Producers behind Finland’s Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) 2025 are dropping the songs one-by-one and attention now turns to Nelli Matula and “Hitaammin hautaan”.
According to Finnish broadcaster Yle, “Hitaammin hautaan” (Slower to the Grave) encourages people to live in the moment.
Nelli co-wrote the autobiographical song with Kaisa Korhonen, Antti Riihimäki (RZY), Arttu Istala and Iiro Paakkar.
“The session started when we talked about the news with Kaisa. First we cried for a couple of hours and then we started writing. A magical space was created in the studio, where the song came to life and took shape,” Matula says.
The song is a reflection of the desire to change the direction of life and find new meanings in it.
“I have thought about what is important to me in life and I have noticed that I have sometimes judged myself with scales and metrics that hurt and do harm. Having learned from this, I now practice kindness and a slower life, where there is room for well-being.”
Nelli Matulan — “Hitaammin hautaan”
Nelli has been thinking about her late grandmother a lot in the run-up to the Finnish contest.
“I have been manifesting many things since childhood. When I was 3-4 years old, I watched the Eurovision Song Contest with my grandmother and told her that I had been there too. Since then, my grandmother always smiled at me gently and reminded me: do you remember when you said you were at the Eurovision Song Contest and how we all looked at you?”
Nelli is keenly aware that different rules apply to women and men.
“It has sometimes been really annoying and provocative to those around me that I have taken up space so openly. However, I have no other choice but to be myself. Although I have tried sometimes, I can’t be smaller than this.”
“My dream is that one day I could be such a big artist that I could hold arena gigs. This is a good place to start, because there is no show bigger than UMK in this country.”
UMK 2025 song release schedule
The full release schedule is as follows:
- Thursday 9th: Neea River – “Nightmares”
- Firday 10th: Nelli Matula – “Hitaammin hautaan”
- Monday 13th: Costee – “Sekaisin”
- Tuesday 14th: Viivi – “Aina”
- Wednesday 15th: One Morning Left – “Puppy”
- Thursday 16th: Goldielocks – “Made of”
- Friday 17th: Erika Vikman – “Ich komme”
Songs will be released at 00:00 EET each day (22:00 GMT / 23:00 CET the prior evening).
UMK 2025 will take place on Saturday 8 February, starting at 20:00 CET / 21:00 EET. The show will be held inside Nokia Arena in Tampere. Hosts Sanni and Jasmin Beloued will guide viewers through proceedings.
What do you make of Nelli’s song? Do you think she could be the one for Finland? Let us know in the comments below!
This has even ranked the bottom in early odds.Not because is bad, but the standard and other are expected even more.
Kind of expect this entry to place in the middle (4-6ish), expecting less from (at least) Costee. I don’t like Viivi much either, but it’d be deranged to say she won’t get a good placement at UMK
Can we take a moment to congratulate YLE for the time, effort (and money!) that they invest in each UMK song before the show itself. The production values on each video are sooo high. And then the show itself! Seriously I loved the UMK staging last year more than the Malmo Eurovision itself.
onnea YLE.
It’s possible when they don’t have many songs..
Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, Poland.. etc.
Maybe it isn’t about the ammount of songs, rather than interest in the format itself.
*amount
I really like this, it’s such a feel-good song. Really hope they can pull if off live
I appreciate a song in Finnish, because I love all European languages. Good luck.
I like the song
Another great song from Finland. This year’s UMK is shaping to be one of the strongest. I hope they saved the best for last.
This is so wholesome… I don’t feel like it shines the best inna big live TV show but I still love it.
Too soon to call it a winner, but I love the package (aesthetically pleasing, musically soothing) and I know for a fact that she can sing live!
Forgot to mention that the song’s message is excellent too! 😀
UMK is shaping up to be very strong! I like this song 🙂
Strong backround with songwriters & producers, as they’ve been behind many hit songs such as;
Kaisa Korhonen has written Erika Vikman’s Syntisten pöytä
Antti Riihimäki has produced music for Cheek, Antti Tuisku, JVG and more
Los Rollos (Iiro Paakkari and Arttu Istala) have produced Isac Elliot’s Kävi miten kävi -album that had several hits such as Makso mitä makso
Really eye catching music video and personally I find these aesthetically pleasing without lyrics on top of it.
I like the song, but I really LOVE the message.
Fcuk peer pressure. Fcuk social media. Fcuk the rat race.
Live only for yourself, on your own terms. Be happy!
Indeed the message of the song is truly lovable, hopefully people will live by it as well!
Exactly.
People writing dozens of comments a day on Wiwi and now writing comments about f… social media.
The irony…