The Finland’s UMK final is still almost four weeks away. But the class of 2021 are already starting to make an impression. Teflon Brothers x Pandora have shot straight into the latest official chart countdown at #2, while Blind Channel and Ilta are racking up high numbers on Spotify.
Teflon Brothers x Pandora enter Finnish charts at #2 with “I Love You”
Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland publishes a weekly list of the top 20 songs in Finland based on sales and streaming figures. And the most recent countdown for the third week of 2021 sees “I Love You” debut at number two.
While Teflon Brothers haven’t missed out on the top 20 since 2013, this is significant for UMK and Eurovision. Between 2012 and 2017, no Finnish Eurovision hopeful cracked the main chart. Saara Aalto ended the drought in 2018 when Monsters entered at #18 before peaking at #13. In 2020, Erika Vikman reached #5 with “Cicciolina”.
However, we have to go all the way back to 2009 to see a Finnish Eurovision song so high up the charts. Then Waldo’s People topped the countdown. A quick perusal of the archives shows that since Eurovision winners Lordi peaked at number one in 2006, only two other Finnish song contest entries have entered the top two in the charts – Waldo’s People and Teräsbetoni in 2008. Paradise Oskar, a song writer on “I Love You”, reached #6 with “Da Da Dum” in 2011.
Recent entries from the likes of Softengine, Krista Siegfrids, Sandhja and Norma John made inroads on secondary charts, but none broke into the main countdown. Typically, international Eurovision acts perform better. Alexander Rybak, Emmelie de Forest, Loreen, Netta and Måns Zelmerlöw all enjoyed top 20 success.
Blind Channel and Ilta make the Spotify charts
While Teflon Brothers x Pandora’s chart achievement is impressive, it may be too early to declare them the people’s choice for Eurovision 2021. Compared to most of the other UMK entries, they were at a distinct advantage in the charts. That’s because the UMK 2021 songs were released on a staggered basis, spread across seven days. “I Love You” had a whole week to rack up the streams and downloads necessary to chart, whereas others only had one or two days to work with.
The competition is clear if we look at the Spotify charts. On Friday, two more UMK songs joined “I Love You” in the streaming top five — Ilta’s “Kelle mä soitan” at #3 and Blind Channel’s “Dark Side” at #5. Both songs remained in the top 10 on Saturday — Blind Channel climbing to #3 and Ilta slipping to #6. Teflon Brothers x Pandora remain constant at #2, a spot they’ve held onto ever since 15 January. The remaining four entries can be found in the lower half of Spotify’s top 100. The impact of these streaming figures on the overall charts won’t be known until next week.
Are you one of the people constantly streaming “I Love You”? Are you surprised by its chart success? Comment below.
TEFLON AND PANDORA
BLIND CHANNEL
ILTA
FINLAND SHOULD CHOOSE ONE OF THEM.
these are exactly my favourites, too.
I love this selection, I really care about it. Here is my ranking :
1. Teflon and Pandora
2. Blind Channel
3. Danny
4. Ilta
5. Oskr
6. Aksel
7. Laura
“Ilta” this girl can sing ! Looking forward for the English version, and it will be a massive hit. The song has all the elements 🙂
I need no english version – I prefer diversity in languages and I love the finnish one.
There’s not a single song that would be a terrible choice, but for a good result I don’t see Danny or Laura as an option to go. Danny’s song is good, but in Eurovision it might not attract a huge televote result, but the juries will love it like North-Macedonia in 2019. Laura has shown her effort and the best song from her came in 2016 with Supersonic, sadly the two times she has been in Eurovision she hasn’t gotten into the final and I doubt this will be a change to that. Other than that I’m happy with any… Read more »
Kelle mä soitan is my faav (with Aksel). I think that it is going to be a two run between Blind CHannel and Teflon. I don’t like Dark Side nor I love you, but that’s it. Good luck everybody
Hi Una, I remember voting for Lose Control, I seem to have a knack of unwittingly choosing the last place finisher. Even more horrifying they had to rely on the jury to qualify.
I read in some comments that this selection is as good as ESCZ2020 and yet most fans were disappointed with the winner. I have a similar fear for UMK 2021 in terms of the quality they are serving and the ultimate ESC placement. No winner of UMK will be disappointing but in case they chose a song that doens’t place that well in ESC , the fans will be disappointed. Dark side is risky , but will have a huge televote and hopefully a decent jury vote too. I love you is also likely to have a good televote but… Read more »
i was shocked when i saw this at #2 in the finnish chart (would’ve been #1 by a landslide hadn’t it been for olivia rodrigo’s breakthrough smash), it’s that type of sound i’d expect no one to listen to unironically lmao quarantine has truly been driving ppl cray-cray
it’s because it is Telfon Brothers we are talking about.. if this was released by someone not that famous I doubt it would be 2nd.
They just did a cute video with the contestants reacting to hearing each other’s songs for the first time. I like knowing that my top 3 would probably all do great on the press cycle cuz their reactions are the best (especially Ilta and Blind Channel).
yes they all seem so fun!
I cannot even BEGIN to explain why this song would fail miserably at ESC. Make smart CHOICES, Finland…
This could literally be a KEiiNO moment in 2021. Take several seats!
I think that people just pick up any on any song that is rock, slightly melodic and just good. But if you actually know the genre I don’t think the song is anything special in its genre.. I think people are completely wanting it at esc just because it’s something we rarely get and not because it is an amazing song as some people are trying to say it is. Yes it’s good of course, but far from something worth hyping… imo..
I know I’ll get lots of hate..
It’s Eurovision. Something “SPECIAL” happens once in a blue moon.
Well all I can say is, I love the it! By far on of my favourite songs to sing a long to at full blast in my car to work and back. For me that’s all that matters, rather than assessing its criteria of what good a ‘rock genre’ song should be.
yes that is true. I’m unfortunately not a huge fan of it. I preferred AWS in 2018.
What did you think of hatari, that was another song I really enjoyed? Maybe as not a traditional rock lover, I prefer the more rocky songs with pop undertones.
I loved Hatari! I also prefer rocky songs with pop undertones (Finland 2014 is in my top 3 of 2014 so yeah haha), but Hatari had something special! I don’t know why am i not enjoying BC, maybe because of those woof-woof sounds or the mixture of rap style of singing… maybe the live performance will convince me.. but so far I am not that impressed by the song. Maybe I would also prefer it with Finnish lyrics, because the English lyrics are quite basic for most of time…
Personally, I like both Teflon Bros and Blind Channel, but indeed, I believe many people just want “Dark Side”, because we have so rare rock songs in Eurovision, the same with metal (AWS) etc. And I’m always wondering: are people really THAT, I mean THAT tired of English pop and chasing everything that is different, no matter what? xD
“I Love You” would be something fresh and different from Finland. “Dark Side” is ok but nothing new. It’s too much like some other Finnish entries in the past.
I love you, is really growing on me, and I get that buzz when it comes on. But I’m backing blind chanel all the way. If they get a good staging, I can’t see them being beaten. All in all, Finland you have really upped your game this year. It’s so good that you have chosen a diversity of songs, but that are actually quality songs in there field. Sometimes I find other national selections just put a song in so it’s a diverse selection rather than how good it is.
I absolutely love 5/7 of the songs. Making a top is quite hard because I love so many but here it is: 7 – Danny – It’s a fine song, and it is different but I can’t see myself listening to it any more 3/10 6 – Laura – I like the melody, the verses are nothing special and I wish it was higher impact 6/10 5 – Ilta – I feel like it is just very similar to a lot of songs we have heard before, but I like her voice 6.5/10 4 – Oskr – I feel bad… Read more »
Our list is practically identical, haha. Good choices!
That’s interesting! “I love you” is my current favourite entry to win, but my close second “Dark Side” is currently leading in the betting odds to win. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see if Dark side does better than I love you, or if the latter’s lead is maintained in the charts.
All in all, I really enjoy this year’s UMK entries!
Dark Side – awesome. Hurt – ok. I could even live with “Lie” as the winner, but please please please NOT “I love you”!! The lyrics are so dumb and the refrain is more than nasty. I would never give a vote for that…
you clearly don’t know the meaning behind the lyrics. This is the Fins choosing, they know the meaning of the song, let them decide.
That’s BIG! The only song keeping it from no. 1 is the all-dreadful Driver’s License. This could potentially make them win with a landslide on televotes.
Driver’s License is pretty grim isn’t it? Just when we need cheering up. Give me Dance Monkey any day!
I mean this was only to be expected. We Finns love to support our Eurovision candidates!
No, it was not thanks to that and people tend to belittle our candidates in fact, apart from few cases. UMK songs making their way into charts is pretty rare. But this was expected because Teflon Brothers are HUGE in Finland. Most of their musicvids has over or bit less than 10 million views in youtube.
It’s just the boomers complaining on Youtube and tabloids that make us Finns seem negative, but deep down at least us young people are constantly streaming these UMK songs and we support these artists.