Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Finland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Their entry was selected using their national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2019 (Contest for New Music 2019) on 2 March 2019, where all three entries were performed by DJ Darude along with singer Sebastian Rejman, who were selected by the Finnish national public broadcaster Yle on 29 January 2019 to perform the nation's entry at the 2019 contest. "Look Away" won the Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu and was the Finnish entry in the Eurovision 2019, in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country Finland
National selection
Selection processArtist: Internal Selection
Song: Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2019
Selection date(s)2 March 2019
Selected entrantDarude feat. Sebastian Rejman
Selected song"Look Away"
Selected songwriter(s)Sebastian Rejman
Ville Virtanen
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (17th, 23 points)
Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 2019 2020►

Background

Prior to the 2019 Contest, Finland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-two times since their first entry in 1961.[1] Finland has won the contest once in 2006 with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" performed by Lordi. In the 2018 contest, "Monsters" performed by Saara Aalto qualified Finland to the final. The song finished in 25th place with 46 points.

The Finnish national broadcaster, Yleisradio (Yle), broadcasts the event within Finland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Yle confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest on 13 September 2018.[2] Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest have been selected through national final competitions that have varied in format over the years. Between 1961 and 2011, a selection show that was often titled Euroviisukarsinta highlighted that the purpose of the program was to select a song for Eurovision. However, since 2012, the broadcaster has organised the selection show Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), which focuses on showcasing new music with the winning song being selected as the Finnish contest entry for that year. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster also announced that the Finnish entry for the 2019 contest would be selected through Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2019, with the rules of previous year.[3]

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

Yle announced that they had internally selected Darude and Sebastian Rejman to represent Finland in Tel Aviv during a live streamed press conference on 29 January 2019, hosted by 2013 Finnish Eurovision entrant Krista Siegfrids, Mikko Silvennoinen and Christoffer Strandberg.[4] In the press conference, the broadcaster also announced that their contest entry would be selected through Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2019 with three songs competing. The competing songs along with their promotional music videos were presented on 8, 15 and 22 February 2019, respectively.[5]

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2019

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2019 was the eighth edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the music competition that selects Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of one final on 2 March 2019, held at the Logomo in Turku and hosted by Krista Siegfrids, Mikko Silvennoinen and Christoffer Strandberg. The show was broadcast on Yle TV2 and online at yle.fi/umk as well as via radio with commentary in Swedish by Eva Frantz and Johan Lindroos on Yle X3M.[6] Three songs, all performed by Darude and Sebastian Rejman, competed and "Look Away" was selected as the winning song by a 50/50 combination of public votes and eight international jury groups from the United Kingdom, Norway, Spain, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and Israel. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 240 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 8, 10 and 12 points. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through the following voting methods: telephone, SMS and online voting. For example, if a song gained 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 240 points rounded to the nearest integer: 24 points.

Final – 2 March 2019
Draw Song Songwriter(s) Jury Televote Total Place
1 "Release Me" Ville Virtanen, Jaakko Manninen, Brandyn Burnette 70 19 89 3
2 "Superman" Ville Virtanen, Chris Hope, Thom Bridges 74 73 147 2
3 "Look Away" Sebastian Rejman, Ville Virtanen 96 148 244 1
Detailed International Jury Votes
Draw Song Total
1"Release Me"8810101088870
2"Superman"101088810101074
3"Look Away"121212121212121296
International Jury Spokespersons

Promotion

Darude & Sebastian made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Look Away" as the Finnish Eurovision entry. On 6 April, they performed at the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam, hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne, to over 4500 spectators.[7] On 14 April, they performed at the London Eurovision Party at the Café de Paris venue in London, which was hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.[8] At the event, they also performed "Superman", the runner-up entry from the national selection. They are also scheduled to perform at the Eurovision Pre-Party Madrid on 20 April.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Finland was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[9]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Finland was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Montenegro and preceding the entry from Poland.[10] Finland failed to qualify from the semi-final.[11]

Semi-final

Finland performed third in the first semi-final, following the entry from Montenegro and preceding the entry from Poland. At the end of the show, Finland was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Finland placed last (seventeenth) in the semi-final, receiving a total of 23 points: 14 points from the televoting and 9 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.[12]

Points awarded to Finland

Points awarded to Finland (Semi-final 1)
Televote
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Jury
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Finland

Split voting results

The following five members composed the Finnish jury:[12]

  • Susanna Vainiola – Chairperson – music journalist, radio DJ
  • Eva Louhivuori – musician
  • Lasse Wikman – singer, songwriter, lyricist
  • Samuli Sirviö – producer, songwriter, musician
  • Janne Hyöty – songwriter, composer, producer, musician
Split voting results from Finland (Semi-final 1)
Draw Country Jury Televote
E. Louhivuori L. Wikman S. Sirviö S. Vainiola J. Hyöty Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Cyprus1311151661214
02 Montenegro15131414161616
03 Finland
04 Poland16221221056
05 Slovenia10153536547
06 Czech Republic335373865
07 Hungary48911510192
08 Belarus7141213131412
09 Serbia92712983101
10 Belgium117111159211
11 Georgia1210131581315
12 Australia2414111238
13 Iceland59106474112
14 Estonia61681056210
15 Portugal81289141183
16 Greece1454724713
17 San Marino16161610111574
Split voting results from Finland (final)
Draw Country Jury Televote
E. Louhivuori L. Wikman S. Sirviö S. Vainiola J. Hyöty Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Malta11161531710122
02 Albania21222315262319
03 Czech Republic10108967415
04 Germany1519621211826
05 Russia239122051474
06 Denmark18121010141711
07 San Marino25262426252614
08 North Macedonia6841844717
09 Sweden3321111247
10 Slovenia720561156101
11 Cyprus24232225182421
12 Netherlands223733865
13 Greece177211181524
14 Israel1914723221920
15 Norway13618221016210
16 United Kingdom14182017132025
17 Iceland1211912712112
18 Estonia205171391338
19 Belarus22242524202523
20 Azerbaijan815114129216
21 France16171316192113
22 Italy525192246583
23 Serbia941614151118
24  Switzerland421145168392
25 Australia1118221056
26 Spain26132619232212

References

  1. "Finland Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  2. "Finland announces date of UMK 2019 final, show will involve only one artist". wiwibloggs. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  3. "Finland announces date of UMK 2019 final, show will involve only one artist". wiwibloggs. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  4. "Finland: It's Darude to Tel Aviv!". esctoday.com. 29 January 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  5. "It's Darude for Finland this year!". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  6. "Näin äänestät UMK19: Darude -show:ssa suosikkikappalettasi - lataa yle.fi-sovellus kännykkääsi!". Yle (in Finnish). 27 February 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  7. "This was Eurovision in Concert 2019 in Amsterdam". Eurovision.tv. 6 April 2019.
  8. "18 Eurovision acts to perform in London on Sunday 14 A[p]ril". Eurovision.tv. 13 April 2019.
  9. Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  10. "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  11. "Suomi putosi jatkosta Euroviisuissa: "Harmittaa vietävästi"". hs.fi. Helsingin Sanomat. 15 May 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  12. Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "EExclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
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