This year Finland has gotten more attention than ever — all of Europe has been cha-cha-chaing along with Käärijä. Even though Jere didn’t bring the trophy back to his home country, the city of Tampere now bears the proud name of “The wannabe Eurovision 2024 host city”. Instead of Eurovision, Tampere will be hosting the Finnish national final — Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu — on the 10th of February.
The bar is high for the UMK hosts and expectations are great. Tapio Hakanen, the chair of the UMK jury, has promised us the all-time best group of entries. Given how humble Finns are, that’s a very big statement and we love to see it.
Last month the Finnish team published a list hinting at the seven finalists of UMK 2024. That’s sparked a lot of speculation. But for this post we’re stepping away from the hints — like two returnees in a duo — and are instead focusing on our dream acts.
This list features Finnish artists that have never participated in UMK, but who we would love to see rocking the Nokia Arena and Eurovision stage.
UMK 2024 wishlist: 9 of our dream acts to represent Finland
1. Isac Elliot
Isac Elliot is a pop singer belonging to the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. He is one of the biggest young artists in the country and has released music both in English and Finnish.
Interestingly for the Eurovision community, he collaborated with Mahmood for the Soldi remix – an English/Italian version of the iconic track.
Isac is one of the artists who has rejected an offer to represent Finland in the past. Other artists who turned down the offer include The Rasmus and Robin Packalen — as you can see, never say never!
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2. ABREU
Abreu is a Finnish artist and songwriter, who gained popularity after taking second place in Finnish Idol in 2007. Half-Finnish, half-Portuguese, Anna speaks four languages fluently.
She is one of the best-selling artists in the Finland and among the top female names we can think of.
Here’s her newest single Sulle tehty which was released last week and is already in the Top 3 on Finnish Spotify.
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3. Gasellit
Gasellit is a rap band formed in 2008 in Helsinki. During their career, they have been named as the Band of the Year by Emma Gala and won in last year’s rap/R&B category. Next spring, they will also celebrate their 15-year anniversary at one of Finland’s biggest arenas, Helsinki Ice Hall.
The group members are Hätä-Miikka (Miikka Niiranen), Päkä (Pekka Salminen), Thubehefner (Tuomas Pietikäinen) and Musa-Jusa (Jussi Mikkonen).
While rap hasn’t been one of the most popular genres at Eurovision, Käärijä might just have changed that.
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4. Mikael Gabriel & nublu
A banger from a Finnish-Estonian duo wouldn’t be the first one this year — the “It’s crazy, it’s party” agenda continues!
Mikael Gabriel, an artist from Helsinki, has been rumoured to be a UMK participant several times in the past. While we haven’t gotten to see him on the Eurovision stage yet, he made an appearance at UMK 2020 as an interval act.
Nublu is a 27-year-old Estonian rapper with a signature style that has won him fans in Estonia and abroad.
Mikael’s and nublu’s styles perfectly compliment each other, and here you can watch their latest collaboration, Vihje.
5. Pete Parkkonen
Pete Parkkonen is another Idol-alumni on the list, who rose to fame after participation in the talent show. While his first albums were in English, most of his recent work is published in the Finnish language.
Pete has an indirect connection to Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu — his brother Ville participated in the contest’s 2012 edition with the song “Lasikaupunki”.
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6. pilvet pilvet
Eurovision 2023 was rich on the boybands, so how about a new Finnish boyband for next year?
The “clouds clouds” band from Helsinki are newcomers to the music scene, however they have already built a large fanbase in the country.
Here’s their debut single Unta, which was described as “nostalgic with a longing-for-summer feeling” by Rumba.fi:
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7. Joalin
Joalin is a pop singer from Turku. She’s hugely popular not only in Finland but also abroad. In her teenage years, Joalin was a member of Now United, an international band formed by the Idol show creator Simon Fuller.
Raised in Spain and Mexico, the young singer performs in Finnish, English and Spanish.
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8. BEHM
Rita Behm is a singer and songwriter who started her career in 2016.
During her years as a musician, she has successfully reached the top chart list in Finland several times and released an album which went platinum even before it was out.
Just like Mikael Gabriel, Behm has already been on the UMK stage before – as a guest act with her hit “Hei rakas” in 2020.
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9. Jenni Vartiainen
Last but not least on our list is Jenni Vartiainen, a pop singer with a long career in the industry.
In 2002, she won the talent show Popstars and the same year joined a girl band. The group released three albums before they split up.
Afterwards Jenni went solo and released her debut album Ihmisten edessä, which won the Album of the Year award. Her next releases were record-breaking and topped the Finnish charts throughout the years.
The singer took a break after her last album Monologi in 2018, and just recently made a comeback with her new single Lanka, which already has over 100, 000 streams on Spotify.
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The artists will be revealed on the 10th of January, with the songs being released over the following days from 11 to 19 January. And finally, Suomi will choose their candidate on the 10th of February.
Who is your dream artist to represent Finland at Eurovision 2024? Let us know in the comments below!
I doubt she’ll ever do it but I’d DIE to see Sara Forsberg on Eurovision
Same here; but when last I checked (c2018) she wanted nothing to do with Eurovision.
My wishlist/dream lineup:
Apulanta
Nightwish
Stig (umk 12)
Elastinen
Alma
Vesterinen yhtyeineen
Club la Perse (umk 17)
Erika Vikman (umk 20)
I hope we will send something else than rock. We’ve done that a million times already, we have other good music too.
I would love to see some of Finland’s biggest names like Ibe, Costi, Gettomasa, JVG or Sexmane.
All those 9 artists I regularly listen to! Go Suomi!
Tommi Lahtinen
Elama Kantaa Mua one of my fave recent UMK entries tbh
but honestly, go wacky and give us a mega bop by DJ Oku and some fabulous singers like Erika Vikman and maybe Arttu Wiskari
No one will replicate Kaarija’s success obviously but i think the quality will be high and they can pull another Top 10 result if they pick the right song.
I hope they send something completely different in 2024. Replicating the success of the previous year never worked (see Finland 2022).
Behm would be a dream!
I want Ville Valo!!! (I know he probably doesn’t want to.)
But honestly, I’m not ready to let go of Käärijä yet. :'(
My wish for Finland: a great female vocalist with a sound pure and not polluted by all the overproductions and trending sounds we’re used to hear now.
I feel it’s like the artists of now who wants to be trendy used the same bases, the same kind of beats and as a results all the songs of now look like each other, it’s sad.
But seeing how Black Birds was treated in Eurovision I’ve lost hopes. Let’s go for the trendy sounds we hear everyday 24/24, everywhere, that’s what the esc public of now like sadly.
Somebody here guessed Maustetytöt for the ‘indie’ slot hinted by YLE, and that was all the nudge I needed to get really into them. They’re kind of hilarously un-‘Eurovision’ though; more like a couple of Finnish girls with synths playing Byrds and Smiths songs in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.