Next year, Finland will celebrate the tenth holding of its national final UMK. And to celebrate this milestone, broadcaster YLE is looking for a new winner’s trophy — and they’re asking for viewers to vote for their favourite.
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (Contest For New Music) debuted in 2012 and has been used to selected Finland’s past nine Eurovision entries. UMK will be back in 2021 for the tenth time — and YLE is celebrating the first decade of the national final.
The design contest was opened in June and YLE received 24 entries, both from Finland and abroad. From those, two finalists were selected by a jury of Finnish design experts and the UMK producer.
Describing why the two finalists had stood out, the jury said, “the UMK spirit was best expressed and the jury felt that their external form was valuable, convincing but not too serious. Both will last long and serve their purpose. One design has a monumental style, while the other is playfully festive. Both designs were ready-made and thoughtful and seemed realistic to implement.”
With the two finalist designs selected, it’s now up to the public to vote for their favourite. Official voting can be made via the YLE website. The voting period will close on 16 October.
The winner will be announced in January at the press conference where the competing acts of UMK 2021 will also be revealed. The designer of the winning trophy will receive a cash award of €3,000. The eventual winner of UMK 2021 — Finland’s selection for Eurovision 2021 — will be the first act to receive the new trophy.
Before the Party Starts by Minna Viitalähde
“Resting on the table, it resembles a sturdy microphone but the trophy is not any old lifeless chunk. The ball works in the same way as snowglobes that each of us has held in our hands at least once in our lives. The glitter flowing in the ball is like a beautiful reminder of the confetti dropping on top of the winner.”
HH20 by Heikki Herranen
“The prize of Finland’s UMK must represent Finnish values, be elegant, responsible and, above all, impressive. As a result, the idea behind the HH20 Award is a pure and clear design language that celebrates the flow of new music in all its simplicity.”
Which design should be the new trophy for UMK 2021?
UMK viewers can have their say in the official trophy vote, but which design do you think should be the new trophy of UMK? Check out the two options and vote for your favourite in our poll. As always, you can only vote once, so choose carefully!
[polldaddy poll=10621977]What do you think of the two trophy designs? Which one do you think should go to the UMK 2021 winner? Tell us your thoughts below!
I want the snow globe one because the brick looks clumsy to hold
The second one because the first one of the bottom part of the trophy resembles like a toilet paper roll LOL
The second one looks really good. The first one reminds of the globe that is awarded to winner of the Alpine Skiing World Cup
I like the simplicity of HH20
The second one looks better and classier, but the first one looks more like a trophy. Anyway, always glad to see a country concerned on making their national final last. That’s how you build a tradition.
they’re both really ugly smh. back to the drawing board
They just can’t make it look like a regular freaking trophy, huh?
If Wiwi are looking for another poll, maybe you could have one about the best Eurovision trophy ever? There are many nice ones from before the one used today came in.
I love snowglobes, but the second one looks more modern, elegant and dynamic. So it’s HH20 for me 😀
that first one looks like a toilet paper roll with a cheap snowglobe on top
regardless it is ugly
Haha, same
What I imagine is the 2021 Finnish representative swiftly
lifting it up in the air after winning and I think for that option
the rectangle one is the best, but I like the design of
the snowglobe more, It is very hard to chose
I don’t know honestly. The snowglobe one in my opinion is more interesting, but doesn’t really look like a trophy and is a bit tacky. But the HH20 one is modern and all, but I don’t know about the shape and it looks a bit plain. I guess I’ll wait and see.
Definitely hh20. That looks like something i would want to incorporate in my home design if i somehow was the winner of umk and it feels less tacky than the first one.
hh20, while unconventional, is sleek and modern and nice to look at, while the handle of the snow globe one and the whole idea of it just seems tacky to me. but congrats umk on 10 years
I’m leaning more towards the snowglobe because the second option looks like something that could easily slip off from your hand when it gets sweaty, and looks more breakable.