Earlier this month, UMK viewers were asked to vote for the new trophy of the Finnish national final. Now the votes have been tallied and the Finnish people have spoken. The new trophy design of UMK is Minna Viitalähtä‘s Before the Party Starts, featuring a glitter snowball.
The online vote was close, but in the end, Before the Party Starts finished with 57.7% of the votes, with Heikki Herranen’s HH20 design in second place with 42.3% of the vote.
While HH20 has a minimalist design, Before the Party Starts added a bit of fun to the design. The trophy’s shape resembles a microphone but with a twist. The head of the trophy is like a snowglobe but filled with glitter. Like Sakis Rouvas at Eurovision 2004, UMK winners will be urged to shake it! and the glitter will sparkle and float.
The design is described like this:
“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.”
Wiwibloggs readers had a different favourite. In our poll, 64.7% of readers favoured the minimalist HH20 design, while 35.26% liked Before the Party Starts more.
Celebrating a decade of UMK
The trophy design contest was held to celebrate ten years of Finland’s Eurovision national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK).
The 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.”
Minna Viitalähtä will be presented with the prize for her winning trophy design at the press conference where the competing acts of UMK 2021 will also be revealed. She will also 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.
Meanwhile, planning for UMK 2021 is well underway. Entries closed in September and now an expert panel led by radio YleX’s music manager Tapio Hakanen will select a number of entries to compete in the national final. The finalists will be announced in January 2021.
What do you think of the new UMK trophy design? Do you like it more than the Eurovision crystal microphone? Should more national final trophies feature snowglobes? Tell us your thoughts below!
I like it, like many other national selection winner trophies it’s something that isn’t too “used” as a design.
bruh why…. i said it once and i’ll say it again, this trophy literally looks like a toilet paper roll i’m sorry
I kinda like it but the 2nd one deserved to win. Although I hate the
snow globe when you shake it, it looks like dirt.
Anyways good luck Finland!
I really like it, it looks elegant 🙂
so the tacky one won. ok then
I mean what did we expect from core eurovision fans lol
Maybe let’s not bash eurovision fans on a eurovision website.
Chill out, i mean as a eurovision fan myself its pretty clear there is atleast some tackiness to the whole thing. Especially last decade.
Sebi, Better Love, Arcade, Soldi, Az En Apam, Kruna, Telemoveis, Walking Out, Limits, Chameleon, Ktheju Tokes, Truth, Mall, A Matter Of Time, Bones, Oniro Mou, Nobody But You, Qami, Stones, Together, You Let Me Walk Alone, City Lights, Blackbird, Amar Pelos Dois, Flashlight, Paper, My Turn, Fly With Me, Line, In Too Deep, Origo, Where I Am, Story Of My Life, and Beautiful Mess would beg to differ. And that’s just from the past 3 years.
I said atleast some
Bruh.