Having failed to qualify for the Grand Final in six out of the past ten years, will Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020, the Finnish National Contest, produce a winner to repeat the success of Lordi in 2006?
From four hundred song submissions, six were selected for UMK20. The Contest was polished production, with strong visuals and a distinctly blue and magenta theme. Contest host Krista Siegrids, Mikael Gabriel and BEHM provided strong performances at the Opening and in the Intervals. The selected six artists consisted of five individual singers (four females, one male) and one female group. Four of the songs were ballads.
Voting was determined by an International Jury (Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, The Netherlands. Russia, Spain Sweden and United Kingdom) and televotes from the Finnish public.
|
|
Jury points |
Televote points |
Total points |
Place |
Catharina Zühlke – Eternity |
42 |
24 |
66 |
5 |
|
Erika Vikman – Cicciolina (sung in Finnish) |
58 |
99 |
157 |
2 |
|
76 |
94 |
170 |
1 |
|
|
64 |
24 |
84 |
4 |
|
|
30 |
6 |
36 |
6 |
|
|
50 |
77 |
127 |
3 |
So Aksel Kankaanranta (runner up in The Voice of Finland in 2017) will represent Finland and will perform Looking Back in the second half of the second semi-final in Rotterdam on 14 May. Best wishes to Aksel for a performance that takes Finland through to the Grand Final.