Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020
Finland originally planned to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020 (Contest for New Music 2020) on 7 March 2020 in order to select the Finnish entry for the 2020 contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands. However, as a result of the 2019-20 pandemic of Coronavirus, the contest was cancelled.
| Eurovision Song Contest 2020 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020 | |||
| Selection date(s) | 7 March 2020 | |||
| Selected entrant | Aksel Kankaanranta | |||
| Selected song | "Looking Back" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) | Joonas Angeria Whitney Phillips Connor McDonough Riley McDonough Toby McDonough | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Semi-final result | Cancelled | |||
| Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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Background
Prior to the 2020 Contest, Finland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-three 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 2019 contest, "Look Away" performed by Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman failed to qualify for the final, finishing in 17th (last) place in the first semi-final with 23 points.
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 2020 Eurovision Song Contest on 3 June 2019.[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 2020 contest would be selected through Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020, reverting back to an open selection in order to determine their Eurovision entry and song for Eurovision 2020.[2]
Before Eurovision
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2020 was the ninth edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the music competition that selects Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. Yle announced the selected acts on 21 January 2020. The show will take place on 7 March 2020 at Tampere, and the winning entry will be determined by public voting and the votes from eight international jury panels.[3]
Competing entries
Yle opened a submission period between 1 November 2019 and 8 November 2019 in order for interested parties to submit their entries.[4] 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 ten-member expert panel appointed by Yle selected six entries for the competition from the received submissions. The competing entries were presented during a press conference on 21 January 2020.[3]
Final
The final took place on 7 March 2020 where six acts competed. "Looking Back" performed by Aksel Kankaanranta was selected as the winner. The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of public votes and eight international juries from Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Russia and the United Kingdom.[5] The viewers and the juries each had a total of 320 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 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 320 points rounded to the nearest integer: 32 points.
| Final – 7 March 2020 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Artist | Song | Composer(s) | Jury | Televote | Total | Place |
| 1 | Catharina Zühlke | "Eternity" | Marcia "Misha" Sondeijker, Roel Rats, Josefine Myrberg, Henrik Tala, Catharina Zühlke | 42 | 24 | 66 | 5 |
| 2 | Erika Vikman | "Cicciolina" | Janne Rintala, Mika Laakkonen, Erika Vikman, Saskia Vanhalakka | 58 | 99 | 157 | 2 |
| 3 | Aksel Kankaanranta | "Looking Back" | Joonas Angeria, Whitney Phillips, Connor McDonough, Riley McDonough, Toby McDonough | 76 | 94 | 170 | 1 |
| 4 | F3M | "Bananas" | Olli Äkräs, Hanna Ollikainen, Rafael Elivuo | 64 | 20 | 84 | 4 |
| 5 | Sansa | "Lover View" | Sansa, Yotto, Anton Sonin | 30 | 6 | 36 | 6 |
| 6 | Tika | "I Let My Heart Break" | Neea Jokinen, Timo Oiva, Oliver@ i-One Music, Lotus Wang | 50 | 77 | 127 | 3 |
| Detailed International Jury Votes | ||||||||||
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| Draw | Song |  |
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Total |
| 1 | "Eternity" | 6 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 42 | ||
| 2 | "Cicciolina" | 12 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 58 |
| 3 | "Looking Back" | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 76 |
| 4 | "Bananas" | 8 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 64 |
| 5 | "Lover View" | 4 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 30 | ||||
| 6 | "I Let My Heart Break" | 6 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 50 | ||
| International Jury Spokespersons | ||||||||||
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| International Jury Members[6] | |
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At Eurovision
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. On 28 January 2020, 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 second semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[7] However, due to 2019-20 pandemic of Coronavirus, the contest was cancelled.
In the Eurovision Song Celebration youtube broadcast in place of the heats, it was revealed that the song would have performed 13th, between Albania and Armenia[8]
References
- "Finland Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- Jiandani, Sanjay (3 June 2019). "Finland: YLE confirms participation in Eurovision 2020". esctoday.
- Gallagher, Robyn (28 November 2019). "Finland: YLE confirms six finalists have been selected from 426 entries for UMK 2020". Wiwibloggs.
- Luukela, Sami (1 November 2019). "🇫🇮 Finland: UMK 2020 dates announced, search for songs opens". escxtra.
- Luukela, Sami (3 March 2020). "🇫🇮 Countries voting at UMK20 final revealed". escxtra.
- https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2020/03/06/umkn-kansainvalinen-raati-esittaytyy
- Groot, Evert (28 January 2020). "Which country performs in which Eurovision 2020 Semi-Final". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
- Eurovision Song Contest (14 May 2020). "Part two of Eurovision Song Celebration". Retrieved 3 June 2020.