February 25th. That’s when Finnish voters and an international jury will decide which of the seven finalists competing in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023 gets to sing in Liverpool. Some acts have already climbed the domestic charts and generated buzz among the international fandom. But, as we’ve seen in the past, a live performance can change absolutely everything.
Ahead of the big day, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — have listened to and rated each of the songs. The panel for this jury includes 10 people, who hail from Finland, the U.K, Australia, Germany, Romania, and the United States.
Writing on Instagram ahead of the competition, Lxandra explained her song this way: “‘Something to Lose’ is about the importance of having something to fight for in life. Those people that give your every day meaning. We easily become hyper independent and forget how important it is to find connection in this very individualistic culture. I’ve had times when I felt so disconnected that I didn’t really know why I’m here at all and just wanted to disappear.”
Does Lxandra’s message come through? Read on to find out.
Lxandra — Something To Lose (UMK 2023) Reviews
Tom: A really lovely ballad. The lyrics are haunting and heartbreaking, but still sweet and tender. “Something to Lose” is utterly relatable and hits that spot in your brain that makes you consider your past relationships. Then your heart joins in, yearning for someone — and maybe someone to love. With shades of Adele, and as the only real ballad in the contest, Lxandra may have the Salvador Sobral effect, shining through the madness to take the gold at the end. Gorgeous.
Score: 8
Dayana: Lxandra definitely stands out as the only ballad at UMK this year. Her song is melancholic and yet gives hope for better times ahead. “I’m living for more than myself like I never have” — definitely something relevant to the current year for me.
Score: 6.5
Deban: Sometimes in life, the moments and people that we value the most can haunt us to the point where we begin to question our very purpose in life. We often face an existential crisis: what have we achieved? What have we got to lose? What makes us who we are? Lxandra tackles this heavy subject matter in a manner that’s bold and delicate in equal measure. Solitary yet connected in sound and movement, “Something To Lose” is arguably 2023’s most beautiful ballad so far. The feelings of despair are articulated with poise, and the outcome of her expression is solidly reassuring — Yes, the world is better with you in it.
Score: 9.5
Sebastian: Haunting, emotional and a surprise ballad in this year’s UMK, Lxandra stands out from the pack. She is a storyteller — not someone dropping an overproduced song void of meaning. There’s heart and soul behind this track, and Lxandra’s vocal plays are impressive. Hopefully the stage performance can show feelings and emotions beyond the obvious grief.
Score: 7
Calvin: Unfortunately, this is the one song I can’t connect with at this year’s UMK. And I don’t understand why because it has all of the ingredients to make that connection. A charismatic singer, a well-produced ballad and a cinematic climax usually work for me. But something is missing — maybe the song is a bit too slow or simply not relatable on a personal level. I’m confident Lxandra can elevate this live to convince my stubborn heart to love this song.
Score: 5.5
Samuel: I am loving Lxandra’s vocals (and hair). “Something To Lose” also has beautiful lyrics. But for me, ballads have to go big or go home. UMK has reached new heights in quality, so it’s no wonder that the song with the slowest tempo is failing to engage with me completely. Sorry Lxandra, but I hope to see a power ballad from you in future, or maybe even something completely different!
Score: 4
Rick: This is quality! I really like Lxandra’s voice and the class it transports. But unfortunately it’s not interesting or exciting enough for a competition like Eurovision. I don’t think it’s memorable and it probably wouldn’t get many votes in the Eurovision semi-final as a result of that. However, I can’t wait to see what she brings on stage. It’s a nice contrast to the other songs. But it’s just not the song to go with.
Score: 4
Ruxandra: This song is emotional. Its beauty is in the fact that Lxandra keeps it simple. Simple, but not boring, and the lyrics are actually quite complex. She meditates on ‘turning a house into a home’ and ‘a body into a soul’ — it’s about what scares us and the fear of losing what you love. Lyrically, it is among the strongest ballads from any national final this year. I love her style and the whole aesthetic — of darkness and light, of being pared back but passionate. If she wins, this would be one of the most touching performances for sure. Even if they have more tricks up their sleeve for the stage show, the video is a great starting point. Keep it like this.
Score: 9
Suzanne: Love the piano opening. Angelic face and voice. I love that Lxandra is searching for her dharma and wants to know she is impactful to others. Connection brings her gratitude and the realization that she makes a difference. In the end, she finds something to lose. Tender and touching tune.
Score: 8.5
William: Lxandra very clearly didn’t create this song for competition — she created it to convey her truth and perhaps release some of the pain and trauma that haunts her. In that sense she’s already won. In terms of UMK, she’s giving me strong Aksel 2020 vibes — she’s the sincere, under-the-radar artist who could upend all expectations, set by bookies and streaming charts. “Something to Lose,” easily the most personal song of the competition, takes raw emotion and wraps it up in something smooth and tender — you want to see it through. I won’t be surprised if this ends up surprising on the Saturday.
Score: 8.5
We have removed the highest and lowest scores before calculating the result to weed out any potential bias.
The Wiwi Jury Average: 7.13
Does Lxandra have anything to lose at UMK? Is she the dark horse to take it all? Let us know down below.
Our overall rankings:
- Benjamin — “Hoida mut” 8.5
- Käärijä — “Cha Cha Cha” 8.13
- KUUMAA — “Ylivoimainen” 8.07
- Robin Packalen — “Girls Like You” 7.19
- Lxandra — “Something to Lose” 7.13
- Keira — “No Business On The Dancefloor” 6.75
- The Portion Boys — “Samaa taivasta katsotaan” 6.63
Lxandra stands out so much in the UMK line-up. Not only that it’s an only ballad, but it’s perhaps the most intimate and pensieve song there. I love how many interpretations these lyrics can have, and how each of them elevates the material. The melody is very nice too, and as said below, I can certainly see a certain cinematic quality here. I feel like I’d be even more drawn to it if it goes bigger in the instrumental, especially near the ending. This way, it needs more time to grow on you. It’s still a very poignant choice. –… Read more »
Fortunately, generic eurofans don’t vote! Terrible choices! Käärijä has the best song so far not only in Finland…!
Do artists make art as a form of therapy? I say yes, but not everybody thinks so. Why else make it?
My absolute favorite song not just in UMK but from all of the national finals. And her dance gives me Loreen 2012 vibes, and that’s a lot to say for a ballad. If Spotify is an accurate indicator, she’s not close to being the winner but maybe she can sneak through with her ballad and split the upbeat songs.
As much as I want a Finnish song at ESC, Lxandra’s song just hit me hard and it’s by far the song I relate to the most of this batch. It’s calm and simple yet not boring,
and her soothing voice and lyrical ambiguity carry the song in a fantastic and heartwarming way 🙂
I have some hope too, it’s my favorite among the English songs in this year’s UMK.
It wouldn’t be crazy or unprecedented if she won, though. Aksel did that in 2020 🙂
TH rhythm feels off. I kept expecting a bigger climax vocal, but didn’t get it. Oh well.
This is one of my favourite songs from national finals this year. I once wrote a simple emotive song at a piano about my own feelings when I was much younger, and sadly I was harshly criticised for writing about “something” that no-one who listened could understand. I was also called “weak” for writing this kind of thing, and the song itself was mocked. Naturally, this means I can feel every word of “Something to lose”, and the deep depression it comes out of. Thank you to the four songwriters on this song for vindicating this kind of songwriting. Now… Read more »
Do you know many songs on this subject? There’s one I like very much called “Dreams”, by Josh Ritter. Six minutes long, so there’s more room for detail. He tries everything to feel better… religion, romance, alcohol… eventually he finds a solution in medical help.
Josh Ritter, wow. Thanks, I’ll listen to that after we’re done with this evening. (Melfest is starting now.)
Cool. I listened to it, thanks. Total storytelling going on there, driven by the lyrics. 🙂
He does mostly a lot more cheerful songs, I really like him. If you don’t know him, this is probably not the best place to start. He deserves to be more popular than he is.
What a wonderful comment! Thanks for it.
Is it important to the artist that such a song has an audience? Is getting these feelings out of your system by expressing them in music enough?
Not all artists are the same, but for me: Yes, and mostly yes.
Thank you for the insight.
This is a beautiful song in a very strong final. Yes it stands out as the only ballad in the line up but it is so pure and performed so well its haunting feel continues to draw me in. It does remind me in the feeling of Norma John and Blackbird from 2017 who i felt were robbed and should have qualified for the final that year. If this does not win i will continue to love it but if it does in the current line up of winning songs it will stand out and as such look forward to… Read more »
I’m going to comment twice.
The first is to link to a piano-only cover of the song, so you can also experience this and make up your own mind, here:
https://youtu.be/vmwSOiqHrh8
This song is behind a few of the others for me, but when it hits me, it hits hard. “Will anybody miss me if I don’t come back?”
This song offers hope, which is good, and worth it just because of that. I’d still like to know just how Lxandra achieved this turnaround in her mental health. That would be helpful.
Too vague. The message could even backfire, by implying it’s impossible to happy on your own. We should have a big happy ever after with the love of our lives to be complete.
To be happy
I’m not wrong. My point is that the listener might not have the imagination to realise that it could be about anything. Like you said, we are awash with bad love songs so many ears have been trained to expect every song to be about romance. I agree that this song could be about anything. The “something” could be anything… a pet, a job, a pregnancy, a husband, a wife, a vocation to the priesthood… we’ll never know, and there is no advice on how to achieve it.
I know that you have a strong preference for self-empowerment songs over love songs, Jonas, but I’m personally with Ari on this one. Not only that this song is ambiguous, but songs about love and devotion can be just as amazing and fulfilling as those about self-love. Both subjects can be developed somewhere within their diad: Love songs can go from crippling co-dependence to beautiful mutual relationship filled with respect. Self-empowerment songs can go from celebrating narcissism to encouraging people to stand on their own. Neither is right or wrong without the proper context.
There’s no need to pick a side. I’m just pondering and ruminating here. Not everything is an argument, sometimes conversation is just conversation. I’m still figuring this song out. I love it either way.
You are right. I also only meant ”the opinion on this topic” thus far in the conversation, nothing bigger than that. Sorry if it accidentally came off as such. Sure, the song is layered, and makes people talk about it. That’s a good thing. Also, I do agree that songs strictly promoting co-dependence for the sake of it can be sending the wrong message. This, as both of you said, is a message that could be interpreted in a million different ways.
There’s also the three minute rule, which obviously limits the scope. Maybe if she had another minute, she could elaborate further and not hurry it along so quickly at the end.
If it’s not a therapy session, then why should I care? There’s no reason for me to invest in this song, if it’s just a matter-of-fact telling of a story. Anyway, like I said at the very start of my comment, if it offers hope, that is enough.
It is a therapy session.
Therapy. Otherwise it’s just another song of the assembly line.
I’m glad this session has worked for, we’ve made some progress. See you next time.
Worked for you
I’d just like to add that this song has obviously not left the impression on Ari and his upvoters that they think it has. Such witheringly dismissive words about somebody would not come from somebody capable of compassion or empathy. Sad.
The “happy ending” might only serve to abandon listeners who up to that point were identifying strongly, leaving them feeling even more alone.
I know I am in the minority here, but Lxandra is my UMK winner this year.