Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Blackbird" written and performed by Lasse Piirainen and Leena Tirronen under the name Norma John. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2017 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine. Ten entries competed in a televised national final on 28 January 2017 where the 50/50 combination of votes from ten international juries and votes from the public selected "Blackbird" performed by Norma John as the winner.

Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country Finland
National selection
Selection processUuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2017
Selection date(s)28 January 2017
Selected entrantNorma John
Selected song"Blackbird"
Selected songwriter(s)Lasse Piirainen
Leena Tirronen
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (12th, 92 points)
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 • 2017 • 2018►

Finland was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 7, "Blackbird" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final.

Background
Main article: Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 Contest, Finland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty times since their first entry in 1961.[1] Finland has won the contest once in 2006 with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" performed by Lordi. In the 2016 contest, "Sing It Away" performed by Sandhja failed to qualify Finland to the final, making it the second consecutive year that Finland missed out on qualification.

The Finnish national broadcaster, Yleisradio (Yle), broadcasts the event within Finland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Yle confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 15 May 2016.[2] Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest have been selected through national final competitions that have varied in format over the years. Between 1961 and 2011, a selection show that was often titled Euroviisukarsinta highlighted that the purpose of the program was to select a song for Eurovision. However, since 2012, the broadcaster has organised the selection show Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), which focuses on showcasing new music with the winning song being selected as the Finnish contest entry for that year. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster also announced that the Finnish entry for the 2017 contest would be selected through Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2017.[2]

Before Eurovision

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2017

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2017 was the sixth edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the music competition that selects Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of a national final hosted by Krista Siegfrids.[3] This was Krista’s second year hosting UMK. Yle announced the selected acts on 23 November 2016.[4] The show took place on 28 January 2017 at Espoo Metro Areena, in Espoo.[5] The winning entry was determined by public voting and the votes from ten international jury panels.[5]

Competing entries

Yle opened a submission period between 1 September 2016 and 5 September 2016 in order for interested parties to submit their entries.[6] At least one of the writers and the lead singer(s) had to hold Finnish citizenship or live in Finland permanently in order for the entry to qualify to compete. The submitted songs were not allowed to exceed three minutes, but could contain lyrics in any language. A panel of experts appointed by Yle selected entries for the competition from the received submissions. Yle filmed promotional music videos for each of the competing entries, which were released on 28 December 2016.[7]

Final

The final took place on 28 January 2017 where ten acts competed. The running order for the show was revealed two days before the final. "Blackbird" performed by Norma John was selected as the winner.[8] The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of public votes and ten international juries from Estonia, France, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 430 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through the following voting methods: telephone, SMS and online voting. For example, if a song gained 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 430 points rounded to the nearest integer: 43 points.

Final – 28 January 2017
Draw [9] Artist Song Composer(s) Jury Televote Total Place
1 Emma "Circle of Light" Jonas Olsson, Heidi Maria Paalanen, Aku Rannila, Saara Törmä 53 53 106 3
2 Alva "Arrows" Arto Ruotsala, Milos Rosas, Aatu Mällinen 15 48 63 6
3 Günther & D'Sanz "Love Yourself" Mats Söderlund, Amir Aly, Tomas Cederholm, Robin Abrahamsson, Niklas Nylund 37 45 82 5
4 Anni Saikku "Reach Out for the Sun" Mia Kemppainen, Perttu Kurttila 43 16 59 7
5 Knucklebone Oscar & The Shangri-La Rubies "Caveman" Baldauf, Martimo, Salomaa, Kumpulainen, Vettenranta, Bachér, Schönberg 5 13 18 10
6 Norma John "Blackbird" Lasse Piirainen, Leena Tirronen 94 88 182 1
7 Lauri Yrjölä "Helppo elämä" Lauri Yrjölä 43 15 58 8
8 Club La Persé "My Little World" Princess Julia, Luke Howard, Jaakko Salovaara 21 29 50 9
9 Zühlke "Perfect Villain" Nalle Ahlstedt, Christian Ingebrigtsen, Silje Nymoen 74 71 145 2
10 My First Band "Paradise" Antti Koivula, Heikki Puhakainen, Heikki Kytölä, Juho Vehmanen, Mikko Virta, Jurek Reunamäki 45 52 97 4
Detailed International Jury Votes[10]
Draw Song Total
1"Circle of Light"11262281021053
2"Arrows"812415
3"Love Yourself"2102881637
4"Reach Out for the Sun"48121061243
5"Caveman"21115
6"Blackbird"1210124121012641294
7"Helppo elämä"412444128443
8"My Little World"4101621
9"Perfect Villain"68686121010874
10"Paradise"10681621245
International Jury Spokespersons
  • – Mart Normet
  • – Edoardo Grassi
  • – Hera Ólafsdóttir
  • – Alon Amir
  • – Zita Kaminska
  • – Hege Aarflot Nelvik
  • – Federico Llano
  • – Edward af Sillén
  • – Andrii Olefirov
  • – William Lee Adams

Promotion

Norma John made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Blackbird" as the Finnish Eurovision entry. On 2 April, they performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French. Between 3 and 6 April, the Finnish duo took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel where they performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.[11][12] On 8 April, Norma John performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.[13]

At Eurovision
Norma John during a press meet and greet

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[14] On 31 January 2017, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Finland was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2017, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[15]

Once all the competing songs for the 2017 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Finland was set to perform in position 7, following the entry from Montenegro and before the entry from Azerbaijan.[16]

Semi-final

Norma John took part in technical rehearsals on 30 April and 4 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May.[17] This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

At the end of the show, Finland was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Finland placed twelfth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 92 points: 51 points from the televoting and 41 points from the juries.

Points awarded to Finland
Points awarded to Finland (Semi-final 1)
Televote
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Jury
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Finland

Split voting results

The following five members will comprise the Finnish jury: [18]

  • Jonas Olsson – Chairperson – producer, songwriter
  • Iisa Pajula – singer-songwriter
  • Marcus Sjöström – music director
  • Virve Rosti – singer, represented Finland in the 1987 contest
  • Kalle Mäkipelto - music producer
Split voting results from Finland (Semi-final 1)
Draw Country Jury Televote
I. Pajula J. Olsson M. Sjöström V. Rosti K. Mäkipelto Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Sweden5212111247
02 Georgia14631378317
03 Australia216443812
04 Albania11171216131616
05 Belgium31610121011210
06 Montenegro15141714161783
07 Finland
08 Azerbaijan1315141181314
09 Portugal13712210112
10 Greece1612915141415
11 Poland813210119211
12 Moldova1755395638
13 Iceland41013666565
14 Czech Republic711169121213
15 Cyprus944734756
16 Armenia1098857474
17 Slovenia681151510192
18 Latvia12715171715101
Split voting results from Finland (final)
Draw Country Jury Televote
I. Pajula J. Olsson M. Sjöström V. Rosti K. Mäkipelto Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Israel1810512151114
02 Poland21241119232222
03 Belarus1762323192117
04 Austria1952220181724
05 Armenia1122141481320
06 Netherlands169177161216
07 Moldova23713478365
08 Hungary1423159251974
09 Italy21211174738
10 Denmark1381210107421
11 Portugal13102338112
12 Azerbaijan25111815141618
13 Croatia2618266112011
14 Australia3135421015
15 Greece22261924222623
16 Spain2414162291826
17 Norway919911610192
18 United Kingdom813813129213
19 Cyprus15157826512
20 Romania12172425262483
21 Germany7162016201525
22 Ukraine20212526132519
23 Belgium6206172414210
24 Sweden5223111256
25 Bulgaria4441855647
26 France102521212123101
gollark: Actually, Bolts can do stun, which might help in a fight.
gollark: I suppose they're mostly just checked for grammar, time-matchingness and slight sanity.
gollark: I expect that in most fights the Guardian of Nature would win though.
gollark: Anyway, the description for Causal Mondays (a chronoxeno) does mention actual time travel and was accepted, so presumably there is *some* support for the idea of time magic extending to time travel.
gollark: It doesn't have to be a duel to the death.

References
  1. "Finland Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  2. Järveläinen, Satu (15 May 2016). "Ukrainan Jamala voitti Euroviisut 2016 - Suomen seuraavaa viisuedustajaa haetaan jälleen UMK:ssa". yle.fi (in Finnish). Yle. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  3. Gallagher, Robyn (28 December 2016). "UMK 17: "LET'S MAKE FINLAND FAB AGAIN!" 'PRESIDENT' KRISTA SIEGFRIDS TO HOST UMK 2017". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  4. http://yle.fi/aihe/umk
  5. http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2016/11/23/umk17-kohti-uutta-ja-isompaa-uuden-musiikin-kilpailua
  6. "UMK – Contest for New Music 2017 Rules". google.com. Yle. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  7. Luukela, Sami (28 December 2016). "UMK 17: FINLAND'S YLE RELEASES MUSIC VIDEOS FOR THE 10 FINALISTS". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  8. M. Escudero, Victor (29 January 2017). "Finland: Norma John wins UMK 2017!". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  9. http://wiwibloggs.com/2017/01/26/finland-umk-2017-final-running-order-juries-announced/168322/
  10. Finland's Eurovision representer will be chosen on Saturday - Iltasanomat.fi (Finnish)
  11. Kavaler, Ron (22 March 2017). "ISRAEL CALLING! EUROVISION PROMO EVENT SET FOR APRIL 3 TO 6". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  12. Laufer, Gil (5 April 2017). "Tonight: Israel Calling 2017 to be held with 28 participating countries". esctoday.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  13. Jordan, Paul (29 March 2017). "Eurovision in Concert sets a new record with 33 acts". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  14. Jordan, Paul (25 January 2017). "Semi-Final Allocation draw to take place in Kyiv". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  15. Jordan, Paul (31 January 2017). "Results of the Semi-Final Allocation Draw". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  16. Jordan, Paul (31 March 2017). "Semi-Final running order for Eurovision 2017 revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  17. "Press". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  18. Jordan, Paul (29 April 2017). "Who will be the expert jurors for Eurovision 2017?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
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