He’s the Finnish A-lister who has long been a fan favourite to sing for Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest. And as it turns out, Robin Packalen is warming to the idea of competing in the country’s national selection UMK.

“For the last ten years, I’ve been saying no to that,” Robin told YLE in a recent interview. “However, Eurovision is starting to look like a credible concept. It’s under consideration.”

His comments are timed with the release of his latest EP Rest in Beat, which makes good on his 2019 decision to release music primarily in English.

At the time he said that his goal was international success. But as YLE reports, that’s been a rather rocky road — despite signing with Universal Music Germany way back in 2015.

His EP was originally meant to drop in the summer of 2020 and be accompanied by a tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Coronavirus put the kibosh on his plans.

He tells YLE that Eurovision seems like a reasonable route to take if he wants to amp up his name recognition abroad. His change of tune — from scratching his head years before to seeing a major opportunity — stems partly from the success of UMK’s most recent winners Blind Channel. They’ve achieved massive success with their track “Dark Side” and its follow-up “Balboa”.

But Robin is not putting all of his eggs in that basket. He wants to make in-roads in China and has fed his music into Chinese social media channels like Douyun — the local equivalent of Tiktok — and Youtube’s counterpart Bilibili for some time.

Are you feeling Robin’s latest offerings? What style of music would you like to see him take to UMK? Do you think he has what it takes to succeed at Eurovision? Let us know in the comments box down below.

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alonso
alonso
2 years ago

Chinese version of TikTok is named DouYin, not DouYun.

Ellen
Ellen
2 years ago

‘Eurovision is starting to look like a credible concept’. Boy, you’re late. Eurovision was credible many years ago (2012 for me).

sam
sam
2 years ago
Reply to  Ellen

to eurofans maybe, but i think 2018 or 2019 was the turning point for the general public

Zisk
Zisk
2 years ago
Reply to  sam

It’s not even explicitly 2019 contest itself, it’s the fame Arcade got later on tiktok followed by Maneskin also becoming popular on tiktok and thus getting chart success now that streaming is counted because of it. I think people are realizing how big a platform tiktok is for creating pop culture these days.

Alex
Alex
2 years ago
Reply to  sam

2018 was barely a turning point when a song with chicken sounds won! I think it happened slowly year by year, songs were going virals or becoming hits and record labels were noticing and sending decent entries to the broadcasters. Also, interest was increasing from the general public and more countries were willing to win. Arcade and Maneskin going viral also helped, as many artists think Eurovision is a good vehicle to launch an international career.

Alex
Alex
2 years ago

So he wants to do Eurovision now because Maneskin won and had success + Finland did exceptionally well…..in the meantime he was rejecting Eurovision for the past ten years. YAWN. I dislike this type of artists who mock Eurovision but they want to use it for their own benefit (see Mika too if he is going to host it).

By the way, his latets music video has 16k views, i would’n’t say this is a number of a big name…

Also, someone should tell him that taking part in Eurovision does not guarantee an international career…

Danny
Danny
2 years ago
Reply to  Alex

Based on thw text above he didn’t really say anything bad about the contest though.

Ravencrow Neversmiles
Ravencrow Neversmiles
2 years ago
Reply to  Alex

As a finnish person I can say he never said anything bad about eurovision, just that he wasn’t interested after being asked by reporters or fans. It’s also understandable popular finnish artists don’t want to take part in eurovision since we finnish people can be very critical about our own entries. If their career wasn’t already failing before eurovision it certainly will be after flopping there.

Frisian esc
Frisian esc
2 years ago

Same with ann sophie. She basically got loaded with negative comments after her 0 points but now that she turned 4 chairs om the voice it’s all like ‘ you deserved way better at eurovision!’ Again.

Alex
Alex
2 years ago
Reply to  Frisian esc

I don’t think people hated on Ann Sophie…tabloids blamed it on politics mostly.

Alex
Alex
2 years ago

basically artists like him are shady because they think Eurovision is beneath them and mostly for new artists that have nothing to risk for.

It’s not just Finland, many many countries criticise their own entries and there will always be people who dislike their country’s entry or artist. If you’ve got a great song, you’re talented, you’ve got the broadcaster’s support and the staging is awesome, you’ve got nothing to worry about!

I’m annoyed that such established artists have just appreciated Eurovision because it has produced hits and launched Maneskin’s massive success around the world.

Ravencrow Neversmiles
Ravencrow Neversmiles
2 years ago
Reply to  Alex

I just said he hasn’t said anything bad about eurovision. Trust me he is a very humble, polite and overall unproblematic person. You have to understand that eurovision is a thing that can make or break your career as an artist. And you have to be mentally prepared for a massive wave of hate. Artists should be able yo decide which directions to take with their career. They aren’t obligated to take part in esc if that’s not what they want to do. Saying thanks but no thanks to the competition isn’t mockery. There is no point in gatekeeping the… Read more »

Ixuxu
Ixuxu
2 years ago

Ok, let´s talk about ESCZ and the fact that Mikolas Josef submitted a song!

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
2 years ago
Reply to  Ixuxu

Yeah, I just found out about that on another Eurovision new site. Maybe he has another Banger that could get Czech Republic back to the final.

Dandi dansa
Dandi dansa
2 years ago

I could see him competing or even hosting UMK in 2022!

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
2 years ago
Reply to  Dandi dansa

It’s probably too late for him for UMK 2022, but maybe he might accept being a host for the show and may consider submitting in the future.

Dandi dansa
Dandi dansa
2 years ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

He has been rumoured before too, so this could be him giving a hint that he did submit a song for next year.

Jonas
Jonas
2 years ago

I can’t really warm to him if he’s turned his nose up at the contest for the last ten years.

Polegend Godgarina
2 years ago

robin is nothing like bieber. he’s talented, unproblematic and charismatic lmao. hope to see him at esc

Joe
Joe
2 years ago

Anytime I hear of someone trying to get famous on Chinese social media, I think of Bart Baker and the red flags start shooting waaaay up.

Can Haloo Helsinki compete for real this time?

Poju90
Poju90
2 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Unfortunatly no