Finland: Saara Aalto is our favourite to qualify from UMK

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) 2016 — Finland’s Eurovision 2016 selection — will finally kick off today live from Helsinki at 20:00 CET. The search for the artist to follow Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät will start with the first of three heats. Six artists will sing but only three will reach the final. Your favourite to qualify to the final is Saara Aalto but what do we think?

Over the past week Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — listened and reviewed all the songs from the first heat. It seems that Saara Aalto will be sailing straight to the final, as her song “No Fear” was also our favourite. Saara got a Wiwi Jury verdict of 7.3 out of 10. Our jury members described the song as “ethereal and elegant whilst also being catchy“.

In second place we have Pää-Äijät with their song “Shamppanjataivas“. Many of us compared the duo to Staysman & Lazz, who finished third in Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix last year. Our jury members think Pää-Äijät’s song is “silly, somewhat tacky, yet incredibly catchy and endearing” while others weren’t so keen, saying it was “tuneless, repetitive and gimmicky“.

The last song that we think should qualify comes from Finnish disco queen Eini, who has almost 40 years of experience behind her. Her song “Draamaa” got a Wiwi Jury verdict of 5.83. Some wiwibloggers loved the song — “this woman is serving some sexy schlager and I am all over this song and this music video in every way” — while other weren’t that impressed, describing the song “outdated and peculiar piece of garbage, both too antique and too futuristic for 2016“.

This obviously means that Stella Christine with “Ain’t Got Time For Boys“, ClemSO with “Thief” and Mikko Herranen with “Evil Tone” are not among our dream qualifiers.

Do you agree with us? Let us know in the comments!