten jury groups, who along with the televote will decide the winner.
Running order
Click on the name of the songs to watch the live performances from the semi-finals.
- Cristal Snow – Love Is Blind
- Stella Christine – Ain’t Got Time For Boys
- Annica Milán & Kimmo Blom – Good Enough
- Eini – Draamaa
- Barbe-Q-Barbies – Let Me Out
- Tuuli Okkonen – Don’t Wake Me Up
- Sandhja – Sing It Away
- Saara Aalto – No Fear
- Mikael Saari – On It Goes
Jury groups
Despite last year’s edition of UMK, when the jury had only 10% of the results, this year the vote will be 50-50 between the jury and the televote. The jury voting will be provided by ten jury groups that represent different sections of Finnish society: Eurovision experts, musicians, the media, YouTube personalities, Finland Swedes, LGBT, members of parliament, asphalt constructors, children and social media users. YLE revealed the jury groups, but not their names.
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu is the show that the Finnish national broadcaster YLE used for the past 4 years to select their entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Finnish actor/singer/rapper Roope Salminen and 2013 Finnish Eurovision entrant Krista Siegfrids host this year’s UMK. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval act will feature 2015 Finnish Eurovision entrants Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät and Finnish Eurovision Song Contest 2006 winners Lordi.
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
Finland has participated in the contest 49 times since its debut in 1961. Finland won the contest for the first and only time in 2006 in Athens with Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah. Before that Finland was considered by many as the ultimate under achiever at Eurovision as the country had never managed to enter the top 5 of any contest. Their best result after the winning entry in 2006 was a 6th place in 1973 with the song Tom Tom Tom.
Finland has placed last a total of eight time. There even was a popular joke circulating in Finland, where a man frees a genie from a bottle:
Genie: Thanks for freeing me! I will now grant you one wish.
Man: Bring the Finnish Karelia back to Finland*
Genie: That’s too big a wish, maybe a smaller one?
Man: OK, let Finland win the Eurovision Song Contest even once!
Genie: Hmm… let me see that map again…
*Finnish Karelia was a territory ceded to the Soviet Union during the Cold War
Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Finland has failed to reach the final five times. In 2014, the country had its best result for eight years when Softengine finished 11th. Last year Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät after their landslide victory in UMK 2015, represented Finland at Eurovision in Vienna. The punk rock band with 13 points ended 16th out of 16 entries and failed to qualify from the 1st semi-final.
Until tomorrow’s final of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2016 enjoy Finland’s recent highlights which might contain footage you haven’t seen before
