Finland: UMK23 Final announced!

The search for The Rasmus’ successor in Eurovision has just started!  Today Yle announced the dates for Finland’s biggest music competition: Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK).

The Grand Final will take place on February 25, 2023 in the city of Turku.  Seven artists will fight to wave the Finnish flag in Eurovision next year in Liverpool.  Although we will not get to know the name of the contestants until January, Yle has already anticipated that we will see both familiar and new artists in the competition.  Moreover, we will have “world-class opening numbers” and intermission acts by top Finnish artists during the night of the final.

363 songs were submitted for next year’s UMK.  However only seven songs will make it to the final.  A jury of music professionals was behind this important decision.

“The seven finalists include familiar faces and new, up-and-coming talents. We have, among others, the best dance song in the UMK history sung by an unbelievably strong new singer, a song that just oozes sexuality by a well-known artist, a heartbreakingly beautiful ballad by one of Finland’s biggest export hopefuls, well-known and up-and-coming bands, and one of the hardest rap bangers in UMK history.”

UMK 2023 dates

These are the dates so far for UMK2023:

January 11, 2023 Announcement of the competing acts

January 12-20, 2023 Each song will be announced everyday on UMK’s official channels

UMK 2022 proof to be a success for all competing artists.  Nevertheless, it was the participation of The Rasmus, one of the biggest highlights of the final.   Every song in UMK22 rose to the Top 50 on Finland’s Spotify charts, with the most popular songs taking the top spots of nearly every chart. To date, these songs have racked up over 31 million streams. BESS’s Ram pam pam was the year’s most played song on Finnish radio and the most streamed song online.

However, The Rasmus ended up winning UMK by a landslide ending in first place both by the jury and the public vote.  The Rasmus represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.  They ended in 21st place in the final.