It has been now little over two months since Finland‘s broadcaster YLE reported that UMK will continue as an invitation-only contest. UMK viewers have also previously spoken out with what they’d like to see in the 2019 edition of the national final. Now YLE has confirmed that it will reveal details about UMK 2019 sometime in September.

Fans of the show could have details in as little as two weeks. Anssi Autio, the producer of UMK, told the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, “We will have something to tell by the end of September, possibly already in two weeks. Pieces are starting to click into right places.”

The producer doesn’t want to reveal anything yet and he advises people to wait for September.

As Iltalehti reports, it is still not known what format the show will take. In 2018, UMK moved away from a classic national-final format. Instead, UK X Factor star Saara Aalto was invited to participate. She performed three songs, which the public and jury voted on.

Earlier this year, UMK producer Anssi Autio confirmed that the invitation-only format would remain. At that stage, it had not been decided if the contest would again involve only one competing artist, or if several artists would be invited to compete.

The speculation about who will represent Finland continues to grow. One option could be the famous singer Tarja Turunen, the former Nightwish member. In June, Turunen told fans on Instagram that she is involved in a “secret” mission in Finland. But Tarja is a busy woman and this doesn’t necessarily mean she’s doing UMK.

Finnish bands Sunrise Avenue and The Rasmus have also pulled a lot of guesses from the public. The Rasmus said to Aamulehti last autumn:

“Well, there has been contacts and questions, but we will see. It is not our first goal right now but the 200 million Eurovision viewers are quite tempting.”

UMK 2016 finalist Mikael Saari is a favourite amongst Eurovision fans, but others have noted that he isn’t nearly as well known amongst the Finnish public as Saara Aalto and wouldn’t have the star appeal to base a UMK show around.

However, one thing is for sure. Alma, the popular Finnish singer, who was one of the most requested people to represent Finland next year, told Iltalehti earlier this year that she will not be seen at Eurovision because it is not her thing.

What format do you think UMK 2019 should take? Who would you like to see enter it? Share your thoughts below!

Read more Finland Eurovision news here

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A swede
A swede
5 years ago

Why not let authors from other countries send in their contributions? Sweden has around 2500 song contributions every year to Melodifestivalen, hoping to be picked out to be the one representing Sweden in Eurovision. I think you would get a lot of great songs, and the singer / performers should of course be Finnish. My co -writer and I would love to submit a song, but it seems impossible.

pp77
pp77
5 years ago

They made mistake last year. They send good singer with no good song. All 3 song from national final was not so good. I think with Domino and stage like from musick video, Finland would had better result than with Monster. With Domino they will be in final from 8 to 14 place. They made huge mistake in last few year in national final. In 2013 Mikael Saari was better choice than Krista. In 2014 MIAU was for me better choice than Softengine. In 2015 Opera Skaala , Shava, Angelo de Nil was better choice than Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät .… Read more »

Mamapanda
Mamapanda
5 years ago

September seems awefully early for an artist revelations, especially if they want to engage internationally known artists. So, I doubt we’ll have names. And frankly speaking, I would rather have UMK production news anyway. UMK2018 had a good viewership, but the whole process was a mess with a format change midway and production going over budget. On privately funded channel, some stuff happening there would have been grounds for immediate termination. YLE is publicly funded and a “big house”, so things take time. However, YLE now has a new strategy, and a new CEO with a broadcasting background will start… Read more »

Gary
Gary
5 years ago

Why should Finland even care anymore? They really tried this year and the result wasn’t good. Second-to-last.. Finns will never be in top 10. Even when they have good songs…

Lila
Lila
5 years ago
Reply to  Gary

I love Saara, but the song and performance was just kinda eurotrash and I never expected her to do too well after hearing what was getting sent. Finland can get great results (look at 2014, and obviously you can’t forget that they’ve won before), they just need to send something that’ll actually win votes.

Eastman
Eastman
5 years ago
Reply to  Lila

Completely agree. Everything that Finland tried to do in Lisbon (bright pop song, empowering message, fun staging), Israel did with an overall better package.

Finland can do better. The problem is UMK, as it seems to lead to good songs being selected that just don’t work as Eurovision entries. The last three non qualifiers were all good songs in their own way (and yes, I count PKN here!) but none of worked as Eurovision qualifiers (too noisy, too angry, too sad). No idea what needs to be fixed, as they keep changing UMK every year!

Eastman
Eastman
5 years ago
Reply to  Eastman

I just had a flashback to last year, when Saara was revealed as the artist. They were so sure she was their ticket to success. Krista even said something like “We think we could win this year!” when none of the three songs had even been written at this stage.

Maybe that’s the problem – they treat it like the Eurovision Best Friend Contest, not the Eurovision Song Contest. The song has to be the centre of the entry – it can’t be an afterthought.

Gary
Gary
5 years ago
Reply to  Lila

Well, it’s your opinion if 11th place is great. Finns don’t see it like that. And yes Finland won over ten years ago, after trying 45 years with poor results. But i kinda agree, that the selection is the main problem. And song is the most important thing, not the singer and her “fame”.

Mamapanda
Mamapanda
5 years ago
Reply to  Gary

Gary, you obviously have no idea on how Finns feel about ESC. We might have almost 60 years of mostly poor results and people telling they “don’t care”, but ESC Final 2018 still drew 1 million spectators against Ice Hockey World Championship match. Successful programs typically draw 600 000-700 000 spectators, nowadays. There’s no way YLE is giving this up. Now, selection is another matter. YLE tried hard to turn selection into Melodifestivalen, but that didn’t work, and won’t work. Simply not interesting enough for bigger crowds. I think some sort of a hybrid between online (unlike for many other… Read more »

Sabrina
Sabrina
5 years ago

I don’t believe that’s the case, but it would be great to see Tarja in Eurovision!

Lila
Lila
5 years ago

I would love for Finland to turn around their fortunes at Eurovision, Helsinki is a beautiful city and I’d love to see them hosting again soon. I just wish Yle was able to organize a national final as high quality as the other Nordic countries can. I definitely do miss the old style of UMK from 2013/2014, it went downhill after that (and so did their results).

ESCFan2009 (male, 22, German)
ESCFan2009 (male, 22, German)
5 years ago

OMG, as I read Alma first, I thought about the French singer (Requiem, France 2017). That would be quite funny 😀 😀
I would have nothing against Tarja being on a secret James Bond mission to represent Finland at Eurovision 😉